ESSAY III.. 367 body, that this one spirit can receive impressions or sensations ? The soul did not chose this body to make itself conscious of its motions ; much less doth the body chuse this soul to im- press sensations on it : Nor can it be resolved into any thing but the will and appointment of the great God their common Creator, who made this soul and this body, and united them into a man. V. We are in the next place then to enquire, what is meant by the union of a spirit to a particular body, or wherein doth it consist. When wesay a spirit is united to an animal body, this loth not mean mutual touching of each other ; for, as we said before, this is impossible. Tangere ael tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res. Lucretius is here in the right : But the chief thing wherein this union between an individual human body and an individual spirit consists, so far as we can find it, lies in these two laws or ap- pointments of God our Creator. 1. That when some particular impressions are made, or par- ticular motions are excited in that part of that individual body which is called the sensory, whether they arise within itself, or are conveyed from the outward organs of sense, or any other parts of body by means of. the nerves, God bath powerfully ordained, that that individual spirit shall have such particular perceptions or sensations, or such ideas of outward objects. 2. That when that spirit wills to raise such a particular mo- tion in the limbs, or in such parts of the body as God bath sub- jected to voluntary motion, be hat' powerfully ordained that such a motion shall be presently excited by the means of the nerves or muscles in those limbs or those parts, upon the mere volition of of the soul ; for we have no knowledge of any other executive power that does this :. All that we are conscious of is, that the soul wills, and the bodymoves. In these two things chiefly con- sists the union of soul and body. VI. Here it may be proper to observe, that there is some particular part of that body, which may be called as it were the commonsensory, or the palace of the soul ; not where she resides, as in a proper place, (as will appear hereafter) but whereshe receives immediate notices of things that relate to the body, and where she bath more immediate influence in moving the nerves and muscles, which serve to move the limbs and moveable parts nor do I know that the nature of things forbids two or moresouls to receive sen- sations from one body. Either of these., for ought I know, is very possible, if God please toappoint it. All that I maintain here is, that this is not the present courseof nature, or settled order cf things in our world; and much less have souls or bodies any such original innate power in themselves to bold immediate or reciprocal communicationswith multitudes.
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