¿08 OF THE PLACE AND MOTION OF SPIRITS. any proximity to the body in place that gives it these sensations and this consciousness, but the sovereign will and appointment , of the God of nature. Perhaps you will ask me then, howfar can this power ex- tend, which God gives a spirit to be conscious of matter, or to move it? Can a soul be conscious of bodies a mile long? Can asingle spirit remove a great mountain by volition ? Can a crea- ted mind be conscious of every atom in a mountain ? Where does . its conscious or its motive power end ? If these powers arise only from divine appointment, why may it not be conscious of every part of this globe of earth, if God appoint it ? Nay, the enquiry (say you) might be enlarged ; why may not the sane spirit move the moon, or be conscious of the other distant planets, all at the same time, if God please ? To this I answer, That we are utterly ignorantof the limits of the power of spirits ; but we know they are not infinite ; though spirits have no natural consciousness or motivity of mat- ter, but what God gives them by special commission, yet it is possible that some may be capable of receiving more numerous, more extensive, more complicated ideas than others, and conse- quently may have a larger commission. Some may have a ca- pacity of taking in, and of attending to no more than one idea at once, and some may attend to ten or ten thousand. It is said, that Julius Caesar could write himself, and dictate to several clerks at the same time. It is possible, for ought I know, that a spirit may be united to the sun, and be conscious of every ray, and at once take cognizance of all the effects and influences of those myriads of rays on every planetary world. And it is not unlikely that the motive power may keep pace with such an ex- tensiveconsciousness. Surely there may be a vast variety in the native capacities of intellectual beings, and yet none of them . have communications with the material world, without the appointment of their maker. It is probable; that acçording to their native powers of receiving a multitude of simultaneous ideas, God may employ some in a vastly larger sphere than others. And yet also it must be observed, that it is possible the great God may employ some spirits in a wider sphere of consciousness or motivity, without being themselves and in their own nature more capacious of ideas, or more powerful; much less must we suppose them to be longer or broader than their fellows, or to have any manner 'of shape or dimensions at all. The soul of a dwarf may be as potent in itself as the soul of a giant, but God has given one a commission to move a larger engine of flesh than the other. Neither the intellectual capacities, nor the di- mensions of souls should be measured by the bulk or height of the animal.
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