SECT.  XLVI.  The Soul has an Absolute Command over the Body.

Be pleased to observe that the command of my mind over my body is supreme and absolute in its bounded extent, since my single will, without any effort or preparation, causes all the members of my body to move on a sudden and immediately, according to the rules of mechanics.  As the Scripture gives us the character of God, who said after the creation of the universe, “Let there be light, and there was light”—in like manner, the inward word of my soul alone, without any effort or preparation, makes what it says.  I say, for instance, within myself, through that inward, simple, and momentaneous word, “Let my body move, and it moves.”  At the command of that simple and intimate will, all the parts of my body are at work.  Immediately all nerves are distended, all the springs hasten to concur together, and the whole machine obeys, just as if every one of the most secret of those organs heard a supreme and omnipotent voice.  This is certainly the most simple and most effectual power that can be conceived.  All the other beings within our knowledge afford not the like instance of it, and this is precisely what men that are sensible and persuaded of a Deity ascribe to it in all the universe.

Shall I ascribe it to my feeble mind, or rather to the power it has over my body, which is so vastly different from it?  Shall I believe that my will has that supreme command of its own nature, though in itself so weak and imperfect?  But how comes it to pass that, among so many bodies, it has that power over no more than one?  For no other body moves according to its desires.  Now, who is it that gave over one body the power it had over no other?  Will any man be again so bold as to ascribe this to chance?