Animadversions upon Dr. Sherlock's book, entituled A vindication of the holy and ever-blessed Trinity, &c, together with a more necessary vindication of that sacred and prime article of the Christian faith from his new notions, and false explications of it / humbly offered to his admirers, and to himself the chief of them, by a divine of the Church of England.

PARADOX.

He Asserts, That the Body moves at the Command of the Will, and is so far conscious to its Commands, Pag. 269. Lin. 18, 19.

In Answer to which, I affirm it to be absolutely false, and extremely absurd; to say, That the Body is at all con∣scious to the Commands of the Will. Forasmuch as Consci∣ousness is an act of Intellection, and so must issue from an Intellective Faculty, which the Body is not endued with, and therefore cannot act by; and withal, every act of the Will is only an Intelligible, and not a sensible Object; and consequently cannot be otherwise apprehended and perceived than intellectually. And as for the Commands

of it; a Command operates and moves only by way of moral Causation, viz. by being first known by the Thing, or Agent which it is directed to, which thereupon by such a Knowledge of it, is induced to move, or Act ac∣cordingly. But now, the Will does not thus Act upon the Body, the Body having no Principle whereby to know, or understand what it Commands. And therefore, when we say, That the Will Commands the Body, in strictness of Truth, it is only a Metaphorical Expression. For the Will, or Soul exerting an Act of Volition, moves the Body, not by Command, but by Physical Impulse: That is to say, It does by its native Force, Energy, and Acti∣vity, first move and impell the Spirits, and by the in∣strumental Mediation of them so moved and impelled, it moves and impells the Body; and this, by as real an Impulse, as when I push, or thrust a thing with my hand. For though indeed a material Thing cannot act∣ively, or efficiently move, or work upon an Immate∣rial, yet Philosophers grant that an Immaterial (as being of the nobler and more active Nature) can move, im∣pell, or work upon a Material; and if we cannot form in our Minds an Idea of the Mechanism of this Motion, it is because neither can we form in our Minds an Idea of a Spirit: But nevertheless Reason and Discourse will Evince, That the Thing must be so.