A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 21
XXI. Man an Organ of Life.
IT is supposed by many, that perceptions, thoughts, and ideas, together with the various affections, of which man is susceptible, are either vague properties inherent in him, or else flow into him as so many radiations of light and heat, without there being any substance or form within him capable of receiving, modifying, and permanently detaining them. Hence they imagine, that thoughts and affections, like winged nothings, fly up and down in the region of the mind, just as vapours float about in the atmosphere; and that, by some means or other, perfectly unknown to them, he is able to catch them as they pass by or through him: never once suspecting, that the human mind is a real substance and form, and that all the varieties of affection and thought belonging to it, are nothing else but changes of it's state and form, while receiving the communicated life of love and wisdom from the Lord.
To form a just conception of what is understood by man's being an organ of life, both as to his internal and his external form, it will be sufficient to advert to the eye, the ear, the tongue, and the other organs of sense in the body. When the light of the sun flows in the eye, which is an organized form receptive of it, a certain change or modification is effected in it's different membranes, humours, vessels, and nerves, and natural sight is produced, not as a thing separate from the substance of the eye, but as it's proper function and exercise. When sound, which is a tremulous motion of the air, enters the ear, vibrations are communicated from one part of it's internal structure to another, and thus changes or modifications in the state and form of that organ take place, the sensation or perception of which is called hearing; a faculty not separate from the substances composing the ear, but constituting it's function and exercise. So again, when substances of different qualities, as sweet, sour, bitter, &c. are applied to the tongue, they stimulate the nervous papillæ, or small glandules, situated on it's apex and margin, and cause a change in their parts, which is perceived as the sensation of taste; a faculty, like the rest, not separate from the substance of it's proper organ, the tongue, but constituting its function and exercise. In each of these cases, however, it is to be remembered, that it is not the organ itself which perceives, or is sensible of any change in it's state and form, but that it is the mind or spirit which sees with the eye, hears with the ear, and tastes with the tongue; the same also being true in respect to the other senses of smelling and feeling.
In like manner the will and understanding in man are actual substances and forms, though of the purest quality, and so organized and arranged as to be proper receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord. The affections, perceptions, and thoughts, which appear to many to rise up in the mind as it were out of nothing, or to float about in it like mere vapours, exhalations, or etherial principles, without any substance of their own, are in reality changes, modifications, and variations in the state and form, not merely of the natural substances of the brain, but of those purer spiritual substances also, of which the human mind is composed. For it is impossible, that any thing can be communicated to man, so as to affect him either internally or externally, unless there be in him something substantial, capable of receiving, perceiving, and detaining it. All the operations of the mind are variations of it's form, according to the changes which take place in the state of it's affection: for, properly speaking, affections are changes of the state, and thoughts are variations of the form. And as without the natural organic substance and form, called the eye, there can be no sight, without the ear no hearing, and without the tongue no taste; so in like manner without the spiritual substance, called the mind, including both, the will and the understanding, there can be no afection of love, no perception of wisdom, and no thought concerning either the one or the other.
This is what is meant by man's being an organ of life, or a form adapted to the reception of love in his will, and of wisdom in his understanding; these two constituting the essential principles of life flowing into him from the Lord. But as he was created to be both useful and happy, and these ends could not be attained, unless he were placed in a condition favourable to the active exercise of his talents, in other words, unless the influent life appeared to him to be his own property, and entirely at his own disposal, therefore such appearance was and is granted him by the Lord, yet under this especial condition, that he shall live in the perpetual acknowledgment, that it is not really his own, but the Lord's in him, who alone is life in himself. This also is agreeable to the Sacred Scripture, which expressly teaches, that there is only one fountain of life, from which all created beings from moment to moment derive their existence; and that the same life is communicated to all in the spiritual world, and to all in the natural world, but is received differently by each, according to the quality of the recipient subject.
