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"The Body is the Machine which the Soul actuates and directs to perpetrate its Desires, so that the [GREEK CHARACTERS] as Paul stiles him, the Man whose Soul is unconverted is by the Darkness of his Understanding, the Preposterousness of his Will and the Disconcertedness of his Faculties and mental Properties embarrass'd with Evil and overwhelm'd therewith."

— Hammond, William (1719-1783)

Author

Hammond, William (1719-1783)

Work Title

Four Discourses Delivered in England and Wales, in 1757 and 1758

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed by Samuel Chandler

Date

1761

Metaphor

"The Body is the Machine which the Soul actuates and directs to perpetrate its Desires, so that the [GREEK CHARACTERS] as Paul stiles him, the Man whose Soul is unconverted is by the Darkness of his Understanding, the Preposterousness of his Will and the Disconcertedness of his Faculties and mental Properties embarrass'd with Evil and overwhelm'd therewith."

Metaphor in Context

Yea, the Soul herself is radically deprav'd and essentially invenom'd by her Disunion from God, so that she is the Seat of Defilement in the human Composition; even the Soul of an Infant since the lapse of the Protoplasts is no more born as a Tabula rasa, nor is that Saying of an Orator "Homines nec boni neque; mali nascuntur" true; but every Soul is originally disordered and spoil'd. Consonant to this Principle our Saviour himself has specified the Soul as the moving Force which accelerates the [end page 11] Body to the Practice of Voluptuousness, Intemperance and Luxury. The Body is the Machine which the Soul actuates and directs to perpetrate its Desires, so that the [GREEK CHARACTERS] as Paul stiles him, the Man whose Soul is unconverted is by the Darkness of his Understanding, the Preposterousness of his Will and the Disconcertedness of his Faculties and mental Properties embarrass'd with Evil and overwhelm'd therewith. The Body also reciprocally embroils and overpowers the Soul, and thus they mutually infest and entangle each other in Iniquity. Yet as Sin at its Entrance into the World came in by the Desire of the Soul, so the Soul is the Cause of every subsequent Transgression.
(p. 12)