Newton suggested that the universe was the divine analogue of the part of the brain (the “Sensorium”) that allowed humans to think and to be aware of the outside world, with the difference that God perceived things “by their immediate presence to himself,” without the mediation of sense organs, nerves, and brain. In a second analogy between the infinite power of God and the nature of mortals, he stated that God’s creative powers “to form and reform the Parts of the Universe” were massively greater than the capacity of humans to move their own bodies.

by Rob Iliffe

via Church, Heresy, and Pure Religion – The New Atlantis.