own misery always staring upon him; and had need be more senseless and stupid that he might not be affected with it. "The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts'." "O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud look; but turn away from thy servants a giant-like mind."3 1 Psal. X. 4. 2 yɩyavтúôn Yuxv. Sic Edit. Complut. A DISCOURSE DEMONSTRATING THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. Σῶμα γὰρ ἐκ γαίης ἔχομεν, καὶ πάντες ἐς αὐτὴν PHOCYLIDES, v. 102. Εὐσεβὴς νῷ πεφυκώς, οὐ πάθοις γ ̓ οὐδὲν κακὸν κατθανών ἄνω τὸ πνεῦμα διαμένει κατ' οὐρανόν. EPICHARMUS apud CLEM. ALEX. Strom. IV. c. 26. ̔Ο ἀγαθὸς — οὗ δεῖ ἄπεισι, καὶ γινώσκει πρὶν ἀπιέναι, οὗ ἀνάγκη αὐτῷ ἐλθόντι οἰκεῖν, καὶ εὔελπίς ἐστιν ὡς μετὰ θεῶν ἔσοιτο. PLOTIN. Ennead. IV. 4. 45. Οὐ βούλεται ὁ κακὸς ἀθάνατον εἶναι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν. HIEROCL. in Aur. Carm. p. 124. Α DISCOURSE ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. CHAPTER I. The first and main principles of religion, viz. 1. That God is. 2. That God is a rewarder of them that seek Him: wherein is included the great article of the Immortality of the Soul. These two principles acknowledged by religious and serious persons in all ages. 3. That God communicates Himself to mankind by Christ. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul discoursed of in the first place, and why. H AVING finished our two short discourses concerning those two anti-deities, viz. superstition and atheism; we shall now proceed to discourse more largely concerning the main heads and principles of religion. And here we are to take notice of those two cardinal points which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes the necessary foundations of all religion, viz. "That God is, and That He is a rewarder of them that seek Him'." To which we should add, the immortality of the reasonable soul, but that that may seem included in the former: and, indeed, we can neither believe any invisible reward of which he there speaks, without an anterior belief of the soul's immortality; neither can we entertain a serious belief of that, but the notions of pœna and præmium will naturally follow from it. We never met with any who were persuaded of the former, that ever doubted of the latter: and therefore the former two have 1 Heb. xi. 6. |