been usually taken alone for the first principles of religion, and have been most insisted upon by the Platonists; and, accordingly, a novel Platonist writing a summary of Plato's divinity, entitles his book, De Deo et Immortalitate Animæ. And also the Stoical philosophy requires a belief of these as the fundamental principles of all religion; of the one whereof Epictetus himself assures us, 'Know that the main foundation of piety is this: to have oplas πо-right opinions and apprehensions of God, viz. That He is, and that He governs all things kaλws kai Sikaiws. And the other is sufficiently implied in that cardinal distinction of their τὰ ἐφ' ἡμῖν, and τὰ μὴ ἐφ' ἡμῖν, and is more fully expressed by Simplicius. For, however the Stoics may seem to lay some ground of suspicion, as if they were dubious on this point, yet I think that which Cicero and others deliver concerning their opinion herein, may fully answer all scruples, viz. That, as they made certain vicissitudes of conflagrations and inundations, whereby the world should perish in certain periods of time; so they thought the souls of men should also be subject to these periodical revolutions; and therefore, though they were of themselves immortal, should, in these changes, fall under the power of the common fate. And, indeed, we scarce ever find that any were deemed religious, that did not own these two fundamentals. For the Sadducees, the Jewish writers are wont commonly to reckon them among the Epicureans, because, though they held a God, yet they denied the immortality of men's souls, which the new Testament seems to include, if not especially to aim at, in imputing to them a denial of the 1 Τῆς περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς εὐσεβείας, ἴσθι ὅτι τὸ κυριώτατον ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, ὀρθὰς ὑπολήψεις περὶ αὐτῶν ἔχειν, ὡς ὄντων, καὶ διοικούντων τὰ ὅλα καλῶς καὶ δικαίως. Epict. Enchirid. cap. XXXI. (Epicureans) אֲפִיקוּרוֹסִין The term 2 was applied by the Jews to two sorts of persons; Ist, to those who denied any fundamental principle of their religion: in this sense it was convertible with the word (heretics). 2ndly, to such as treated with levity and irreverence the sayings of their wise men. resurrection; which is therefore more fully explained in the Acts, where it is added that they held there was "neither angel nor spirit." And these two principles are chiefly aimed at in those two inscriptions upon the temple at Delphi, the one, EI, referring to God, by which title those that came in to worship were supposed to invoke Him, acknowledging His immutable and eternal nature; the other, гN201 EEAYTON, as the admonition of the Deity again to all His worshippers, to take notice of the dignity and immortality of their own souls, as Plutarch and Cicero, and also Clemens Alexandrinus expound them3. But, if we will have the fundamental articles of Christian religion, we must add to the former, The communication of God to mankind through Christ; which last the Scripture treats of at large, so far as concerns our practice, with that plainness and simplicity, that I cannot but think, that whosoever shall, ingeniously and with humility of spirit addressing himself to God, converse therewith, will see the bright beams of divinity shining forth in it, and, it may be, find the text itself much plainer than all those glosses that have been put upon it; though perhaps 1 Chap. xxiii. 8. * Hæc enim una (sc. sapientia) nos quum ceteras res omnes, tum, quod est difficillimum, docuit, ut nosmet ipsos nosceremus: cujus præcepti tanta vis tanta sententia est, ut ea non homini cuipiam, sed Delphico deo tribueretur.-Cic. de Legg. I. 22. Est illud quidem vel maximum, animo ipso animum videre: et nimirum hanc habet vim præceptum Apollinis, quo monet, ut se quisque noscat......Quum igitur, nosce te, dicit, hoc dicit, nosce animum tuum.-Cic. Tusc. Disp. 1. 22. ὡσαύτως καὶ τὸ Γνῶθι σαὐτὸν, πολλὰ ἐνδείκνυται· καὶ ὅτι θνητὸς εἶ, καὶ ὅτι ἄνθρωπος ἐγένου καὶ ἤδη...... καὶ εἰς τί γέγονας γνῶθι, φησὶ, καὶ τίνος εἰκὼν ὑπάρ χεις τίς τέ σου ἡ οὐσία, καὶ τίς ἡ δημιουργία, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον οἰκείωσις τίς, καὶ тà тоÚтOIS Öμoia.-Clem. Alex. Strom. v. c. iv. Plutarch treats at length of the meaning of the word EI, in the form of a dialogue, in which each of the several speakers gives his own opinion of its signification. One of them, Ammonius, delivers his opinion thus: 'O μèv (vàp) θεὸς ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἐνταῦθα προσιόντα οἷον ἀσπαζόμενος προσαγορεύει τὸ Γνῶθι σαὐτόν· δ τοῦ χαῖρε δὴ οὐθὲν μεῖόν ἐστιν· ἡμεῖς δὲ πάλιν ἀμειβόμενοι τὸν θεὸν, Εἰ φαμὲν, ὡς ἀληθῆ καὶ ἀψευδῆ καὶ μόνην μόνῳ προσήκουσαν τὴν τοῦ εἶναι προσαγόρευσιν ἀποdiôóvTes. Plut. de EI Delphico, 392 A. Vide also Plat. Charmides, 164 E. it is not so clear in matters of speculation, as some magisterial men are apt to think it is. Now for these three articles of faith and practice, I think if we duly consider the Scriptures, or the reason of the thing itself, we shall easily find all practical religion to be referred to them, and built upon them. The nature of God and of our own immortal souls both show us what our religion should be, and also the necessity of it; and the doctrine of free grace in Christ, the sweet and comfortable means of attaining to that perfection and blessedness, which the other belief teaches us to aim at. In pursuing these, we shall first begin with the immortality of the soul, which, if it be once cleared, we can neither leave any room for atheism (which those, I doubt, are not ordinarily very free from, that have gross material notions of their own souls) nor be wholly ignorant what God is: for, indeed, the chief natural way whereby we can climb up to the understanding of the Deity, is by a contemplation of our own souls. We cannot think of Him, but according to the measure and model of our own intellect, or frame any other idea of Him than what the impressions of our own souls will permit us: and therefore the best philosophers have always taught us to inquire for God within ourselves; 'Reason in us,' as Cicero tells us, being participata similitudo rationis æternæ1: and, 1 These words are falsely ascribed to Cicero, both here, and in the first Chapter of the 'Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion.' Though the idea contained in them is in accordance with various passages of Cicero, occurring in his De Nat. Deorum, De Finibus, De Officiis, De Legibus, &c., yet neither are the exact words his, nor does the language agree with his usage. The following passage from St Thom. Aquinas doubtless furnished the above quotation: 'Ipsum enim lumen intellectuale, quod est in nobis, nihil est aliud quam quædam participata similitudo luminis increati, in quo continentur rationes æternæ.' In the other passage above referred to, where the same words are again ascribed to Cicero, our author adds thus: reason in man is lumen de lumine.' This would seem conclusive as to the fact of the reference to Aquinas being the correct one. The words of Aquinas immediately following are presently referred to in the text: 'Unde in Psalm. iv. 6 dicitur: Multi dicunt, Quis ostendit nobis bona? Cui quæstioni Psalmista respondet dicens: accordingly, some good expositors have interpreted that place in St John's gospel, "He is that true light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world1;" which if I were to gloss upon in the language of the Platonists, I should do it thus: λόγος ἐστὶ φῶς ψυχῶν—the Eternal Word is the light of souls;' which the vulgar Latin referred to in Psal. iv. 7, Signatum est supra nos lumen vultus tui, Domine, as Aquinas observes. But we shall not search into the full nature of the soul, but rather make our inquiry into the immortality of it, and endeavour to demonstrate that. CHAPTER II. Some considerations preparatory to the proof of the soul's immortality. BUT UT before we fall more closely upon this, viz. the demonstrating the soul's immortality, we shall premise three things. I That the immortality of the soul doth not absolutely need any demonstration to clear it, but might be assumed rather as a principle or postulatum, seeing the notion of it is apt naturally to insinuate itself into the belief of the most vulgar sort of men. Men's understandings commonly lead them as readily to believe that their souls are immortal, as that they have any existence at all. And, though they be not all so wise and logical, as to distinguish aright between their souls and their bodies, or tell what kind of thing that is which they commonly call their soul; yet they are strongly inclined to Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui, Domine; quasi dicat: Per ipsam sigillationem divini luminis in nobis omnia believe that some part of demonstrantur.-Thom. Aquin. 1. Sum. them shall survive another, and that that soul, which, it may be, they conceive by a gross phantasm, shall live, when the other more visible part of them shall moulder into dust. And therefore all nations have consented in this belief, which hath almost been as vulgarly received as the belief of a Deity, as a diligent converse with history will assure us; it having been never so much questioned by the idiotical sort of men, as by some unskilful philosophers, who have had wit and fancy enough to raise doubts, like evil spirits, but not judgment enough to send them down again. This consensus gentium Cicero thinks enough whereby to conclude a law and maxim of nature'; which though I should not universally grant, seeing sometimes error and superstition may strongly plead this argument; yet I think for those things that are the matter of our first belief, that notion may not be refused. For we cannot easily conceive how any prime notion, that hath no dependency on any other antecedent to it, should be generally entertained, did not the common dictate of nature or reason, acting alike in all men, move them to conspire together in the embracing of it, though they knew not one another's minds. And this, it may be, might first persuade Averroes to think of a common intellect, because of the uniform judgments of men in some things. But, indeed, in those notions, which we may call notiones ortæ, there a communis notitia is not so free from all suspicion; which may be cleared by taking an instance from our present argument. The notion of the immortality of the soul is such a one as is generally owned by all those, that yet are not able to collect it by a long series and concatenation of sensible observations, and, by a logical 1 De quo omnium natura consentit, id verum esse necesse est.Cic. De Nat. Deor. I. 17. Omni in re consensio omnium gen tium lex naturæ putanda est.-Tusc. Disp. 1. 13. Quod si omnium consensus naturæ vox est, &c.-Tusc. Disp. I. 15. |