Select discourses ... by John Smith ... ; as also a sermon preached by Simon Patrick ... at the author's funeral ; with a brief account of his life and death.

CHAP. 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 ac∣knowledged 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?

HAving finish'd our two short Discourses concerning those two Anti-Deities, viz. Superstition and Atheism; we shall now proceed to discourse more largely con∣cerning the maine Heads and Principles of Religion.

And here we are to take Notice of those two Cardi∣nal points which the Author of the Epistle to the He∣brews 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 adde, The Immor∣tality of the Reasonable Soul, but that that may seem in∣cluded in the former: and indeed we can neither be∣lieve any Invisible reward of which he there speaks,

without a Prolepsis of the Soul's Immortality; neither can we entertain a serious belief of that, but the notions of Poena and Praemium will naturally follow from it; we never meet with any who were perswaded of the for∣mer, that ever doubted of the latter: and therefore the former two have been usually taken alone for the First principles of Religion, and have been most insisted upon by the Platonists; and accordingly a novel Pla∣tonist writing a Summary of Plato's Divinity, intitles his book, De Deo & Immortalitate Animae. And also the Stoical Philosophy requires a belief of these as the Prolepses of all Religion, of the one whereof Epictetus himself assures us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Know that the main Foundation of Piety is this, to have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 right opinions and apprehensions of God, viz. That he is, and that he governs all things 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And the other is sufficiently insinuated in that Cardi∣nal distinction of their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and is more fully express'd by Simplicius. For however the Stoicks may seem to lay some ground of suspicion, as if they were dubious in this point, yet I think that which Tully and others deliver concerning their opinion herein, may fully answer all scruples, viz. That as they made certain Vicissitudes of Conflagrations and Inunda∣tions 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 immor∣tal, should in these changes fall under the power of the common fate.

And indeed we scarce ever finde that any were deem'd Religious, that did not own these two Funda∣mentals. For the Sadducees, the Jewish Writers are wont commonly to reckon them among the Epicure∣ans,

because though they held a God, yet they denied the Immortality of mens Souls, which the New Testa∣ment seems to include, if not especially to aime at, in imputing to them a deniall of the 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 Delphos, 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the admoni∣tion of the Deity again to all his worshippers, to take notice of the dignity and Immortality of their own Souls, as Plutarch and Tully, as also Clemens Alexandr. expound them.

But if we will have the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion, we must adde 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 simplici∣ty, that I cannot but think, that whosoever shall in∣genuously and with humility of Spirit addressing him∣self to God, converse therewith, will see the bright beams of Divinity shining forth in it, and it may be find the Text it self much plainer then all those Glos∣ses that have been put upon it; though it may be it is not so clear in matters of Speculation, as some Magiste∣rial 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 Rea∣son of the thing it self, we shall easily find all Practical Religion to be referr'd to them, and built upon them: The Nature of God and of our own Immortal Souls both

shew us what our Religion should be, and also the Ne∣cessity 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 tea∣ches us to aime at.

In pursuing of these we shall first begin with The Im∣mortality 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) not be wholly ignorant what God is: for indeed the chief natural way whereby we can climbe 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 then what the impressions of our own Souls will permit us: and therefore the best Philosophers have alwaies taught us to inquire for God within our selves; Reason in us, as Tully tells us, being participata simili∣tudo rationis internae: and accordingly some good Ex∣positours have interpreted that place in S. John's Go∣spel chap. 1. He is that true light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world; which if I were to gloss upon in the language of the Platonists, I should doe it thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Eternal VVord is the light of Souls, which the Vulgar Latine referr'd to in Signatum est supra nos lumen vultus tui, Domine, as A∣quinas 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.

Notes

• Cap. 38.
• Chap. 23. 8.
• Psal. 4. 7.