» ' • .' .". f - . W-< r'.v ti^Sili- .. : J.;j . 'Si ££^ BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg W. Sage 1891 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029009814 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS HENRY FROWDE, M.A. rUBLISBER TO THB UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK 1 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS BEING SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE, JOHN §MITH AND NATHANAEL CULVERWEL WITH INTRODUCTION BY E. T. CAMPAGNAC, M.A. SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD ASSISTANT-LECTURER IN CLASSICS IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CARDIFF OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1 90 OXFORD PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BV HORACE HART, M.A. , PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY PREFACE I HAVE tried to gather from the works of Which- cote, Smith, and Culverwel extracts which should illustrate as fairly as possible the teaching and style of each, and the relation in which they stood to one another. The passages chosen are, most of them, quite complete, and the rest very nearly complete, in themselves ; and, though they lose something no doubt by being detached from the books in which they were first printed, it is to be remembered that they formed separate lectures or sermons, and—with the exception of those taken from Culverwel—were not intended by their authors to be parts of a nicely articulated series of discourses, or of a connected treatise. For Introduction, I have set down summarily such few facts as have been preserved in the history of these writers, and have sketched their characters in outline. But I have essayed no criticism except what selection involves. That was a task for which I knew myself to be ill equipped ; and it would have been superfluous to undertake it, since Principal Tulloch's chapters on the Cambridge Platonists in his Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the Seventeenth Century are as widely known as they are justly admired. There seemed to be a need for a fresh edition of some part at least of the writings of these long neglected men, and this I have attempted to supply. ;; vi PREFACE I have not thought it necessary to modernize the spelling, though here and there I have made slight changes for the sake of clearness : and I have some- times substituted for a word which seemed certainly to be wrong another (enclosed in square brackets). Two corrections of the text which I saw were required I unfortunately passed over at the last moment :—on line p. 94, line i8 ; and on p. lai, 21, for Plato, Plotinus ought to be read. My thanks are due to the readers of the Clarendon Press, but for whose care many errors, which had escaped me, would have remained uncorrected ; to Mr. Sutton, Chief Librarian of the City of Manchester, who has put at my service some old and rare books to which I could hardly have had access without his aid to Mr. Charles Russell, who read through the proofs of the Introduction for me ; and most of all, to one of my teachers at Oxford, whose lectures upon another writer of this school first led me to the study of these, and whose name, had my own part of this book been better done, I should have asked leave to put upon it —to whom I will even now oiTer it, a stealthy gift, in token of my gratitude. E. T. C. Cardiff, October i, 1901. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ix BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE— The Glorious Evidence and Power of Divine Truth i The Venerable Nature, and Transcendant Benefit of Christian Religion . 29 The Work of Reason 49 Moral and Religious Aphorisms ... 65 JOHN SMITH— A Discourse concerning the True Way or Method of attaining to Divine Know- ledge 77 A Discourse demonstrating the Immortality of the Soul 99 A Discourse concerning the Existence and Nature of God 159 The Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion 177 NATHANAEL CULVERWEL— A Discourse of the Light of Nature . .211 INDEX 323 INTRODUCTION The selections which make up this volume are^ taken from Benjamin Whichcote's Select Sermons and Aphorisms, from John Smith's Select Discourses, and from Nathanael Culverwel's Discourse of the Light of Nature. These authors are little known now, and though, within the narrow limits by which their lives were bounded, they exercised a powerful influence, they enjoyed little vogue even in their own day. Not one of them actually published his own work. Culverwel, who left materials which could easily be gathered into a book, may perhaps have intended to publish; but there is no reason to suppose that Whichcote or Smith ever contemplated such a step. At any rate, at their death their writings were found to be in so fragmentary" and * I have used for the first two sermons of Whichcote the text of Wishart's edition, Edinburgh, 1742, and for the third that of Jeffery's edition (the fourth volume, London, 1707), and for Whichcote's Aphorisms Salter's edition, London, 1753 ; for the selections from Smith, Worthington's edition, London, 1660; and for those from Culverwel an edition, published at Oxford in 1669, a reprint of Dillingham's edition of 1652, into which I have introduced occasional corrections borrowed from Brown's edition, Edinburgh, 1857. ' The basis of the text of Whichcote's Sermons was in part his own brief manuscript notes, and in part the fuller memoranda of those who heard him preach and lecture. The difficulties encountered by John Worthington, the first editor of Smith's Select Discourses, are illustrated by some correspondence which passed between him and S. Hartlib. Thus Hartlib writes on May 5, 1659, ' I am very glad you are employed in publishing those excellent pieces which Mr. Smith of worthy memory hath left behind him,' and later, on February 13, 1659 (=1660), 'I am very glad that you have overcome those Herculean labours about Mr. Smith's book.' And so Worthington, writing to commend himself to the favour of Lord Lauderdale in 1670, urges as one of his claims to promotion, ' Heretofore I have endured and gone through some toilsome labours for the public good in preparing the elaborate discourses of Mr. Smith and Mr. Mede for the Press, wherein I consulted the advantage of others more than mine own.' Worthington's edition is ; X INTRODUCTION disordered a state as almost to baffle the patient and enthusiastic care of those who thought that they deserved such permanence as print might give them. Why then should these passages be now revived? That the inquiry was pertinent was felt by the earhest editor' of Whichcote's Select Sermons, whose preface, written in ' things 1698, begins with an apology : Amongst those many which are made public, it may be thought perhaps, of Sermons, that they are of any the least wanted ; and, for the future, the least likely to be found wanting. Since to that rich and inexhaustible store, with which the learned and orthodox divines of England have already furnished us, there is daily fresh addition from worthy and able hands. Neither have we cause to fear a cessation in this kind; or that so great a blessing is likely to fail us for the future having such security, not only from the unwearied zeal of present Divines (of whom we may always hope a worthy succession), but from the just esteem which the publick never fails to show for such pious Discourses. Upon which account, we find that many of these are every day made publick, and, as it were, forced into the world; notwith- standing the great modesty of their authors, whose humble thoughts and devoutly occupied affections lead them not towards eminence and advancement in the world. ' It may seem strange, therefore, that, in such an age as this, any one should be so officious as to search after and publish the sermons of a man long since dead, who (himself) never meant to pubhsh any ; or thought so highly of himself as that he could benefit the world by such a publication.' indeed admirable, and gives evidence of the pains which he declared he bestovired on it. It deserved the praise of Hartlib, who commending author and editor at once, said, ' Really I am transported with ravishing joy, Vfhen I consider it by myself alone, or have occasion to show it to other discerning and judicious friends, who all seem to be as much in love with the publisher as with the author,' February 22, 1659 ( = 1660), cf. Worthington's Diary, in Chetham Society's Publications, vol. i. 188, 189, &c. ' The Earl of Shaftesbury ; cf. Wishart's edition, Edinburgh, 1^43. INTRODUCTION xi Two centuries have increased the cogency of these words ; for though Sermons which may be ranked as Utera- ture have never been numerous, and are perhaps rarer at the present time than they were even fifty years ago, there has been no cessation in this kind of writing. The passages here collected must of course be their own justification, but some claims may be put forward for them in advance. It may be urged that they deserve remembrance for the teaching which they embody, for their style, and most of all, for the revelation which they give of characters of very unusual charm, and perfection. These authors belong, with Cudworth and More among the greater names and Worthington, Rust, and Norris among the lesser, to the School of the Cambridge Platonists, or as they were called by some of their contemporaries, the Latitude men.