In the discourse here printed John Smith gives in a few broad strokes the general method of this group; the paper was designed by him as “a necessary introduction” to his other discourses, his friend John Worthington says. As this looks at religion from the point of view of how man is to know God, we add the chapter from his fine discourse on the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion, in which he speaks of knowledge as given by God to man. We have not printed the references for the very numerous quotations; they will be found in the Cambridge edition mentioned in our reference paragraph. (excertos do estudo THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS ; BEING SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE, JOHN SMITH AND NATHANAEL CULVERWEL)
Section I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description, or meer Speculation. Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge. That Purity of Heart and Life, as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment, are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth.
Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section, answered. That Men generally, notwithstanding their Apostasie, are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge. Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe, as Wills to doe what they know. Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge, and excells it.
Sect. III. Men may be consider’d in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things. That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs onely to the true and sober Christian; and That it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body.