Reference > Cambridge History > The Age of Dryden > Platonists and Latitudinarians > Whichcote not a Platonist
  His Aphorisms and Sermons Henry More  

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The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.

XI. Platonists and Latitudinarians.

§ 5. Whichcote not a Platonist.


It would seem, however, that even More is not to be regarded as the originator of the Platonist movement at Cambridge. So early as the year 1641, there had appeared, printed at the University Press, a collection of Commonplaces, 4  delivered in the chapel of Trinity college, by John Sherman, a fellow of the society and bachelor of divinity, in which the following noteworthy sentences occur:
Nature’s light is a subcelestiall star in the orb of the microcosme; God’s Voice, man’s usher in the school of the world. As truths supernaturall are not contradicted by reason, so neither surely is that contradicted by Scripture which is dictated by right reason. 5 
I know not how it cometh to pass, but too many Christians have too much of heathen talk; and so also, in a reciprocation, some heathen have very much of that which seemeth correspondent unto sacred Scripture. 6 
The teacher of the Gentiles instructeth us Christians not to disembrace goodnesse in any, nor truth in any. Plato’s rule is good,—O[char]. Let us not so much consider who saith, as what is said; who doeth, as what is done. 7 
Note 4. The term “Commonplace,” as there used, is defined in Samuel Clarke’s Lives, p. 115, as “a college-exercise in divinity, not different from a sermon, but in length.” [ back ]
Note 5. p. 1. [ back ]
Note 6. p. 25. [ back ]
Note 7. p. 21. [ back ]

CONTENTS · VOLUME CONTENTS · INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  His Aphorisms and Sermons Henry More  
 
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