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Soul. In fhort, the Philofophers in general were noted for their beastly Corruption of the young Scholars they had the Charge of; and this was one of the Articles*, tho' perhaps groundlefs, which Anytus and Melitus objected against Socrates, and which he was condemned for. Now this Imputation was fo notorious against the Philofophers, that Lucian makes Sport with it throughout his Dialogues, and the Socratici Cynadi was grown to a Proverb to denote the worft of thofe infamous Wretches. Nay, I remember fomewhere, that Plutarch does in fome Measure apologise for this Vice of the Philofophers, because they make amends by the improving their Minds for the Corruption of their Bodies. These are the Fathers, Philologus, of your Infidel Church, whom you build your Religion upon; but, for my Part, let my Soul be with Chrift and his Apoftles, and all his holy Saints and Martyrs, which I am fure are in a better Condition than these lewd unregenerate Wretches.

mon Pagans

5. And as for the common and illiterate People, one The Lives cannot expect that their Lives fhould be any Thing vir- of the comtuous, when their Philofophers, who pretended to teach highly vitithem Virtue, were fo mistaken in their Principles, and for ous. the most Part debauched in their Practice: For they, poor People, for the most Part, blindly followed the Impulse of their Senfes and Paffions, and could propofe no other End of their Actions, but the present Gratification of their Affections and Inclinations. For everlasting Life and eternal Glory, which is the great Spring of the Chriftian Virtue and Holinefs, was unknown to them; and was the great Promife only of our bleffed Saviour, Who bath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel, They had nothing among them like it, but fome fanciful Stories of Elyfium, which too was generally lookt upon as a poetical Dream, and believed by none fo as to found any religious Action upon it. And therefore the Philofophers They and (who depended little or nothing upon the Rewards of a the Philo future State, tho' they might fometime talk of it) devi-ophers fed a hundred Sort of feveral Ends of human Actions, or true End

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of their Actions

Notions, wherein they fancied Happiness did confift, which all referred only to this World; which they would never have done, had they ftedfaftly believed a happy State, or a Reward for Virtue in the next. Thus Epicurus would have Man's Happiness to confift in an Indolence or Freedom from all Pain, in not hungring, or thirfting, or being cold; and of this he was fo confident, that he was wont impioufly to fay & τέτοις Διὶ παλεὶ μάχεθαι, he would contend with Jupiter for the Truth of his Opinion. Dinomachus and Callipho made their End, the doing any Thing a Man might reap Pleasure by. Aristotle, and moft of the Stoicks, made their End to live according to Virtue fo that Virtue, according to them, was its own Reward. Cleanthes's End confifted in living agreeable ta Nature, and ivaousìr, in understanding Logick, or Reafoning well. Panatins's End was, in gratifying the Appetites of Nature, and Poffidonius's, in contemplating the Truth and Order of the Universe. Herillus's End was, to Live according to Philofophy, or Knowledge. And thofe of the latter Academy would have it confift in a firmly abStaining from Appearances or Reprefentations of Senfes. Anaxagoras's End was, Contemplation; Pythagoras's, the Knowledge of the Perfection of the Virtues of the Soul: Democritus's, the Tranquillity of the Mind, which he called the aves, or Well-being: Hecatans's, Sufficiency: Naufiphanes's, Admiration: Antisthenes's, a Vacancy from Pride: and the Anicercans, who were a Party of the Cyrenaick Sect, defpifed their Master Epicurus's End, and neither would have Pleasure, nor any Thing elfe, the End of human Actions, but to do what one lift. And as for the Immortality of the Soul, it was denied and ridiculed by all the Followers of Democritus and Epicurus, it was doubted by the Academicks; it was made only very vivacious and furviving to the Conflagration by the Stoicks; and even the great Socrates, the Founder of the Platonick Philofophy, is brought in by Plato in his Phado as only having good

*

Vid. Cic. de Fin. Diog. Laert. & Plutarch. in Vit. Philof. & Clem, Alex. Strom. Lib. 2.

Hopes

Hopes of it, and of which he will not be very confident. Now who can expect that the common People among the Heathen should make any great Progress in Virtue, when the most knowing among them had no Principle to practife it upon? Indeed fome of thefe whimsical Ends of human Actions might ferve a Philofopher to banter upon; but none of the common People would ever govern their Lives by them. When they did not believe the immortal Blifs of another World, they muft with the Cyrenaick Philofophers propofe all their Happiness in the Pleafures of this; which was the moft fenfible Deduction, and which the Apostle does plainly confirm upon this Suppofition, What advantageth me if the Dead rife not? let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die, 1 Cor. xv. 32. And if we confider the Lives and Actions of the ancient Heathen, we shall find the Worship of the Gods, and the Vitioufnefs of their Lives, wholly agreeable to this Hypothefis: And tho' the Lives of Chriftians generally be not anfwerable to those admirable Laws of our Saviour they are bleffed with; yet thofe divine Precepts. have had that Influence upon the Chriftian World, as to make the Generality of them live better, and not to be guilty of thofe notorious Errors and Vices the Heathens

were.

ans better

ticulars.

And truly, Philologus, it is to me a demonftrative Proof The Lives of the great Neceffity of our Chriftian Revelation, and of Chriftithe Defect of natural Religion, that fince the Preaching than the of the Gospel a great Part of the World has been freed Pagans in from many epidemical Vices and Errors, which they many Parwere over-run with before. I fhall not now trouble you, with fhewing, what an Influence the Chriftian Doctrine had over the Philofophy of the Gentiles after its Propagation; for it is eafy for any one to obferve, that Epilletus and Antoninus, Plutarch and Hierocles, Maximus Tyrius and Arrian, had quite another Caft in their Morality from the old Philofophers; and their Thoughts appear everywhere more elevated and divine, after they had mended their Philofophy by Chriftian Principles. I fhall only sranfiently touch upon fome of those many Wickedneffes

and

and Mistakes which Chriftianity has difpelled, and with which the Heathen World was heretofore, and is still (where it continues fo) infected with.

Idolatry. All Men of your Perfuafion allow, that Idolatry and Image-worship are very great Errors, and very injurious to the divine Nature; and this you know the Heathen World was over-run with. But Christianity, as far as it fpreads, has fairly delivered it from this; unless where the Papifts have, in fome Measure, brought it back, to the Scandal of our common Chriftianity.

Magick.

Augury.

Human Sacrifices.

Lewd Wor

thip.

The Ufe of Magick was a Vice that the Heathen were almoft univerfally addicted to, not only Perfians and Gauls, and other barbarous Nations, but also the Greeks and Romans; and even the Philofophers themselves, as appears by the Examples of Apollonius Thyanaus, Apuleius, and Porphyry; but in Chriftian Nations it is rarely known, it is generally abominated, and when detected, feverely punished.

The feveral Sorts of Augury were either fuperftitious Delufions, or else a Communication with evil Spirits, by odd Signs of the Flying of Fowl, by the Entrails of Beafts, or Feeding of Chickens, which univerfally obtained among the old Pagans; and which, by the Grace of God, we Chriftians are not taxable with.

Human Sacrifice, and the moft unnatural Sort of it, of their own Children, was a devilish Custom, which was common to all the Heathen Nations, and was used not only among fuch barbarous People as the Syrians and the Britans, but among the Greeks and Romans; for* Erectheus Atticus facrificed his own Daughter to Perfephone, and fo did Marius his Daughter Diis Averruncanis; which execra ble Superftition the Chriftian World is freed from.

We have nothing in our Worship like the Heathens lewd Worship in the Feafts of Flora, Priapus and Cybele, in which fuch abominable Lufts were acted, as is a Shame to mention; and this our Part of the World may thank Christianity for too,

Juftin. Mart. è Demarato in rebus Tragicis, & Dorotheo in rebus Italicis.

I do not know, whether a perfect and chaft Matrimony was used in any Part of the World, but among the Chri

ftians. Hafty and humourfome Divorces were allow'd Unlawful both by Greeks and Romans, and fometimes they fuper- Marriages, induced, as they call it, a new Wife over the other. The

*

Perfians married their Mothers, Ægyptians their Sifters; and Polygamy was practifed all over the Eaft, and in moft Parts of the World. But Christianity has establifhed the most decent and peaceable Kind of Matrimony; which is moft agreeable to the Ends of Nature; better for the Education and Provifion for Children, and for the mutual Satisfaction of each other.

We are beholden to the Chriftian Religion for that Humanity and good Nature, which obtains in the World fince the Planting the Gofpel, in Refpect of that diabo- Cruelty lical Cruelty which reigned among the Heathen. Our Chriftians, tho' otherways but bad Men, would take no Pleasure in feeing the poor Gladiators forced to butcher one another, as they did; they would abominate that fo many Men fhould die for no Purpose, as were exhibited by Trajan, one of the best of their Princes, who in three Quarters of a Year murthered ten thousand Men thisWay. Our Flesh trembles at the Thoughts of those horrid Punishments they took Delight in feeing inflicted upon the poor Chriftians; and we cannot, without Horror, now think of Men's being torn afunder by Boughs of Trees, and wild Horfes, of being roafted with Salt and Vinegar, of being broil'd upon Gridirons, and fcalded in boiling Oil. The most cruel Tyrants that ever the Chriftian World beheld, never, like the Roman Emperors, fiddled and fung over the Flames of a burning City, made an Entertainment of feeing Men tortured, nor were delighted with the Mufick of dying Men's Groans, as Nero and Caligula were.

We Chriftians do abhor Self-Murther, and fix a pub- Self-Mu. lick Infamy on those that lay violent Hands upon them- ther. felves; but among the Romans it was accounted a Piece

Sext. Emp. Hyp. Lib. 3. Cap. 24.

of

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