We have an Account of the fpeculative Opinions of many of the wife Men of Greece preferved to us in Authors of

great Credit; but of their Practice, and perfonal Behaviour in Life, little is faid: Which makes it hard to judge how far their own Practice and Conduct was influenced by their Opinions, or how confiftent they were in pursuing the Confequences of their own Doctrines. The Cafe might have been the fame with Socrates, had not a very particular Circumstance put him under a Neceffity of explaining his Conduct and Practice with respect to the Religion of his Country. He had talked fo freely of the Heathen Deities, and the ridiculous Stories told of them, that he fell under a Sufpicion of defpifing the Gods of his Country, and of teaching the Youth of Athens to defpife their Altars and their Worship. Upon this Accufation he is fummoned before the great Court of the Areopagites; and happily the Apology he made for himfelf is preserved to us by two the ableft of his Scholars, and the best Writers of Antiquity, Plato and Xenophon: And from both their Accounts it appears, that Socrates maintained and afferted before his Judges, That he worshiped the Gods of his Country, and that he facrificed in private and in public

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upon the allowed Altars, and according to the Rites and Customs of the City. After this public Confeffion, fo authentically reported by two fo able Hands, there can be no Doubt of his Cafe. He was an Idolater, and had not, by his great Knowledge and Ability in Reasoning, delivered himself from the Practice of the Superftition of his Country. You fee how far the Wisdom of the World could go: Give me Leave to fhew what the Foolishness of Preaching could do in the very fame Cafe.

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St. Paul was in the fame Cafe: He was accused in the same City of Athens of the fame Crime, That he was a Setter-forth of strange Gods; and before the fame great Court of Areopagites he made his Apology, which is likewise preserved to us by St. Luke in the feventeenth Chapter of the Acts. We have then the greatest and the ableft among the wife Men of Greece, and an Apostle of ' Christ, in the fame Circumftances. You have heard the Philofopher's Defence, That he worshiped the Gods of his Country, and as his Country worshiped them. Hear now the Apoftle: Ye Men of Athens, fays he, I perceive that in all Things ye are too fuperfitious: For, as I paffed by, and beheld

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your Devotions,

Devotions, I found an Altar with this Infcription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you: God that made the World, and all Things therein. This God, he tells them, is not worshiped with Men's Hands, as though he needeth any thing Nor was the Godhead like unto Gold, or Silver, or Stone, graven by Art and Man's Device. He then calls upon them, in the Name of this great God, to repent of their Superftition and Idolatry, which God would no longer bear: Because he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof be hath given Affurance unto all Men, in that he hath raifed him from the Dead.

Which of these two now was a Preacher of true Religion? Let those who value human Reason at the highest Rate determine the Point.

The Manner in which Socrates died was the calmeft and the bravest in the World, and excludes all Pretence to fay that he diffembled his Opinion and Practice before his Judges out of any Fear, or Meanness of Spirit; Vices with which he was never taxed, and of which he feems to have been incapacios,

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Confider then, was it poffible for any Man, upon the Authority of Socrates, to open his Mouth against the Idolatry of the Heathen World, or to make ufe of his Name to that Purpose, who had fo folemnly, in the Face of his Country, and before the greatest Judicature of Greece, borne Teftimony to the Gods of his Country, and the Worship paid them?

But to proceed: The City of Athens foon grew fenfible of the Injury done to the best and wifeft of their Citizens, and of their own great Mistake in putting Socrates to Death. His Accufers and his Judges became infamous; and the People grew extravagant in doing Honours to the Memory of the innocent Sufferer: They erected a Statue, nay a Temple, to his Memory; and his Name was had in Honour and Reverence. His Doctrines upon the Subjects of Divinity and Morality were introduced into the World with all the Advantage that the ableft and politeft Pens could give; and they became the Study and Entertainment of all the confiderable Men who lived after him. It is worth obferving too, that from the Death of Socrates to the Birth of Chrift were, if I remember right, near four hundred Years; which was Time fufficient to make the Ex

periment, how far the Wisdom of Socrates, attended with all the Advantages beforementioned, could go in reforming the World, And what was the Effect of all this? Can you name the Place where Religion was reformed? Can you name the Man who was fo far reformed, as to renounce the Superftition of his Country? No; none fuch are to be found; and how should there? fince, the greater the Credit and Reputation of Socrates were, the more ftrongly did they draw Men to imitate his Example, and to worship as their Country worshiped.

Confider, on the other fide, what was the Confequence of preaching the Gospel. St. Paul entertained the Athenians with no fine Speculations; but he laid before them, in the plainest Dress, the great and momentous Truths of Religion; he openly rebuked their Idolatry, and condemned their Superstition, The Gospel was published in the fame Manner every-where. The firft Preachers of it were enabled to fupport it by Miracles; and most of them fhed their Blood in defence of its Truth. By thefe Means they came likewise to have Credit and Authority in the World, But in these two Cafes there was this great Difference: The corrupt Example of Socrates was a dead Weight upon the