Wisdom they were not able to reform themfelves. Yet this was the Truth of the Cafe; and it was not at random, and without Knowledge of the Fact, that St. Paul lays this to the Charge of the wife Men of the World, That, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their Imaginations, and their foolish Heart was darkened. Profeffing themselves to be wife, they became Fools; and changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man, and to Birds, and four-footed Beafts, and creeping Things.

To prove the Truth of the Apostle's Affertion, that even the wife Men, who knew God, did not glorify him as God, by an Induction of Particulars, would be undertaking a Work which could hardly be well discharged in this Place. But yet the Point is too material to be passed over in Silence. Let us then confider the Cafe of one only, but of One, who among the good Men was the best, and among the wife ones the wisest. I shall easily be understood to mean Socrates, the great Philosopher of Athens : And, were the wife Men of Antiquity to plead their Caufe in common, they could not put their Defence into better Hands.

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We have an Account of the fpeculative Opinions of many of the wife Men of Greece preserved 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 refpect 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 himself is preserved to us by two the ablest 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 worshipped the Gods of his Country, and that he facrificed in private and in public

upon

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 Superstition of his Country. You fee how far the Wisdom of the World could go: Give me Leave to fhew you what the Foolishness of Preaching could do in the very fame Cafe.

St. Paul was in the fame Cafe: He was accused in the fame 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 ablest among the wife Men of Greece, and an Apostle of Chrift, in the fame Circumftances. You have heard the Philosopher's Defence, That he worshipped the Gods of his Country, and as his Country worshipped them. Hear now the Apostle: Ye Men of Athens, fays he, I perceive that in all Things ye are too fuperftitious: For, as I passed by, and beheld your Devotions,

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Devotions, I found an Altar with this InJcription, 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 worshipped 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: Becaufe he bath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof be bath given Affurance unto all Men, in that he hath raised 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 braveft in the World, and excludes all Pretence to say that he diffembled his Opinion and Practice before his Judges out of any Fear, or Meannefs of Spirit; Vices with which he was never taxed, and of which he feems to have been incapable.

Confider

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 soon 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 observing too, that from the Death of Socrates to the Birth of Christ were, if I remember right, near four hundred Years; which was Time fufficient to make the Experiment,

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