these Stoics recommend and enforce the cardinal virtues; and especially the very noble and dignified manner, in which, in opposition to the Epicureans, they inculcate a firm reliance and trust in Providence. It would likewise be very unfair not to acknowledge, that both the Pythagoreans and Platonists taught and enjoined a sublime piety to their gods. And who can help admiring the truth and sublimity of Plato's assertion, that the chief happiness of man consists in his uniting his soul to God, and in his mind's energizing on divine subjects? or that of Socrates, who said, he neither wished or expected greater happiness in this life, than the consciousness of making a progress in virtue*? But it was far beyond their highest and sublimest ideas to define the nature of God; and accordingly neither of these sects taught that their Zeus, or Upatos, or Jupiter, was "the Lord,

If the soul of man is so constituted, as to be affected with delight in proportion to the real excellency of the ideas and things which vibrate its feelings, nothing is more natural thán that the wise and virtuous mind of Socrates, as well as those of all other men of similar complexion and temper, should adopt this conclusion. For if the perfection and highest satisfaction of the human mind consists (as it does in the opinion of Plato) in the contemplation of virtue, in adopting virtuous habits, and in the performance of virtuous actions, the reflex act of the mind on itself, arising from the consciousness of making a progress in these, must necessarily be the most grateful, the sublimest, the supremest vibration of delight it can experience on this side the grave.

the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuf

fering, abundant in goodness and truth, keep"ing mercy for thousands, and pardoning ini"quity, transgression, and sin;" neither did their finest and most exalted precepts reach the height of that doctrine, which teaches, that the love of God and of our neighbour constitutes the chief and principal duty of man. Where do we find ̧ that either Pythagoras, Socrates, or Plato, (who certainly excelled all other philosophers in virtue and piety,) taught, "Thou shalt love the Lord "thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, "with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. "This is the first and great commandment. And "the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy "neighbour as thyself." Or where do they define the nature of true glory as it is defined in the following passage; "Thus saith the Lord; Let not "the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let "the mighty man glory in his might; let not the "rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth "and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which "exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righ"teousness in the earth; for in these things I de

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light, saith the Lord." Where do we find in the writings of these philosophers such directions for conduct, and such rewards promised for the observation of such conduct, as we find in Scrip

ture? For example; when God by his prophet Isaiah severely censures the hypocrisy of the Jews in their fasts, and declares the sort of conduct he approves and requires from them, he thus expresses himself; "Is not this the fast I have chosen? to "loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free? "Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and "that thou bring the poor that are cast out to

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thy house? when thou seest the naked, that "thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself "from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light "break forth as the morning, and thine health "shall spring forth speedily: thy righteousness "shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall "be thy rereward," or, as it may be translated, "shall gather thee up." "Then shalt thou call, "and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and " he shall say, Here I am.-And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted "soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and

thy darkness be as the noon-day: and the Lord "shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul "in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou "shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring "of water, whose waters fail not. If thou turn away from doing thy pleasure on the Sabbath,

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on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, "the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt

honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor "finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine

own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in "the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the

high places of the earth, and will feed thee, &c. "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Further, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and "the Father is this; to visit the fatherless and "widows in their affliction, and to keep himself

unspotted from the world. "better than sacrifice," &c.

Behold, to obey is Now how different

the moral and theological code of the heathens was from the above, we may gather from the following just picture of it, drawn by Mr. Locke, in his Reasonableness of Christianity: "A clear "knowledge of their duty was wanting to the "heathens: this part of knowledge, though cul❝tivated with care by some of the Pagan philo

sophers, yet got little footing amongst the people, for very few went to their schools to be informed what was good or evil in their "actions. All mankind, indeed, under pain of "displeasing the gods, were to frequent their "temples; and every one went to their sacrifices: "but the priests did not make it their business to "teach the people virtue. If they were diligent " in their observations and ceremonies, punctual "in their feasts and solemnities, and the forms of "religion, the priests assured them the gods were

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pleased, and they looked no further: lustrations "and processions were much easier than a clear "conscience, and a steady course of virtue; and

an expiatory sacrifice, which they were taught "atoned for the want of these, was much more "convenient than a strict and holy life. Religion "therefore with them was every where distinguished from and preferred to virtue; and it "was considered as profaneness, and a dangerous heresy, to affirm and maintain the contrary."

Lord Bacon likewise, speaking of unity in religion, observes, that the religion of the heathens consisted rather in rites and ceremonies, than in any settled or constant belief. Indeed, how could it be otherwise, since the heathens had no knowledge of his laws*?

The heathen religion was not only devoid of charity, it was even malicious and revengeful: it did not preach, "Be not overcome of evil, but

overcome evil with good," nor, "Love your "enemies;" on the contrary, Plato makes Socrates affirm, in the Philebus, that it is right to rejoice at such evils as befal them: and, as a still stronger proof of the vindictive spirit of their religion, Dr. Potter, in his Grecian Antiquities, mentions, that "whenever the Athenian priests implored a blessing on Athens and her allies, at the same time

* Psalm cxlvii.