when I read fuch things of him, I can hardly forbear crying out, Sante SOCRATES, ora pro nobis. But how Sneakingly have Í feen feveral Chriftians die! Some of them rely on what is not to be rely'd on : Others breathe out their laft in defpair, on the account of their own Wickedness and the Scruples with which their heads are fill'd by their ignorant Priefts. And it is no wonder they should die after this manner, who spend their whole Lives only in difputing about and practising of Ce

remonys.

SOCRATES could not be fuppos'd to have made Notions, or Speculations, or Mysterys, any parts of his Religion, when he demonftrated all Men to be. Fools who troubled themselves with Inquirys into Heavenly -things, and ask'd fuch Inquirers whether they had attain'd a perfect Knowledg of Human things, fince they fearch'd into Heavenly

vix mihi tempero, quin dicam, San&te Socrates, ora pra nobis!At ego quot vidi Chriftianos, quam frigidè morientes! Quidam fidunt in iis rebus, quibus non eft fidendum: quidam ob confcientiam fcelerum & fcrupulos quibus indocti quidam obftrepunt morituro, pene defperantes exhalant animam. - Nec mirum eos fic mori, qui per omnem vitam tantum philofophati funt in Ceremoniis, &c. Opera, vol. 1. p. 683.

* Τις φροντίζοντας τα τοιαῦτα μωραίνοντας ἐπιδείκνυε. και πρῶτον μ' αυτόν εσκόπει, πότερα ποτὲ νομίσαντες ικανως ἤδη τανθρώπινα εἰδέναι, ἔρχονται ἐπὶ τὸ δει τι τούτων φροντίζειν ἢ τὰ μ ανθρώπινα παρέντες, τα δαιμόνια δε σκοπῶντες, ἡγῆνται τα προςήκοντα πράττειν. Xenophontis Opera. Ed. Par. p. 710.

things;

things; or if they could think themselves wife in neglecting that which concern'd them, to employ themselves in that which was above their Capacity to understand.

LASTLY, As a further Evidence of his Free-Thinking, SOCRATES had the common Fate of Free-Thinkers, to be calumniated in his life-time for an Atheist (tho the God APOLLO by his Oracle declar'd him the wifeft Man upon earth) and at length fuffer'd that Punishment for Free-Thinking, which Knavery and Folly, whenever they are arriv'd to a due pitch, and are well confederated together, are ever ready to inflict on all thofe who have the Honefty and Courage to endeavour to imitate him.

(2.) PLATO feeing the Fate of SoCRATES, was more politick in his Converfation, and never talk'd publickly against the Gods and Religion of his Country; yet he was no less a Free-Thinker, and thought himself into Notions fo contrary to those which were receiv'd or known in Greece, that fome Chriftians have fuppos'd him to be divinely inspir'd; and others, to have read the Books of the Old Teftament. has fo many Paffages in his Writings fo agreeable to the Truths of the Gofpel, that * CELSUS, the great Adverfary of Chrif

Origen. contra Celf. p. 286.

He

tianity,

tianity, charges our Blessed Lord himself with borrowing his Doctrine from PLATO. ORIGEN indeed very well defends our Bleffed Lord from CELSUS's Charge, by faying, That CELSU's deferves to be laugh'd at, when he affirms JEsus had read PLA-To; who was, fays he, bred and born among the Jews, and was fo far from having been taught Greek Letters, that he was not taught Hebrew Letters, as the Scriptures teftify. But he is fo far from difowning an Agreement between Platonism and Christianity, that a great part of his Book againft CELsus confifts in fhowing the Conformity between them. Likewife AMELIUS, a Heathen Platonist, who flourish'd in the third Century, upon reading the first Verses of St. JOHN the Evangelift, cry'd out, By JOVE this Barbarian is of our Master PLATO's Opinion! Moreover, the great Conformity between Platonism and Chriftianity made many Platonists become Chriftians, and many of the Primitive Chriftians become Platonifts; and was the cause that several of PLATO's Notions became fundamental

* Τις δεκ αν, καὶ μετρίως ἔπιςανειν τοῖς πράγμασι δυνά μενος * Κέλσον γελάσαι, ακέων ὅτι Ίησες (ὁ παρά Ινδαίοις γεγενημένος καὶ ἀνατεθραμμένος, καὶ μηδε μεμαθηκώς, μόνον τα Ελληνων, αλλ' εδε τὰ Ἑβραίων, ὅπως καὶ αι φιλαλήθεις μαρτυρία γράται τω πεὶ αὐτὸν) ανέγνω Πλα Tava. Ibid.

Per Jovem barbarus ifte cum noftro Platone fentit. Apud Reeve's Apologys, in his Differt. upon Justin Martyr.

Articles

Articles of Chriftian Faith; and gave ground to zealous Chriftians to forge feveral things under PLATO's name, yet more conformable to the Truths of their Holy Religion (as for inftance the thirteenth Letter to DioNYSIUS, printed in his Works) with which, and other of the like nature, they had great fuccefs in the Converfion of the Heathen World.

(3.) ARISTOTLE, to whom the Popifh Church for many Centurys paft has been no lefs oblig'd for † Articles of Faith, than the Primitive Church was to PLATO, during the Life of his Pupil and Patron ALEXANDER the Great, read to his Scholars the effects of Free-Thinking : but after the death of ALEXANDER, EURIMEDON a Prieft accus'd him of Impiety, for introducing fome Philofophical Affertions contrary to the Religion of the Athenians. And he was forc'd to fteal privately from Athens; from whence he went to Chalcis, giving this reafon to his Friends, ** That he left Athens, that he might not give the Athenians occafion to commit again the fame Wic

* Cudworth's Intell. Syft. p. 403.

Senza Ariftotele noi mancavamo di molti Articoli di Fede. The celebrated Saying of Cardinal Palavicino. Diog. Laert. vita Arift.

** Απίωμεν απο Αθηνών, να μη πρόφασιν δώμεν Αθηναίοις ο δεύτερον ἄγος ἀναλαβῶν δαπλήσιον τω και Σωκράτη, καὶ ἵνα μὴ δεύτερον εἰς φιλοσοφίαν ασεβήσωσιν. Origen. contra Celfum, p. 51.

kedness

kedness they committed against SOCRATES, that they might not be guilty of a double Crime against Philofophy.

(4.) EPICURUs has in all Ages been diftinguish'd as a great Free-Thinker, and not less as a Man of Virtue among the Learned; in which last he seems to have exceeded all other Philofophers. For he was not only eminent for his * Piety towards his Parents, his Kindness to his Brethren, his Meekness to his Servants, his Humanity to all, his Love to his Country, and his Chastity, Temperance, and Frugality; but for that most divine of all Virtues, and wherein the greatest Pleasure of human Life confifts, and of which an ill Man is incapable, viz. Friendship. He had that noble Quality in fuch perfection himself, and cultivated it fo much in his Followers, that the Succeffion of his School continu'd many hundred years after the Succeffion of the Schools of all the other Philofophers fail'd, without that Faction and Divifion which was more or less in them, and contributed to their more early Diffolution. C1CERO, tho a great Adverfary to his philofophical Opinions, and who in the Perfon of COTTA has thorowly baffled his Syftem of Chance, gives him this no

* Diog. Laert. in vitâ Epicuri.

† De Nat. Deor. l. 1.