I

which discovery of his Free-Thinking, St. AUSTIN, who records the Paffage, fays, *That VARRO herein difcovers the whole Secret of Statesmen and Politicians,

(7.) THE Grave and Wise CATO the Cenfor will for ever live in that noble FreeThinking Saying recorded by CICERO, which shows that he understood the whole Mystery of the Roman Religion as by Lam eftablish'd. I wonder, faid he, how one of our Priests can forbear laughing when he fees another.

(8.) CICERO, that confummate Philofopher and noble Patriot, tho he was Chief Priest and Conful, and executed other publick Offices (which ufually makes Men more cautious and lefs fincere) gave the greatest proof of his Free-Thinking. He not only profefs'd the Academick or Sceptick Philofophy, which oblig'd him to || examine the Doctrines of all Philofophers, that he might fee there was no Certainty in any of their Schemes; but wrote two Treatifes, one of the Nature of the Gods, and the other concerning Divination: in the former of which, he has endeavour'd to fhow the

Totum confilium prodidit fapientum per quos civitates & populi regerentur. Ibid. 1. 4. C. 31.

+ Mirari fe aiebat, quod non rideret harufpex, cùm harufpicem vidiffet. Opera Ed. Gron. p. 3806.

Qui fequuntur difciplinam Academicam, omnes difciplinas iis percipere neceffe eft. De Nat. Deor. 1. I. Weakness

Weakness of all the Arguments of the Stoicks (who were the great Theifts of Antiquity) for the Being of the Gods; and in the latter has deftroy'd the whole Reveal'd Religion of the Greeks and Romans, and fhow'd the Imposture of all their Miracles, and Weakness of the Reasons on which it was pretended to be founded. CICERO likewife gives us his own Picture, and that of the greatest part of the Philofopher's (as he was well qualify'd to do, having read over the Writings of them all, and convers'd with the most eminent of those who liv'd in his own time) when he produces this as an Inftance of a probable Opinion, * That they who study Philofophy don't believe there are any Gods; that is, that there exifted no fuch Gods as were believ'd by the People. Again, in his Tufculan Questions, after having mention'd the various Notions of Philofophers about the nature of the Soul, he concludes from them, That there can be nothing after Death. And as to PLATO'S Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul, fays he to his Dialogift ATTICU's (or his Auditor, as fome conceive) | Let us not pro

Hujufmodi eft probabile Eos, qui dent Philofophiæ operam, non arbitrari Deos effe. De Inventione, l. 1. Opera, Ed. Gron. P. 157.

+ His fententiis omnibus nihil poft mortem pertinere ad quenquam poteft. Tufc. Quaft. Opera, p.3433.

Platonis rationem prætermittamus, & hanc totam fpem Immortalitatis relinquamus. Ibid. p. 3438.

duce

duce them, and let us lay afide all our Hopes of Immortality. By which ATTICUs underflood CICERO to deny the Immortality of the Soul, as is evident from his Answer which follows: What, fays ATTICUS, do you disappoint me, after you had rais'd in me fuch an Expectation of a proof of the Immortality of the Soul? Truly, I had rather be mistaken with PLATO, whom I know how much you esteem, and whom I admire on your Authority, than be in the right with others.

3

AND here, because CICERO's Works are fo frequently cited againft Free-Thinkers both from the Pulpit and the Prefs, and his Example recommended for their Conviction; it may not be amifs utterly to difarm the Enemys of Free-Thinking of C1CERO's Authority, by briefly difcovering a common Impofition on the World, begun by fome Men of Learning (either thro want of Difcernment or want of Honefty) and continu'd by the lefs Learned, out of deference to the Authority of the former.

CICERO's Philofophical Works are mostly written in Dialogue, in which Philofophers of different Sects are introduc'd ar

* An tu, cùm me in fummam expectationem adduxeris, deferis? Errare mehercule malo cum Platone, quem tu quam quanti facias, fcio, & quem ex ore tuo admiror, quam cum iftis verá fentire.

guing for their feveral Opinions. Thus the three Books of the Nature of the Gods, are a Dialogue between an Epicurean, a Stoick, and an Academick; and his two Books of Divination are a Dialogue between his Brother QUINTUS, who perfonates a Stoick, and himself. Now the modern Priefts, whenever they meet with any Paffage favourable to Superftition, which CICERO puts in the mouth of the Stoick, or any falfe Argument which he makes the Epicurean ufe, and which they have thought fit to fanctify (fuch for inftance as the Epicurean Argument from innate Ideas, and that from the univer fal Confent of Mankind for the Existence of Gods in EPICURUS's fenfe; that is, for Gods in human shape, who took no care of the World or of human Affairs) they urge it as CICERO's own, and would have the Reader believe CICERO look'd on it as conclufive. Whereas CICERO himself is fo far from approving what he makes the Stoick and Epicurean fpeak, that he does in his Difcourfe of the Nature of the Gods endea vour to confute all their Arguments under the Perfon of an Academick (of which Sect he every where profeffes himself) and in his Difcourfe of Divination baffles all the Stoical Arguments for Superftition, openly under his own name. So that CICERO is as unfairly dealt with, whenever he is cited againft Free-Thinking, as the Priefts themselves would be, did any one cite as

their

their Sentiments what they make Deifts, Scepticks, and Socinians fay, in the Dialogues they compofe against thofe Sects.

THE true method of discovering the Sentiments of CICERO, is to fee what he fays himself, or under the Perfon of an Aca demick; as the true method of knowing what Sentiments our Divines maintain in their Dialogues, is to fee what they make their Orthodox Dialogift fay. And if CICE RO's Readers will follow this Rule of common Sense in understanding him, they will find him as great a Free-Thinker as he was a Philofopher, an Orator, a Man of Virtue, and a Patriot. And they will never meet with any Paffages which in the leaft favour Superftition, but what he plainly throws out to fave himself from Danger, or to fhow his Rhetorical Ability on any Argument, or employs in his Orations to recommend himfelf to the Roman Mob, who, like all other

* And yet sometimes his Zeal against what he took to be Superftition made him so far forget himself, as to speak that in his Orations which he could only do with fafety in an Affembly of Philofophers. As for inftance, fays be,

I would not have you think, that wicked Men, as fometimes on the Stage, are by the Impulfe of the Gods terrify'd by the burning Torches of the Fu

Every man's own Fraud, his own Wickedness, his own Villany, his own defperate Bold

ness,