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ries which Revelation has difcovered to which the nobleft Parts of this Syftem of the • World are as much inferior, as the Creature is lefs excellent than its Creator. The wifeft and moft knowing among the Heathens had very poor and imperfect Notions of a future State. They had indeed fome uncertain Hopes, either received by • Tradition, or gathered by Reason, that the Exiftence of virtuous Men would not be determined by the Separation of Soul and Body But they either disbelieved a future State of Punishment and Mifery, or, upon the fame Account that Apelles painted Antigonus with one Side only towards the Spectator, that the Lofs of his Eye might not caft a Blemish upon the whole Piece; fo thefe reprefented the Con⚫dition of Man in its fairest View, and endeavoured to conceal what they thought was a Deformity to humane Nature. I have often obferved, that whenever the abovementioned Orator in his Philofophical Difcourfes is led by his Argument to the Mention ⚫ of Immortality, he feems like one awaked out of • Sleep, rous'd and alarm'd with the Dignity of the Subject, he ftretches his Imagination to conceive fomething uncommon, and with the Greatness of his Thoughts, cafts, as it were, a Glory round the Sentence; Uncertain and unfettled as he was, he feems fired with the Contemplation of it. And nothing but fuch a Glorious Profpect could have forced fo great a Lover of Truth, as he was, to declare his • Refolution never to part with his Perfuafion of Immortality, though it fhould be proved to be an er· roneous one. But had he lived to fee all that Chriftianity has brought to Light, how would he have lavished out all the Force of Eloquence in those nobleft Contemplations which humane Nature is capable of, the Refurrection and the Judgment that follows it? How had his Breaft glowed with Pleafure, when the whole Compafs of Futurity lay oper and expofed to his View? How would his Imagination have hurried him on in the Pursuit of the Myfteries of the Incarnation? How would he have enVOL. VIII. • ter'd

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ter'd, with the Force of Lightning, into the Affections ⚫ of his Hearers, and fixed their Attention, in spite of all the Oppofition of corrupt Nature, upon those glorious Themes which his Eloquence hath painted in fuch lively and lafting Colours.

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THIS Advantage Chriftians have; and it was • with no fmall Pleafure I lately met with a Fragment of Longinus, which is preferv'd, as a Tettimony of that Critick's Judgment, at the Beginning of a Manufcript of the New Testament in the Vatican Library. After that Author has number'd the most celebrated Orators among the Grecians, he says, Add to thefe Paul of Tarfus, the Patron of an Opinion not yet fully proved. As a Heathen, he condemns the Chriftian Religion; and, as an impartial Critick, he judges in Favour of the Promoter and Preacher of it. To it feems, that the latter Part of his Judgment adds great Weight to his Opinion of St. Paul's Abilities, fince, under all the Prejudice of Opinions directly oppofite, he is conftrained to acknowledge the Merit of that Apostle. And no doubt, fuch as Longinus defcribes St. Paul, fuch he appeared to the Inhabitants of thofe Countries which he vifited and bleffed with thofe Doctrines he was divinely commiffioned to preach. Sacred Story gives us, in one Circumftance, a convincing Proof of his Eloquence, when the Men of Lyftra called him Mercury, because he was the chief Speaker, and would have paid Divine Worship to him, as to the God who invented and prefided over Eloquence. This one Account of our Apostle fets his Character, confider'd as an Orator only, above all the • celebrated Relations of the Skill and Influence of Demofthenes and his Contemporaries. Their Power in Speaking was admired, but ftill it was thought humane: Their Eloquence warmed and ravished the Hearers, but ftill it was thought the Voice of Man, ⚫ not the Voice of God. What Advantage then had St. Paul above thofe of Greece or Rome? I confefs.I afcribe this Excellence to nothing but the Power of the Doctrines he delivered, which may have ftill the fame Influence on the Hearers; which have ftill

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the Power, when preached by a skilful Orator, to make us break out in the fame Expreffions, as the Difciples who met our Saviour in their Way to Emmaus, made use of; Did not our Hearts burn within us, when he talked to us by the Way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? I may be thought bold in my Judgment by fome; but I must affirm, That no one Orator has left us fo vifible Marks and Footsteps of his Eloquence as our Apoftle. It may perhaps be wondered at, that in his Reasonings upon Idolatry at Athens, where Eloquence was born and flourished, he confines himself to ftrict Argument only; but my Reader may remember what many Authors of the best Credit have affured us, That all Attempts upon the Affections and Strokes of Oratory were exprefly forbidden by the Laws of that Country, in Courts of Ju'dicature. His want of Eloquence therefore here, was the Effect of his exact Conformity to the Laws. But his Difcourfe on the Refurrection to the Corinthians, his Harangue before Agrippa upon his own Converfion, and the Neceffity of that of others, are truly Great, and may ferve as full Examples to thofe excellent Rules for the Sublime, which the beft of Criticks has • left us. The Sum of all this Discourse is, That our Clergy have no farther to look for an Example of the Perfection they may arrive at, than to St. Paul's Harangues; that when he, under the want of feveral Advantages of Nature (as he himself tells us) was heard, admired, and made a Standard to fucceeding Ages by the beft Judge of a different Perfuafion in Religion, I fay, our Clergy may learn, That, however inftructive their Sermons are, they are capable of receiving a great Addition; which St. Paul has given them a noble Example of, and the Chriftian Religion has fur⚫nished them with certain Means of attaining to.

N° 634. Friday, December 17.

Ὁ ἐλαχίσων δεόμλνΘ έγγισα θεῶν.

Socrates apud Xen.

T was the common Boaft of the Heathen Philofophers, that by the Efficacy of their several Doctrines, they made Humane Nature resemble the Divine. How much miftaken foever they might be in the several Means they proposed for this End, it must be owned that the Defign was great and glorious. The finest Works of Invention and Imagination are of very little Weight, when put in the Balance with what refines and exalts the rational Mind. Longinus excufes Homer very handsomely, when he fays the Poet made his Gods like Men, that he might make his Men appear like the Gods: But it must be allowed that feveral of the ancient Philofophers acted, as Cicero wishes Homer had done; they endeavoured rather to make Men like Gods, than Gods like Men.

ACCORDING to this general Maxim in Philofophy, fome of them have endeavoured to place Men in fuch a State of Pleasure, or Indolence at least, as they vainly imagined the Happiness of the Supreme Being to confift in. On the other hand, the most virtuous Sect of Philofophers have created a chimerical wife Man, whom they made exempt from Paffion and Pain, and thought it enough to pronounce him Allfufficient.

THIS laft Character, when divefted of the Glare of Humane Philofophy that furrounds it, fignifies no more, than that a Good and a Wise Man should so arm himself with Patience, as not to yield tamely to the Violence of Paffion and Pain; that he fhould learn fo to fupprefs and contract his Defires as to have few Wants;

Wants; and that he should cherish fo many Virtues in his Soul, as to have a perpetual Source of Pleasure in Himself.

THE Chriftian Religion requires, that, after having framed the best Idea, we are able, of the Divine Nature, it should be our next Care to conform our felves to it, as far as our Imperfections will permit. I might mention feveral Paffages in the facred Writings on this Head, to which I might add many Maxims and wife Sayings of Moral Authors among the Greeks and Romans.

I shall only inftance a remarkable Paffage, to this Purpole, out of Julian's Cæfars. That Emperor having represented all the Roman Emperors, with Alexander the Great, as paffing in Review before the Gods, and ftriving for the Superiority, lets them all drop, excepting Alexander, Julius Cæfar, Auguftus Cæfar, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Conftantine. Each of thefe great Heroes of Antiquity lays in his Claim for the upper Place; and, in Order to it, fets forth his Actions after the most advantageous Manner. But the Gods, inftead of being dazzled with the Luftre of their Actions, enquire, by Mercury, into the proper Motive and governing Principle that influenced them throughout the whole Series of their Lives and Exploits. Alexander tells them, That his Aim was to conquer: Julius Cæfar, That his was to gain the highest Poft in his Country; Auguftus, To govern well; Trajan, That His was the fame as that of Alexander, namely, To conquer. The Queftion, at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius, who replied, with great Modefty, That it had always been his Care to imitate the Gods. This Conduct feems to have gained him the most Votes and best Place in the whole Affembly. Marcus Aurelius being afterwards asked to explain himfelf, declares, That, by imitating the Gods, he endeavoured to imitate them in the Ufe of his Understanding, and of all other Faculties; and, in particular, That it was always his Study to have as few Wants as poffible in himself, and to do all the Good he could to others.