from God, and containing Doctrines that are idola-. trous, impure, cruel, and every way wicked and abfurd. Bu CHAP. V. Of the Philofophy of the Heathens. UT befides the Religions of the Heathens, divers of the Philofophers pretended to fomething fupernatural, as Pythagoras, Socrates, and fome others, and therefore it will be proper here to examine likewife the Justice of their Pretenfions. And indeed, whatever the Original of the Heathen Philofophy were, whether from their Gods, or from themselves, if the Precepts of Philofophy amongst the Heathens were a fufficient Rule of good Life, there may feem to have been little or no neceffity for a Divine Revelation. But I fhall prove, 1. That the Heathen Philofophy was very defective and erroneous. 2. That whatever was excellent in it, was owing to the Revelations contain'd in the Scriptures. 3. That if it had been as excellent, and as certain, as it can be pretended to be, yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation. erroneous. 1. The Heathen Philofophy was very defective and It was defective in point of Authority. Socrates, though he would be thought to be infpir'd, or fupernaturally affifted, gave Men only his own word for it. Pythagoras, indeed, pretended both to Prophecies and Miracles, but he was a great Magician, in the opinion of Xenophon, Pliny, and Plutarch, and therefore whatever he did or foretold, must be af a b a Xenoph. Epift. ad Æfchinem, Plutarch. in Numâ, Plin. Hift. 1. 30. C. I. §. 2, cribed to that Power, which, as it has been before declared, the Devils may have, to do ftrange things, and to know things done at a distance, or some time after; and his Predictions and Miracles, (even as they are related by Porphyry and Jamblicus) were fuch, as that a bare Recital of them were enough to confute any Authority, which could be claim'd by them. His Impostures may be feen in Diogenes Laertius. Pliny writes, that not only Pythagoras, but Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato himself, made long Voyages to learn Magick. Ariftotle fays, Epimenides foretold nothing, whatever others relate of him. And as the Philofophers had no Divine Authority for what they deliver'd, fo their own was but of small account; they were generally rather Men of Wit and Humour, than of found Doctrine or good Morals. And whoever d reads the Lives of the Philofophers written by Dioge nes Laertius, and the Lives of the Cafars by Suetonius, would believe the World might have been as foon reform'd by the one fort of Men as by the other. As to the Philofophers, who, after the Christian Religion appear'd in the World, pretended to Miracles, it is a hard matter to think the Writers of their Lives in earnest, when they relate them: For a Man may as well believe the Fables of Afop or Lucian to be true History, as the Stories in the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus written by Philoftratus, or thofe in the Life of Iftdorus written by Damafcius, an Abstract whereof we have left preferv'd in Photius. e The Heathen Philofophy was defective likewife in point of Antiquity and Promulgation. Philofophy, as far as we have any Account of it, was but a late thing; fo it is ftyled in Tully, neque ante philofophiam patefactam, qua nuper inventa eft. Seneca computes. the Rife of it to be less than a thousand years before f c Plin. ib. d Arift. Rhet. 1. iii. c. 17. e ⚫ Phot. Cod. ccxlii. his own time, about that distance of time Pliny places Homer, whom he ftyles the first Parent of all Learning and Antiquity. But the moral and useful part of Philofophy, confider'd as a Science, had no ancienter Original than Socrates. Before, it lay in loose and incoherent Sayings, fuch as thofe of Solon and Thales, and the rest of the Seven Wife Men, who liv'd but in the time of Cyrus. And Philofophy of all kinds, has always been a matter of Learning, and confined to learned Men: There never was any one Nation of Pythagoreans, or Platonifts, or Stoicks, or Ariftotelians; the greatest part of the Nations of the World never heard fo much as of the Names of the most celebrated Philofophers, and know nothing at all of their DoЄrine. That Philofophy was defective in its Doctrines is notorious: For, as Lactantius obferves, the very Name of Philofophy (invented by Pythagoras, who yet would be thought to have had fome fupernatural Affiftance) implies a Confeffion of Ignorance, or Imperfection of their Knowledge, and a Profeffion only to fearch after Wisdom. And Pythagoras gave this very reason why he styled himself a Philofopher, Because no Man can be Wife but God only, and yet this vain Man fometimes pretended himself to be a God. Socrates was the firft of all the Philofophers that apply'd himself to the Study of Morality; and he, who first undertook to render Philofophy ufeful and beneficial to Mankind, profefs'd to know nothing at all certainly, but to disprove the Errors of others, not to establish or difcover Truth: In which he was follow'd by Plato; and before him, 'Democritus, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and almost all the ancient Philofophers, agreed in this, though they agreed in few Plin. Hift. l. 7. c. 16. 1. 25. c. 7. i Diog. Laert. in Pythag. Jamblich. vit. Pythag. * Tull. Acad. Qu. lib. i. things elfe, that they could attain to no certain knowledge of things. So that, as Tully fays, Arcefilas was not the Founder of a new Academy, or Sect of Philofophers, who professed to doubt of all things; for he taught no more than what the ancient Philofophers had generally taught before him, unless it were that Socrates profefs'd to know his own ignorance of things, but Arcefilas would not own himself certain of fo much as that. Indeed, the notions of Philofophy were fo little convincing, even in the plainest matters, that many of the greatest Wits took up in Scepticism, or little better. No Man had ftudied all the Hypothefes of Philofophy more, or understood them better, or had better explained them than Tully, and yet at last all concluded in uncertainty, as he often profeffes: the like may be faid of Varro, Cotta, and others. m The Doctrine of Philofophy concerning God and Providence, and a Future State, was very imperfect and uncertain, as Socrates himself declared just before his Death but what could be certain to him, that profefs'd to doubt of every thing? The " Errors of the Philofophers concerning Providence, are difcovered and confuted by Nemefius, in an admirable Difcourse upon that Subject. "Varro computed near Three hundred Opinions concerning the Summum Bonum; they were fo far from being able to give any certain Rules and Directions for the Government of our Lives, that they could by no means agree in what the chief Happiness of Men confifts, or what the aim and defign of our Actions ought to be. Plato taught the lawfulness and expediency of Mens having their Wives in common; and both Socrates and Cato must hold a community of Wives lawful, as we learn from their Practice for they lent out their Wives to others, as if it had been a very generous and friend Nemef, de Nat. Hom. c. 44, Aug. de Civ. 1. 19, c. I. ly ly Act, and the very heighth and perfection of their Philofophy. It was a practice both among the Greeks. and Romans, to part with their Wives to other Men; though Mercer thinks the Romans were divorced from their Wives before others took them; because Cato is blamed for taking his Wife again after the Death of Hortenfius, without the Solemnity of a new Marriage. Fornication was fo far from being difallowed by the Heathens, that it was rather recommended as a Remedy against Adulteries by P Cato himself. Many of the Philofophers held Self-murther lawful, and did themselves fet an Example of it to their Followers. The expofing of Children to be starved, or otherwife destroyed, was practifed amongst the most civilized Heathen Nations; and it being foretold fome time before the Birth of Auguftus, that a King of the Romans would be born that Year, the Senate made a Decree, * Nequis illo anno genitus educaretur. Plutarch himfelf fays, that he could find nothing unjuft or difhoneft in the Laws of Lycurgus, though Theft, community of Wives, and the murthering of fuch Infants as they faw weak and fickly, and therefore thought they would prove unfit to ferve the Commonwealth, were a part of those Laws. 9 This was one of the Precepts of those who were honoured with the Title of the Seven Wife Men of Greece, Be kind to your Friends, and revenge your felf upon your Enemies. Revenge was esteemed not only lawful, but honourable; and a defire of Popular Fame and Vain Glory were reckoned among the Vertues of the Heathens, and were the greatest motive and encitement they had to any other Vertue. Plutarch tells us of Ariftides, fo famed for Justice, that tho' he were ftrictly just in private Affairs, yet in things of publick • Demofth. pro Phormione. Strabo, l. 11. Alex. ab Alex.l.1. c. 24 P Horat. Serm. 1. 1. Sat. 2. Cic. pro M. Cœlio. Sueton. Auguft. c. 94. • Sofiad. apud Stobaum. Serm. 3. Plutarch. in Lycurg Plut. in Ariftide. con |