remiffion of all his fins ?-He, doubtless, made a glorious figure in the article of death, confidering the age and nation in which he lived; and all historians are full of his just encomiums :-But when we compare his death with thofe of the chriftian heroes, how will the luftre of it vanish and give way to fo much brighter virtue; when we behold martyrs of both fexes, exulting in the flames, and fmiling under the tortures of the most macerating engines ;-when, in a word, we view a ST. STEPHEN on his knees, in fervent prayer for his very murderers, the most partial admirers of heathen virtue muft acknowledge the triumphs of

the cross.

SECTION III.

WE concluded our laft fection with a fhort account of the death of Socrates, I shall begin this with the teftimony of PLATO, whose writings have been justly admired through all fucceeding ages. It is highly probable that Plato had heard of the books of Mofes ; for he represents the Almighty as commanding the gods, whom he had created, to make man of a mortal and immortal. part; alluding very probably, to those words;" Let us make man after "our own image, &c."-Now, to use the rabbinical phrase, God fpoke to the angels; but to talk in the ftile of our modern divines, we should say, that the Father addreffed himself to the eternal Sonand the holy Spirit. In another part of his difcourfe the forementioned philofopher approaches. ftill nearer to the inspired historian, for he affures his difciples, that God created man after his own image, and bestowed upon him not only a body, but a soul, which he compares to a fhip and its pilot, a city and its magiftrates, an. image and the perfon who bears it. And what greater honour can poffibly be conferred on man, than to bear the refemblance. and image of his great Creator?-In another place, he afferts,

that the foul bears no fmall likeness to the Deity itself, being,

" rational,

།

❝rational, uniform, and immortal; and at death returns to its

parents and relations; that is, to the all-wife, immortal Being, "and fountain of happiness, as from banishment to its native is country." He often calls it "a being allied to God;-a plant "which hath its root in heaven, and therefore cannot die." Thefe few inftances may fuffice for the GREEKS.

The ROMANS applied themselves to the study of philofophy much later than the Grecians; but their folemn rites and ceremonies, their unshaken contempt of death, their elevated hopes of happiness, and their rational dread of mifery in the future ftate, are evidences beyond all contradiction, that this doctrine was univerfally received amongst them." The origin of the foul, fays "CICERO, cannot be derived from any thing here below, fince it " is uncompounded, and has no affinity with any earthly substance, "which, if it had, it would be unable to reflect on, or recollect past things, foresee future events, or comprehend fuch present things as are perfectly divine: From whence he concludes, that "it is not of human extraction, but is derived from the divine "mind, is incorporeal, and by confequence incorruptible."-In another place he says, "that as there is a confanguinity among the "human species, fo there is an alliance between man and the God ❝ that made him; and though our fociety with men is owing, "indeed, to the mortal body, yet our communion with the Deity " is owing to him who has given us rational and immortal fouls."Since then we may claim kindred with the heavenly inhabitants, "as being all members of the fame stock, it highly becomes us " to call to mind our noble extraction, and fix our eyes on heaven "as our native country, to which we must shortly return.-Con"fider, fays he, that thy better part is immortal, though thy body " is not fo; and that thou art not what thy outward shape repre"fents thee to be; for it is the foul, and not the flesh, to which it "is united, that conftitutes the man. Know, thou art a kind of "deity,

"deity, fince thou ruleft in thy body, in fome measure, as the great "God does in the spacious univerfe. And as he animates and governs the world, which is frail, and in fome fenfe perishing, "fo does thy immortal foul direct thy frail and mortal body."And all the authors that were his cotemporaries were of the fame opinion.

" nerves,

The writings of SENECA would furnish us with a vast variety of beautiful paffages upon this topic; but I think his reflections on the death of Lady Martia's fon may demand, in a more peculiar manner our most ferious attention." He is now, fays he, become "immortal, and has his habitation in a better world; now is he "freed from that load of earth which hung heavy about him; "now has he regained his native liberty; for these bones and this coat of skin, and these bodily members, do but fetter "and imprison the foul; by them she is oppreffed, beaten down "and difcouraged; the hath not a greater enemy than this her “earthly partner; and, if any thing could, that would destroy "her. She is continually struggling for her release, and defirous "of returning to her native country, where he meets with a "bleffed and eternal rest on her first arrival.”—In another place he fays;-"the foul cannot fuffer banishment forever, because she is "not only equal to the whole world, and time itself, but is allied "likewife to the Gods. She can grafp the heavens in her thoughts, " and extend herfelf from all paft to all future duration. The "wretched carcafe to which fhe is confined, is liable to a thousand "accidents, to be tormented with difeafes; to be deftroyed by fire "or peftilence; but as fhe herself is immortal,. fhe cannot be injured. When her bonds are once diffolved, the mounts to that bleffed place, where departed fouls enjoy a perfect reft." Moreover, he seems to have a faint idea of the refurrection of the body.- -" Death, fays he, of which we entertain fuch dreadful apprehenfions, does not deprive us of life, but only discontinues it

"for

for a Teafon: the day will come, when we fhall appear again." As this great man grew near to the day of his diffolution, his idea of the true birth feemed proportionably clearer. For, in his last words he speaks of it with more certainty and confidence than ever.

There is nothing truly great in this world, fays FAVORINUS, "but man, nor any thing valuable in him, except his foul.-If "thou mountest up to that, thou foarest above the heavens; if "thou ftoopest down to the cafe in which it is lodged, and comparest it with the heavenly bodies, it is lefs than the smallest "insect." By which he more than implies, that in this frail tabernacle of clay there is a divine and incorruptible nature; for how could it otherwise be nobler than the universe?

But not to trespass on your patience by too great a number of quotations, let it fuffice, that all nations in the earliest ages, as well as this in which we now live, had fome kind of religious rites and ceremonies; that they all acknowledged there was fome gloomy place fet apart for the torment of the vicious, and fome inexpreffibly happy and delightful fhades for the reception of the virtuous. The more fuperftitious they were, the more firm was their belief in these important particulars; for superstition, as well as true religion, is seated in the soul, and supposes its immortality.— It is recorded of fome indian nations that their CHIEFS committed themselves voluntarily to the flames, before they arrived at extreme old age, and called this deliberate action a happy release from a vexatious world, and a discharge of the foul from the body, in which it was imprisoned; and he was deemed the wisest man, who put this act in execution fooneft.-In fome other parts of the world, the very flaves bury themselves alive with their deceased masters without the leaft reluctance; which they, doubtlefs, would never do were they not in fome measure convinced that their fouls were immortal.-The THRACIANS wept at the birth, and rejoiced at

the

--

the death of their children, esteeming the latter an happy birth:And HERODOTUS tells us, they were called the immortalizing Thracians. They were of opinion, that when they departed this life, they went to their faviour, the liberal donor of health and happiness.-The GAULS and their DRUIDS; the ETRURIANS and their PRIESTS; the SCYTHIANS and their SAGES, founded all their wisdom on this doctrine, which was fo deeply imprinted on the minds of men, that it was univerfally received.-The difciples of HEGESIAS, the Cyrenian, died with pleasure after hearing him discourse on the immortality of the foul; by which they fhewed how fully they were convinced of fo important a truth. And those few wretches who have difgraced humanity by daring to affert a contrary doctrine never arrived at fo defperate a point of baseness till they had made themselves ftupid and fenfeless, by a diffolute and irregular courfe of life.

Thus we fee, that all nations were of opinion, that the foul was immortal; though the manner in which it should be glorified remained a, fecret, till the illuftrious Gofpel of our bleffed Saviour was fpread all over the habitable world.-From that time life and immortality were so brought to light, that ST. AUSTIN, triumphing, as it were, over infidelity, cries out, "Where is now the fool "or wretch fo hardened, as to doubt of the foul's being im“mortal?”—EPICTETUS, a famous ftoic philofopher, has abundance of expreffions to the fame purpose.- "Are we not ashamed, fays he, to lead a vicious courfe of life, or to despair in adver"fity, fince we are allied to the Deity; fince we came from him, "and may, if we are not wanting to ourfelves, return to him "again."

An infinite number of inftances of the like kind might be produced from the ancients, were we difpofed to quote, or had you patience to hear them, wherein they fpeak of a future judgment, an heaven, and an hell; the one fet apart as a reward for the VOL. III,

Q

righteous,