Being may be collected from the remains of various heathen writers.

Antiphanes, the Socratic philofopher, fays, "That God is the refemblance of nothing

upon earth, fo that no conception can be "derived from any effigy or likeness of the "Author of the universe."

Xenophon obferves, "That a Being, who "controuls and governs all things, muft "needs be great and powerful, but being by his nature invisible, no man can dis"cern what form or shape he is of."

Thales, being asked to define the Deity, replied that "He was without beginning " and without end." Being further interrogated, "If the actions of men could ef66 cape the intelligence of God?" he anfwered, "No, nor even their thoughts."

Philemon, the comic poet, introduces the following question and answer in a dialogue: "Tell me, I beseech you, what is 66 your conception of God ?-As of a Being, who, feeing all things, is himself "unfeen."

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Menander fays, that "God, the lord and "father of all things, is alone worthy of

"our humble adoration, being at once the "maker and the giver of all bleffings." Melanippidas, a writer alfo of comedy, introduces this folemn invocation to the Supreme Being," Hear me, O Father, whom "the whole world regards with wonder and "adores! to whom the immortal foul of "man is precious."

Euripides in a ftrain of great fublimity.exclaims, "Thee I invoke, the self-created

Being, who framed all nature in thy ethe"real mould, whom light and darkness and "the whole multitude of the starry train "encircle in eternal chorus.”

Sophocles alfo in a fragment of one of his tragedies afferts the unity of the Supreme Being; "Of a truth there is one, and only one God, the maker of heaven and earth, "the fea and all which it contains."

Thefe felections, to which however many others might be added, will ferve to fhew what enlightened ideas were entertained by fome of the nature of God. I will next adduce a few paffages to fhew what just conceptions fome had formed of God's providence and juftice, of the diftribution of good and evil in this life, and of the ex

pectation

pectation of a future retribution in the life

to come.

Arifton, the dramatic poet, hath bequeathed us the following part of a dialogue

"Take heart; be patient! God will not "fail to help the good, and efpecially thofe, "who are as excellent as yourself; where "would be the encouragement to perfift in righteoufnefs, unless thofe, who do well, "are eminently to be rewarded for their well-doing?

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"I would it were as you fay! but I too " often see men, who square their actions to "the rules of rectitude, oppreffed with mis"fortunes; whilft they, who have nothing "at heart but their own felfith intereft and advantage, enjoy profperity unknown to

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"For the prefent moment it may be fo,. "but we must look beyond: the prefent "moment and await the iffue, when this "earth fhall be diffolved: For to think. "that chance governs the affairs, of this "life, is a notion as falfe as it is evil, and is "the plea, which vicious men fet up for "vicious morals: But be thou fure that

"the good works of the righteous fhall "meet a reward, and the iniquities of the unrighteous a punishment; for nothing

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can come to pass in this world, but by "the will and permiffion of God."

Epicharmus, the oldeft of the comic poets, fays in one of the few fragments which remain of his writings, "If your life hath been "holy, you need have no dread of death, "for the fpirit of the bleft shall exist for "ever in heaven.”

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Euripides has the following paffage, "If any mortal flatters himself that the fin "which he commits, can escape the notice "of an avenging Deity, he indulges a vain hope, deceiving himself in a false pre

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fumption of impunity, because the di"vine juftice fufpends for a time the pu"nishment of his evil actions; but hearken "to me, ye who fay there is no God, and

by that wicked infidelity enhance your "crimes, There is, there is a God! Let "the evil doer then account the prefent "hour only as gain, for he is doomed to "everlasting punishment in the life to "come.".

The

The Sibylline verfes hold the fame language, but these I have taken notice of in a former volume.

1 reserve myself for one more extract, which I fhall recommend to the reader as the finest, which can be inftanced from any heathen writer, exhibiting the most elevated conceptions of the being and fuperintendance of one, fupreme, all-feeing, ineffable God, and of the existence of a future ftate of rewards and punishments, by the just diftribution of which to the good and evil, all the feeming irregularities of moral justice in this life fhall hereafter be fet ftrait; and this, if I mistake not, is the fummary of all that natural religion can attain to. The following is a clofe tranflation of this famous fragment

"Thinkest thou, O Niceratus, that those departed fpirits, who are fatiated with the "luxuries of life, fhall efcape as if from an "oblivious God? The eye of juftice is "wakeful and all-feeing; and we may truly pronounce that there are two several roads conducting us to the grave; one proper to "the juft, the other to the unjuft; for "if juft and unjust fare alike, and the grave fhall cover both to all eternity"Hence !

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