that as foon as I have taken the poifon, I fhall go to the joys of the bleed, hath been to little purpose. He was my bail, bound to the judges for my appearance; you must now be fureties to him, that I am departed. Let him not fay, That SOCRATES is carried to the grave, or laid under ground: for know, dear Crito, fuch a mistake were a wrong to my foul. Be not dejected; tell the world, my body only is buried; and that after what manner thou pleafeft. Yet,' faith Socrates, I may pray God, and will, that my paffage hence may be happy; < which I befeech him to grant.' And in the fame instant drank it off easily, without any disturbance. This,' faith Plato, was the end of the best, the wifeft, and most just of men.' A story, which Cicero profeffeth he never read without tears. This ends Socrates upon the present fubject; and happy man was he to make fo happy an end, as to die for the only true God. He had great reason to believe (maugre the envious uncharitableness of fome) that he would reward him, when it fhall be faid to many bawling pretended Chriftians, "Depart from me; I "know you not. For as men fow, fo fhall they reap "in the day of God." Ι I need not to tell the world, that Plato and other heathens have written accurately upon that fubject, when it is fo notorious. Wherefore to close up my teftimonies upon this head, and whole difcourfe of Gentile-divinity, I will prefent the reader with two fhort paffages, the one from Virgil; the other of the Pythagoreans, thus tranflated to my hand, only a little varied, by an ingenious author. V. Donec longa dies perfecto temporis orbe Obferve Socrates his diftinction betwixt being dead and departed. y Virg. Æneid. lib. 6. v. 745 In English thus: 'Till that long day at last be come about To which agrees that golden diftich of the Pythagoreans, as it hath been called; VI. Ἦν δ ̓ ἀπολείψας Σῶμα ἐς αιθερ έλέυθε ον ἔλθης, To this purpose: Who after death once reach the heavenly plain, The Greek has it, as Immortal Gods.' Which Hierocles interprets thus: Herein fhall good men ⚫ resemble the Deity, that they fhall be immortal, like • God himself.' Thus, reader, have I given thee a very true account of the Gentile-divinity, what was the faith, what the practice, and what the prophecy and hope of many Gentiles through this light within; each of which had numerous followers. Obferve; They began where Jews and Chriftians began; that is, with GOD; and they end with what they confefs to be theirs, namely, a ftate of IMMORTALITY, in which every one is rewarded according to their works. Only they are thus far to be commended before either of them, if we confider many of our times, that they were more certain, plain and true in their acknowledgment of a divine light, law or principle in man; which, being obeyed, fupplied them with daily wisdom and strength, and finally led them to 2 God: God and also were more just to their faith, by a life excelling the most of them in virtue and felf-denial. And certainly, in that great and terrible day, "when "God will judge the fecrets of men by Jefus Christ," according to Paul's gofpel, fuch pious Gentiles, who knowing God, glorified him as God, and confcientiously did the things contained in his law, will be finally acquitted and rewarded. That the heathens had a fight of the coming of Chrift. That, and their refufing to fwear, prove the fufficiency of the light. VER and above what I promised; being rather willing to err on that hand, if yet it be erring; I fhall briefly obferve two things greatly importing our defence of the light, and the fatisfaction of our adverfaries, if it be true that they seek to be fatisfied. 1. That the teftimony of Socrates and Xenocrates about fwearing fufficiently prove to us, that by the light they had they faw a ftate above swearing, or a righteoufnefs excelling that of the legal Jews; which manifeftly correfponds with what Chrift faid; who, above four hundred years after them, taught, as what properly became the evangelical righteoufnefs, "Swear "not at all." 2. That though their light did not tell them the exprefs names Chrift fhould be called by, yet they forefaw and prophefied of his coming, and how he fhould come of a virgin, and both what he was, and the work he came to do, which the names given of the Holy Ghoft did plainly import. Neither is it the mere knowing of fo many letters, fyllables, or words, that gives the true knowledge, or falvation, but the experiencing him to be that which he is, and wherefore he is fo denominated. For to that end came he B b 3 into into the world. CHRIST fignifies anointed, eminently with refpect to that peculiar manifestation: JESUS, a Saviour, for he fhould "fave his people from their "fins." EMMANUEL, which is to fay, God with us, &c. That in this fenfe he was prophetically held forth by the Gentiles, through that measure of light they had, hear Plato and Virgil. Marcil. Ficinus, who wrote the life of Plato, that great Gentile, tells us among many other things, That being seriously asked by fome that vifited him, as the last thing they had a mind to be informed about, How long men should attend to his writings? (of which he seemed fo chary, living and dying in the belief of what he recommended to the world) he folemnly answered, "TILL THAT MORE HOLY AND DIVINE PERSON SHALL APPEAR TO VISIT THE <6 WORLD, WHOM ALL MEN OUGHT TO FOLLOW." as the lesser light may lead to the greater, and is at laft fwallowed up of it; fo can I only point at him; and when he is come, all I have done muft yield to him: for I declare that ALL ought to FOLLOW him; • because in following of him, they will obtain eternal bleffedness,' Let us now see what Virgil will add to this matter, as tranflated in Eufebius. Sicelides mufa paulo majora canamus. Ye Ye mufes, with a lofty wing, Let us of higher matters fing.* And what be they? Ultima Cumai venit jam carminis ætas. Who lives this age, will clearly fee This Cumea (fo called of her city) was a fybil, who lived about 600 years before Chrift, and prophesied of him. Virgil wrote these verses about forty years before Christ was born. I query if the Jews themselves had so positive a fenfe of the Meffiah's coming. But to proceed. Magnus ab integro feclorum nafcitur ordo: Th' integrity of times fhall now renew again, . Defcended a new progeny." This is a direct prophecy of the marvellous conception, that he should be born of a virgin, and the good that would redound to the world thereby, as he farther addeth; Tu modo nafcenti puero, quo ferrea primum Te duce, fi qua manent fceleris veftigia noftri, a See Conft. Orat. in Eus. Virg. Bucol. Eclog. 4. Bb 4 b Ifa. vii. 14. Ifai. ii. 2, The |