followed the laws of their own country and the institutions of their forefathers. He was therefore regular in sacrifices, both upon the public altars and in his family. He seems to have been persuaded that the Deity, by various signs, revealed the future to men, in oracles, dreams, and all the various ways usually acknowledged by those conversant in the reputed science of augury. Where the wisdom of men

cannot avail,' he said, 'we should endeavour to gain informa tion from the gods; who will not refuse intelligible signs to those to whom they are propitious.' Accordingly, he consulted oracles himself, and he recommended the same practice to others, in every doubt on important concerns.'

Notwithstanding his conformity to the religion of his country, by his representation of the pure and spiritual nature of its gods, and his persevering disinterested efforts to reclaim the people from vice and profligacy, he roused the envy of the public teachers, who were supported by their scholars and the people, by condemning their opinions and practices. He was accused of blasphemy, or of reviling the gods of Athens, proclaiming new gods, and corrupting the principal youth, by selecting passages from Homer to enforce anti-democratic principles. Though no satisfactory proof that he was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused was adduced, the clamour of the people caused the sentence of death to be passed against him. Had he condescended to supplicate the rulers of the city, he might have obtained an acquittal or mitigation of the sentence; but this he declared was unbecoming a lover of the truth-a character which, as we shall afterwards have occasion to observe, he was ambitious to exemplify in his life and death. Though his perception of Divine truth was obscure, and his representation of it still more imperfect, yet his instructions and example subverted the dominion of idolatry, and from his time it was insufficient to maintain the presumptuous assumptions of its chief advocates to direct and control the public mind, and prevent personal inquiry after truth. Succeeding philosophers, however, were either satisfied with the knowledge of Deity which he had communicated to them, or, alarmed by his fate, declined to denounce idol-worship, or expose the deceptive arts of its minis

ters.

He left no writings, but, by comparing his sentiments reported by those of his friends who were qualified to judge and worthy to be credited, with the opinions of the future. philosophers of Greece and Asia, it is certain that not one of them entertained more just conceptions of the True and

Living God, the spiritual nature of man, and the invisible state. This is manifest from the numerous works of Plato, the most celebrated disciple of Socrates, and confessedly the philosopher who was most eminent for his knowledge of religion and morals.

This great philosopher taught that there was a Supreme Being, the former of all things; but this Being, according to him, was neither the only eternal existence, nor in nature possessed of immeasurable perfection. He held that there were two eternal, independent causes of all things; God and matter. The latter was a substance without form or quality, but received both from the former: Human reasonings are generally inconsistent and contradictory, and Plato's were not an exception. He speaks of nature possessing a power capable of resisting the will and operation of Deity, and this he regards as the origin and necessary continuance of evil in the universe. "It cannot be that evil be destroyed, for there must always be something contrary to good. God wills, as far as it is possible, every thing good, and nothing evil." Plato seems still further to assign limits to the perfection of Deity, by the assertion that He formed a perfect world, according to eternal, immutable patterns. What is to be understood by these patterns has never been determined by the learned. Some consider them to consist of conceptions or ideas eternally existing in the Divine mind; and others, that they mean innumerable real beings, subsisting in God, and proceeding from him, actually distinct from him and matter, but employed by him to form sensible things, to be contemplated by rational beings. The latter opinion is obviously equivalent to the emanations from God, which characterised the vain philosophy of the wise men of oriental countries. This imagination probably originated another equally destitute of truth,-that each material world was endued with a soul, and, like the matter from which it was formed, eternal. It was not therefore difficult for the philosopher to believe that the soul was immortal, although he supposed it material, and on that account partaking of the imperfection and evil belonging to matter. Hence he ascribes the evident moral defects of the human race to the manner in which God originally formed the universe, and particularly to an act of these souls in some unknown remote period. "God," says Plato, "separated from the soul of the world inferior souls, equal in number to the stars, and assigned to each its proper celestial abode; but that these souls (by what means, or for

what reason does not appear) were sent down to the earth into human bodies, as into a sepulchre or prison. He ascribes to this cause the depravity and misery to which human nature is liable; and maintains, that it is only by disengaging itself from all animal passions, and rising above sensible objects to the contemplation of the world of intelligence that the soul of man can be prepared to return to its original habitation." His system of morals, of course, contained no principle tending to humble man in the presence of his Creator, nor any adequate motive to reconcile to God a heart alienated from the holiness of his nature and laws, and conscious of being justly exposed to his displeasure and vengeance. The sum of his morality was that "our highest good consists in the contemplation and knowledge of the first good, which is Mind, or God. All those things which are called good by men, are in reality such only so far as they are derived from the first and highest good. The only power in human nature which can acquire a resemblance to the Supreme Good, is reason. The minds of philosophers are fraught with valuable treasures; and, after the death of the body, they shall be admitted to Divine entertainments; so that, whilst with the gods they are employed in surveying the fields of truth, they will look down with contempt upon the folly of those who are contented with earthly shadows. Goodness and beauty consist in the knowledge of the first good and the first fair. That only what is becoming is good: therefore virtue is to be pursued for its own sake; and, because it is a Divine attainment, it cannot be taught, but is the gift of God. He alone who has attained the knowledge of the first good is happy. The end of this knowledge is, to ren der man as like to God as the condition of human nature will permit. This likeness consists in prudence, justice, sanctity, temperance."

The revolution in religious and moral principles which had been thus commenced in Greece, passed to the metropolis and chief provinces of the Roman empire, rapid as lightning, after the extension of its power to Greece and Asia. It was confessedly superficial, as our notice of it, in its nature, and inefficient to produce a radical and enduring change on the human affections, in relation to God or man. It was, however, salutary on the interests of true religion. This every one may discover who adverts to the liberty of religious thoughts and actions permitted from the time of Artaxerxes throughout nearly the whole known world. The worship

of the True God gradually and progressively spread in the empire of idols, and multitudes of their votaries became utterly regardless of their honour; and not a few joined the syna gogues, and ascended occasionally to the temple of the Jews, who had been for many centuries universally hated or despised, as the enemies of the gods and of mankind.

Whence came the dim light of truth which partially illu minated the minds of the original agents of this moral revolu tion? Did these men possess talents transcending their learned predecessors who were the very pillars of idolatry? Or were they naturally more disposed to seek after the One God and Saviour? No one will, on these accounts, place Anaxagoras, Socrates, and Plato, before Thales, Lycurgus, and Solon. The purer light of the former had doubtless fallen on them, as it radiated from the holy fire of Moses and the prophets, which every great event dispersed wider and wider over the inhabited world. This fire the philosophers, influenced by it, may not have perceived, or in the pride of intellect, might have disdained to acknowledge. Nor would this be surprising; for similar has been the mental condition. of the philosophers and learned in the Christian age. Every truly candid man is fully persuaded that they own all their superiority over the ancients, in religion and moral ideas, to Christianity, but few among them have discerned or publicly avowed this fact. That Greece was assuming, and Rome about to take, a new position in relation to the countries in which the Jews sojourned, at the period when moral light shone on them, will, we think, be distinctly observed by all who may peruse the subsequent pages; and the extreme darkness in which the learned Greeks and Romans remained must excite the astonishment of all reflecting persons, who are not strongly persuaded of the entire aversion of the hearts of all, and especially of those who deem themselves the exclusively wise and the prudent of this world, from Jehovah the absoutely perfect and independent Being.

CHAPTER V

THE REIGN OF DARIUS NOTHUS.

THE death of Artaxerxes Longimanus was generally la mented, for during his long reign the Persian empire, in Asia, had been, on the whole, prosperous and happy. And had his numerous subjects foreseen the calamitous events which were about to fall on them, their grief would assuredly have been more intense and universal. To the Jews especially his memory was peculiarly dear, for they had been more favoured by him than by any of his predecessors. If they, however, apprehended that his demise would prove detrimental to their interests, the pious among them doubtless soon perceived abundant reason to admire and adore the love and goodness of the God of their fathers; for the state of the empire continued for several years remarkably favourable to the interests of their nation, and of the true religion.

The royal family were the first to bewail the loss of their generous and just chief and sovereign. He had left only one son, named Xerxes, by his queen, but seventeen sons by his concubines. The former ascended the throne amidst the joyful acclamations of the people. He appears to have been more disposed to sensual gratifications then qualified to govern a great empire. His ambitious, cruel, and unnatural brother Sogdianus, taking advantage of his weakness and folly, conspired to destroy him. On a festival day the king had retired to his chamber intoxicated; he was soon followed by his treacherous brother, led on by Pharnacias, one of the king's favourite eunuchs. They easily murdered the king, and found no difficulty to proclaim Sogdianus his successor. He had scarcely taken possession of the throne when he also killed Bagorazus, the most faithful of all his father's eunuchs, and one respected by all the nobles and the army. These therefore gladly joined his brother Ochur, who raised an army in Hyrcania, the government of which had been committed to