rected his reasoning to those points which were of immediate and essential importance to them, representing to them, that they ignorantly worshipped the God" who was not far from any of them, and who was to be sought for if haply they might feel after him and find him;" thus leading a people, whose forefathers had put Socrates to death upon a bigotted charge of not esteeming those to be Gods whom the city reverenced *, and of having introduced new deities, to reflect, that, in fact, they were in the darkness of error, who thought that the godhead was "like unto gold or silver, or stone graven "by art and man's device," and that the times of ignorance and idolatry were no longer to be endured.

The communications which the Apostle imparted, were well calculated also to correct those erroneous notions which the heathens entertained, upon contemplating the present prosperity of the wicked, and the failure of men of worth; and to suppress the impious murmurs which they often expressed towards the Gods, when defeated in the vain glorious views which led them to aim at

* Platon. Apol. Socrat. tom. i. p. 26. Edit. Serrani.

foreign conquests. The ambitious spirit of the Athenians, and the impatient temper by which they were actuated, had shewed themselves indeed at a much earlier period, when Nicias and Demosthenes had encountered their sad defeat in Sicily, upon which occasion the soldiers loudly accused the Gods, for having exposed to such calamities the former general, who had at all times testified a reverence for them and their

service*. By St. Paul the people were taught to moderate such feelings, in the conviction that God had set limits to every earthly power; and they were told with equal consideration and solemnity, that " God had ap"pointed a day, in which he would judge "the world in righteousness, by that man, "whom he had ordained, whereof he had

66

given assurance to all men in that he had "raised him from the dead †.

It should be noticed, that Macrobius makes a remarkable statement concerning the Epicureans, which may serve to illustrate the account given in the Acts, with respect to the reception which the doctrines preached by St. Paul received from that sect. His words are

Thucyd. 1. vii. § 86. p. 504. Edit. Duker. + Acts xvii. xxxi.

as follow: Epicureorum tota factio, æquo semper errore à vero devia, et illa existimans ridenda quæ nesciat, sacrum volumen et augustissima irrisit naturæ seria*.

Cicero well exposes the errors in the rea soning of the different sects of philosophers concerning God; he affirms that there were many popular deities, but only one natural God: he states under just apprehensions some attributes of the divine nature, but does not sufficiently refute the defective notions which were brought forward; particularly the opinions entertained by the Stoics of God's Providence, which they conceived to take care of great things, but to neglect the small, being unable to explain the misfortunes in which great men were sometimes involved †.

Lucian, somewhat sarcastically, and in later times, remarks that some, rejecting all other deities, conferred universal dominion

on one

Plutarch relates the Stoics to have believed in one God. acus is said to have obtained rain when Greece was affected by a long

Somn. Scip. lib. i. c. 2. p. 5. Edit. Lug. Bat. It is not

clear what is meant by the sacred volume."

De Natur. Deor. lib. ii. c. 66. et Tuscul. Quæst. lib. iii.
Menippus.

drought, by praying, at the suggestion of the Delphic oracle, to the common God of all nations *.

There are many Heathen writers, who not only mention the unity of God, but who also 'speak of Him as the Creator of the universe. Jupiter is sometimes spoken of as a God of Covenants, Zeus ogxlos, or Jupiter Fœderator, and it is observable, that the fragments of the Sybilline books, preserved by Lactantius, assert the existence of one supreme unbegotten God, the Creator of the heavenly bodies, of the earth and water, who alone was to be worshipped as the Governor of the world, and who had lived from all eternity. As it is uncertain, however, at what period the several parts of these books were written, but little stress can be here laid upon them.

The Heathen gods in the time of Varro exceeded thirty thousand. This writer, who complied with the existing superstitions, expressed the wish that men could be freed from prejudice and custom), that they might wor

Clem. Alex. Strom. vi. § 3. p. 753, tom, 2. Edit. Potter. 1 Sam. xii. 18.

it

ship one God; and he statedt hat the ancient Romans worshipped one God, without image, for one hundred and seventy years after the commencement of that empire; he gave as his opinion, that, if they had continued to do so, the gods would have received a purer reverence, in confirmation of which he referred to the Jews *.

It is obvious to remark, that the doctrine thus described as general and prevailing in all ages, is nevertheless to be regarded as a memorial of truth, originally revealed from God, and retaining, through every generation, the impression of his word. It still however produced, even on the minds of the philosophers by whom it was maintained, only a slight and precarious effect, and was entirely obscured and corrupted by the prevailing superstition and idolatries which overwhelmed the general classes of society, who "not knowing God, did "service to them who were by nature no "Gods +."

* Cicero de Legib. n. 26. August. de Civit. Dei. lib. iv.

c. 11.

+ Galat. iv. 8. 1 Cor i. 21.