tit i ß ltUt1Mfg atrolacbratption. 353 ofexcellency Vertue might raife the humane Spirit, yet chat. 8. was guilty ofgreat immorality and impiety. Thofewho t..."--v-1.r pretend to have known the retirements of his Life, ac- c,ß4 12 cr cu fedhim of impure commerce with Alcibiades. He cttr. r,I D. ad. betrayed the Chaftity ofhis Wife, by givingher to his Friend. Plato and Xenophon his admirers declare his compliance with the common Idolatry, which is juftly aggravated by St. Auflin, being againft the conviEtions ofhis Confcience: For although in private Di!courfe with his Friends he acknowledged but one God, and confidered theSun and Moon only as the works and in- ftruments of the Divine Power,and in therank ofother Creatures ; yet in his Apology before his Judges topre- vent thefatalSentence, he charged his enemies to be guilty of impudent falfehood, who accufed him that he didnot believe the Gods, fince he believed, as all other men, that the Sun and Moon were Gods. And during the time of his imprifonment, he never addreffed one Prayer toGod for the pardon of his Sins ; for he had fo ox ó'Qe° ate, high an opinion of his ownVertues, that he was infen x°A fible of his Vices. And dying, he commanded a Cock , á,9P4" tobe offered to Æfculapius, that is, to theDevil, un- Jo.,uta, , Z: der thedifguife of that famousPhyfscian. To Socrates srtu ß4ß1°ivt. I (hall add Seneca : Never any, excepting the Sacred xcnoph. Writers, and thofe who are inftruftedby them, hash men'. writ moreexcellently. He defcribes Vertue as ifthe living Original were in his Breaft ; but how dull a Co- pywas drawn inhis Life! There is as great a difference mmmtte öts dWt- between the expreffionofit by his Pen and by his AEti. r.°tioHtw. ons, as between the lively Picture ofa Face by a rare IvTx; h and the rude Draught of it with a Coal. What avillainous part did he aCt in exciting Nero to murder hisMother ; and after inwriting anApology for it, em- ploying the colours of his Rhetorick to cover one ofthe fouleft blots whichhath appeared in the fucceflion of Z z all
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