480 $TRENDTH AND tr EAñNES5 Of DOMAN aeASOIQ. these were the characters they gave to their gods. Here and` there, indeed, among the philosophers, and especially the plato- nists, tlr pythagoreans, and a stoic or two, you find a handsome speech, or perhaps a discourse concerning the nature of God, and the imitation of him in his amiable perfections ; but most of them, as I hinted, held this truth, even in their own hearts, in unrighteousness, and very few ever carefully practised in religion, according to their own best sentiments. Nor had they generally any established notion of a future state of rewards and punish- ments, according to the behaviour of men in this life. It is granted, that a few of them, particularly Plato andhis followers, have mentioned such a thing: but Aristotle and his disciples declared a future state' to be obscure and uncertain, se 'µeAxar apxvss. And several of the philosophers ridiculed not only the doctrine of the poets concerning the Elysian fields and Tartarus, but roundly denied any life after this. Some of them indeed, 'viz. the epicureans and the stoics, spoke of the change of the sameatoms of matter into new forms of men and beasts in fol- lowing ages: But this was a sorry sort of reviviscence without the same consciousness. Many believed the doctrine of trans- migration of souls, as Pithander has strewn ; and others among them could not allow the real punishments of the wicked here- after, since they imagined, that God was never angry, nor would do hurt to men. This Cicero tells us, was the common opinion of the philosophers : " Hoc commune est omnium philosopho.- rum nunquam nec irasci Deum nec nocere. De Ofjiciis Lib. iii. Sect. 27. How then canhe punish the vilest of sinners ? The stoics did not think that the platonicargument for future rewards and punishments, drawn from the unequal distributions of good and evil things in this life, was just or strong, because they did not allow riches, health, ease of body, &c. to be real goods ; nor pain, sickness, poverty, loss, oppression, &c. tobe real evils : And therefore they thought the justice and wisdom of the gods might be sufficiently vindicated in the distributions of providence, without running to the doctrine of a future state after this life : And on this account, Antoninus himself, as well as other'stoics,talks so doubtfully about it, in several places of his writings. Think of Socrates, Cicero,,Severus, the Ccesars, where are they now all? Any where, or no where? All worldly things Are but as smoke, or indeed mere nothing; Book x. Sect. 31. He has many such sort of speeches. That great philosopher did not know whether the soul goes from the body by way of ex- tinction, or dispersionof its parts,' or continuation of life in some other state or place, though he pronounces it blessed to be always ready for it, without reluctance; Book xi. Sect. 3. And indeed since they made virtueits own sufficient reward, and made vice its own sufficient punishment, and called it the slavery of the soul,
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