opposition to this, it has been shown by Bishop Warburton that "the legislators and magistrates who first "instituted the mysteries, and continued to have "the chief direction of them, had the principal hand “in the rise of that polytheism, and contrived it for "the sake of the state, to keep the people in awe, and "under a greater veneration for their laws." So far, indeed, was it from being the fact that heathen legislators discountenanced polytheism, that the whole tenour of ancient records goes to establish the contrary. Thus, Stoboeus informs us, it was one of the laws of Charondas, "Let the contempt of the "gods be reckoned among the greatest crimes." And at Athens every citizen was bound by oath to defend and conform to the religion of his country. This oath was in the name of the gods, and concluded thus: "I "swear by these following deities, the Agrauli, Enya"lius, Mars, Jupiter, the Earth, and Diana.” (h) 1 Nor did the legislators inculcate erroneous notions with regard to the gods alone. Their laws, established for the express purpose of furthering the public virtue and happiness, had often a highly unfavourable effect upon both. I shall here only specify a few of those of Lycurgus, because the united voice of antiquity speaks of him as rather a god than a man; and Plutarch produces him as "an undeniable proof that "a perfectly wise man is not a mere notion and "chimera." I am not inclined to deny that many of the laws of Lycurgus are very excellent; yet I must be permitted to think that some things, enacted by (h) Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. this "perfectly wise man," counteracted the practice of virtue. Plato, though a great admirer of Lycurgus, acknowledges that his laws were rather fitted to make men valiant than just. Aristotle makes the same observation. And even Plutarch confesses that some persons censured the laws of Lycurgus as well contrived to make men good soldiers, but very defective in civil justice and honesty. Many of his laws were contrary to humanity: and hence it happened that the conduct of the Lacedemonians to their slaves, the helotes, was proverbially cruel. They had, besides, a custom, encouraged by their laws, of whipping boys to death at the altar of Diana Orthia. Lycurgus also enacted that deformed infants should not be suffered to live, but be cast into a cavern to perish gradually! Healthy boys, on the contrary, were to be treated charitably, and trained up to dexterous thieving, being whipped unmercifully if they were taken in the fact, not for stealing, but for being such bunglers as to expose themselves to detection. I will only add farther, under this head, that the Spartans had common baths, in which both men and women were compelled to bathe together; and that it was ordered by Lycurgus that the young maidens should appear naked in the public exercises, as well as the young men ; and that they should dance naked with them at the solemn festivals and sacrifices. These, you will remember, are among the legislative enactments of one whom we are to respect as a "perfectly wise man;" are laws which a learned, grave, and philosophic heathen, Plutarch, justifies and commends, seeming scarcely conscious, except in one instance, that it would be possible to censure them. Allow me next to say a word or two respecting the heathen POETS, whose influence upon the opinions and practices of the people was naturally great. They were, indeed, the prophets and chief instructors of the people, and were looked upon, even by Socrates and Plato, as divinely inspired. Now, how did they maintain the ancient tradition of one Supreme God? Why, truly, by confounding him with their Jupiter, by bringing him to a level with this the chief of their idol-deities, of whom they made the most indelicate representations. Instead of exerting the powers of their imagination to array the Deity in the sublimity of grandeur, or even in pointing to the obscurity which invests the most incomprehensible of all beings, and "With the majesty of darkness round "Circles his throne;". they invented ideal gods of all classes, and for all purposes, even the most base and ignoble: they deified the inanimate parts of the world; they ascribed to their deities passions and propensities the most odious and abominable; and instead of describing the gods as beings worthy of imitation, and giving richness and elevation of character to men by the contemplation of their excellence, they lowered and debased the sentiments of those who were already" of the earth, earthy," by calling their attention to monstrous and indecent stories of the intrigues of heaven. The poetical theology, it is true, was disapproved by some 66 of the wiser pagans; yet it was carefully wrought into the popular religion, and lay at the foundation of most of their sacred rights. Those poetical fables which Varro and Tully (i) censure as unworthy of the gods, and as imputing to them actions which none but the vilest of men could be guilty of, were not only permitted to be acted on the public theatres, but were regarded as things pleasing to the gods themselves, and were accordingly incorporated with the public and established religion. The effusions of the heathen poets have also a deplorably mischievous tendency, on account of the manner in which they almost uniformly speak of the state after death. On some few occasions it is true, they introduce the idea of rewards and punishments to make a part of the poetical machinery: yet, frequently they express themselves as though they thought death brought an utter extinction of being. Plutarch, in his consolation to Apollonius, quotes this passage of an ancient poet, that no grief or evil touches the dead, *Αλγος γὰρ ὄντως ἐδὲν ἁπτεται νεκρ8. He there also quotes another passage from a poet, declaring that the dead man is in the same condition that he was before he was born. The first of these passages is ascribed by Stobaeus to Eschylus. So again, Moschus, Idyll. iii. lin. 107, having observed that herbs and plants, after seeming to die, yet revive in the succeeding year, subjoins, Αμμες δ' οι μεγαλοι, και καρτεροι, η σοφοι ανδρες, Όπποτε πρωτα θανωμες ανακοοι εν χθονι κοιλα Ενδομες ΕΥ ΜΑΛΑ ΜΑΚΡΟΝ, ΑΤΕΡΜΟΝΑ, ΝΗΓΡΕΤΟΝ ὑπνον. (i) Fingebat hæc Homerus, et humana ad deos transferebat, divina mallem ad nos. Tuscul. Disput. lib. i. cap. 26. But we, or great, or wise, or brave, One long, eternal, unawaken'd sleep. There are passages of the same kind in Epicharmus, in Sophocles, Euripides, and Astydamas, referred to by Dr. Whitby. (k) Both the Greek and Roman poets drew arguments from the consideration that life is short, and death will entirely terminate our existence, to urge men to lay hold of the present opportunity, and give a full indulgence to their appetites; according to the libertine maxim, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Several passages of this kind may be found in Strato, and others of the Greeks. Catullus has a notorious passage to the same purpose, which, often as it has been quoted, must once more be adduced; "Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus- "Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, "Nox est perpetua una dormienda.” Elegantly imitated by Baker: "The sun that sets, again will rise, "We sleep in everlasting night.” Thus also Horace : "Vitæ sunmma brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam : Perseus, again, represents it as the language of many in his time. "Indulge genia: carpamus dulcia: nostrum est (k) Whitby's Commentary on 2 Tim. i. 10. |