wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

C H A P. IV. one only God, a vulgar Error. 401concerning the foul, and difcourfed concerning the happinefs of the future flateto thofe who live ti'ell, do afterivard fink down from thefe great, high, and noblethings, to a fuperflitious regard of little, fnall, and trifling matters, fuch asthe paying of a cock to j^fculapius. Where notwithllanding, Origen dochnot charge Socrates with fuch grofs and downright idolatry, as he docs elfewhere', for his facrificing to the Pythian Apollo, who was but an inferiordaemon. And perhaps fome may excufe Socrates here, as thinking, that helooked upon Mfculapius no otherwife than as the fupreme Deity, called bythat name, as exercifing his providence over the ficknefs and health or recoveryof men, and that therefore he would have an euchariftick facrifice offeredto him in his behalf, as having now cured him, at once, of all dileafcsby death. However Plato * informs us, that Socrates, immediately before hedrunk his poifon, did tjytlsoi.i ror? Seo??, tijj (/.eloix-ia-m TKv i-j^iiSs i-Kihe fJTup^ri i'nxi'pray (not to God, but to the gods, that is, to the fupreme and inferior Godsboth together, as in Plato's Phadrus he did to Pan, and the other tutelargods of that place) that his tranflation from hence into the other world mightbe happy to him. And Xenophon, in his Memoirs S informs us, that Socratesdid, both in his words and pradtice, approve of that dodlrine of the PythianApollo, That the rule of piety and religion ought to be the law of every particularcity and country •, he affirming it to be a vanity for any man to be Angularherein. Laftly, in his own apology, as written by Plato, he profelTesto acknowledge the fun, moon and ftars for gods ; condemning the contrarydodlrine of yfe^A-iag-or^j, as irrational and abfurd. Wherefore we maywell conclude this opinion, oi Socrates his being condemned for denying themany gods of the Pagans, or of his being a martyr for one only God, to benothing but a vulgar error.But if you therefore demand, what that accufation of Impiety really was,which he was charged with, Socrates himfelf, in Plato's, Euthyphro, will informyou, that it was for his free and open condemning thofe traditions concerningthe gods, wherein wicked, diflioneft and unjuil aftions were imputedto them. For when Euthyphro, having accufed his own father as guilty ofmurder (merely for committing a homicide into prifon, who happened to diethere) would juftify lumfclf from the examples of the gods, namely Jupiterand Saturn, becaufe Jupiter, the befl and juftell of the gods, had committedhis \'zt\\Qi: Saturn to prifon for devouring his fons, as Saturn himfelf alfo hadcaftrated his father CW/j/j for fome mifcarriages of his, Socrates thns befpeakshim * ; 'ApaJ/f, £0 EiJ6i;:ppou, tst' 1~\'j » iViy.x tJ-d ycxfpm (pidym, on ra Totxjtix.Ecr£;^(XTK 1'H^Ef TMU 5im AiJ/Ji, ij.yj/>(~; -tx; a,rrooi~xou.xi, (jfc. Is not this the Verything, O JLuthyphro, f- which I a;", accufed? namely, becaufe when I hearany one affirming fuch matters ai thefe concerning the gods, I am very loth tobelieve them, andjlick no' publickly to declare mv d.flike of them ? And can you,O Euthyphro, ingcod earneft th.nk, that there are indeed wars and contentionsamong the gods, and tha: thofe other things were alfo done by them, whichpoets and painters comrivrh impute to thera? fuch as /y?!^ Fepl.im cr veil ofMinerva, which in the Pana; nenaicks is with great pomp and ceremony broughtFff2IVide Orig. adverf. Cdfum, Lib. VII. s Lib. IV. p. 6^4 Oper.p. 55 5- "P-49-* In Phaedone, p. 402.Opei*.into