i known to us; of whom, he fays, h That to give an account of their generation was above human skill, but we ought to believe the most ancient tradition, which came from themfelves, as it follows in the paffage which I mentioned before: and a little after, he calls the former fort, thofe which i apparently move about; or, according to Tully's translation, * qui moventur palamque fe oftendunt; and the other, those which fhew themselves only in fuch a measure as they please, i. e. qui eatenus nobis declarantur quoad ipfi volunt. Now if we do but allow, that by these created Gods, who were invifible, but had a power of manifefting themfelves, in fuch measure as they pleased, Plato meant fuch kind of Beings as we call Angels, we may then see a farther glimpse of original Truth fhining through this dark tradition, and conveying down to us not only the notion of one fupreme God, but of these his first ministers, which are, even in Scripture language, called the Sons of God. It - Τὰ πεὶ Θεῶν ὁρατῶν καὶ γυνητῶν εἰρημθρα φύσεως ἐχέτω τέλω. Περὶ ἢ ἄλλων δαιμόνων εἰπεῖν καὶ γνῶναι γύεσιν μείζον ἢ καθ' ἡμᾶς πειςέον ἢ τοῖς εἰρηκόσιν, κ. Όσοι τε περιπολᾶσι φανερῶς, καὶ ὅσοι φαίνον, καθόσον ἂν ἐθέλωσι, θεο * In his book de Univerfo. It is to be observed, that the first men of Letters, of whom we have any account in Heathen Antiquity, were fuch as they called Theologers, that is, Poets or others, who treated of matters relating to the Gods and their worship, and who fometimes gave an account of the original of things in a religious way, upon the ground, as it fhould feem, of antient traditionary doctrine; which being by degrees corrupted according to the Poets fanсу, and many Fables introduced into it; fome by way of allegory difguifing the truth, and others, in compliance with growing Superstition, adding human paffions and vices to the notion of the Gods they worship'd; it came to pass in time, that these Fables, being set off in a pleafing manner by the Poets, became the occafion of fuch infinite error in the fuperftructure, that the foundation of truth was overwhelmed and almost quite loft by it. Some men therefore being weary of this way, ftruck into another method, and begun to offer at giving an account of the original of things in a Phyfiological way. But here they were greatly confounded: for the wisest of them plainly faw, that there was no proceeding in * See Ariftotelis Metaphyf 1. 1. cap 3. this this way, ty without admitting an Intelligent principle and first cause of all things. Though fome, that were conceited of their own parts, fancied they could folve every thing by matter and motion, even without a first mover, yet in this they got but little credit among confidering men. The vanity and uncertainof phyfiological fpeculations, and the great difficulty of coming to any certain and ufeful conclufion that way, made Socrates turn his thoughts to moral and practical Philofophy, as the proper business of men: and this he faw could not fubfift without a firm belief of the Being and Providence of a God and of a Future State, and without these principles he knew there was no proceeding to any fatisfaction, either in the Theological or Phyfiological way. Upon his foundation Plato, who was his Scholar, built all his Philosophy, but yet taking in all the light that former wife men could afford him; and fo he was curious to fearch into all the traditions of former times, and to confider what reliques of antient truth were hid under the disguise of poetical Theology, as well as the opinions of those who fought to find it in the way of Reason and Philofophy. And he could not in either of thefe ways find any ground for Atheism Atheism, or fufpicion that the principles of Religion were a Cheat. Though Plato be one of the oldest of those Philofophers, whofe writings are come down. to us in any great degree entire, yet we do not want several inftances of the fentiments of fuch Philofophers as lived before him; who, though they had no great opinion of the prevailing Superftitions of their own times, which were establish'd both by Law and Cuftom, yet made both the Being of God and the future State of the Soul, not only an Article of their Creed, but a principle of their Philofophy. Anaxagoras, whom I mentioned before, got the furname of vs, Mind or Intellect, not only from his great skill and understanding in natural Philosophy, but from his constant afferting, that not Chance or Neceffity, but an eternal Mind produced and ordered all things, as Plutarch and others inform us. Thales before him is reckoned one of the first, who attained to any great skill in natural Philosophy or Phyfiology, and is by m Ariftotle called, The Prince or Founder of this 1 Plutarch. in vita Periclis. fort m Θαλῆς μὲ ὁ τις τοιαύτης ἀρχηγὸς φιλοσοφίας. Ariftot. Ne taph. lib. 1. cap. 3. fort of Philofophy. And he is generally reckoned the first in order of the Ionic Clafs. And n it is well known, that as he supposed " Water to have been the first matter out of which all other things were made, fo he affirmed, that God was that eternal Mind which formed all things out of it; And that God knew not only the actions, but the thoughts and intentions of all men*. And it is related as one of his remarkable Apophthegms, That God is the most an tient of all Beings, becaufe without any beginning, and the world the most beautiful, as being the workmanship of God. And his opinion of the Immortality of the Soul was fo much taken notice of, that he is by some said to have been the first that taught it, as Diogenes Laërtius informs us; which is not so to be understood, as if he had been thought the first that believed a Future State, for the contrary to that appears from all the Poets who lived before him; but only that he was one of the first among the Greeks that maintained its Immortality upon phi n Thales enim Milefius qui primus de talibus rebus quæfivit, Aquam dixit efle initium rerum : Deum autem, eam mentem quæ ex aquâ cuncta fingeret. Cic. de N. D. lib. 1. c. 10. * Vide Diog. Laert. in vita Thaletis. • Πρεσούταλον ἢ ὄντων Θεός, ἀλόνητον δ' κάλλισον κόσμο, weinμa y Ot8. Laertius in vitâ. |