shameless manner of exposing his own vanity, and building his honour on the ruins of truth, that I could scarce imagine that great and wise man would have suffered such a letter to go out from his hand. I fear, my friend, you have cited this in gross merely by your memory, and exaggerated some expressions to disgrace his character, and blaze abroad his frailty.

PITH. I own, Sir, it is many years since I read his epistle, and I have cited only the general sense of it, according to the impression it made on my mind when I read it: But since you have his works here, let us turn to this famous letter. I think it is in the fifth book, among his letters to Metellus and others. See how he begins : "When I have been in your company, Lucceius, I have felt a sort of rustic bashfulness to say those things which in your absence I will now declare with freedom; for a letter never blushes. I burn with incredible desire of having my name adorned and celebrated by your writings :---Think whether it be not better to divide the history of the civil conspiracy, "that is, the conspiracy of Catiline, which was suppressed in Cicero's consulship," and relate it apart from the foreign wars: For when your whole soul is engaged in one argument, and fixed on one person, I plainly see how much more copious and ornamental all your writing will be.

I am not ignorant what an impudent thing I am doing, when I urge you to adorn my actions: But he that hath once passed the limits of modesty, must become thoroughly and completely impudent." Then a little after follow the words I chiefly refer to, which are these: "Itaque te plane etiam atque etiam rogo, ut & ornes ea vehementius etiam quam fortasse sentis, & in eo leges historiæ negligas,- -amorique nostro plusculum etiam quam concedit veritas largiare. I ask you plainly again and again, that you would beautify this transaction of mine with more ornament than, perhaps, you think it deserves, and therein neglect the laws of history, and bestow a little more of this your favour on me than truth will allow." You see, gentlemen, Cicero's own pen makes him as vain and shameless as my representation of him: And he spends above a page in folio on the same subject, and frequently urges his friend to write this immediately, "Ut & cæteri viventibus nobis ex libris tuis nos cognoscant, & nosmetipsi vivi gloriola nostra perfruamur: That the world may know me by your writings, and I may enjoy in my life-time the glory that belongs to me." What glaring pride and impudent falsehood sully the character of this heathen saint of yours, Logisto?

Again; let us see what his religion and piety were: He cannot find whether there was one God or many: He talks often of the gods in the language of the stoics: as for the true parent or maker of the universe, as Sophronius has cited him, Cicero acknowledges, "It

was hard to search him out, and when you have found him, he forbids you to teach the knowledge of him to the bulk of mankind." Is this the man that deserves the favour of the true God, who hardly knew him himself, and was resolved to conceal him from the world? As for his own religion, he complied entirely with. the polytheism and idolatry of the nation, and worshipped the multitude of their gods, that is, the stars, the devils, the departed heroes, or the chimeras which the city of Rome had adopted into the number of their deities. In many parts of his writings he vindicates the national ceremonies and idolatrous rites of worship, superstition and auguration, as necessary to be observed; and I think it is in his second book of laws that he presses upon his countrymen a strict observance of all the religious rites established by authority, and declares all those worthy of the last punishment, who should attempt to disturb them, as some of the vindicators of human reason frankly allow concerning him. Pray, Sir, what great influence had reason upon the heart and practice of such a man as this, who, when he could not believe the Roman idols to be the true God who made or governs the world, yet uses his utmost influence to make the world worship them, that is, to make mankind idolaters, to set up rivals to the true God, and procure divine honours for them, without any public acknowledgement paid to the true God himself, the Creator and Lord of the universe, and with an express prohibition of making him known?

LOG. If I would shew myself a fair disputant, and a searcher after truth, I know not well what defence to make for my darling author Cicero, unless you will permit me to say, that neither he, nor the rest of the ancient sages, could imagine there was so much hurt in practising the religion of their native country, and in worshipping the gods of it, as the bible has taught both Jews and christians to conceive: And that this vice of pride and ambition, of which Pithander brings such a heavy charge against Cicero, was so universal amongst all great men, that they counted it a piece of virtue and glory, rather than a crime.

PITH. But does not human reason, even your darling reason, teach you the same that the bible teaches the Jews and christians? Is not polytheism and idolatry contrary to the nature of things, and to all the principles and rules of reason? Is not pride and self-sufficiency, and such an ambitious desire of fame, at the expence of honesty and truth, a very criminal thing in itself, and a high offence both against God and man? Was Cicero's own reason practically sufficient to be his guide in matters of religion and virtue, if it indulged him in such corrupt and abominable practices as these? Or if it did make any feeble remonstrances against them, his practice still shews how weak, and vain, and insignificant these remonstrances were; and this proves

to us, on the other hand, the practical insufficiency of his reason to to resist criminal inclinations and enable him to oppose the idolatrous customs of his country. Thus it appears that either his reason was insufficient to guide him right, or if it did whisper truth and duty to him, it was with so low a voice, as was very insufficient to make him obey.

LOG. Pray, Sophronius, let us have your sentiment upon this subject; for I am at a loss to find a solid reply, and I must be silent, unless I would run into cavilling?

SOPH. Dear Sir, pardon me if I say, that I am as unable to refute Pithander's manner of arguing as you are; and I rejoice to see you so steady a friend to truth, as to yield to an argument. But I will take occasion, gentlemen, if you favour me with your permission, to make one remark upon this debate of yours, concerning Cicero's opinion and practice with regard to every man's compliance with the religion of his country. Several of the great men of antiquity, of whom Cicero was one, having lost the divine revelations of Noah, their ancestor, thought it necessary to introduce some doctrines and duties of pretended revelation, and particular ceremonies of worship, among their countrymen, in order to oblige the consciences and practices of men to virtue, and to restrain them from vice, by some guidance and authority superior to each man's own reason; because they were generally convinced, that reason, as it is at present in the bulk of mankind, is very insufficient to be their guide to virtue, religion and happiness.

Give me leave upon this occasion to read to you a page out of an ingenious writer of the present age, wherein he cites your own favourite author Cicero more than once. It is in the 49th page of his book*, where he is arguing against the same ill treatise which Doctor Waterland opposes, written by some supposed infidel, and entitled "Christianity as Old as the Creation." "The testimony of all ages, says he, teaches us, that reason, whatever force and strength it might have in particular men, yet never had credit or authority enough in the world to be received as a public and authentic rule, either of religious or civil life : This is allowed by all the great reasoners of the heathen world: And the experience of its insufficiency as a guide of life, is given by many of them as the very cause of the invention and establishment of religion," that is, of some pretended revelation from heaven, and ceremonies of worship," that the authority of religion, as Tully takes notice, might restrain those whom reason had been found too weak to keep in order. The life of man, as Plutarch tells us from Euripides, was once like that of beasts governed by force and violence; laws were then contrived to repel injustice; but when these proved still insufficient, religion was at last invented; *Remarks on Dr. Waterland, &c.

By whose mysteries, as Tully observes, men from a savage life became formed and cultivated, as it were to humanity.

"Such an universal consent must needs be owing to an universal conviction and experience of the insufficiency of reason, and seems to be the voice of nature disclaiming it as a guide in the case of religion: And thus our author's scheme, by the confession of all antiquity, and even by his own, must appear foolish and irrational, in attempting to set up that for a perfect rule of life, which from the nature of things never was or could be received as such in any age or country whatsoever. Should he then gain his end, and actually demolish christianity, what would be the consequence, what the fruit of his labours, but confusion and disorder; till some other traditional religion could be settled in its place; till we had agreed to recall either the gods of the old world, Jupiter, Minerva, Venus, &c. or with the idolaters of the new, to worship sun, moon, and stars, or instead of Jesus take Mahomet or Confucius for the author of our faith? And hence may be demonstrated, the immorality also of his scheme, even upon his own principles." Now though I cannot think this writer has argued so effectually against Doctor Waterland, in his Remarks upon him, as to leave no just room for a defence of the scripture history of the fall and circumcision, &c. yet his sketch or plan of an answer to the author of "Christianity as Old as the Creation," has some valuable thoughts in it, and worthy of the reader's best notice.

LOG. Well, gentlemen, I will pursue this manner of debate no longer: I see iny cause cannot be supported by it. I will immediately therefore betake myself to my last and strongest argument, to prove, that the natural and rational powers of man must have a greater sufficiency than this which you allow, to lead all mankind to religion and happiness; for I think the contrary doctrine bears very hard upon the wisdom, the justice, and the goodness of the great and blessed God. I am at a loss to find how it is consistent with his justice and his benevolence to his creatures, to leave such millions of mankind, from age to age, under so poor a capacity to find out or to prastise the way of pleasing their Maker in this world, and yet to judge and condemn them in the other world for displeasing him.

PITH. I grant, Logisto, this is a point of argument which has great difficulties attending it, and therefore I propose that we adjourn the debate for one half hour, and if you please to give us your company, and lead us through the several walks and divisions of your beautiful garden we will there relax our thoughts for a season, and I hope we shall each of us resume the debate again with fresh spirits, and to our mutual satisfaction.

LOG. With all my heart, gentlemen, I attend you with the greatest readiness and delight.

THE FOURTH CONFERENCE.

While Logisto was attending his two friends through the pleasures of his garden, he conveyed them to a very agreeeble piece of elevated ground, whence they could survey the neighbouring fields and meadows covered with cattle of divers kinds. Some were grazing upon the natural bounties of providence ; some rested at their ease; and others were sporting variously, with life and vigour, and joy, in the provisions that were made for the happiness suited to their natures. The birds sung their chearful airs upon the bushes, being replenished with their proper food, or they exulted upon the wing with wauton pleasure, transporting themselves from bough to bough; and their little, souls took in all the satisfaction of their natures, and their harmless life. Even the very creeping insects, as well as those that were made for flight, appeared joyful in their narrow dimensions : The worm, the emmet, aad the butterfly were pleased with their atoms or inches of being, and in their low rank of existence seemed to bear their witness to the beneficent hand that gave them every thing necessary to their support and delight, Logisto took notice of it, while they were taking their rounds, and at their return to the summer-house, he thus renewed the conference.

LOG. And can you think, Pithander, that every worthless creature in the universe, not only the beast and the birds, but even the butterflies and the worms, have powers given them by their wise and bountiful Creator sufficient for their happiness, during their little extent of existence; and shall not man the lord of the lower world, man, the favourite of his Maker, shall not man have sufficient powers conferred upon him, to lead and conduct him to his final happiness? Is it not inconsistent with the justice and equity of a God, and much more inconsistent with the goodness of so magnificent and so bountiful a being, to make creatures of an immortal duration, capable of intense happiness, and intense misery, through all that immortal existence, and not provide them with sufficient capacities in themselves to make that long state of existence happy? And yet what multitudes of them, according to your account, are brought into being, almost under a necessity of being miserable? Did these intellectual and wretched creatures ever once desire to exist? Was not their existence the mere effect of their Maker's sovereign pleasure? And would the sovereign pleasure of a wise, a righteous, and merciful God, ever bring creatures into such an immortal existence, without sufficient powers to guide and conduct them to that felicity, which is suited to their natures?

Nor is the mere remote, natural, and speculative sufficiency, which Sophronius has taught you, any sufficient answer to this