expect! A state of existence that will not only have no end, but that will be continually improving; an idea most sublime and transporting, and which is countenanced even by present appearances, as we actually observe the state of mankind, and of every thing we see, to be in a state of improvement.

Compared with the cold indifference, (and this no doubt in a great measure affected) with which Marcus Antoninus speaks of meeting death, how short does it fall of the joy, and even rapture, with which the apostle Paul speaks of his approaching end! (2. Tim. c. iv. v. 6.) I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. What an idea does this give us of the infinite superiority of the principles of christianity to those of heathen philosophy of every kind!

The probability is, that Marcus Antoninus held the christians (few of whom pretended to any knowledge of philosophy) in too great contempt to make any proper inquiry into their sentiments, or to

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read their writings. He had learned, he says, (Lib. i. sect. 6.)" of Diognetus not to spend his "time about trifles, nor to give credit to those who "dealt in inchantments and exorcisms, and other "impostures of that nature." And being under the influence, as he evidently was, of the Greek philosophers, and taking all his lessons from them, he was no doubt, taught to believe that all the miracles the christians pretended to, as the foundation of their religion, were no better founded than such inchantments and exorcisms as many of the heathens also pretended to.

So educated and instructed, he could not have any proper idea of the firm faith and hope of christians, which, without any aid of speculative philosophy, enabled them to bear, with what he calls obstinacy, all the tortures that he, in so unrelenting a manner, ordered to be inflicted upon them. What could his boasted philosophy do in comparison with this? Thus was the wisdom of this world, with every advantage that time and reflection could give it, mere foolishness, as the apostle called it, compared with the simple doctrines of christianity, which were intelligible and efficacious with the lowest, and least exercised understanding, as well as the highest. Indeed, the admirable plainness, and

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as well as superior excellence of its principles, levels all distinctions of this and of every other kind. To the poor the gospel is preached, as well as to the rich; and it is equally intelligible to them. According to the gospel, as in the eye of God, all men are equal. It is conferred as a common blessing on all his offspring of mankind.

But with this excellent religion Marcus Antoninus was unacquainted, and from his pride as a philosopher, which is sufficiently conspicuous in his writings, his contempt of the new doctrine of christians, who made no account of his philosophy, or any other, his zeal for the welfare of the empire, at the head of which he was placed, and on which his glory depended, which, with all other heathens, he imagined to have some unknown connection with the observance of those antient rites, in which the christians refused to join, he might, without any particular cruelty in his disposition, direct the persecution which continued during the whole of his reign. It is farther probable that he only heard of the sufferings of the christians through the unfavourable accounts of his officers, who would naturally be disposed to ridicule, and make light of them, and to flatter him with respect to the success of his measures. And thus, with

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but hearkening to any remonstrance or intreaty, and resisting, as his philosophy taught him to do, every motion of compassion, which he might think was farther unbecoming him as an emperor, he might persist as he did without remorse, in those rigorous proceedings as long as he lived. He had less knowledge of christianity than Julian, and therefore less guilt; as in all respects he was a much superior character.

THE

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THE

PHILOSOPHY

of

ARRIAN AND SENECA.

INTRODUCTION.

SENECA and Arrian were both men of the

world, and statesmen; the former tutor to Nero, and the latter distinguished by the most honourable employments under Adrian, and the succeeding emperors. But both of them were great writers, and both made profession of the Stoic philosophy. Arrian was a disciple of Epictetus, and the Enchiridion was composed by him from the sayings of his master. Seneca appears to have been well acquainted with all the sects of the Greek philosophy, and he particularly quotes a great number of the sayings of Epicurus, but he preferred the philosophy of the Stoics to any other.

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"Others," he says (De Const. Sap. c. 1.) “ "ceed in a gentle manner, but the Stoics endea