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missi falsehood hicli scarcely mill mahe confession of the truth, but mill rather own to Godiis doriations into sable. Let Whoever of those poeta chooses advance strat. Aratus considera that the pomer of God pe vades ali inings:
That an may be secure, Him sver they'propitiato fidit and Iaat, Hail, Fatheri great mareel, great gain to man.
sus Euripides. And Sophocles, the son os Sophilus, says:
In this venturous manner has he on tho stage brought truth be re the spectatore. But tho Thracian Orpheus, the sonos inagrus, hierophant and poet at once, aster his expositionos tho orgies, and his theology of idols, introduces a palinode ostruth With true solemnity, though tardily singing the strain:
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74 EXHORTATION TO THE HEA THEM
Τhus far Orphous at last underetood that he had Men in error:
But linger no longer, O man, endued mith varied viadom ;But turn and retrace your Meps, and propitiato God.
For is, at the most, the Greelis, having received certain sciu-tillations of the divine Word, have givera forth some utierances of truth, they bear indeed Witness that the fores of truth is not hidden, and at the fame time expose their o- W-knem in not having arrived at the end. For I thinh it has nowbecome evident to ali, that those Who do or spoah auot milhout the word of truth aro like pente compelled to mala without feel. Let tho strictures on your goci, Which the poets, impollod by the force of truth, introduce in their comedies, shame Fou into salvation. Menander, for instance, the comicpoet, in his drama of the Charioteer, says:
For such are the beming priesis of Cybele. Henco Antisthenes repties approprialeb to thela request for alms:
I do not maintain tho mother of the goci, For the goda maintain her.
Again, the fame Writer of comedri expressing his dissatisfaction mitti the common usages, tries to expose the implous arrogance of the prevalling error in the drama of the Priestras, sagely declaringet
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Ηo that does thia is greator than tho Delo; But theso are tho instrumenta os audacity and means es livinglavented by men.
And not only Menandor, but Homer also, and Euripides, and other poeta in great numbers, expose Four gods, and are Wontio rato them, and that foundly too. For instance, they callAphrodite dogdy, and Hephaestus a cripple. Helen says to Aphrodite:
And of Dionysus, Homer Writes Without reservo:
Worthy truly of tho Socratic school is Euripides, who fixos his eye on truth, and despises the spectators of his plays. onone occasion, Apollo,
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THE TRUE DOCTRINE IS TO BE SOUGΗT IN THE PROPHETS. T is nom time, as κε havo despasthod in ordor thoother potnis, io go to the prophetic Scriptures; for the oracles present us With the appliances necessam for the attainment os piety, and soostablish tho truth. The divine Scripturos and institutions of misdom form the shori road to salvation. Devoid os em- bellistiment, of out aes beauty of diction, of mordiness and seductiveness, they raise up humanity strangled by wiched-ness, reaching men to despise the casualties of liso; and withone and the fame Volce remedying many eviis, they at oncedissuade us hom pernicious demit, and clearly exhori us totho attainment of the salvation set hesoro us. Lot tho Sibylprophetess, then, bo the first to sing to us the song of sal
where, in remarhable accordance With inspiration, she compares delusion to darkness, and the knowledge of God to thosun and light, and subjecting both in comparison, inows thechoico me ought to mahe. For falsehood is not dissipatodis the baro presentation of the truth, but by tho practical improvement of the truth it is ejected and put to flight. Jeremisi the prophet, osted With consummate misdom,
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men,' according to that blessed psalmist David; lay hold oninstruction, test the Lord bo ango, and ye perlah iram the
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w shipped and served the creature more than the Creator.'
ὲ Ps. ii. 12, 13. 3 Ps. iv. 3. Rom. i. 21, 23, 25. M Gen. i. 1. β This is mado up of severat paginges, as Isa. xiii. 10, Egeh. XXXii. T.
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ration, and said, They do alWays ere in heari, and have nothnom my Ways. So I sWare in my Wrath, they shali not enterinis my rest.' Look to the threateniugi Look to the o hortation t Look to tho punishmenti Wis, then, should we any longer change grace into Wrath, and not receive the mord in open ears, and enteriain God as a Mest in pure spirita '
instruction continue; and then the true in V, the neve
And, indeed, the old Hebre. Wandorem in tho desertreceived typicatly the end of the threatening ; for they aresaid not in limo entered into the rest, bemuse os unbelles, tili, haring followed the successor of Moses, they learned by experience, though late, that they could not be saved othe wlae than by belleving on Jesus. But tho Lord, in His lovoto man, invites ali men to tho knowledge of tho truth, and for this end sends tho Paraclete. What, thon, is this know