ns which
they taught had often very little influence either on themselves or
others. [8:1] Their own conduct seldom marked them out as greatly
superior to those around them, so that neither their instructions nor
their example contributed efficiently to elevate the character of their
generation.

Though the philosophers fostered a spirit of inquiry, yet, as they made
little progress in the discovery of truth, they were not qualified to
act with the skill and energy of enlightened reformers; and, whatever
may have been the amount of their convictions, they made no open and
resolute attack on the popular mythology. A very superficial examination
was, indeed, enough to shake the credit of the heathen worship. The
reflecting subjects of the Roman Empire might have remarked the very
awkward contrast between the multiplicity of their deities, and the
unity of their political government. It was the common belief that every
nation had its own divine guardians, and that the religious rites of one
country might be fully acknowledged without impugning the claims of
those of another; but still a thinking pagan might have been staggered
by the consideration that a human being had apparently more extensive
authority than some of his celestial overseers, and that the
jurisdiction of the Roman emperor was established over a more ample
territory than that which was assigned to many of the immortal gods.

But the multitude of its divinities was by no means the most offensive
feature of heathenism. The gods of antiquity, more particularly those of
Greece, were of an infamous character. Whilst they were represented by
their votaries as excelling in beauty and activity, strength and
intelligence, they were at the same time described as envious and
gluttonous, base, lustful, and revengeful. Jupiter, the king of the
gods, was deceitful and licentious; Juno, the queen of heaven, was cruel
and tyrannical. What could be expected from those who honoured such
deities? Some of the wiser heathens, such as Plato, [9:1] condemned
their mythology as immoral, for the conduct of one or other of the gods
might have been quoted in vindication of every species of transgression;
and had the Gentiles but followed the example of their own heavenly
hierarchy, they might have felt themselves warranted in pursuing a
course either of the most diabolical oppression, or of the most
abominable profligacy. [9:2]

At the time of the birth of our Lord even the Jews h