prayers might be effectual for the obtaining of them.

Having established this great point, That all the most apparent bleffings in this life are obnoxious to fuch dreadful confequences, and that no man knows what in its events would prove to him a bleffing or a curfe, he teaches Alcibiades after what manner he ought to pray.

In the first place, he recommends to him, as the model of his devotions, a fhort prayer, which a Greek Poet compofed for the ufe of his friends, in the following words; O Jupiter, give us thofe things which are good for us, whether they are fuch things as we pray for, or such things as we do not pray for; and remove from us those things which are hurtful, though they are fuch things as we pray for.

In the fecond place, that his Difciple may ask fuch things as are expedient for him, he fhews him, that it is abfolutely neceffary to apply himfelf to the study of true wifdom, and to the knowledge of that which is his chief good, and the moft fuitable to the excellency of his

nature.

In the third and laft place he informs him, that the beft methods he could make use of to draw down bleffings upon -himfelf, and to render his prayers acceptable, would be to live in a conflant practice of his duty towards the Gods, and towards men. Under this head he very much recommends a form of Prayer the Lacedæmonians made use of, in which they petition the Gods, to give them all good things, fo long as they were Under this head likewise he gives a very remarkable account of an Oracle to the following purpose.

virtuous.

When the Athenians in the war with the Lacedæmonians received many defeatsboth by fea and land, they fent a meffage to the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, to ask the reason why they who erected fo many temples to the Gods, and adorned them with fuch coftly offerings; why they who had inftituted fo many feftivals, and accompanied them with fuch pomps and ceremonies; in fhort, why they who had flain fo many Hecatombs at their altars, fhould be lefs fuccefsful than the Lacedæmonians, who fell fo fhort of them in all thefe particulars. To this, fays he, the Oracle made the following

reply;

reply; I am better pleafed with the prayer. of the Lacedæmonians than with all the oblations of the Greeks. As this prayer implied and encouraged virtue in thofe who made it; the Philofopher proceeds to fhew how the moft vicious man might be devout, fo far as victims could make him, but that his offerings were regarded by the Gods as bribes, and his petitions as blafphemies. He likewife quotes on this occafion two verses out of Homer, in which the Poet fays that the scent of the Trojan facrifices was carried up to heaven by the winds, but that it was not acceptable to the Gods, who were displeased with Priam and all his people.

The conclufion of this dialogue is very remarkable. Socrates having deterred Alcibiades from the prayers and facrifice which he was going to offer, by setting forth the above-mentioned difficulties of performing that duty as he ought, adds thefe words, We must therefore wait 'till fuch time as we may learn how we ought to behave ourselves towards the Gods and towards men. But when will that time come, fays Alcibiades, and who is it will instruct us? For I would fain fee this man, whoever he is. It is one, fays. I 4

Socrates,

Socrates, who takes care of you; but as Homer tells us, that Minerva removed the mift from Diomedes his eyes, that he might plainly difcover both Gods and men; fo the darkness that hangs upon your mind must be removed, before you are able to difcern what is good and what is evil. Let him remove from my mind, fays Alcibiades, the darkness, and what elfe he pleafes; I am determined to refufe nothing he fhall order me, whoever he is, fo that I may become the better man by it. The remaining part of this dialogue is very obfcure: There' is fomething in it that would make us think Socrates hinted at himself, when he fpoke of this Divine Teacher who was to come into the world, did he not own that he himself was in this refpect as much at a lofs, and in as great distress as the rest of mankind.

Some learned men look upon this conclufion as a prediction of our Saviour, or at least that Socrates, like the High-prieft, prophefied unknowingly, and pointed at that Divine Teacher who was to come into the world, fome ages after him. However that may be, .find that this great Philofopher faw, by the

we

light of reafon, that it was fuitable to the goodness of the Divine Nature, to fend a perfon into the world who fhould inftruct mankind in the duties of religion, and, in particular, teach them how to pray.

Whoever reads this abftract of Plato's. difcourfe on Prayer, will, I believe, naturally make this reflection, That the great Founder of our religion, as well by his own example, as in the form of prayer which he taught his difciples, did not only keep up to thofe rules which the light of nature had fuggefted to this. great Philofopher, but inftructed his difciples in the whole extent of this duty, as well as of all others. He directed them to the proper object of adoration, and taught them according to the third rule above-mentioned, to apply themselves to him in their clofets, without fhow or oftentation; and to worship him in spirit and in truth. As the Lacedæmonians in their form of Prayer implored the Gods in general to give them all good things fo long as they were virtuous, we ask in particular that our offences may be forgiven as we forgive thofe of others. If we look into the fecond Rule which Socrates has