Page:Wonderful progidies (sic) of judgment and mercy.pdf/5



EVER yet were any nation or people ſo barbarous, who, by the inſtinct of nature, have not always believed a certain Deity and the denying thereof was accounted ſo deteſtable, abſurd, and contrary to human reaſon, even amongſt the ancient Heathen, that they reckoned it to be horrible blaſphemy. The Athenians baniſhed Protagoras both from their city and country, and cauſed his books to be publicly burnt, becauſe in one of them he ſeemed to doubt of a Deity: neither were they leſs ſevere toward Diagoras, ſirnamed The Atheiſt, who being juſtly accuſed of Atheiſm, fled for fear of puniſhment; upon which they proclaimed, That whoſoever did kill him, ſhould have a Talent of ſilver in recompence, which is as much as ſix hundred crowns: how much more then is the