tion. And if that was ever certain and conftantaneous in any thing, it is fo in this point; for all the fathers of the church, and ecclefiaftical writers of all ages, maintain, and atteft, that the devil was the author of idolatry in general, and of oracles in particular.

This opinion does not oppofe the belief, that the priests and priefteffes were frequentlyguilty of fraud and impofture in the answers of the oracles. For is not the devil the father and prince of lies? In the Grecian history we have feen more than once the Delphic prieftefs fuffer herfelf to be corrupted by presents. It was from that motive, fhe perfuaded the Lacedæmonians to affift the people of Athens in the expulfion of the thirty tyrants, that the caufed Demaratus to be divefted of the royal dignity to make way for Cleomenes; and dreft up an Siete to fupport the impotior of Lylander, when he endeavoured to change the fucceffion to the throne of Sparta. And I am apt to believe, that Themistocles, who well knew the importance of acting against the Perfians by fea, infpired the god with the answer he gave, "to defend themfelves with walls of wood." Demofthenes, convinced that the oracles were frequently fuggefted by paffion or intereft, and fufpecting with reafon, that Philip had inftructed them to speak in his favour, boldly declared that the Pythia philippized, and bad the Athe nians and Thebans remember, that Pericles and Epaminondas, inftead of liftening to, and amufing themselves with the frivolous anfwers of the oracle, thofe idle. bugbears of the base and cowardly, confulted only reafon in the choice and execution of their measures.

The fame father Baltus examines with equal fuccefs the ceffation of oracles, a fecond point in the dif pute. Mr. Wandale, to oppose with fome advantage a truth fo glorious to Jefus Chrift, the fubverter of idolatry, had falfified the sense of the fathers, by making them fay, "that oracles ceafed precifely at the moment of Chrift's birth." The learned apologift for the fathers fhows that they all alledge oracles did not Plut. in. Demofth. p. 854.

ceafe

ceafe till after our Saviour's birth, and the preaching of his gofpel, not on a fudden, but in proportion to his falutary doctrines being known to mankind, and gaining ground in the world. This unanimous opinion of the fathers is confirmed by the unexceptionable evidence of great numbers of the Pagans, who agree with them as to the time when the oracles ceased.

с

What an honour to the chriftian religion was this filence impofed upon the oracles by the victory of Jefus Chrift? Every Chriftian had this power. Tertullian in one of his apologies, challenges the Pagans to make the experiment, and confents that a Christian should be put to death, if he did not oblige these givers of oracles to confefs themfelves devils. Lactantius informs us, that every Chriftian could filence them by only the fign of the crofs. And all the world knows, that when Julian the Apoftate was at Daphne, a fuburb of Antioch, to confult Apollo, the god, notwithstanding all the facrifices offered to him, continued mute, and only re covered his fpeech to answer those who enquired the caufe of his filence, that they muft afcribe it to the interment of certain bodies in the neighbourhood. Thofe were the bodies of Chriftian martyrs, amongst whom was that of St. Babylas.

This triumph of the Chriftian religion ought to give us a due fenfe of our obligations to Jefus Chrift, and, at the fame time, of the darkness to which all mankind were abandoned before his coming. We have feen, amongst the Carthaginians, #fathers and mothers more cruel than wild beasts, inhumanly giving up their chil

• Tertull. in Apolog.

a Lib. de vera fapient. c. xxvii.

* Tam barbaros, tam immanes fuiffe homines, ut parricidium fuum, id eft ies um atque execrabile humano generi facinus, facrificium vocarent. Cum tencras atque innocentes animas, quæ maxime eft ætas parentibus dulcior, fine ullo refpectu pietatis extinguerunt, immanitatemque omnium beftiarum, quæ tamen fatus fuos amante, feritate fuperarent. O dementiam infanabilem! Quod illis ifti dir amplius facere poffent fi effent iratiffimi quam faciunt propitii? Cum fuos cultures parricidiis inquinant, orbitatibus mactant, humanis fenfibus fpoliant,

D 5

LACTANT. 1. i, c. 216

dren

dren, and annually depopulating their cities, by deftroying the most florid of their youth, in obedience to the bloody dictates of their oracles and falfe gods. The victims were chosen without any regard to rank, fex, age, or condition. Such bloody executions were honoured with the name of facrifices, and defigned to make the gods propitious. "What greater evil," cries Lactantius, could they inflict in their most violent difpleafure, than to deprive their adorers of all fenfe of humanity, to make them cut the throats of their own children, and pollute their facrilegious hands with fuch execrable parricides!"

A thousand frauds and impoftures, openly detected at Delphos, and every where else, had not opened men's eyes, nor in the least diminished the credit of the oracles, which fubfifted upwards of two thoufand years, and was carried to an inconceivable height, even in the sense of the greatest men, the moft profound philofophers, the moft powerful princes, and generally among the most civilized nations, and fuch as valued themfelves most upon their wifdom and policy. The eftimation they were in, may be judged from the magnificence of the temple of Delphos, and the immenfe riches amaffed in it through the fuperftitious credulity of nations and

monarchs.

The temple of Delphos having been burnt about the fifty-eighth Olympiad, the Amphy&tions, those celebrated judges of Greece, took upon themselves the care of rebuilding it. They agreed with an architect for three hundred talents, which amount to nine hun dred thousand livres. The cities of Greece were to furnish that fum. The inhabitants of Delphos were taxed a fourth part of it, and made gatherings in all parts, even in foreign nations, for that purpofe. Amafis, at that time king of Egypt, and the Grecian inha bitants of his country, contributed confiderable fums towards it. The Alcmeonides, a potent family of Athens, was charged with the conduct of the building,

Herod, 1. ii, c. 189. c. 1, v. et 62,

and

and made it more magnificent by confiderable additions. of their own, than had been proposed in the model.

Gyges, king of Lydia, and Crofus, one of his fucceffors, enriched the temple of Delphos with an incre dible number of prefents. Many other princes, cities, and private perfons, by their example, in a kind of emulation of each other, had heaped up in it tripods, veffels, tables, fhields, crowns, chariots, and statues of gold and filver of all sizes, equally infinite in number and value. The prefents of gold, which Crofus only made to this temple, amounted, according to Herodotus f, to upwards of 254 talents; that is, about 762,000 French livres*; and perhaps thofe of filver to as much. Most of these presents were in being in the time of Herodotus. Diodorus Siculus, adding those of other princesto them, makes their amount ten thousand talents, or thirty millions of livres +.

Amongst the statues of gold, confecrated by Crafus in the temple of Delphos, was placed that of a female baker, of which this was the occafion. Alyattus, Crofus's father, having married a fecond wife, by whom he had children, the contrived to get rid of her fon-in-law that the crown might defcend to her own iffue. For this purpose the engaged the female baker to put poison into a loaf, that was to be ferved at the young prince's table. The woman, who was ftruck with horror at the crime: (in which the ought to have had no part at all) gave Cræ-fus notice of it. The poifoned loaf was ferved to the queen's own children, and their death fecured the crown to the lawful fucceffor. When he afcended the throne, in gratitude to his benefactress, he erected a statue to her in the temple of Delphos. But may we conclude that a person of fo mean a condition could deferve fo great an honour? Plutarch anfwers in the affirmative, and with a much better title, he says, than many of the fo-much-vaunted conquerors and heroes, who have ac.. quired their fame only by murder and devastation.

f Herod. l. i. c. 50, 51. ́

Diod. 1. xvi. P. 453

Plut. de Pyth, orac. p. 401.

*About 33,500l. Aerling.

+ About 1,300,000!.

It is not to be wondered, that fuch immenfe riches fhould temp: the avarice of mankind, and expofe Delphos to being frequently pillaged. Without mentioning more ancient times, Xerxes, who invaded Greece with a million of men, endeavoured to feize upon the fpoils of this temple. Above a hundred years after, the Phoceans, near neighbours of Delphos, plundered it at feveral times. The fame rich booty was the fole motive of the irruption of the Gauls into Greece under Brennus. The guardian god of Delphos, if we may be lieve hiftorians, fometimes defended this temple by furprising prodigies; and at others, either from incapacity or confufion, fuffered himself to be plundered. When Nero made this temple, fo famous throughout the universe, a visit, and found in it five hundred brafs ftatues of illuftrious men and gods to his liking, which had been confecrated to Apollo (more of gold and fil ver having undoubtedly difappeared upon his approach) he ordered them to be taken down, and fhipping them on board his veffels, carried them with him to Rome.

Thofe who would be more particularly informed concerning the oracles and riches of the temple of Delphos, may confult fome differtations upon them, printed in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres; of which I have made good ufe, according to my cuftom.

Of the Games and Combats.

Games and combats made a part of the religion, and had a fhare in almoft all the feftivals of the ancients; and for that reafon it is proper to treat of them in this place. Whether we confider their origin, or the defign of their inftitution, we fhall be furprised at their being fo much practised in the best governed states.

Hercules, Thefeus, Caftor and Pollux, and the greatest heroes of antiquity were not only the inftitutors or reftorers of them, but thought it glorious to fhare in the exercise of them, and meritorious to fucceed therein.

i Vol, III.

The