ORA 
'fifhed in tiie conflagration ; and, to repair the lofs which 
: the republic teemed to have l'uftained, commiffioners were 
immediately fent to different parts of Greece to collect 
whatever verfes could be found of the infpired writings 
of the Sibyls. The fate of thefe Siby'line verfes which 
were collected after the conflagration of the capitol is alfo 
unknown. There are now many Sibylline verfes extant, 
but they are reckoned univerfally fpurious ; and it is 
• evident that they were compofed in the fecond century 
by fome of the followers of Chriftianity, who wi(hed to 
convince the heathens of their error, by aflifting the 
caufe of truth with the arms of pious artifice. See far¬ 
ther under the article Sibyl. 
"We may now make this general remark ; that the ambi¬ 
guity of the oracles in their refponfes, and their double 
meanings, contributed long to their fupport, and at 
length to their decline. See the article Juggling, vol. 
xi. p. 490, 1. 
Monf. d’Ablancourt obferves, that the ftudy or refearch 
of the meaning of oracles was but afruitlefs thing; and 
that they vvere never underftood till after their accom- 
plifhment. Thus, when Alexander fell fick at Babylon, 
fome of his courtiers, who happened to be in Egypt, or 
who went thither on purpofe, paffed the night in the tem¬ 
ple of Serapis, to enquire if it would not be proper to 
bring Alexander to be cured by him. Thegod anfwered, 
it was better that Alexander (honld remain where he was. 
This in all events was a very prudent and fafe anfwer. 
If the king recovered his health, what glory muft Serapis 
have gained by faving him the fatigue cf the journey ! If 
he died, it was but faying he died in a favourable junc¬ 
ture after fo many conquefts ; which, had he lived, he 
could neither have enlarged nor preferved. That is ac¬ 
tually the conftrudtion they put upon the refponfe; 
whereas, had Alexander undertaken the journey, and died 
in the temple, or by the way, nothing could have been 
laid in favour of Serapis. 
When Trajan had formed the defign of his expedition 
againft the Parthians, he was advifed to confult the ora¬ 
cle of Heliopolis, to which he had no more to do but 
fend a note under a feal. That prince, who. had no great 
faith in oracles, fent thither a blank note; and they re¬ 
turned him another of the fame. By this Trajan was 
convinced of the divinity of the'oracle. He fends back 
a fecond note to the god, wherein he enquired, whether 
.he fhould return to Rome, after finifhing the'war he had 
in view. The god, as Macrobius tells the (lory, ordered 
a vine, which was among the offerings of his temple, to 
be divided into pieces,and broughtto Trajan. The event 
Jollified the oracle; for, the emperor dying in that war, 
his bones were carried to Rome, which had been repre- 
fented by that broken vine. As the priefts of that oracle 
knew Trajan’s defign, which was no fecret, they happily 
devifed that refponfe which in all events was capable 
-of a favourable interpretation, whether he routed and 
-cut the Parthians in pieces, or if his army met with the 
fame fate. 
Sometimes the refponfes of the oracles were mere ban¬ 
ter ; as in the cafe of the man who wifhed to know by 
■what means he might become rich, and who received 
for anfwer from the god, that he had only to make him- 
felf rnafter of all that lay between Sicyon and Corinth. 
Another, wanting a cure for the gout, was anfwered by 
the oracle, that he was to drink nothing but cold 
water. 
There are two points in difpute on the fubjedl of ora¬ 
cles ; viz. Whether they were human or diabolical ma¬ 
chines ; and whether or not they ceafed upon the pub¬ 
lication or preaching of the gofpel. 
I. Molt of the fathers of the church fuppofed that the 
devil ifl'ued oracles; and looked on it as a pleafurehe took 
fro give dubious and equivocal anfwer?, in order to have 
a handle to laugh at them. Voflius allows that it was 
the devil who fpoke in oracles; but thinks that the ob- 
icurity of his anfwers was owing to his ignorance as to 
•VOL. XVII. No. 1207. 
G L E: 677 
the precife circumftancee of events. That artful and 
ftudied obfcurity in which the anfwers were couched, 
fays he, (bowed the embarraffment the devil was under; 
as thofe double meanings they ufually bore provided for 
their accomplifhment. Where the thing foretold did not 
happen accordingly, the oracle, forfooth, was mifunder- 
(lood. 
But it is a very general opinion among the more learn¬ 
ed, that oracles were all mere cheats and impoftures ; ei¬ 
ther calculated to fervethe avaricious ends of the heathen 
priefts, or the political views of the princes. Bayle fays 
pofitively, they were mere human artifices, in which the 
devil had no hand. He was ftrongly fupported by Van 
Dale and M. Fontenelle, who have written expfefsly on 
the fubjedl. ^ 
Father Balthus, a Jefuit, wrote a treatife in defence of 
the fathers with regard to the origin of oracles ; but 
without denying the impofture of the priefts, often blen¬ 
ded with the oracles. He maintains the intervention of 
the devil in fome predidtioos, which could not be af- 
cribed to the cheats of priefts alone. The abbe Banier 
efpoufes the fame fide of the queftion ; and objedls that 
oracles would net have lafted fo long, and fupported 
themfelves with fo much fplendour and reputation, if 
they had been merely owing to the forgery of the priefts. 
Bifliop Sherlock, in his “Difcourfes concerning the 
Ufe and Intent of Prophecy,” exprefles his opinion, that 
it is impious to deny the heathen oracles to have been 
given out by the devil; to which affertion Dr. Middleton, 
in his “Examination, See." (Works, vol. iii.) replies, 
that he is guilty of this impiety ; and that he thinks him- 
felf warranted to pronounce, from the authority of the 
bed and wifelt of the heathens themfelves, and the evi¬ 
dence of plain fadts which are recorded of thofe oracles, 
as well as from the nature of the thing itfelf, that they 
were all mere impofture, wholly invented and fupported 
by human craft, without any fupernatural aid or inter- 
pofition whatfoever. He alleges, that Cicero, fpeaking of 
the Delphic oracle, the moft revered of any in the heathen 
world ,declares, “ that nothing was become more contemp¬ 
tible, not only in his days, but long before him ;” that De- 
mofthenes, who lived about 300 years earlier, affirmed of 
the fame oracle, in a public fpeech to the people of Athens, 
that it “ was gained to the interefts of king Philip,” an 
enemy to that city; that the Greek hiftorians tell us 
how, on feveral otheroccafions, it had been corrupted by 
money, to ferve the views of particular perfons and par¬ 
ties, and the prophetefs' fometimes depofed for bribery 
and for lewdnefs; that there were fome great fedls of phi- 
lofophers, who, by principle, difavowed the authority of 
all oracles ; agreeably to all which, Strabo tells us, that 
oracles and divination in general had been in high credit 
among the ancients, but in his days were treated with 
much contempt; laftly, that Eufebius alfo, the great hif- 
torian of the primitive church, declares, that there were 
“600 writers, among the Heathens themfelves,” who had 
publicly written againft the reality of them. Although 
the primitive fathers conftantly affirmed them to have 
been the real effedls of a fupernatural power, and given 
out by the devil; yet M. de Fontenelle maintains, that, 
while thofe fathers preferred that way of combating the 
authority of the oracles, as the moll commodious to 
themfelves, and to the (late of the controverfy between 
them and the heathens, yet they believed them at the 
fame time to be nothing elfs but the effedls of human 
fraud and contrivance; which he has illuftrated by 
the examples of Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and 
Eufebius. 
Dr. Bengo Collyer has entered into this controverfy in 
the fecond of his “ Ledlures on Scripture Prophecy ;” and 
he is inclined to give the devil his due, if not more, 
as having had a (hare in thofe oracles. But we cannot 
agree with him that any neceftity exifts for admitting the 
belief that in any inftance they were fupported by the in- 
ftrumentality of demons, becaufe in foine of thefe oracles 
8 K a knowledge 
