dicendi, as Jofeph Scaliger faid upon a like occafion, and it requires fomething of a hand to throw dirt. Boffuet, though he did not fight with fuch weapons as Jurieu, yet attacked Grotius, as a dangerous author and a Socinian, and made remarks upon him which are mere declamation and verbiage. It is one thing to be Bishop of Meaux, and another thing to be Hugo Grotius: Οὐ : ᾗ ἐν μέσοισι κείται Calmet, if I remember right, has also treated Grotius in the fame manner. Grotius was inclined to think and to judge rather too favourably, than too hardly of the Church of Rome; for which fome of the Ecclefiaftics of that communion have repaid him with the gratitude that was to be expected, and have taught byftanders, that he who endeavours to ftroke a tiger into good humour, will at least have his fingers bitten off in the experiment. Herodotus is of opinion that Divination and Oracles had their rife in Ægypt, and thence came into Afric and Greece, and that the Oracle at Dodona was the most ancient in Greece. L. ii. The opinion is very probable, for Ægypt was the nursery of idolatry and fuperftition. Homer mentions the temple of Jupiter at. Dodona, and that of Apollo at Pytho, or Delphi, • Non enim in medio jacent A quolibet auferenda. as being illuftrious in the time of the Trojan war, and represents the latter as immenfely rich. II. II. 233. I. 404. Herodotus fhews us the great authority of oracles, from ancient times down to his own, by which kingdoms were disposed of, and war and peace were made. He relates that the Heraclidæ, who, before Gyges, reigned in Lydia, at Sardes, obtained the kingdom by an oracle, and that Gyges, who flew his master Candaules, had the kingdom adjudged to him by the Delphic Oracle, which favour he rewarded by fending thither large gifts. Herodotus every where speaks of oracles, divination, and prodigies, as one who firmly believed in them, and who was difpleafed with those that flighted them. See viii. 77. He gives us there an Oracle of Bacis, in which there is a remarkable expreffion, and in the style of the Scriptures, Δια δίκη σβέσσει κρατερὸν κέρον, ὕβρι@ τόν. Compefcet juvenem meritiffima pana fuperbum. as Pfalm lxxxix. 22. nor the fon of wickedness afflict him. 2 Sam. vii. 10. neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them. Judas is called the Jon of perdition, John xvii. 12. where see Grotius. Herodotus alfo relates prophetic dreams which were faid to have been accomplished, as the dream of Crafus, of Aftyages, and of others. Having travelled, fays Prideaux, through Egypt, Syria, and feveral other countries, in order to the writing of his history, he did, as travellers used ufed to do, he put down relations upon truft, as he met with them, and no doubt was impofed upon in many of them. Van Dale, in his book De Oraculis, obferves that the Oracular temples were usually fituated in mountainous places, which abounded with caverns fitted for frauds. That the oracles were delivered only at stated times. That at Delphi, the prieftefs had priefts, prophets, and poets, to take down and explain and mend her gibberish; which ferved to justify Apollo from the imputation of making bad verfes, for if they were defective, the fault was laid upon the Amanuenfis : That the confulters fometimes wrote their requests, and received answers in writing: That the priests had the art of opening letters and clofing them again, without breaking the feal: That the adyta, whence the oracles were delivered, were fhaded with branches, and clouded with incenfe, to help the fraud: That in the temples fweet smells were fuddenly diffused, to fhew that the God was in good humour: That there are drugs, herbs, and fumigations which will make a man foam at the mouth, and be delirious, and that the priestess might ufe fuch methods: That it might alfo fometimes be grimace. and artifice : That That the God fometimes gave answers himself, by a voice, or by the motion of his ftatue, etc. THIS is what I had to offer concerning Divination, and prophecy in general, the Sibylline Oracles excepted, which shall be examined apart. THE PROPHECIES relating to our Saviour, and to Chriftianity, have fome of them a mixture of obfcurity, and the interpretations which have been given of them are various: but this ought to be matter neither of wonder, nor of offence, because in the nature of things it cannot be otherwife. It were indeed to be wondered, if obfcurity should not lie upon fome of the prophecies, the latest whereof was written at the diflance of above two thousand years ago. Prophetic writings, befides what is common to them with other writings, to grow dark with age, have fomething peculiar in their nature to render them lefs intelligible. Prophecies, remote from the time of their accomplishment, and whofe completion depends on the concurrence of free agents, are not wont to be delivered very diftinctly at first. The obfcurity becomes greater, from the language wherein they are written. The Hebrew, as other Eaftern languages, is entirely different from the European. Many things are there left to be fupplied by the quickness of the reader's apprehenfion, which are with us expreffed by proper words and repetitions. Particles Particles disjunctive and adverfative, fignificative marks of connexion and of transition from one subject to another are often omitted here. Dialogues are carried on, objections answered, comparisons made, without notice in the discourse; and through frequent change of perfons, tenfes, and numbers, we are left to guess who are the perfons Spoken of, which difficulty to them whofe living language it was. gave no The prophetic ftyle is of all other the most copious this way. It feems to be a fort of language by itJelf. It ties itself to no order or method, but passes from one fubject to another infenfibly, and fuddenly refumes it again, and often fallies out to the main thing that was intended in the prophet's thoughts. The prophets used to act part of what they were to foretell. Thofe actions Jupplying the place of words, and being not expreffed in the writing, a fort of chafm is fometimes to be difcerned in them; as at other times, different difcourfes, or addresses, diftinguishable in the fpeaking, by proper figns and motions, Jeem now to be connected, though they have no rela tion to each other. What increases the difficulty, is the little or no order that the Collectors have placed the prophecies in, according to the usage of the ancients, who joined together writings upon different occafions, of the fame authors, and fometimes of different authors, as if they made but one continued difcourfe. The mistake might have been in fome measure prevented, bad the books written by the Jews, after their return from the Babylonian captivity, remained to our days-But thefe helps fail us, and not one book writ in the Hebrew tongue, fince pro phecy |