Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

The reputation of oracles was greatly leffened, when they became an artifice of politics. Themifto cles, with a defign of engaging the Athenians to quit Athens, and to embark, in order to be in a better condition to refift Xerxes, made the Pythonefs deliver an oracle, commanding them to take refuge in wooden walls. Demofthenes faid, That the Pythonefs philippifed, to fignify that the was gain ed over by Philip's prefents.

The ceffation of oracles is attefted by feveral profane authors, as Strabo, Juvenal, Lucan, and others. Plutarch accounts for the cause of it, either that the benefits of the Gods are not eternal as themselves are; or that the genii, who prefided over oracles, are fubject to death; or that the exhalations of the earth had been exhauffed. It appears that the laft reafon had been alledged in the time of Cicero, who ridicules it in his fecond book of Divination, as if the fpirit of prophecy, fupposed to be excited by fubterraneous effluvia, had evaporated by length of time, as wine or pickle by being long kept.

Suidas, Nicephorus, and Cedrenus relate, that Auguftus having confulted the oracle of Delphos, could obtain no other an fwer but this: The Hebrew Child whom all the God's obey, drives me hence, and fends me back to hell: get out of this temple with out fpeaking one word." Suidas adds, that Auguftus dedicated an altar in the Capitol, with this in fcription: To the eldest Son of God." Notwithstanding thefe teftimonies, the answer of the oracle of Delphos to Auguftus feems very fufpicious. Cedrenus cites Eu

febius for this oracle, which is not now found in his works; and Auguftus's peregrination into Greece' was eighteen years before the birth of Chrift.

Suidas and Cedrenus give an account alfo of an ancient oracle delivered to Thulis, a king of Egypt, which they fay is well authenticated. The king having confulted the oracle of Serapis, to know if there ever was, or would be, one fo great as himself, received this anfwer: First God, next the Word, and the Spirit with them.

They are equally

eternal, and make but one, whofe power will never end. But thou, mortal, go hence, and think that the end of the life of man is uncertain."

[ocr errors]

Van Dale, in his treatife of oracles, does not believe that they ceafed at the coming of Chrift. He relates feveral examples of oracles confulted till the death of Theodofius the Great. He quotes the laws of the emperors, Theodofius, Gratian, and Valentinian, against those who confulted oracles, as a certain proof that the fuperftition of oracles ftill fubfifted in the time of thofe emperors.

The opinion of those that believe, that the demons had no fhare in the oracles, and that the coming of the Meffiah made no change in them; and the contrary opinion of those who pretend that the incarnation of the Word impofed a general filence on all oracles, fhould be equally rejected. The reafons appear from what has been faid, and therefore two forts of oracles ought to be diftinguished, the one dictated by the fpirits of darknefs, who deceived men by their obfcure and doubtful an

fwers;

[ocr errors]

fwers; the other, the pure artifice and cheat of the priests of falfe, divinities. As to the oracles given out by demons, the reign of Satan, was deftroyed by the coming of the Saviour; truth fhut the mouth of lies; but Satan continued his old craft among idolaters. All the devils were not forced to filence at the fame time by the coming of the Meffiah; it was on particular occafions that the truth of chriftianity, and the virtue of chriftians impofed filence on the devils. St. Athanafius tells the pagans, that they have been witneffes themselves that the fign of the crofs puts, the devils to flight, filences oracles, and diffipates inchantments. This power of filencing oracles, and putting the devils to flight, is alfo, attefted by Arnobius, Lactantius, Prudentius, Minutius Felix, and feyeral others. Their teftimony is a certain proof that the coming of the Meffiah had not impofed a general filence on oracles.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The emperor Julian, called the Apoftate, confulting the oracle of Apollo in the fuburbs of Antioch, the devil could make him no other anfwer, but that the body of St. Babylas, buried in the neighbourhood, impofed filence on him. The emperor tranfported with rage and vexation, refolved to revenge his gods, by cluding a folemn prediction of Chrift. He ordered the Jews to rebuild the temple of Je rufalem; but in beginning to dig the foundations, balls of fire burit out, and confumed the artificers, with tools and materials. Thefe facts are attefted by Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan, and the emperor's hiftorian; and by St. Chryfoftom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and Theodoret, Sozomen

and Socrates, in their ecclefiaftical, hiftories. The fophift Libanius, who was an enemy of the chriftians, confeffed alfo that St. Babylas had filenced the oracle of Apollo, in the fuburbs of Antioch.

Plutarch relates, that the pilot Thamus heard a voice in the air, crying out: "The great Pan is dead" whereupon Eufebius obferves, that the accounts of the death of the demons were frequentin the reign of Tiberius, when Chrift drove out the wicked fpirits. The fame judgment may be paffed on oracles as on poffeffions. It was on particular occafions, by the divine permiffion, that the chriftians caft out devils, or filenced oracles, in the prefence, and even by the confeffion of the pagans themfelves. And thus it is we fhould, it feems, understand the paffages of St. Jerom, Eufebius, Cyril, Theodoret, Prudentius, and other authors, who faid, That the coming of Chrift had impofed filence on the oracles.

[ocr errors]

As to the second fort of oracles, which were pure artifices and cheats of the priests of false divinities, and which probably exceeded the number of those that immediately, proceeded from demons, they did not ceafe till idolatry was abolished, though they had loft their credit for a confiderable time before the coming of Chrift. It was concerning this more common and general fort of oracles, that Minutius Felix faid, they began to difcontinue their refponfes, according as men began to be more polite. But, howfoever decried oracles were, impoftors always: found dupes, the groffeft cheats having never failed."

[blocks in formation]

Daniel discovered the impofture of the priests of Bel, who had a private way of getting into the temple, to take away the offered meats, and who made the king believe, that the idol confumed them. Mundus, being in love with Paulina, the eldest of the priefteffes of Ifis, went and told her, that the god Anubis, being paffionately fond of her, commanded her to give him a meeting. She was afterwards fhut up in a dark room, where her lover Mundus, whom fhe believed to be the god Anubis, was concealed. This impofture having been difcovered, Tiberius ordered those deteftable priests and priefteffes to be crucified, and with them Idea, Mundus's free-woman, who had conducted the whole intrigue. He alfo commanded the temple of Ifis to be levelled with the ground, her ftatue to be thrown into the Tiber, and, as to Mundus, he contented himself with fending him into banishment.

Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, not only deftroyed the temples of the falfe gods, but difcovered the cheats of the priests, by fhewing that the ftatues, fome of which were of brafs, and others of wood, were hollow within, and led into dark paffages made in the wall.

Lucian, in difcovering the impoftures of the falfe prophet Alexander, fays, that the oracles were chiefly afraid of the fubtilties of the Epicureans and Christians. The falfe prophet Alexander fometimes feigned himself seized with a divine fury, and by means of the herb fopewort, which he chewed, frothed at the mouth in fo extraor

dinary a manner, that the ignorant people attributed it to the ftrength of the god he was poffeffed by. He had long before prepared a head of a dragon made of linen, which opened and fhat its mouth by means of a horfe's hair.-He went by night to a place where the foundations of a temple were digging, and, having found water, either of a fpring or rain that had fettled there, he hid in it a gooseegg, in which he had inclofed a little ferpent, that had been juft hatched.

The next day, very

early in the morning, he came quite naked into the street, having only a scarf about his middle, holding in his hand a fcythe, and toffing about his hair as the priests of Cybele; then getting a-top of a high altar, he faid that the place was happy to be honoured by the birth of a god.-Afterwards, running down to the place where he had hid the goofe-egg, and going into the water, he began to fing the praises of Apollo and Efculapius, and to invite the latter to come and fhew himself to men. With these words he dips a bowl into the water, and takes out a myfterious egg, which had a god inclofed in it, and when he had it in his hand, he began to fay that he held Efculapius. Whilst all were eager to have a fight of this fine mystery, he broke the egg, and the little ferpent starting out, twisted itself about his fingers.

Thefe examples fhew clearly, that both chriftians and pagans were so far agreed as to treat the greater number of oracles as purely human impoftures.

Table

nd caufed a prodigious flaughter. The prince, charmed with his vaour and conduct, fettled upon ord Audley an annual revenue of oo marks in England, which his lord immediately fettled upon is four efquires. The prince exoftulated with my lord upon his iving away the estate, and asked im, whether he liked not his ounty, or thought the reward not ufficient. To which this lord redied, "That they all deferved as vell as himself, without whofe afiftance, fays he, I, a fingle man, could have done but little." The prince was fo pleased with this anwer, that he gave him 6co marks per annum more for himself. The names of three of thefe efquires were Mackworth, Delves, and Hawkefton.

This proves, that this valiant knight, lord Audley, and his four efquires, were, like Nifus and Euryalus, united by the ftrongest ties of love and friendship, and determined either to live or die by each other. Juftly therefore may Virgil's account of Nifus and Euryalus be applied to them, and it ought to be looked upon as the fame civil inftitution,

[blocks in formation]

This, I think, undeniably proves the inftitution to have been the fame in England as it was in Greece; and I leave it to the offcers of our regiments to confider, how far fuch a friendship and attachment, and fuch a ftrong defire of mutual fupport and affiftance, would contribute to keep up our prefent national fpirit of bravery. There is no occafion furely to remark how far our prefent knights and efquires are changed from their original inftitution, when every man that carries up an unmeaning addrefs is dubb'da Knight, and every man that happens to poffefs two or three hundred pounds per annum, expects the mifapplied title of Efquire. W. W.

Rife and progrefs of the Englifo flage.

His amor unus erat, pariterque in THE true drama in England

bella ruebant.

Nifus promifes the whole reward of the adventure to his friend Euryalus; lord Audley gives the whole to his four efquires.

was revived by Shakespear, Fletcher, and Johnfon; and many of Shakespear's and Johnfon's pieces were firft acted by thefe companies. Befides thefe, the queen alfo, at the request of Sir Francis Walfingham, established

Si tibi, quæ pofco, promittunt (nam twelve of the principal players of

mihi facti

Fama fat eft) &c. &c..

Lord Audley would take his four equires along with him, becaufe

that time, with handfome falaries, under the name of her majefty's company of comedians and fervants. There were the common players, who exhibited at the places already

N 24

Literary and Miscellaneous Effays.

Some account of the first inflitution of of thefe performed any great exKnights and their Efquires in Eng-ploits, they made them prefents.

land.

T

HE right reverend and most learned Dr. Warburton, in his Divine Legation, book 2. fect. 4. has interwoven into the body of his work, an incomparable differtation on the fixth book of Virgil's Æneis. Had he never wrote any thing elfe, this alone would have been an undeniable proof of his profound knowledge of antiquity, and that he was one of the greateft critics of the age.

In the beginning of this differtation his lordship introduces the affecting episode of Nifus and Euryalus, Vir. En. b. 9. and, in his masterly manner, proves their mutual friendship and affection to have been an ancient civil inftitution, of great utility to the public, derived at firft from Crete, and afterwards adopted by all the principal cities of Greece. It was the custom for every man of diftinguifhed valour or wifdom to adopt fome favourite youth, whofe manners he took care to form. Thefe were the great ornaments and fupport of their refpective cities and countries, by introducing fuch a laudable fpirit of emulation. Thefe Lovers, as they were called, and the young men, that were formed under them, always ferved and fought together. And when any

From this cuftom the ftate reaped many advantages.

Thus far this excellent writer; and, I think, we may add, that we had anciently an inftitution of much the fame nature in England, which fully aufwered all the above purposes. The origin of Knights and their Efquires in this country must be accounted of this fort, They were united by the ftrictek rules of friendship and affection, they ferved and fought together, and prefents were made from the Knight to the Efquires, upon performing fome gallant action. Thus for inftance, out of many examples that might be brought. At the famous battle of Poitiers, 20th Edward III. the Black Prince, his fon, defeated the enemy, though much fuperior in number, and took the king, the dauphin of France, and many of the nobles prifoners. James, lord Audley. and his four efquires were very inftrumental in obtaining this victory. My lord acquainted the prince with the vow he had made to be the first in the battle, and defired he might have leave to accomplish it. The prince confented, and begged,

That God would give him the grace to be that day the best knight of all others." Upon this he departed with his four efquires, broke through the thickest of the enemy,

and

« ForrigeFortsett »