Le Roi de Perse est le Chef de la Religion, mais l'Alcoran règle la Religion: l'Empereur de la Chine est le Souverain Pontife, mais il y a des Livres qui sont entre les mains de tout le monde, auxquels il y doit lui-même se conformer. En vain un Empéreur voulut-il les abolir; ils triomphèrent de la tyrannie. L'Esprit des Lois, 1. xxiv. ch. 2. 1. xii. ch. 29. 1. xxv. ch. 8. Je ne suis pas du sentiment (de M. Bayle) que l'Atheisme soit préferable à l'Idolatrie Payenne, en tout sens. Pour repondre à la question, il faudroit, ce me semble, premierement distinguer des societez, les opinions considerées d'une maniere abstraite, et faire d'un coté la description de l'Atheisme, et de l'autre celle de l'Idolatrie. L'on trouveroit peut-être qu'il y a telle Idolatrie qui seroit préferable à l'Atheisme, et telle autre qui seroit pire. Ainsi, je ne puis repondre ni oui, ni non, à la question géneralle de M. Bayle. En second lieu, quand il s'agiroit de considerer, non les opinions en general, mais les Societez en elles mêmes, qui feroient profession de l'Idolatrie Payenne, ou de l'Atheisme; il faudroit encore faire de grandes distinctions, & diviser la question en plusieurs propositions, selon les differens cas que l'on poseroit, et auxquels on répondroit négativement, ou affirmativement, suivant leur diversité. Je n'ai ni le loisir, ni la volonté de m'appliquer à cette sorte de recherche, et je n'en aurois même rien dit, si M. Bayle ne m'avoit fait l'honneur, de me citer, entre ceux, quil croit être de son sentiment, dans l'Article lxxvii. de la Continuation des pensées diverses sur les Cometes. Le Clerc, Bibl. Chois. V. S02. Si ce qu'on nous dit des opinions, des loix, & des mœurs des sujets des Yncas est vrai, il n'y a point eu d'Empire Idolatre dans les autres parties du monde, sans en excepter ceux des nations les plus polies et les plus savantes, où il y ait сц eu de si bonnes loix, et qu elles aient été si bien observées. La religion, qui consistoit principalement à adorer et à sacrifier au Soleil-non des victimes humaines-mais des bêtes et d'autres choses, a été la moins gâtée, qu'il y ait eu parmi les Idolatres. Outre le Soleil, ils disoient qu'il y avoit une autre Divinité.-Ils parloient de ce Dieu, comme d'un etre invisible, dont la nature leur étoit inconnue, et qui avoit créé le Soleil même et les étoiles. Ils croyoient aussi l'immortalité de l'ame, et avoient même une idée confuse de la résurrection, à ce que dit Garcilasso de la Vega. Supposé que ce qu'il dit soit véritable, on peut dire qu'une Societé Idolatre comme celle-là, étoit incomparablement meilleure que ne le seroit une societé d' Athées.-Ceux qui n'ont pas encore lú cette histoire seront charmez de l'excellente police des Peruviens, de la charité qu'ils avoient pour les pauvres, les veuves & les orphelins, et de l'innocence de leurs mœurs, à les considerer comme des peuples destituez des lumieres de la Revelation. Il y aura même bien des gens, qui seront plus édifiez des Vertus Morales des Americains, destituez des lumieres du Ciel, que des Vertus Theologiques des Espagnols, qui sont, comme ils le croyent, les meilleurs Chrétiens du monde.-Le Clerc, Bibl. Chois. V. p. 380. Bayle, after having shewed us the worst side of Paganism, proceeds to insult Christianity, and to tell us that a nation consisting of true Christians must soon perish, and could not maintain itself against its irreligious neighbours, which doctrine is also retailed in that flagitious and detestable book called The Fable of the Bees. And how does this appear? Is it because Christianity makes a man a poltroon? He does not pretend to say that: but because, according to the gospel, self-defence is unlawful, stratagems in war are crimes, merchandizing is wickedness, and riches and honours G 4 honours are prohibited. They who talk thus shew that they understand not, or will not understand either the strong and figurative style of the scriptures, or the rational methods of interpreting them, or the true nature of virtues and vices. If this author proposed to himself to acquire the applause of free-thinkers, he had his reward: but when Phocion had made a speech which was applauded by the populace, he asked, Have I not said some foolish thing? To return to divination, it appears from the Scriptures that some good and great men, when they were taking leave of the world, and blessing their children, or their nation, were enlightened with a prophetic spirit. Homer makes his heroes, as Patroclus and Hector, prophesy at the time of their death; and Cicero introduces his brother thus arguing in behalf of divination: Epicurum ergo antepones Platoni & Socrati? qui ut rationem non redderent, auctoritate tamen hos minutos philosophos vincerent. Jubet igitur Plato, sic ad somnum proficisci corporibus affectis, ut nihil sit, quod errorem animis perturbationemque afferat.-Quum ergo est somno sevocatus animus a societate, et a contagione corporis, tum meminit præteritorum, præsentia cernit, futura prævidet: jacet enim corpus-viget animus: quod multo magis faciet post mortem-itaque appropinquante morte multo est divinior.-Divinare autem morientes, etiam illo exemplo confirmat Posidonius-Idque facilius eveniet appropinquante morte, ut animi futura augurentur. Ex quo et illud est Calani, de quo ante dixi, et Homerici Hectoris, qui moriens propinquam Achilli mortem denuntiat. De Divin. i. 30. The Pagans had also an opinion that the good wishes and the imprecations of parents were often fulfilled, and and had in them a kind of divination. Read the story of Phoenix in Homer, Il. I. 445, &c. And Plato says that every wise person revered and esteemed the prayers of his parents, knowing that they were very frequently accomplished. Πᾶς δή νῦν ἔχων φοβεῖται καὶ τιμᾶ γονέων εὐχὰς, εἰδὼς πολλοῖς καὶ πολλάκις ἐπίτελεῖς γενομένας, De Leg. xi. p. 931. Consult the place, and compare it with the case of Esau, in Gen, xxvii. Eusebius has treated the subject of Oracles in his Præparatio Evangelica, L. iv. v, vi. He produces such arguments as tend to shew that it was all human fraud, and, amongst other things, he informs us, that many Pagan priests and prophets, who (under Constantine, I suppose) had been taken up, and tried, and tortured, had confessed that the oracles were impostures, and had laid open the whole contrivance, and that their confessions stood upon record, and that these were not obscure wretches, but philosophers and magistrates, who had enriched themselves by persecuting and plundering the Christians. So Theodoret tells us, that in demolishing the temples at Alexandria, the Christians found hollow statues fixed to the walls, into which the priests used to enter, and thence deliver oracles, v. 22. Eusebius adds, that the Peripatetics, Cynics, and Epicureans were of opinion that such predictions were all artifice and knavery. He then produces the arguments of Diogenianus against Divination. But Eusebius, as also all the ancient Christians, was of opinion, that with these human frauds there might have been sometimes a mixture of dæmoniacal tricks. Pr. Ev. vii. 16. He then argues against the oracles from the concessions and the writings of Pagans. He shews from Porphyry, that, according to that philosopher's own principles, and according to the the reasonings of other Pagans, the gods who deliver ed oracles must have been evil dæmons. He proves the same thing from human sacrifices, and produces Porphyry's testimony and opinion that the Pagans worshipped evil dæmons, the chief of whom were Serapis and Hecate. He proves the same from Plutarch, and he gives a collection made by Oenomaus of wicked, false, trifling, ambiguous oracles. The old Oracles often begin with Axx' öτar, But when, which is an odd setting out. Thus in Herodotus, ̓Αλλ ὅταν ἡμίονος—i. 55. Αλλ' ὅταν ̓Αρλέμιδος In the Oracula Vetera, ̓Αλλ ̓ οἱ μὲν καθύπερθε ̓Αλλὰ τέλει ξόανον Αλλ' οπόταν σκήπτροισι Αλλ ̓ ὅτε δὴ νύμφαι ̓Αλλ ̓ ὁπόταν Τιθορεύς Αλκ ̓ ὅταν οἰκήσωσι viii. 77. In imitation of which style, we find in the Sibyl line oracles, and in the beginning of a sentence, Αλλ' οπόταν μεγάλοιο Θεό And so in many places of that collection, which I shall not transcribe. Hence Aristophanes, in banter, I suppose, of the predictions in Herodotus, makes a pompous and ridiculous oracle, and uses the same foolish introduction, to persuade a sausage-monger to set up for a demagogue and a ruler. The oracle is in heroic verse, and runs thus: Equit. 197. ̓Αλλ' ὁπόταν μάρψη βυρσαίειος ἀγκυλοχείλης Ni |