turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. Thus the divine providence so order ed it, that this occurrence should turn greatly to the honour and advancement of Christianity. But this prophetess might be in repute for discovering lost or stolen goods, or for revealing what happened in distant places, or for predicting changes of weather, or for many things of a like nature, and might not be able to foretell the future actions of men.

As to Isaias, we may infer with Vitringa, from his words, that God was determined so to conduct the great revolutions which were to be brought about in the world, and so to order the things relating to the victories of Cyrus, and to the fall of Babylon, that his predictions should be accomplished, and that the Chaldeans and other Pagan prophets should be filled with the spirit of error and of ignorance. I am the Lord that frustrateth the tokens of liars, and maketh diviners mad. And again he declares that the idols of Babylon should be destroyed, and their false gods not able to defend themselves. So that the declarations in Isaiah may be supposed to relate to the predictions made by Isaiah and by other prophets, in which their superiority over the diviners should manifestly appear, to the confusion of their Pagan neighbours. This, I say, follows, but not that, where there was no competition between the God of Israel, and the Pagan deities, no such thing as divination should ever be found in any age, and in any part of the Gentile world.

It may be said that, in all probability, God will not endue bad angels with the spirit of prophecy, or permit them to reveal things to come. It is probable indeed he will never do it, where there is a competition

between

between true religion and idolatry, and when it would make men worse than they would else be. But it appears from the scriptures, that the prophetic afflatus has sometimes inspired bad men; and we cannot be certain that God may not bring about some of the designs of providence even by evil spirits, by unworthy creatures, and immoral agents; much less can we be certain that good angels were never employed, as ministring spirits among the Pagans. Milton treats this subject in his Paradise Regained, i. 446. and makes Christ say to Satan ;

-Whence hast thou then thy truth,
But from him [God] or his angels president
In every province, who themselves disdaining
T' approach thy temples, give thee in command
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers?

It may be said also that divination among the Pagans helped, indirectly at least, to support idolatry and Paganism. Socrates, and Plato, and Xenophon, and other worthy men, believed divination by dreams and impulses; and this opinion had a tendency to confirm them in their religion, that is, in the belief of a supreme God, and of inferior gods, and good dæmons. It may be so; but the divine providence seems hitherto never to have intended that Judaism, or afterwards Christianity, should be the religion of all mankind, since neither of these religions were ever fairly proposed to all mankind. Divination, or the opinion of it, contributed to keep up Paganism in Pagan nations; it contributed also to keep out Atheism and there is a sort of Paganism which, such as it is, is far better than Atheism, with Bayle's leave be it said, who was pleased to affirm the contrary, and who, whatsoever

turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. Thus the divine providence so ordered it, that this occurrence should turn greatly to the honour and advancement of Christianity. But this prophetess might be in repute for discovering lost or stolen goods, or for revealing what happened in distant places, or for predicting changes of weather, or for many things of a like nature, and might not be able to foretell the future actions of men.

As to Isaias, we may infer with Vitringa, from his words, that God was determined so to conduct the great revolutions which were to be brought about in the world, and so to order the things relating to the victories of Cyrus, and to the fall of Babylon, that his predictions should be accomplished, and that the Chaldeans and other Pagan prophets should be filled with the spirit of error and of ignorance. I am the Lordthat frustrateth the tokens of liars, and maketh diviners mad. And again he declares that the idols of Babylon should be destroyed, and their false gods not able to defend themselves. So that the declarations in Isaiah may be supposed to relate to the predictions made by Isaiah and by other prophets, in which their superiority over the diviners should manifestly appear to the confusion of their Pagan neighbours. Thi say, follows, but not that, where there was no co tition between the God of Israel, and the Pag ties, no such thing as dition should ever

in any age, and in an

It may be said th endue bad angels w mit them to reveal deed he will nev

de, as it has day, in all whether, if A been better question most ne, will chuse will not take the heists, who have for polite gentleamongst the vulThe remark therefore than pertinent, that he PIS adoration to no being, orship his dog, his hat, or

whatsoever was his design, has highly obliged all Atheists and infidels, by many arguments and remarks scattered up and down in his writings. Bayle was not the inventor of this hypothesis, though he adorned and improved it. Lucretius and other Esprits

Forts had maintained it:

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona.

Lucretius i. 81.

Illud in his rebus vereor, ne forte rearis Impia te rationis inire elementa, viamque Endogredi sceleris: quod contra sæpius olim Relligio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta. There may have been modes of idolatry which were worse than Atheism, and which indeed, strictly speaking, were a kind of Atheism, as Bayle and others have truly observed; there may have been Atheists in the Pagan world, who were better citizens, and honester people than many of their superstitious countrymen ; and some Epicureans, as to personal qualities, might be preferable to some Peripatetics and Stoics. Atheism in idolatrous nations, and in former ages, was not altogether so great a depravity as it is now, since natural religion has received so much friendly aid from natural philosophy, and from the excellent Newtonian system, and has been so well illustrated and confirmed by many skilful writers. Deism likewise is not so bad in places where Christianity is clouded and defaced by superstition, as it is in countries where revealed religion is free from such gross errors and defects. There have been several idolaters, Jews, Mahometans, and Christians, several reverend inquisitors, compellers to come in, propagators of the faith, by sword, halter, and faggot, who have been viler persons than several Atheists; and religion may be corrupted to such a de

gree,