other to _Jupiter Ammon_, or _Hammon_.

Wise _Cicero_ contemned all this, and, as Authors tell us, ridiculed the
Answer, which, as I have hinted above, the Oracle gave to _Croesus_
proving that the Oracle it self was a _Liar_, that it could not come
from _Apollo_, for that _Apollo_ never spoke _Latin_: In a Word,
_Cicero_ rejected them all, and _Demosthenes_ also mentions the Cheats
of the _Oracles_; when speaking of the Oracle of _Apollo_, he said,
_Pithia Philippiz'd_; that is, that when the Priests were brib'd with
Money, they always gave their Answers in favour of _Philip_ of
_Macedon_.

But that which is most strange to me is, that in this Dispute about the
Reality of Oracles, the Heathen who made use of them are the People who
expose them, and who insist most positively upon their being Cheats and
Impostors, as in particular those mentioned above; while the Christians
who reject them, yet believe they did really foretel Things, answer
Questions, _&c._ only with this Difference, that the Heathen Authors who
oppose them, insist that 'tis all Delusion and Cheat, and charge it upon
the Priests; and the Christian Opposers insist that it was real, but
that the _Devil_, not the Gods, gave the Answers; and that he was
permitted to do it by a superior Power, to magnify that Power in the
total silencing them at last.

But, as I said before, I am with the Heathen here, against the Christian
Writers, for I take it all to be a Cheat and Delusion: I must give my
Reason for it, or I do nothing; my Reason is this, I insist Satan is as
blind in Matters of Futurity, as we are, and can tell nothing of what is
to come; these Oracles often pretending to predict, could be nothing
else therefore but a Cheat form'd by the Money-getting Priests to amuse
the World, and bring Grist to their Mill: If I meet with any thing in my
Way to open my Eyes to a better Opinion of them, I shall tell it you as
I go on.

On the other hand, whether the _Devil_ really spake in those Oracles, or
set the cunning Priests to speak for him; whether they predicted, or
only made the People believe they predicted; whether they gave Answers
which came to pass, or prevail'd upon the People to believe that what
was said did come to pass, it was much at one, and fully answer'd the
_Devil_'s End; namely, to amuse and delude the World; and as to do, or
to cause to be done, is the same Part of Speech, so whoever did it, the
_Devil_'s Interest was carried on by it, hi