rse, that
he was causing a tortoise and a lamb to be drest in a vessel of brass,
which was really the case. The emperor Trajan made a similar trial of the
god at Heliopolis, by sending him a letter sealed up,(96) to which he
demanded an answer.(97) The oracle made no other return, than to command a
blank paper, well folded and sealed, to be delivered to him. Trajan, upon
the receipt of it, was struck with amazement to see an answer so
correspondent with his own letter, in which he knew he had written
nothing. The wonderful facility with which daemons can transfer themselves
almost in an instant from place to place, made it not impossible for them
to give the two answers, which I have last mentioned, and to foretell in
one country, what they had seen in another; this is Tertullian's
opinion.(98)

Admitting it to be true, that some oracles have been followed precisely by
the events foretold, we may believe that God, to punish the blind and
sacrilegious credulity of the Pagans, has sometimes permitted the daemons
to have a knowledge of things to come, and to foretell them distinctly
enough. Which conduct of God, though very much above human comprehension,
is frequently attested in the Holy Scriptures.

It has been questioned, whether the oracles, mentioned in profane history,
should be ascribed to the operations of daemons, or only to the wickedness
and imposture of men. Van dale, a Dutch physician, has maintained the
latter opinion, and Monsieur Fontenelle, when a young man, adopted it, in
the persuasion (to use his own words) that it was indifferent, as to the
truth of Christianity, whether the oracles were the effect of the agency
of spirits, or a series of impostures. Father Baltus, the Jesuit,
professor of the Holy Scriptures in the university of Strasburgh, has
refuted them both in a very solid treatise, wherein he demonstrates,
invincibly, from the unanimous authority of the Fathers, that daemons were
the real agents in the oracles. He attacks, with equal force and success,
the rashness and presumption of the Anabaptist physician; who, calling in
question the capacity and discernment of those holy doctors, secretly
endeavoured to efface the high idea all true believers should entertain of
those great leaders of the Church, and to depreciate their venerable
authority, which is so great a difficulty to all who deviate from the
principles of ancient tradition. Now, if that was ever certain and uniform
in any thing, it