ouls, angels and demons are disengaged
from all matter or substance, still we can apply his reasoning to evil
spirits, even upon the supposition that they are immaterial--and own
that sometimes they can predict the future, and that their predictions
may be fulfilled; but that is not a proof of their being sent by God,
or inspired by his Spirit. Even were they to work miracles, we must
anathematize them as soon as they turn us from the worship of the true
God, or incline us to irregular lives.

Footnotes:

[190] Deut. xiii. 1, 2.

[191] Isaiah xli. 22, 23.

[192] Tertull. Apolog. c. 20.

[193] Hieronym. in Dan.

[194] Matt. xxiv. 11, 24.

[195] Jonah i. 2.

[196] Kings xx. 1. Isai. xxxviii. 1.

[197] Numb. xxii. xxiii. xxiv.

[198] Numb. xxxi. 8.

[199] Aug. de Divinat. Daemon. c. 3, pp. 507, 508, _et seq._

[200] Idem. c. 5.

[201] S. August. in his Retract. lib. ii. c. 30, owns that he advanced
this too lightly.

CHAPTER XVII.

REASONS WHICH LEAD US TO BELIEVE THAT THE GREATER PART OF THE ANCIENT
ORACLES WERE ONLY IMPOSITIONS OF THE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES, WHO
FEIGNED THAT THEY WERE INSPIRED BY GOD.

If it is true, as has been thought by many, both among the ancients
and the moderns, that the oracles of pagan antiquity were only
illusions and deceptions on the part of the priests and priestesses,
who said that they were possessed by the spirit of Python, and filled
with the inspiration of Apollo, who discovered to them internally
things hidden and past, or present and future, I must not place them
here in the rank of evil spirits. The devil has no other share in the
matter than he has always in the crimes of men, and in that multitude
of sins which cupidity, ambition, interest, and self-love produce in
the world; the demon being always ready to seize an occasion to
mislead us, and draw us into irregularity and error, employing all
our passions to lead us into these snares. If what he has foretold is
followed by fulfilment, either by chance, or because he has foreseen
certain circumstances unknown to men, he takes to himself all the
credit of it, and makes use of it to gain our confidence and
conciliate credit for his predictions; if the thing is doubtful, and
he knows not what the issue of it will be, the demon, the priest, or
priestess will pronounce an equivocal oracle, in order that at all
events they may appear to have spoken true.

The ancient legislators of Greece, the most ski