Laws and Government, made frequent journeys to confult the Pythian Oracle. Herein these two famous Lawgivers imitated the method which was reported to have been taken long before by Minos King of Crete, who was celebrated by the Ancients for the justice of his Government and the excellence of his Laws, for the making and perfecting of which he is faid to have had several conferences with Jupiter, and for that purpose to have gone every Ninth Year into Jupiter's Cave to receive his Inftructions, and to give an account of what has been done in the former nine years, (according to Plato's account of the Tradition, who expounds the paffages of Homer and Hefiod, in which this matter is mentioned to the fame purpose in his Dialogue which bears the name of Minos.) By this practice

k

1

Leges fuas auctoritate Apollinis Delphici confirmavit, Cic. de Divinat. lib. I.

* Not for nine years together, as fome mistake it, who do not confider the passage of Plato.

1 Τέτο γδ σημαίνει τὸ ἔπ@ τὸ, (Hom. Οδ. τ'. . 179.

ΕννέωςΘ βασίλεψε Διὸς μεγάλε ἐαρισής,

σιωασίαςὴν τῶ Διὸς εἶναι ἢ Μίνω· οι τὰ ὄαροι λόγοι εἰσί· καὶ ἀπὸ ριτής σε ασιαςής ἐσιν εν λόγοις· ἐφοίτα ἦν δι' ἐνάτε ἔτες εἰς τὸ τῷ Διὸς ἄντρον ὁ Μίνως, τὰ μὲ μαθησόμμα, τα 3 αποδειξόμ

τῇ προτέρα ενναετηρίδι ( έμε μαθήκες ) αλα το Διός. Plato in Minoe, pag. 319. ed. Steph.

practice he reformed whatever was amifs, fo that the Laws of Crete continued in great reputation for many years after m. Infomuch that those of Sparta, under which the Lacedæmonians flourished fo long, were very much copied from them. And it is obferved by Plato, that those two kingdoms of Crete and Sparta were the only ones in all Greece, that kept from gaming and drinking to excess, which he affirms was chiefly owing to the good inftitutions of this Minos: whofe Memory was had in fuch veneration, that the ancient Poets have, for his Justice and good Government, made him one of the Judges of the dead in the other world; as they have alfo made Rhadamanthus another, who (according to Plato) was a fort of Chief Justice to Minos, in the adminiftration of his Government in Crete ". Though Strabo (out

n

of Ephorus, an old Hiftorian) tells us, P that there was another Rhadamanthus long before this, who first civilized the Island, and took the fame method of confulting with Jupiter, which

m Vide Strabonem, lib. x. pag. 477.

n Plato. ib. pag. 320.

• Rhadamanthus is called the Brother of Minos in Plato's firft Book de Legibus, p. 623.

P Strabo lib. x. pag. 476.

which Minos afterwards copied from him. That these, and the like relations of ancient times, which we meet withal in Heathen Authors, have a great mixture of fable in them I readily grant; but that which made them so easily obtain credit in the world, was this general perfuafion, that fuch laws and government as were moft under the Divine direction, must of neceffity be most perfect, and that God did, fome way or other, communicate fuch express directions to Good men. What Strabo, a judicious Author, remarks upon this occafion, is worth our observation; я Whatever, fays he, becomes of the real Truth of thefe relations, this however is certain, that men did believe and think them true; and for this reafon, Prophets were had in fuch bonour, as to be thought worthy fometimes even of Royal dignity, as being perfons that delivered precepts and admonitions from the Gods, both while they lived, and after their death, fuch as Tirefias, Amphiaraus, Trophonius, Orpheus, Mufæus, &c. It is certain, that fome

Ꮓ .

9 Ταῦτα δ' ὅπως ποτὲ ἀληθείας ἔχει, παρά γε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐπεπίςους καὶ ἐνενόμιτο, καὶ σοὶ τᾶτο οι μάντεις ἐτιμῶντο, ώτε καὶ βασιλείας άξιοι, ὡς τὰ παρα Θεῶν ἡμῖν φέροντες πα ραγγέλματα, καὶ ἐπανορθώματα καὶ ζῶντες, καὶ αποθανόντες, καθάπες Tesgerias. &c. Strabo, lib. 16. pag. 762.

fome of these Oracles continued long in reputation to after ages; and were frequently applied to by perfons of the highest rank, and beft understanding.

I know there are fome who now make it a great Controverfy, whether there ever was any real true prediction delivered by these, or any other Oracles among the Heathen; and fome go fo far as to affert, that they were all entirely cheat and collufion, managed by the artifice of crafty and designing men. And no doubt there was a great deal of human fraud in them; fo that in very many cafes, we need not look for any other folution for those appearances, by which the vulgar were deluded. But yet any one, who carefully confiders, what account the very best, and least credulous of ancient writers give of them, will find it very difficult to prove, that never any other agents but human, had any concern in them. There are fome fuch exprefs predictions related, as cannot well, with any modesty, be denied to have been made; nor is it so easy to account for them in the way of human Artifice, as it is to fhew, how they might, by wicked Spirits, have been collected from the true Oracles of God, and then delivered as their own, to gain credit to that Idolatrous

worship

.

worship of wicked Spirits, into which, by the juft judgment of God, thofe nations were fallen, which had departed from the worship of the one true God. Nor is it easy to account for what both Plato and Xenophon, two intimate acquaintance of Socrates, so particu larly and exprefly relate, concerning that Genius or Dæmon, which gave that good man fuch frequent and remarkable advertisements, to reftrain him from any defign, whereby he was likely to fall into any mistake or danger.

However, it is not neceffary to my present purpose, to enter so far into this Controversy, as to determine the matter either way; for let all that was pretended to by these Oracles be never fo much a cheat, yet there must have been originally fome ground of truth to build all this cheat upon; and the stronger and more lafting the cheat or counterfeit was, so much the stronger muft the perfuafion at firft have been, of fome real and true Revelation made from God. For no counterfeit is ever attempted, or can ever hope to meet with entertainment and success, but because it pretends to imitate fomething which has been true in a like kind before, and owned to be fo. If there had never been any real and true Coin, there never would have been any falfe or counterfeit.