of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos to
Croesus King of Lydia.

TRACT XI

Sir,

Among the Oracles[276] of Appollo there are none more celebrated than those which he delivered unto Croesus King of Lydia,[277] who seems of all Princes to have held the greatest dependence on them. But most considerable are his plain and intelligible replies which he made unto the same King, when he sent his Chains of Captivity unto Delphos, after his overthrow by Cyrus, with sad expostulations why he encouraged him unto that fatal War by his Oracle, saying,[278] Croesus, if he Wars against the Persians, shall dissolve a great Empire. Why, at least, he prevented not that sad infelicity of his devoted and bountifull Servant, and whether it were fair or honourable for the Gods of Greece to be ingratefull: which being a plain and open delivery of Delphos, and scarce to be parallel’d in any ancient story, it may well deserve your farther consideration.

1. His first reply was, That Croesus suffered not for himself; but paid the transgression of his fifth predecessour, who kill’d his Master and usurp’d the dignity unto which he held no title.

Now whether Croesus suffered upon this account or not, hereby he plainly betrayed his insufficiency to protect him; and also obliquely discovered he had a knowledge of his misfortune; for knowing that wicked act lay yet unpunished, he might well divine some of his successours might smart for it: and also understanding he was like to be the last of that race, he might justly fear and conclude this infelicity upon him.

Hereby he also acknowledged the inevitable justice of God; that though Revenge lay dormant, it would not always sleep; and consequently confessed the just hand of God punishing unto the third and fourth generation, nor suffering such iniquities to pass for ever unrevenged.

Hereby he flatteringly encouraged him in the opinion of his own merits, and that he onely suffered for other mens transgressions: mean while he concealed Croesus his pride, elation of mind and secure conceit of his own unparallel’d felicity, together with the vanity, pride and height of luxury of the Lydian Nation, which the Spirit of Delphos knew well to be ripe and ready for destruction.

2. A Second excuse was, That it is not in the power of God to hinder the Decree of Fate. A general evasion for any falsified prediction founded upon the common opinion of Fate, which impiously subjecteth the power of Heaven unto it; widely discovering the folly of such as repair unto him concerning future events: which, according unto this rule, must go on as the Fates have ordered, beyond his power to prevent or theirs to avoid; and consequently teaching that his Oracles had onely this use to render men more miserable by foreknowing their misfortunes; whereof Croesus himself had a sensible experience in that DÆmoniacal Dream concerning his eldest Son, That he should be killed by a Spear, which, after all care and caution, he found inevitably to befall him.

3. In his Third Apology he assured him that he endeavoured to transfer the evil Fate and to pass it upon his Children; and did however procrastinate his infelicity, and deferred the destruction of Sardis and his own Captivity three years longer than was fatally decreed upon it.

Wherein while he wipes off the stain of Ingratitude, he leaves no small doubt whether, it being out of his power to contradict or transfer the Fates of his Servants, it be not also beyond it to defer such signal events, and whereon the Fates of whole Nations do depend.

As also, whether he intended or endeavoured to bring to pass what he pretended, some question might be made. For that he should attempt or think he could translate his infelicity upon his Sons, it could not consist with his judgment, which attempts not impossibles or things beyond his power; nor with his knowledge of future things, and the Fates of succeeding Generations: for he understood that Monarchy was to expire in himself, and could particularly foretell the infelicity of his Sons, and hath also made remote predictions unto others concerning the fortunes of many succeeding descents; as appears in that answer unto Attalus,

As also unto Cypselus King of Corinth.

Now, being able to have so large a prospect of future things, and of the fate of many Generations, it might well be granted he was not ignorant of the Fate of Croesus his Sons, and well understood it was in vain to think to translate his misery upon them.

4. In the Fourth part of his reply, he clears himself of Ingratitude which Hell it self cannot hear of; alledging that he had saved his life when he was ready to be burnt, by sending a mighty Showre, in a fair and cloudless day, to quench the Fire already kindled, which all the Servants of Cyrus could not doe. Though this Shower might well be granted, as much concerning his honour, and not beyond his power; yet whether this mercifull Showre fell not out contingently or were not contrived by an higher power, which hath often pity upon Pagans, and rewardeth their vertues sometimes with extraordinary temporal favours; also, in no unlike case, who was the authour of those few fair minutes, which, in a showry day, gave onely time enough for the burning of Sylla’s Body, some question might be made.

5. The last excuse devolveth the errour and miscarriage of the business upon Croesus, and that he deceived himself by an inconsiderate misconstruction of his Oracle, that if he had doubted, he should not have passed it over in silence, but consulted again for an exposition of it. Besides, he had neither discussed, nor well perpended his Oracle concerning Cyrus, whereby he might have understood not to engage against him.

Wherein, to speak indifferently, the deception and miscarriage seems chiefly to lie at Croesus his door, who, if not infatuated with confidence and security, might justly have doubted the construction: besides, he had received two Oracles before, which clearly hinted an unhappy time unto him: the first concerning Cyrus.

Herein though he understood not the Median Mule of Cyrus, that is, of his mixed descent, and from Assyrian and Median Parents, yet he could not but apprehend some misfortune from that quarter.

Though this prediction seemed a notable piece of Divination, yet did it not so highly magnifie his natural sagacity or knowledge of future events as was by many esteemed; he having no small assistance herein from the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Persian Monarchy, and the Prophecy of Jeremiah and Isaiah, wherein he might reade the name of Cyrus who should restore the Captivity of the Jews, and must, therefore, be the great Monarch and Lord of all those Nations.

The same misfortune was also foretold when he demanded of Apollo if ever he should hear his dumb Son speak.

This, if he contrived not the time and the means of his recovery, was no ordinary divination: yet how to make out the verity of the story some doubt may yet remain. For though the causes of deafness and dumbness were removed, yet since words are attained by hearing, and men speak not without instruction, how he should be able immediately to utter such apt and significant words, as ?????pe, ? ?te??e ????s??,[279] O Man slay not Croesus, it cannot escape some doubt, since the Story also delivers, that he was deaf and dumb, that he then first began to speak, and spake all his life after.

Now, if Croesus had consulted again for a clearer exposition of what was doubtfully delivered, whether the Oracle would have spake out the second time or afforded a clearer answer, some question might be made from the examples of his practice upon the like demands.

So when the Spartans had often fought with ill success against the Tegeates, they consulted the Oracle what God they should appease, to become victorious over them. The answer was, that they should remove the Bones of Orestes. Though the words were plain, yet the thing was obscure, and like finding out the Body of Moses. And therefore they once more demanded in what place they should find the same; unto whom he returned this answer,

Which obscure reply the wisest of Sparta could not make out, and was casually unriddled by one talking with a Smith who had found large Bones of a Man buried about his House; the Oracle importing no more than a Smith’s Forge, expressed by a Double Bellows, the Hammer and Anvil therein.

Now, why the Oracle should place such consideration upon the Bones of Orestes the Son of Agamemnon, a mad man and a murtherer, if not to promote the idolatry of the Heathens, and maintain a superstitious veneration of things of no activity, it may leave no small obscurity.

Or why, in a business so clear in his knowledge, he should affect so obscure expressions it may also be wondred; if it were not to maintain the wary and evasive method in his answers: for, speaking obscurely in things beyond doubt within his knowledge, he might be more tolerably dark in matters beyond his prescience.

Though EI were inscribed over the Gate of Delphos, yet was there no uniformity in his deliveries. Sometimes with that obscurity as argued a fearfull prophecy; sometimes so plainly as might confirm a spirit of divinity; sometimes morally, deterring from vice and villany; another time vitiously, and in the spirit of bloud and cruelty: observably modest in his civil enigma and periphrasis of that part which old Numa would plainly name,[280] and Medea would not understand, when he advised Ægeus not to draw out his foot before, untill he arriv’d upon the Athenian ground; whereas another time he seemed too literal in that unseemly epithet unto Cyanus King of Cyprus,[281] and put a beastly trouble upon all Ægypt to find out the Urine of a true Virgin. Sometimes, more beholding unto memory than invention, he delighted to express himself in the bare Verses of Homer. But that he principally affected Poetry, and that the Priest not onely or always composed his prosal raptures into Verse, seems plain from his necromantical Prophecies, whilst the dead Head in Phlegon delivers a long Prediction in Verse; and at the raising of the Ghost of Commodus unto Caracalla, when none of his Ancestours would speak, the divining Spirit versified his infelicities; corresponding herein to the apprehensions of elder times, who conceived not onely a Majesty but something of Divinity in Poetry, and as in ancient times the old Theologians delivered their inventions.

Some critical Readers might expect in his oraculous Poems a more than ordinary strain and true spirit of Apollo; not contented to find that Spirits make Verses like Men, beating upon the filling Epithet, and taking the licence of dialects and lower helps, common to humane Poetry; wherein, since Scaliger, who hath spared none of the Greeks, hath thought it wisedom to be silent, we shall make no excursion.

Others may wonder how the curiosity of elder times, having this opportunity of his Answers, omitted Natural Questions; or how the old Magicians discovered no more Philosophy; and if they had the assistance of Spirits, could rest content with the bare assertions of things, without the knowledge of their causes; whereby they had made their Acts iterable by sober hands, and a standing part of Philosophy. Many wise Divines hold a reality in the wonders of the Ægyptian Magicians, and that those magnalia which they performed before Pharaoh were not mere delusions of Sense. Rightly to understand how they made Serpents out of Rods; Froggs and Bloud of Water, were worth half Porta’s Magick.

Hermolaus Barbarus was scarce in his wits, when, upon conference with a Spirit, he would demand no other question than the explication of Aristotle’s Entelecheia. Appion the Grammarian, that would raise the Ghost of Homer to decide the Controversie of his Country, made a frivolous and pedantick use of Necromancy. Philostratus did as little, that call’d up the Ghost of Achilles for a particular of the Story of Troy. Smarter curiosities would have been at the great Elixir, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, with other noble obscurities in Nature; but probably all in vain: in matters cognoscible and framed for our disquisition, our Industry must be our Oracle, and Reason our Apollo.

Not to know things without the Arch of our intellectuals, or what Spirits apprehend, is the imperfection of our nature not our knowledge, and rather inscience than ignorance in man. Revelation might render a great part of the Creation easie which now seems beyond the stretch of humane indagation, and welcome no doubt from good hands might be a true Almagest, and great celestial construction: a clear Systeme of the planetical Bodies of the invisible and seeming useless Stars unto us, of the many Suns in the eighth Sphere, what they are, what they contain and to what more immediately those Stupendous Bodies are serviceable. But being not hinted in the authentick Revelation of God, nor known how far their discoveries are stinted; if they should come unto us from the mouth of evil Spirits, the belief thereof might be as unsafe as the enquiry.

This is a copious Subject; but, having exceeded the bounds of a letter, I will not, now, pursue it farther. I am

Yours, etc.