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And
thus it is we should, it seems, understand the passages of St. Jerom,
Eusebius, Cyril, Theodoret, Prudentius, and other authors, who said,
that the coming of Christ had imposed silence on the oracles.

OF ORACLES, THE ARTIFICES OP PRIESTS OP FALSE DIVINITIES.
As regards the second sort of oracles, which were pure artifices and
cheats of the priests of false divinities, and which probably exceeded
the numbers of those that immediately proceed from demons, they did not
cease till idolatry was abolished, though they had lost their credit for
a considerable time before the coming of Christ. It was concerning this
more common and general sort of oracles that Minutius Felix said, they
began to discontinue their responses, according as men began to be more
polite. But, howsoever decried oracles were, impostors always found
dupes; the grossest cheats having never failed.
Daniel discovered the imposture of the priests of Bel, who had a private
way of getting into the temple, to take away the offered meats, and made
the king believe that the idol consumed them.


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