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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64059	A disquisition touching the sibylls and the sibylline writings in which their number, antiquity, and by what spirit they were inspired, are succinctly discussed, the objections made by Opsopæus, Isaac Casaubon, David Blondel, and others, are examined, as also the authority of those writings asserted : which may serve as an appendix to the foregoing learned discourse touching the truth and certainty of Christian religion.	Twysden, John, 1607-1688.; Yelverton, Henry, Sir, 1566-1629. Short discourse of the truth & reasonableness of the religion delivered by Jesus Christ.	1662 (1662)	Wing T3546_PART; ESTC R31870_PART	53,956	102

Midas might as well receive his name from the River as that from him except you like better to believe this verse foisted in by some late Writer who remembring that Celaene was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the tradition of the Arks resting there thought by this means to explain the Oracle but indeed corrupted it A misfortune like to it I have before shewed you happened to the text of Justin Martyr For if that verse be left out the sense of the Oracle is no more then that in the Continent of black Phrygia there is a long and arduous Mountain called Ararat upon whose high top the Ark rested But D. Blond cap. 3. p. 9 Blundel will not thus give us over but tells us that this very person discovers her self to be a Christian and that she compiled this her Rapsodie between the years after Christ 138 and 151. that is between the time of the death of Adrian and that part of the Reign of Antoninus when Justin Martyr presented his Apology The words referred to are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 8. p. 403. We therefore that are sprung from the holy and heavenly generation of Christ c. By which words saith he she evidently manifests her self to have lived after Christ Though I might accommodate many answers to this place and tell you that all persons whatsoever that have been saved were regenerated by Christ whether exhibited or to be exhibited and that future things are often declared as past Yet since it is not my task to justifie all things in those eight Books to be as ancient as the flood but only to shew 't is possible some things therein might I shall not contend with him about it so as on his part it might be as equally conceded that there were more Sibylls then one which I find him very hard to be induced to as you may see in his seventeenth Chapter at the end Blond cap. 17. p. 78. where he saith all the eight Books which we have were written by one and the same hand I confess very pertinently to his purpose had he proved it but contrary to the sence of all the world before him except by writing he understand composing and setting in order the works of many persons which probably might be the labour of one and the same person according to the custome of the Eastern Countries at this day as I am informed by a Learned Divine that hath travelled in those parts where their manner is to gather together the wise sayings of their Progenitors who ever they were without any order or consideration of time or other circumstance and so transmit them to posterity indeed as a Rapsody or disjointed things that have no necessary connexion or dependance one upon another and yet all or much of them very true That these Writings of the Sibylls may have had their share in this fate as to some particulars therein I think probable enough but that will not serve to impugne the authority of them all Object 8 Another Objection urged by D. Blundel against these Books is taken from their direct contradiction of the Holy Scripture Genes 7.11 Genes 8.14 for whereas Moses tells you that Noah continued in the Ark from the 17th day of the second moneth to the 27th day of the second moneth following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibyl Orac. lib. 1. p. 183. the Authour of this work plainly saith that Noah went out of the Ark the eighth person after he had fulfilled forty and one days in the waters according to the will of God If this learned man had as much endeavoured to have gathered Arguments for the asserting the truth of the Sibylline Predictictions Answ as he was curious and diligent to heap up all imaginable matter that could be found out any way to impugne their authority he might from this place have found out as well reason to believe them true as by it conclude their falshood for he could not but see that the History of the flood is told almost directly like to that related by Moses in Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sibyl Orac. lib. 1. pag. 179. The opening the flood-gates and cataracts of Heaven of his opening the roof of the Ark of his great fear of the endless extent of the waters of the earths being covered and drowned by them many days and of the terrible face of the Heavens during that time She then tells you the story of the first sending out of the Dove her return then the sending her out the second time her return with an Olive branch in her mouth After this the sending forth the Raven who returned not And before the first sending forth the Dove tells you of some remission in the air after the earth had been watered with the rain many days And after this and the first return of the Dove his remaining in the Ark more days And much more to that purpose all which could not probably be performed in the space of 40 or 41 days in which time 't is scarce imaginable either how or from whence so great a bulk of water could come as was sufficient to cover the whole globe of the earth so high as to be enough above the highest mountain upon the face of it that all the Inhabitants might be drowned had not the immediate hand and power of God intervened to effect it Insomuch that no Impostor whatsoever except he had been more foolish then false would have transcribed a story out of Moses with circumstances comprehending some length of time in their performance and at last contradict his own relation in a matter which lay directly before his eyes and impossible not to be detected We may therefore with more reason believe this relation not to have been taken out of Moses but rather to have proceeded out of the mouth of her that was in the Ark with Noah which being no way prophetical but historical may admit of a greater latitude and lead us to conclude the Writer whoever she was pitched upon some considerable or notable period of 41 days in which they were in the greatest danger Let us therefore see if we can any way discover when this was Moses saith Genes 7. Gen. 7. v. 11. That on the seventeenth day of the second moneth when Noah and all his Family with the creatures were in the Ark and that the Lord had shut up the door upon them that the fountains of the deep were broken up and the cataracts

Erithrea and Cumana With him agrees the Scholiast of Aristophanes in his Comedy of Birds There were three Sibylls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Aristoph in avibus of which one as her Verses tell you was the Sister of Apollo the second Erithrea the third Sardiana Aelianus tells you of four Erithrea Samia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aegyptia and Sardiana to whom saith he others have added six so that in all they are ten amongst which Cumaea and Judaea are reckoned Lactantius out of Varro with whom agree Isidore Lact. pag. 33. Isid l 8. cap. 8. Suidas in verbo Antim in Praefat. ad Sibyl Orac. p. 144. Sixt. Sen Bibliot pag. 108. Edit Lugd. Suidas Antimachus and most others count ten in this order 1. The Persian 2. The Lybian 3. The Delphick 4. The Cumaean 5. The Erithrean 6. The Samian 7. Cumana 8. The Hellespontick 9. The Prygian 10. The Tiburtine Onuphrius addes more as you may see in his Book de Sibyllis put out before the Oracles in the Paris Edit 1599. In his account of them I observe this difference he accounts the Sibylla Delphica in the first place and Persica in the eighth I think erroneously for certainly she was much ancienter then Cumana if her name was Amalthea as I shall shew anon The age of the world in which they lived severally is uncertain but undoubtedly the first of them very ancient and sundry of them before the Trojan War Onup de Sibyll pag. 7. Onuphrius tells you that Sibylla Delphica lived long before those times and quotes Bocchus or Boethus for it that she was born at Delphos that Homer took some of his Verses from her which our Learned Doctor Simpson in his Chron. Simp. Chro. Cat. A.M. 28 29. Cathol takes to be those among others by him remembred upon the year of the world 2829. But Pausanias goes much higher and tells you speaking of Delphos that it was the place where Oracles were delivered from the beginning of the earth They say from the beginning of the earth there was a place of Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pausan in Phocicis p. 320. 29 Ed. Frank. 1583. and that Daphne was by the earth her self appointed President there That prophecying was in common between Neptune and the Earth that the Earth gave Oracles with her own mouth That Neptune had for his Minister for that office one Dircon And not many lines after hath these words I have heard that some Shepherds happened upon the place where the Oracle was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 320. 38. Pho. and became inspired by the vapour of the earth it self and prophesied by the power of Apollo Which thing might very well occasion the building of a Temple to Apollo in that place wherein Oracles had formerly been given Nay I find farther that the same Pausanias tells you of one Herophile that used to give Oracles where you find this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausa Phoc. p. 327. 18. There is a stone rising up above the rest Upon this the Delphians say that one Erophile used to stand and deliver Oracles and that she first obtained the name of a Sibyll But I find her rather in the like manner more ancient whom the Grecians call the daughter of Jupiter and Lamia who was the daughter of Neptune and that she first chanted out Oracles of any women and by those of Libya was called a Sibyll Herophile was not so ancient as she was yet was she also before the Trojan Wars When I consider and compare with these testimonies what the most Learned Bochartus saith in his Geographia Sacra That Noah was Saturn Cham Jupiter Hammon Japhet Neptune Boch p. 1. Noam esse Saturnum tom multa docent ut vixsit dubitandi locus See How Inst Hist p. 4. and Sem Pluto in whom you may farther see the concinness of the Story and his reasons at large as likewise that Tubal Cain was Vulcan Boch pag. 432. by a small change in the pronuntiation their sounds being almost the same It might well stand together that in that time when there was a promiscuous use of all beds that Cham might marry his brother Japhets daughter that is according to Pausanias Jupiter married the daughter of Neptune who as you heatd before was a Diviner and all this before the flood so that the story of one skill'd in that Art being shut up in the Ark with Noah is not only probable but true for we are certain Noahs three Sons with their wives were shut up there Josep li. 1. cap. 5. Lil. Giral de Poet. Hist pa. 79. Josephus a Jewish Writer and certainly no friend to Prophesies not owned by those of his Nation tells you of one that spake of the building the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues also but without any mark of distrust put upon it which probably he would have done had he found any cause not to believe the truth of their Writings Lilius Giraldus tells you That Sibylla Persica called Sambethe the same with Chaldaica and Hebraea lived before the flood and was shut up in the Ark with Noah I find her also called * Lil. Giral de Poet. Hist pa. 79 Dial. 2. Suidas in verb. Collius l. 3. p. 2. p. 192. De animabus Paganctuin Sambethe Noe which might as well be the daughter of Noah as to derive her name from Noe a Town near the Red Sea as Beirlin in Verb. and our industrious Countryman Mr. Howel in his Instit Historical incline pag. 171. Georg. Cedrenus tells you of one in Solomons time it may be the same Pausan pag. 327. calls Saba and to have succeeded Demo said to be the daughter of Berosus and Erimanthe The Queen of Sheba who was also by the Grecians called a Sibyll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Glycas Annal. p. 256. c. Onuphrius in his Book de Sibyllis will tell you of others that lived in other ages of the world Pausan in Phocic p. 337. Onup de Sibyl and assuredly long before that Amalthea who is said to have offered to sale nine books of Oracles to Tarquinius Priscus others to Superbus which story because I shall make some use of it I shall deliver at large as I have literally rendred it out of Dionysius Harliearnassaeus who lived about twenty six years before the birth of our Saviour as Helvicus hath it Helv. Chron. in annot in cat viror illustrium The story in Dionysius Halicarnassaeus is thus Another very admirable accident in the time of the Reign of Tarquinius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 4. fol 259. whether given by the good will of the Gods or Daemons is related to have fallen out in the City of Rome which not only for a small time but in all ages and often hath saved it from great evils A certain woman not of that Country came to the King desirous to sell nine books

filled with Sibylline Oracles but the King not thinking fit to buy them at the price she asked shewent from his presence and burnt three of them and soon after returning asked the same price for those that remained but he thinking her some dotard and to be derided who asked for a fewer in number that price she could not obtain for them all she again went away and burnt half of them that were left and bringing again the three that remained demanded still the same quantity of gold The King then wondring at this deliberate counsel in the woman sent to the Augurs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and discoursing the matter with them inquired what was fit to be done they by certain signs having learnt that he had refused a blessing sent from God and deeming it a great misfortune that he had not bought all the books commanded the gold to be told out to her and to receive the books that remained but she giving the books with a charge to keep them carefully vanished out of their sight Tarquin made choice of two of the Citizens of good rank and joyning to them two other publique Ministers gave unto them the custody of them one of which was called Marcus Atylius who because it seemed he had done something injuriously as to his trust and being accused as a Parricide by one of the publick Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was sewen into a sack of leather and thrown into the Sea But after the expulsion of the Kings the City taking upon themselves the oversight of the Oracles constituted for their keepers the most considerable men of their City discharging them from all other employments both military and civil and appointed others of the people without whom they permitted not these men to take a view of the Oracles In short let me tell you The Romans kept no holy or sacred possession whatsoever with that care they did the Sibylline Oracles They made use of them according to the Vote of the Senate when any sedition fell out in the City or great misfortune in war or that wonders or great and portentous Apparitsons were seen amongst them which things often fell out These books of Oracles remained until the time of the so called Marsike War being laid under ground in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and kept in a Coffer or Box of stone by the Decemvirs But after the 173. Olympiade the Temple being burnt whether on set purpose as some think or by chance they were together with other things consecrated to the Gods destroyed by the fire Those which now are were fetch'd from sundry places some out of the Cities of Italy some out of Erithre in Asia Messengers being sent by the Decree of the Senate to transcribe them some were fetchd from other Cities transcribed by private hands in which there are some things supposititious or inserted among the Sibylline Writings but they are discovered by those verses which are called Acrosticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus far he Others call this strange womans name Amalthea of Cumes But from this story thus told with which Varro Lactantius and others agree give me leave to make these Observations CHAP. II. Observations and by what Spirit they spake is discussed FIrst That in the judgment of Dionysius Halicarnassaeus 't was uncertain by what Spirit they were inspired for he relates as doubtful whether those books were given by God or the Divel St Ambrose speaking of the spirit of Python Amb. Com. in Epist 1. ad Cor. cap. 11. hath these words Hic est qui per Sibyllam locutus est c. St Augustine Cont. Manich. hath these words Moreover touching Sibyll or Sibylls Orpheus Sibylla porro vel Sibyllae Orpheus nescio quis Homerus si qui alii Vates vel Theologi vel Sapientes vel Philosophi Gentium de Filio Dei aut de Patre Deo vera praedixisse seu dixisso perhibentur valet quidem aliquid ad illorum vanitatem revincendam non tamen ad istorum authoritatem amp●cotendam cum illum Deum colere ostendimus quem nec illi tacere potuerunt qui suos congentiles populos Idola Dae●●na colenda partim docere ausi sunt partim prohibere ausi non sunt and I know not who Homer and whatsoever other Presagers Divines Wise men or Philosophers of the Gentiles who are reported to have told or foretold true things of the Son of God or God the Father 't is indeed of some use to overthrow the vanity of the Gentiles not to make us embrace their Authority since we make it appear that we worship that God of whom they could not hold their peace who partly taught their Country-men that Idols and Daemons were to be worshipped partly durst not hinder them in it Perhaps he may mean this rather of the other Soothsayers and Diviners that were common in those times not of the Sibylls at least all of them for if our Learned Prelate Richard Mountacute sometimes L. Bishop of Norwich Mount Analect p. 159. quote him right he speaks more favourably of Sibylla Erithrea saying She had nothing among all her Verses which either belonged to the worshipping of false or feigned gods Nihil habuit in toto carmine quod ad Deorum falsorum seu fictorum cultum pertineat Isaac Casaubon a man of great learning and various reading speaking of the use made of them by the Romans hath these words There was never any thing produced he means by the Romans out of those Books Nihil enim unquam ex illis libris prolatum quo gentium error ille insanus Daemonum cultus non confirmarctur aut etiam nova accessione impietatis non augeretur Cas p. 81. ed Gen. exc in Bar. by which the errour of the Gentiles and that mad worship of Daemons was not confirmed or augmented by some new accession of impiety I believe what he saith to be true for he that is conversant in any measure with the Romane story will find with what superstition and impious facrifices they consulted those books and commonly in such cases wherein the good only of their own Country and the worship of their feigned Gods might be promoted insomuch that whatever else was in these books that concerned the worship of the true God being by them not understood was wholly neglected and therefore in my judgment Gasaubon deserves not the censure which I find he hath received in this particular as if he had contradicted what St Augustine before him had delivered Blundelius in his Book De les Sibylles calls them frequently Rhapsodists stale meat like Nostredamus c. And truly it is justly to be doubted whether those persons were indued with the Spirit of God in whose writings among many truths much that countenanced impiety was mixed We know God sometimes forced the truth out of the mouths of false Prophets Balaam Caiaphas and others neither is it very material to examine

and Virgil and the Acrosticks translated by Cicero and all this made so manifest by those that had accurately computed the time that their testimony is beyond exception Of the same opinion is Lactantius Lact. l. 5. de ver sap p. 400. who tells you None that hath either read Cicero or Varro will believe these Writings counterfeited by the Christians out of which these testimonies had been produced by persons dead long before the birth of our Saviour But I had almost forgotten that he offers some reason against the Acrostick mentioned in the Oration of Constantine because in the Sibylline Books it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting of one letter more than the name ought to have according to the true writing thereof whereas D. Blundel who makes this Objection could not be ignorant that the ancient Graecians accounted the name of Christus octosyllabum as Irenaeus tells him Iron li. 1. ca. 10. And Valesius in his Notes upon Eusebius lately put out at Paris 1659. hath these wrods The ancient Graecians accounted the Name of Christ to consist of eight syllables taking sylable there for Sance veteres Graeci nomen Christi octofyllabum faciebant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 cum dipth●r 〈…〉 l. 1. c 10. a letter writing Christ Creist with a dipthong I confess I find not that particular in Irenaeus in the place quoted nor remember it in any other but of this I am sure to have observed in ancient Greek Inscriptions upon Statues and Pillars Vid. Seldini Marmora Arundeliana what we now write with a single I expressed by a dipthong and the like which is evident in the writing of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latinus CHAP. VII Of Predictions of things to come and of Divination in general what sorts lawfull what uncertain Of Enthusiasme the definition of it Of Enthusiasticks and such of our Time who have pretended to Visions and Revelations The difference between true and fals Prophets In what rank the Sibylls are to be accounted DAvid Blundel having urged all the Arguments he could against the Sibylline Books now at last employs many Chapters touching Enthusiasme the consideration whereof I shal now take in hand but think it not amiss in the first place to speak something of Predictions in general and the several ways by which future events are foretold and frequently come to pass The first is of wise and Learned men who from their Observations out of History and comparing the times past and present when they shall see the same things come again upon the stage of the world that have formerly been and then considering all circumstances of agreement and difference are able to give a probable conjecture which seldome fails of what is like to come to pass which sort of Predictions are not only lawful but worthy of much commendation and are very frequently conducible to the good of Kingdoms by preventing evils otherwise like to come upon them A second sort is Astrological Prediction wherein the Artist undertakes from the position of the Heavens and configurations of the Planets at such a certain moment of time to foretell future accidents This Art I cannot say is unlawful but I take it to be conjectural uncertain and by ignorant people much abused Strange things are I confess often foretold and sometime prove true when a skillful Artist hath the handling of the matter but many times are otherwise sometime from the ignorance of him that undertakes the judgment other while from the influence of some of the fix'd stars which being seldom taken notice of may cross or hinder what would otherwise haply have come to pass or thirdly from the want of a sufficient treasure of Observations by which judgment ought to be given the same posture of the Heavens having never twice happened alike in every circumstance since the Creation and by that means leaving the world destitute of stable means to judge upon since what can be rationally said in that kind must proceed from the comparing of events which have happened under such and such Configurations with what are like to be when the same fall out again or lastly from the care of the party himself who may by his own industry prevent what his destiny from the influence of the Stars would have been which at most do not necessitate but incline and by the providence and over-ruling power of God are sometimes diverted A third sort is a geomantical or terrestrial Divination in which from certain voluntary points made by the hand at adventure certain figures are raised from the four first of them called Fathers are produced other four called daughters those eight bring forth four grand-children from them come out two Witnesses from those a Judge in all twelve answerable to the twelve Houses in Astrology and the judgment upon this sort of Divination not much unlike that of Astrology The ground of this Art and its foundation is laid upon a false supposition that the soul of man knoweth things to come but is hindred by the dulness of the Organs of the body and theresore in the practice of it a great sedateness of mind is required a freedome from all noise that may disturb it and such like circumstances which he that hath a mind to know may find in Cattan Dr. Floud and H. de Pisis who have all written largely upon it This kind of Divination I take to be idle vain and superstitious as not built upon any stable foundation of Reason or supported by any thing but fancy A fourth sort is by framing certain Figures of stone or metal underneath such Constellations and placing them either in some conspicuous place of a Town or sometime under ground by which strange things are wrought these are called Talismans of which as also the language of the Stars with an Alphabetical Table and how from that words are framed which shall declare the event of things to come according to the nature of the Question Gaffarel a Learned Frenchman hath largely written in his Book called Vnheard of Curiosities such they will prove to him that spends much time in the study of them Other frivolous ways of sortiledge there are which I shall purposely pass over The next way of Divination I shall mention is Enthusiasme or Illumination and this is most to our purpose to treat of Hesychius in his Glossary interprets it thus An Enthusiastick is one that is mad or full of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enthusiasme is a stupor or horror Or Enthusiasme is when the whole soul is enlightned by God By which several interpretations of the word it may easily be gathered that Enthusiasm may be of several kinds some natural or at least proceeding from some distemper of the body which arising from a natural cause it may be so called others come by possession or inspiration of some spirit either good or bad which may be well deemed supernatural Much contest there is whether all

to Idolatry but against the false Gods and their worship mentions there the Acrosticks conteining these words JESUS CHRIST SONNE OF GOD THE SAVIOUR Which the Translator of that Book having turned into our tongue I have thought fit to transcribe for the English Readers sake who perhaps will not have the Book by him In sign of doomes-day the whole earth shall sweat Ever to reign a King in heavenly seat Shall come to judge all flesh the faithful and Unfaithful too before this God shall stand Seeing him high with Saints in times last end Corporeal shall he sit and thence extend His doom on souls The earth shall quitely waste Ruin'd oregrown with thorns and men shall cast Idols away and treasure searching fire Shall burn the ground and thence it shall inquire Through Seas and Sky and break hells blackest gate So shall free light salute the blessed state Of Saints the guilty lasting flames shall burn No act so hid but thence to light shall turn Nor breast so close but God shall open wide Each where shall cries be heard and noise beside Of gnashing teeth The Sun shall from the sky Fly forth and stars no more move orderly Great Heaven shall be dissolv'd the Moon depriv'd Of all her light Places at height ativ'd Deprest and Valleys raised to their seat There shall be nought to mortalls high or great Hills shall be levied with the plains the Sea Endure no burthen and the earth as they Shall perish cleft with lightning every Spring And River burn The fatal trump shall ring Unto the world from heaven a dismal blast Including plagues to come for ill deeds past Old Chaos through the cleft Mass shall be seen Unto this Bar shall all earths Kings convene Rivers of fire and brimstone flowing from heav'n These Verses and many others in the Sibylline Books carry in them a great shew of plainness and sincerity so that I could willingly subscribe to the opinion of St Augustine That some of them were Citizens of the City of God were I able to fix upon any person in particular or to satisfie my self that any one of the Books as they are now extant were not a mixture of the Prophesies of different persons She upon whom St Augustine pitches to wit the Sibylla Erythrea if there were truly any one of that Country which to my understanding the words do not necessarily import after she had told you she left Babylon in Assyria she hath these words which I should chuse thus to render Men call me according to the Graecian manner of another Country to wit of Erythrea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. S●b Or. l. 3. p. 283. impudent others the daughter of Circe and Gnostus The interpunction of the words favour this construction for if they were thus to be understood Men call me born indeed at Erythre an impudent person according to the Graecian manner of another Country Lact. l. 1. de falsa Relig. pa. 37. Nisi Erythreae quae nomen suum verum carmini inseruit Erythream se nominatam iri praelocuta est cum esset orta Babyloniae There ought to have been a distinction at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be read in a parenthesis that the reference might truly be made beside the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second verse will be impertinent and no Country at all from whence she came is named This I have inserted here because I had in the preceding Discourse so rendred the words without giving any reason and I find some conclude out of this place that one of the Sibylls acknowledges her self born at Erythrea Moreover that Sibylla Erythrea or Cumea upon whom St Augustine pitches was certainly that person whose books were kept in and burnt with the Capitol and from which the Romans fetch'd out all their superstitious follies besides she seems by Virgil to be possessed in the delivery of her Prophesies with that kind of madness and fury usually observed in the delivery of Oracles by Apollo for which reasons of all others of them I should think Sibylla Cumea if the same with Erythrea the most unlikely to be of the City of God which is more likely to be true of her that came out of Babylon and foretold she should be counted of Enythrea Under so great an uncertainty therefore and variety of opinions I think it safest to suspend my own judgment and agree in this conclusian That whether all or any of them were immediately guided by God or what other spirit they spake by yet were they by his power so over-ruled that where in his wisedom he thought fit they could not lye so that the truth they delivered was indeed his though the spirit by which they spake came not from him However this is clear such persons there were such predictions they left which in their due time were accomplished which was all I designed to prove in this discourse Thus Sir have I gone through my intended disquisition of the Sibylls and in it have I hope made it appear That the Arguments produced against them are not of that value to take from them the authority they have been allowed by the testimonies of Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Theophilus Antiochensis Tempor Chron. An. mun 610. Lactantius who as Temporarius saith was a Priest of the Capitol before his conversion and so permitted to read these Books and many others of the Ancients with innumerable latter Writers amongst whom I cannot forget two very learned Prelates of our own Church Richard Montacute sometimes Lord Bishop of Norwich who hath a particular Excercitation in the defence of them and Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester who hath these words speaking of the truth of Christianity For the credit of the History it self we know that the Sibylls Oracles were in so great credit amongst the Heathen that they were generally believed Now if they be true w th we have of them as there 's no question but many of them are divers of which we refer to Christ being mentioned in their own writers Virgil Cicero and others it will follow that nothing can make more in their esteem for the credit and truth of the Nativity Life and Death of Christ than their Oracles for we may see almost every circumstance in them Andrews Pat of Catechist Doct. Introduct c. 12. Sect. 3. And by reading these Verses divers of their Learned men were converted to Christianity as Marcellinus Secundanus and others If after all this there remain yet some that had rather believe D. Blundel and some others but of yesterday I shall only add That the thing in controversie is not of faith and that for the truth and certainty of our Christian Religion we have in the undeniable Word of God a more stable and un-erring Testimony FINIS