contrary made no account of what the Heathen esteemed and confining themselves to the Rhapsody of the eight Books which go under the Title of the Sibylline Oracles were deceived thinking them to be the antient Sibyls and consequently the Testimony of neither Heathens nor Christians is not strong enough to authenticate them in as much as the former have charged them with Forgery and the later who made account of them were circumvented and their Design to bring them into credit proves ineffectual upon this account that according to the Civil Maxim The consent of him who is mistaken is null Secondly St. Paul neither was nor could be the Authour of the Recommendation attributed to him but some Apocryphal Writer who impiously-bold took his Name upon him to deceive the World with more ease Thirdly Eusebius does not so much as name the Sibyls in the fifth Book of his History Fourthly The Name of Stratonicus was never heard of among the Fathers of the Church Cumae is not found to have produced any Ecclesiastical Writers and Possevin himself grants as much for that he does not allow his Stratonicus any place in his Apparatus Sacer. Fifthly It was no hard matter for Galarza to finde a Conformity between the Prophets and the Writings of the Counterfeit Sibyl since she was whatever she may seem to the contrary a Christian by Prosession and that she writ them one hundred thirty and eight years after the Birth of our Saviour onely it is to be remembred that this Conformity is not such as is imagined and that the pretended Prophetess to whom it is attributed was full of Errours and a corrupt Divine If therefore we must with Possevin blame Opsopoeus the Printer of Basil it should be for having inserted this confused Medley into the Body of Orthodox Writers and added thereto the Oracles of the false Gods when nothing of it is Orthodox or ought to finde place in the Christian Library And as to what is added by Possevin That It had been more expedient to set apart some few things of many and particularly what might be taken as most certain out of the Writings of the Fathers with Notes or a Paraphrase thereupon such as Constantine the Great hath put before the Cumaean Sibyl cited by Virgil or Lactantius before Firmianus or Augustine before the Acrostick produced by Cicero it is an Errour infinitely beyond what he was guilty of before For it will never be expedient to propose to Christians as a Direction the Stumbling-Blocks against which the Fathers fell much less to raise them into an admiration of Supposititious Pieces Besides it is inconsiderately done by some to alledg either the Paraphrase of Constantine who hath put Virgil and his Poem so unmercifully to the Rack or the Acrostick of the eighth Book of the Sibylline Oracles which Cicero no more thought on then he did on the Story of Apuleius's Ass The End of the First Book OF THE SIBYLS The Second Book Of the CONSEQUENCES arising upon the Supposititiousness of the Writing pretended to be Sibylline ADVERTISEMENT TO revenge the antient Injury done to the Church in whose Bosom it is now above fifteen hundred years that some have been willing to fasten the Supposititious Work of the Sibylline Writing and to Truth which hath been miserably disguised thereby and lastly to the Fathers who have been surprised by the unheard-of Impudence of the Impostour who presenting them with a counterfeit Jewel instead of a right Diamond made them take Coals out of Hell-fire for a Divine Treasure I have been forced to search into the very Roots of so deep an Imposture as such as whereto many of our Time even among the Protestants are still inclined to give Credit And in what I have done out of this Design I have cherished a certain Hope that those who shall be any way offended at the seeming Novelty of my Sentiment will vouchsafe to consider it without Prejudice that upon their acknowledgment of the solidity of its Grounds they may acquiesce therein or if they think otherwise of it with Reason correct it In the Interim presupposing it as well and sufficiently proved I shall intreat the Reader 's Attention to consider the Consequences of the Doctrine unjustly attributed to the Counterfeit Sibyl and to proceed therein with some Order Observe First In what Year precisely the Apocalyps whereof the false Prophetess attempts to wrest the true Sence was written by the Apostle Saint John Secondly About what time the extravagant Imaginations of the pretended Sibylline Writings came first abroad Thirdly By how strong a Prejudice they were possessed who were out of an excessive Easiness of Belief induced to admit them A TREATISE OF THE SIBYLS BOOK II. CHAP. I. An Enquiry thout the Time wherein Saint John wrote his REVELATION AS we have on the one side the Consent of Antiquity assigning the Life of Saint John to have ended on Sunday the 27th of December in the third year of Trajan coincident with the hundredth year after the Birth of our Saviour according to the Computation now used so have we on the other Saint Irenaeus who suffered Martyrdom in the one hundred ninety and eighth year of Christ affirming in the thirtieth Chapter of his fifth Book cited by Eusebius both in the eighth Chapter of the third Book and the eighth Chapter of the fifth Book of his History that the Apocalyps was written about the end of Domitian ' s Reign which is confirmed by Clemens Alexandrinus about the year 200. writing at the place Copied out by Eusebius that St. John returned from Patmos after the Tyrant ' s Death that is to say after the eighteenth of September in the year ninety six on which Domitian was Assassinated Eusebius seems the more absolutely to acquiess in their Sentiment in that having further published and observed in the seventeenth Chapter of his third Book that Domitian towards the end of his Reign became the Successour of Nero in his enmity and War against God he certifies in the nineteenth Chapter that Domitilla was Banished for the Profession of Christianity in the fifteenth and last year of that Prince's Reign which falls in with the ninety sixth of our Saviour Further that the Tradition of the Antients affirmed that St. John was called back from Patmos by Nerva and in his Chronicle upon the fourteenth year of Domitian which he makes coincident with the second of the two hundred and eighteenth Olympiad that Domitian was the second after Nero who persecuted the Christians and that in his Reign the Apostle St. John then banished to Patmos had seen the Apocalyps as Irenaeus declares Which words manifestly relate to the place of that holy Prelate which he had Transcribed twice in his History and which yet St. Hierome as well in his Version of Eusebius's Chronicle as in his Catalogue wrests to another sence turning it Which Irenaeus interprets as if Euschius had written not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Foundations a mud-wall of Chimeras the Heathens justly laughed at them Every one whatever Justine Martyr and many others imitating him might think was obliged to believe it an Artifice of the Devil suggesting it into the minds of some besotted Zealots to lie that the Truth might be believed and according to the Observation of Saint Paul do evil that good might come of it And a compliance with so unworthy an Imposture and the confidence to produce it as Justine and others out of simplicity did should not have satisfied any that would have advised ever so little with Reason For St. Justine himself minding things more calmly might easily have perceived First That he mistook as well the Prohibition made by the Romanes to read the Fatidick Books as the Motive of it Secondly That he was as much to blame in applying it to the Oracles lately forged Thirdly That the Heathens never had them in their possession nor knew of them Which makes me wonder how it hath been or can be possible for any Christian to entertain a perswasion that the sight of such adulterate Pieces should contribute to the advancement of true Piety when the account of their Extraction is as flat and impudent as if some Jew having lately forged VVritings full of criminal Accusations against the Saviour of the World should maintain to the very faces of the Christians That he found them in the New Testament That the Apostles were the Authors thereof and That the Church having always had them in her custody hath concealed them out of very shame for the Imposture of him whom she adores But as to prevail any thing with the Jews the way were not to press them with Apocryphal Revelations of unknown Prophets feigned to have been of their Nation for that such an Imposture would be so far from convincing them that it would exasperate them against the Authours of it And again as for the pulling down of Mahumetism it were no Prudence to bring in as from Mahomet a new Alcoran directly opposite to his Cheat So was there not any probable reason for any to promise themselves from the supposititiousness of the Books of Hystaspes and the Sibyl any other of the Heathens then a more inveterate detestation of Christianity some Professours thereof being engaged in so wicked a Design and that with so strange and incredible confidence against them Accordingly was it not God's pleasure that any good should be the effect of such an Imposture for it filled men not provided against such Surprises with erroneous Prejudications and brought into repute among the first Christians the extravagant Imagination of the Millenaries and filled their minds with vain and sottish Conceptions of the World to come CHAP. XIX That the Letter written by L. Domitius Aurelianus to the Senate gives no Credit to the Sibylline Writings NOr can we lastly derive any recommendation of the eight Books of these false Oracles which have been preserved even to our Times from the Letter which the Emperour Aurelian engaged in the Marcomannick War writ to the Senate in the year of Christ two hundred and seventy one saying I cannot but wonder Holy Fathers you have been so long time in doubt whether the Books of the Sibyls should be opened as if you were to treat in some Christian Church and not in the Temple of all the gods For though Cardinal Baronius who writes Valerian for Aurelian infers thence That it was not safe for the Christians to read and search into the Sibylline Books as if that Prohibition which had been made five hundred and fourscore years before our Saviour had concerned them more then others and that the Church had ever had an inclination to look into such Ordures Yet is it most certain that Aurelian meant not the eight Books we now have against Idolatry but those which the Quindecem-viri had in their Custody under the Base of Apollo Palatinus in favour of Idolatry and that there is a thousand times more reason to conclude from his Letter what M. Petavius the Jesuit hath very well observed to wit That the Christians had an horrour for the reading of such prophane Books in their Churches where they permitted not the reading even of the Apocryphal Books excluded out of the Canon of the Bible as the Councel of Laodicea hath since expresly decreed The Emperour says then That the Delay of the Senate had been excusable in an Assembly of Christians who could not have touched Books that taught Idolatry but with an extreme remorse and would have thought it an intolerable pollution of the Purity of the Church to introduce those execrable Monuments into it but that there should no such scruple arise in the minds of an Assembly consisting of persons wholly devoted to the Worship of the gods and met together in their common Temple Accordingly Cardinal Baronius as it were came to himself and to perswade us that no good could be expected from the Sibylline Oracles acknowledges That the Heathenish Priests being greater Enemies then all others under a feigned pretence of Religion bad out of them taken occasion to raise the Persecution against the Christians Which they could not have done had they expresly taught matters of Piety And certainly this is remarkable let there be as much search as may be made in what Histories relate of the Consultations which Rome from time to time held about them it will be found that she never had any recourse thereto but the Consequence was some new Abomination For if the Dispute was of Sacrificing after some extraordinary manner to the Infernal gods and instituting Solemn Games to them if about sending for the Mother of the gods from Pessinus in Phrygia and Aesculapius from Epidaurus which is now Ragusa or about Sacrificing a Gaul of either Sex to appease the Devils under the Names of Jupiter Juno Cybele Saturn Apollo Venus Ceres Bacchus c. the Orders for it were taken out of them See Varro De Lingua Latina lib. 5. De Re Rustica lib. 1. cap. 1. Cicero Epist Famil lib. 1. 7. Verrina ult Livy Decad. 1. lib. 3 4 7 10. Decad. 3. lib. 1 2 5 9. Decad. 4. lib. 1 5 7 10. Decad. 5. lib. 1 2 3 5. the Epitome of Florus Decad. 3. lib. 2 9. Decad. 4. lib. 1. Decad. 6. lib. 9. Dionysius Halicarnassaeus lib. 1 3 10. Tacitus Annal. 15. Solinus cap. 7. Valerius Maximus lib. 1. cap. 1 9. Plutarch in Poplicola Fabio Maximo Mario c. and his Book entituled De iis qui tardè à Numine corripiuntur Pausanias Phocaic lib. 10. Capitolinus in Gordiano Juniore Trebellius Pollio in Gallienis Vopiscus in Aureliano Floriano Sextus Aurelius Victor in Claudio Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 22 23. Macrobius Saturnal lib. 1. cap. 17. Servius upon Aeneid 6. Zosimus lib. 2. Procopius Gotthic lib. 1. CHAP. XX. Other Remarks of Forgery tending to shew the Supposititiousness of the Sibyilline Writing so called SOme of the
be maintained that the Books called the Sibylline were written by Divine inspiration 55 XXII The Sentiment of Aristotle concerning Enthusiasts taken into consideration 57 XXIII That it was unadvisedly done by the Authour of the Sibylline VVriting to put himself into the number of Enthusiasts 59 XXIV That the Fathers who were surprized by the pretended Sibylline VVritings supposed the Authour to have been an Enthusiast 60 XXV The common Sentiment of the Fathers concerning Enthusiasts 62 XXVI Consequences following upon the common Sentiment of the Fathers concerning Enthusiasm 70 XXVII Certain Dis-circumspections of the Fathers concerning the VVriting unjustly named the Sibylline considered 72 XXVIII That the conjecture of Cardinal Baronius concerning the correspondence between Virgil and Herod is not maintainable 73 XXIX That the Opinion of Antonius Possevinus concerning the Sibyls and their pretended VVritings is not more rational then that of Cardinal Baronius 75 BOOK II. CHAP. I. AN Enquiry about the time when St. John writ his Revelation 79 II. The Sentiment of St. Epiphanius concerning the time of the Apocalyps refuted 82 III. The Sentiment of the late Grotius concerning the time of the Apocalyps refuted 87 IV. A refutation of the Sentiment of Johannes Hentenius of Macchlin concerning the time of the Apocalyps 89 V. A refutation of Possevinus concerning the time when the Sibylline Writing came first abroad 93 VI. Of the time when the Sibylline Books were written 96 VII A Conjecture concerning the Authour of the Sibylline Writings 97 VIII Divers Extravagances remarkable in the Sibylline Writings 98 IX The first principal Tenet of the Sibylline Writing concerning the pretended Descent into and detention of all Mens Souls in Hell till the time of the Resurrection of their Bodies 99 X. The second Capital Tenet of the Sibylline VVriting so called concerning the Conflagration of the World at the last Day which the Authour of it pretends is to serve for a Purgatory to the Souls and Bodies of the Saints 104 XI The third main Tenet proposed by the Sibylline VVriting concerning the re-attainment of a Terrestrial Paradise which he imagines should be the place of retirement for some of the Saints after their Resurrection 108 XII The fourth Capital Tenet proposed by the Sibylline VVriting concerning the Temporal Reign which the Authour thereof supposes must be established by our Saviour in Jerusalem during the space of a thousand years before the last Judgment 111 XIII Inducements to pray for the Dead arising from the Hypotheses proposed in the pretended Sibylline Writing 115 XIV The Motives proposed by Justin Martyr disallowed and those which St. Epiphanius had to pray for the Dead taken into consideration 117 XV. Of the Prayers made and the Alms given heretofore by the Christians for the damned even those whom they acknowledged to be in that state 118 XVI The third and fourth Motives of St. Epiphanius taken into consideration 122 XVII St. Epiphanius's fifth Motive considered 123 XVIII The sixth Motive of the same Epiphanius considered 124 XIX The seventh Motive of the same Epiphanius considered 126 XX. The Motive upon which Dionysius the pretended Areopagite prayed for the Dead taken into consideration 128 XXI The Motives which Tertullian had to pray for the Dead considered 129 XXII An enquiry made into the Sentiment of Saint Ambrose 130 XXIII The time when Prayers for the Dead were first introduced into the Service of the Church 132 XXIV Whether the Prayers made by Christians for the Dead be really grounded on the place in the second Book of the Maccabees and the Examples of the Jews alledged to that purpose 136 XXV Whether it may be with any reason affirmed that the Prayers made by Christians for the Dead are justly grounded on the second Book of the Maccabees 144 XXVI That divers of the Fathers have expressed more respect to the Book attributed to the Sibyll then to the Apocalyps 148 XXVII That the third Hypothesis of the Sibylline Writing so called is at this day abandoned by all Christians 150 XXVIII That the second Hypothesis of the Sibylline Writing so called made way for the late Opinion of Purgatory 151 XXIX Proofs of the novelty of the precedent Opinion of Purgatory 155 XXX That the first Hypothesis of the Sibylline Writing so called concerning the detention of Souls in Hell till the Resurrection is generally disclaimed by all Christians 158 XXXI That the passage of the twelfth Chapter of the second Book of the Maccabees hath no relation either to the Opinion of Purgatory or Service of the Churches 161 XXXII That the Primitive sence of the Prayers whereby the remission of sins was desired for the Dead is not embraced by any 163 XXXIII The Censures pronounced by the Doctours of the Church of Rome against the Fathers taken into examination 165 XXXIV The Uniformity of the Sentiment of the Fathers and that of the Protestants concerning the State of the faithfull departed in the Lord. 168 XXXV The Sentiment of the Protestants further proved by the description which the Fathers have made of Abraham's bosom 170 XXXVI The same Sentiment further confirmed by the Pomp and Solemnities of antient Enterments 171 XXXVII A particular confideration of the Sentiment of St. Augustine and his Prayers for his Mother 174 XXXVIII The Sentiment of the Protestants further confirmed by the Eloges antiently bestowed on the faithful departed 184 XXXIX The same Sentiment further confirmed from Sepulchral Inscriptions 189 XL. The same deduced from larger Epitaphs 196 XLI Of the Prayers contained in the Epitaphs of the faithfull whom the surviving presupposed already received into glory 212 XLII Of the true Motives which the Antients had to pray for those whom they believed to be in bliss 222 XLIII The Obscurity and uncertainty of the Opinion of Purgatory 229 XLIV That the proofs produced by Cardinal Bellarmine for Purgatory are weak and defective 233 XLV That the Testimonies produced by Jodocus Coccius for the opinion of Purgatory are also defective 234 XLVI Of the Reasons which might have moved the Antients to inter their departed friends in the Churches consecrated to the memory of the Saints 237 XLVII The Sentiment of St. Ambrose and Paulinus concerning the buriall of the faithful in Churches examined 241 XLVIII Enquiry made into the Sentiment of St. Augustine concerning the Burial of the faithful departed in Churches 244 XLIX Enquiry made into the Sentiment of Maximus Tyrius concerning the Burial of the faithful in Churches 245 L. A reflection on certain followers of the Sentiment of the said Maximus 146 LI. Of the Lessons of holy Scripture contained in the Missal and Breviary as to what relates to the Office of the Dead 249 LII Of the Prayers contained in the Missal and Breviary used by the Church of Rome and that Purgatory cannot be necessarily inferred from any one of them 255 LIII An accompt of the Sentiment of the Modern Greeks concerning the State of the Dead 268 LIV. The conclusion of the whole Treatise 290 FINIS Adver Valentin
the charge of the High-priesthood of the Divinatory Writings as well Greek as Latine he burnt above two thousand books brought together from all parts and divulg'd either without Authors or under the names of Authors not much to be credited and reserv'd onely the Sibylline and that after tryall made thereof he lock'd them up in two golden Drawers under the basis of Apollo Palatinus To which relates also that saying of Horace Lib. 1. Epist 3. Et tangere vitet Scripta Palatinus quaetunque recepit Apollo So that it was then in vain to look for them any more in the Capitol or for any to pretend a more familiar acquaintance with them then before Under the Consulship of Silanus and Norbanus in the year of Rome 771. which was the ninteenth after the Incarnation according to our accompt now and the fifth of Tiberius a certain Oracle which agreed not with the time of the City put the people into no small disturbances for it said that three times three hundred years being come and gone an intestine sedition and a kind of Sibaritick madness would prove the destruction of the Romans But Tiberius found much falt with that Verse as guilty of imposture caused a review to be made of all the books which contain'd any prediction rejected some as being of no worth or credit and retain'd others And in the eighteenth year of his Empire which was the 785. of Rome and the two and thirtieth of our Lord under the Consulship of Domitius and Camillus it was propounded in the Senate by Quintilianus Tribune of the people concerning the Sibyls book which Caninius Gallus one of the Quindecimviri had requested might be receiv'd among other books of the same Prophetess and demanded it might be so established by Decree of the Senate Which being uanimously granted Caesar sent Letters somewhat reprehending the Tribune as ignorant of the old custom by reason of his youth and upbraided Gallus that having grown old in knowledge and the Ceremonies he had nevertheless demanded the opinion of the Senators it being uncertain who was the Author thereof and before the Colledge had yielded their judgement neither as the custom was the Verses having been read and taken into consideration by the Masters He further represented what abundance of vain things were published under so celebrious a name that Augustus had under a certain penalty set down a day within which such books should be brought to the Praetor of the City and that it was not lawfull for any to have them in their private possession That the same thing had been decreed by their Ancestors that after the burning of the Capitol during the time of the civil war their Verses were sought at Samos Ilium and Erythrae through Africk also Sicily and the Colonies of Italy whether there were one Sibyl or many and a charge was given to the Priests to distinguish the true Prophesies from the false as near as might be by the judgement of man so the book was referr'd to the examination of the Quindecimviri To be short two and thirty years after viz. in the year of Rome 817. which was the 64. of our Lord and the tenth of Nero under the Consulship of Bassus and Crassus the City having been set on fire on the ninteenth of July the fire could not be stopped till it had devour'd the Palace and Nero's house and all about it And though as Tacitus observes recourse was then made to the books of the Sibyl yet the whole Quarter where they had been disposed by Augustus being destroy'd by the fire it is very probable they were in no less hazard then they had been six and fourty years before when the Capitol was burnt as it was again afterwards in the year of Rome 822. in the month of December CHAP. X. The Motives which he might have gone upon who was the first Projector of the eight books which at this day go under the name of the Sibylline AFter so many irreconcileable differences making it undeniably apparent that the ancient Heathens never had any thing which might be rely'd on as certain concerning their Sibyls after the conflagration of the books sold by one of them to Tarquin and the severall accidents which since the time of Sylla happened to that confused collection which the superstition of the Romans had glean'd together from all quarters of the world after the Senate had in the first place interposed their judgement on all that had been sent to them and that Augustus had 65. years after smothered to the number of two thousand books such as were thought either supposititious or of little consequence and exercised his censure on the rest after that Tiberius had two severall times taken into a re-examination the sentence of Augustus to cull out as superfluous what he had any quarrell at and the fire if not devour'd or prejudic'd at least come very near what had after so many disquisitions and retrivals been preserv'd who I say all these things considered can think it strange that Posterity should from time to time have been guilty of a presumption of furnishing the Romans with some new piece of that kind though it were done meerly by reason of their being the more inquisitive after Writings of that nature by how much they both were and were oblig'd by their own provisions and orders to that purpose to be ignorant of what they contain'd and consequently that they should deferr the publishing thereof till after the death of Adrian at which time supposititious pieces of that kind had free toleration even among the Pagans 74. years after the conflagration of Mount Palatine under Nero and 69. after the desolation of the Capitol under Vitellius and Vespasian And to give a check to the Authority of the Heathenish Prophetesses and confirm this common principle of both the Jews and the Fathers that the most ancient monuments of Idolatry were later then the Writings of Moses and to raise a greater reverence thereof in the Christians who were not acquainted with any thing at so great a distance from their own times they brought upon the stage Noah's daughter-in-law who liv'd eight Ages before and much about the same time that the Gnosticks who called his wife Noria made it their brag among the Christians that they had some of her Writings out of a design to corrupt the simplicity of the Church by a supposititious piece pretending to so great Antiquity the Millenaries and some counterfeit Christians scatter'd up and down certain spurious Oracles and Predictions under the name of one of his sons wives especially among the Gentiles imagining not without some likelihood that the curiosity of those blinded wretches would open a gap for the cheat and dazle their understandings into admiration and that the Christians overjoy'd to find therein the condemnation of idolatry the preaching of one only God the prediction of the Incarnation of the Word the redemption of mankind by the blood of
Fathers as Clemens Alexandrinus who in the first of his Books entituled Stromata transcribes these three Verses of an Idolatrous Sibyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye Delphians who Apollo's Servants are To you great Jove's mind I 'me come to declare Being with my Brother Phoebus much incens'd And Lactantius who acknowledges that after consultation with the Sibylline Oracles the Romanes beset themselves to appease Ceres sending Ambassadours to Enna and had made search in Asia for the Mother of the Gods and St. Augustine who takes notice of the Transportation of Aesculapius might well had they lai'd Prejudice aside have concluded That the Poems out of which they drew Proofs against Idolatry though for no other reason then that they were directly opposite to the Oracles consulted by the Romanes could not be of the same Vein with those antient Sibyls which had been for so many Ages the Admiration of the Heathen and the proper ground of their Superstition For how should it come to pass that the same Mouth should at the same time breath Life and Death They had also another very clear Proof to wit That not any thing of all that is related by the Heathen as from the Sibyls is either as to the Substance or in express Terms in the eight Books of the pretended Daughter-in-law of Noah For where shall we finde in all that simple Rhapsody the least Track of what Cicero and Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and e Livy and Suetonius and Solinus and Plutarch and Pausanias and Dion and Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus and Procopius and if you will Lucian and Eustathius upon the Description of the Universe written by Dionysius the African cite for Sibylline And Saint Augustine who had observed in his Book Of Grammar that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three mischievous K. designed in the Sibylline Books where could he have found them in these Nay they should have thought it a violent presumption of their Supposititiousness that not one of the Heathens ever cited I will not say one Verse or one Hemistick but the least conceit taken out of these Books For if as is presupposed the Romanes had had them in their Custody with the rest could they have always forborn to make some Mention or give some Account of them But to make it appear that the Christians had not any knowledge of the Pieces which were in the Custody of the Quindecem-viri and that the Heathens had never admitted any thing of what the Christians opposed thereto as taken out of their Bosoms excepting onely those three Verses which we just now Transcribed out of Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 1. the three ensuing cited by Theophilus Arch-Bishop of Antioch against the Generation of the Gods according to the Heathen If they should engender and continue immortal there would be more Gods generated then men and there would be no place left for Mortals where they might subsist these two others of the same Vein copied by Lactantius There will be Fire and Darkness when he shall come in the midst of the black Night and Hear me ye Mortà ls the eternal King reigns and this Exclamation in Prose attributed to the Erythraean Sibyl by Constantine the Great Why Lord dost thou impose on me a necessity of Prophecying and dost not reserve me rather raised up on high from the Earth till thy blessed coming I say besides these four Shreds there is not a Verse produced by the antient Christians since Martyr's Time which may not be read either word for word or in Terms equivalent in the body of those Eight Books attributed to the Daughter-in-law of Noah which being mangled and imperfect in many places nothing hinders but that the Allegations of Theophilus and Lactantius might be drawn out of them Now what the Fathers have not derived but from this source clearly proves they knew not any other and that it was not opened to them by the Heathen who not onely drew not any thing out of it but cryed out against it assoon as ever it appeared by their Charges of Forgery put in against it as is apparent by the Words of Celsus saying to the Christians You have with good reason proposed the Sibyl but it is now in your own power to thrust in at randome among the Pieces which are hers many things that are reproachfull for this Discourse was an earnest Charge against the Christians concerning the Suppositiousness of the Eight Books as also by Constantine's own Observation writing upon occasion of the pretended Acrostick of the Erythraean Sibyl There are many who believe not that the Sibyl foretold things of our Saviour and acknowledging that the Erythraean Sibyl was a Prophetess have a jealousie that some one of our Religion not unfurnished with a Poetick Vein is the Authour of those Poems that they are adulterate but nevertheless called the Oracles of the Sibyl Whereto Origen's Answer gives no great satisfaction He affirms says he of Celsus that we have thrust in among the Writings of the Sibyl many things and such as are reproachfull and does shew neither what we have thrust in which he might have done if he could have shew'd Copies more antient and uncorrupt and such as had not what he conceives to have been foisted in nor yet that those things are injurious and reproachfull For it was not Celsus's intention to acknowledg that the eight Books out of which the Fathers had made Extracts were legitimate and to quarrel onely at the insertion of some things that were false but to reproach the Christians that they had shuffled together as much as lay in their power those eight Books Pieces notoriously spurious among the Writings of the Sibyl which were pretended to be legitimate Secondly Origen's Reply that to prove the spuriousness of the things produced by the Christians it was necessary to shew Copies that were more antient more correct and such as wherein those things were not was no way to the purpose For first The complaint of Celsus no less concerned the body of the eight Books then the Sentences extracted out of them by the Christians Secondly His Negative was not These eight Books are not perfect but They are not Legitimate and taking them for Supposititious and shuffled in among the Legitimate Works not long before he thought not himself obliged to seek out what could never have been found â—…ntient Copies of an Imposture newly advanced Thiâ—…y To require a Pagan to produce antient Copies of the true Sibylline Writings was to make a ridiculous and uncivil request to him since first There could not have been through the whole Romane Empire besides the Original preserved under the Base of Apollo Palatinus but that onely Copy which had been Transcribed by the High Priests in the Time of Augustus Secondly For that it was not in any case permitted that any private Person should
for an Enthusiast and make the world believe that the presence of some Celestial virtue produced the same in his mind as the invasion of Satan does in those of possessed persons whom he deprives of their Senses and Transports with fury Nor are we to excuse so extravagant a passion to make any account of those words of the eighth Book Novi ego arenarum numerum mensúmque profundi Tellurisque sinus tenebrosáque Tartara novi Quot fuerint homines quot sint quótque futuri Astrorum numeros stirpes frondés que quot usquam Quot sint quadrupedes quot pisces quótque volucres For besides the impossibility there is to reconcile this insolent brag I know all things with the precedent confession I know not what I say any other way then by attributing it to that alienation of spirit which he would have described when he said I know not what I say it is absurdity enough but to think that the Father of mercies who disposes his gifts with infinite Wisdome and an intention they should tend to the advantage either of those which receive them or others would puff up the heart of any man with the windy knowledg of things absolutely unprofitable such as are those which the Counterfeit Sibyl much glories in For what advantage will it be to mankind or thy self that thou know the number of the Sands of the Leaves of the Fishes c. Will this variety of knowledg make thee any way better or further thee in the way to salvation more then another who shall have learned from the great vessel of Election who had been caught into the third heaven and there heard words not capable of being uttered this admirably-modest protestation I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified If therefore there were nothing else to be quarrelled at in the eight Books of the Counterfeit Sibyl but the insupportable vanity of the Authour it should be more then sufficient to deprive him of his pretended Dignity of Prophet and to condemn his Verses to be blown away as sometimes those of the Cumaean Sibyl disturbed in their order And to the wanton Winds a Sport be made CHAP. XXIII That it was unadvisedly done by the Author of the Sibylline Writings to put himself into the number of the Enthusiasts BUt it may be these insolent Expressions the affectation of Enthusiasin and the other sleights of Imposture are not in the Original and that the Fathers who have had the said Writings in great esteem have not found them therein On the contrary Justine Martyr to satisfie us that he very well knew as much takes particular notice of it and observes them to the Greeks adding to that Discourse of Menon in Plato concerning such as foretell things to come We shall say no less then that those are Prophets and they have Extasies being inspired of God when they become famous for delivering many and great things and know not any thing of what they say the ensuing Application He clearly and manifestly saw into the Oracles of the Sibyl For she had not as the Poets have the power to correct her Poems after she had writ them and to polish them especially as to what concerns the exact observation of Measures but she accomplished what was of her Prophecy during the time of the inspiration and the inspiration failing she no longer remembred the things she had said Hence comes it that all the Verses of the Sibylline Poems were not preserved For we our self being at the City of Cumae understood so much from those who led us up and down and shewed us the places where she spoke her Oracles and a certain Urn made of Brass where they said her Reliques were conserved They also gave us this account as having it from their Predecessours That those who received the Oracle being people without instruction many times failed in the exact observation of measures and said this was the reason why some Verses were without measure viz. that the Prophetess after the Extasie of inspiration was over remembred not the things she had said and that those who writ them by reason of their ignorance had lost the exact measure of the Verses And a little lower Submit to the most antient of all the Sibyls whose Books it is so happened are preserved all the World over and who by Oracles proceeding from a certain powerfull inspiration hath taught you concerning those who are called Gods that they are not such In like manner Constantine introduces the Sibyl making her complaint to God that he imposed upon her a necessity of Divining Suidas for his part makes this Observation of the Chaldaean Sibyl The Prophetess is not her self the cause that her Verses are imperfect and without measure but those who took Copies of them as not keeping close to the impetuosity of her way of delivery and being not well read in Grammar Besides that with the inspiration the memory of the things she had said failed her and for that reason her Verses are imperfect and the sense halting Whether it be that this is come so to pass through the dispensation of God to the end that her Oracles should not be known to many unworthy of them or that length of time hath been the cause of that as well as many other things Besides that it is not to be admired if the obscurity of the things said by the Prophetess and the frequent Transcription of her Books have occasioned the confusion of the sense and measures of the Verses Whereto Marcus Antimachus adds as taking it from Lactantius whom he ridiculously makes Priest of the Capitol converted to the Christian Religion upon reading of the Sibylline Writings That what is to be had of the Sibylline Books is not onely easily slighted by those who are troubled with the disease of the Greeks for that it is easie to recover it for scarce things seem more precious but also is thought not to deserve any credit because there is not an exact measure observed in the Verses Now this is the fault of the Transcribers who were not able to reach the impetuosity of her way of delivery and were not well read in Grammar and not of the Prophetess for when the inspiration was over she no longer remembred the things she had spoken CHAP. XXIV That the Fathers who were surprised by the pretended Sibylline Writings supposed the Authour to have been an Enthusiast IT is manifest then that both the Antient and Modern Christians have been so far from being ignorant or distrustfull of the Enthusiasm of the pretended Sibyl that they have taken it for the fundamental Principle of the Opinion they had of her Poem and been carried away with reports without reserving to themselves as reason would have required the privilege to examine them For First Justin Martyr giving credit to the Discourses of those among the Cumaeans who had shew'd him the Antiquities
Justin and Clemens Alexandrinus after his Example having taken occasion to celebrate the Counterfeit Sibyl as a Prophetess and to recommend Hystaspes as inspired of God from their having found somewhat to their commendation in the pretended Predication of St. Paul have injured their own Reputation by contracting an over-confident familiarity with Apocryphal Writings For though their Learning and the Rank they held in the Church exempted them from the rigour of the Prohibition made since by St. Cyril to his Catechumen saying to her Read not any thing of the Apocryphal Books yet had they as great reason as St. Hierome to cry out Let us hear no more of the fond imaginations of Apocryphal Authours and to conceive the same Horrour thereof as he would have raised in Laeta and his little Disciple Pacatula giving them this remarkable Advertisement Let her beware of all the Apocryphal Books and if at any time she have an inclination to read them not for the truth of the Tenets but out of a reverence for the Signs which are observed therein let her know that they are not of those under whose Names they go and that many evil things are crept into them and that it is the Work of a great Prudence to seek Gold amongst Dirt c. Let her Delight be in the spirits of those in whose Writings the purity of Faith is unquestionable and let her read the others so as to judg of them rather then follow them If the examination of Books of doubtfull Authority was recommended to a simple Maid how much more should it have been the care of those Great men for whom Christianity hath a veneration as its chiefest Doctours And if the most inconsiderable among the Laity should be armed with Precautions in reading how much more requisite was it that the Guids of the Church should read things with attention and vigilance But the desire of profiting out of all things of taking advantages every where of forcing Truth even out of the mouth of Falshood and to become like Torrents whose violence carries away what ever they meet with hath made many of the Fathers that nothing might escape the greediness of their Memory neglect the best occasions they could have had to make Discoveries of their Judgment and not onely endeavour to draw to themselves all the apprehensions of the Heathen as well solid as ill-grounded as those great Rivers which contain in their Chanels Golden Sand and Dirt mixed together but also triumph in that kind of employment wherein there must sometimes be foul Play as if it had been lawfull for them to say with Aeneas in Virgil Dolus an Virtus quis in hoste requirat Thence came it to pass that St. Hierome carried away with the violent Stream of this strange Prejudice made no difficulty to alledg for his Discharge that the Fathers were forced to speak not according to their own Opinion but to say what was necessary against what the Gentiles maintained and that St. Paul himself grasped at all he touched that he turned his Back to gain the better that he pretended a Flight that he might Kill that the Testimonies he made use of speak one thing in their proper Places and another in his Epistles that there are some captive Examples which fight not at all in the Books whence they are taken yet serve him to get the Victory as if ever the Apostle of God had by his own Example authorised the Licentiousness either of wresting the Scripture or stealing for Truth sake a shamefull and basely-obtained Victory by a dissimulation of his own sentiment or of thinking all means indifferent nay commendable so it tended to the prejudice of Errour or of seeking according to the Maxim of Anaxagoras all things in all things and setting up to play the expert Merchant acording to what is recommended to Christians by the Authour of the Constitutions as from the Apostles an open Bank in Religion But it is not given to all to thrive in this Spiritual Truckage and with Virgil who boasted he gathered Gold out of Ennius's Dung to finde the Gold of Christianity in the common Sewers of Apocryphal Writings CHAP. XXVII Certain Dis-circumspections of the Fathers concerning the Writing mis-named the Sibylline considered TO give the last Touch to this Discourse of the Sibyls we have yet to observe some slight Forgetfulnesses as well of the Antient as Modern For Example St. Augustine says that Virgil confesses he had transferred out of the Sibylline Poem these words which may be applied to our Saviour If any Print of Antient Crimes remain Thou shalt efface them in thy happy Reign And from perpetual fear all Nations free and That it may be the Poet meant thereby something of the onely Saviour of the World which he thought it necessary to confess Again That He should should not easily have believed of the Sibyl that she had spoken of Christ were it not that one among the Poets the most eminent of the Romane Language before he spoke of the Restauration of the World things which seemed to be sufficiently consonant to the Reign of our Saviour Jesus Christ begins it with this Verse saying The last Time comes which Sibyl's Verse declare and that no body questions but that the Cumaean Poem is the Sibylline And elswhere that Virgil shews that he said not these words of himself In thy happy Reign when he says The last Time comes Whence it is apparent without any contradiction that that was said by the Cumaean Sibyl To which I answer First That Virgil does not say he either had or could have taken any thing out of the Cumaean Poem which could not be come at by a Person of his Quality but that the last Time which was to accomplish the Destinies foretold by the Cumaean Poem was then coming in Secondly That from this Discourse it does not any way follow that the Cumaean Sibyl had uttered what the Poet writ but that she foretold the Fate of the Empire to its last Time whereof according to his manner he makes a Description Thirdly That if there be any Piety in the Application of his words to our Saviour it is wholly groundless the meaning of the Authour having been absolutely different as hath been shewed already and not any way discovering he had any knowledg or indeed Suspicion of the Salvation of the Elect by Jesus Christ Isidore of Sevil having presupposed that the Gauls were so called because of their Whiteness since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies Milk adds Whence it comes that the Sibyl calls them so when she says of them With Gold their White Necks are adorn'd And yet it is not certain First That these Words are not the Sibyl's but Virgil's representing in magnificent Terms the Sculpture of the Buckler bestowed by Vulcan on Aeneas Secondly That Isidore mistook the words of Lactantius who had according to the Observation of St. Hierome
to imagine any such thing of the Proconsul of Asia nor to presuppose that to comply with that Extravagance he had driven St. John who was not within his Jurisdiction from any place when at the same time that the Jews were forced to depart Rome St. Paul Priscilla Aquila and Apollos who were no less of Jewish Extraction then John sojourned at Ephesus without disturbance their Brethren according to the Flesh enjoyed there as much liberty as ever nay even when Demetrius had with those of his Profession made an Insurrection in the City against Saint Paul they thought themselves sufficiently Authorised to pacifie the Tumult thrusting out Alexander their Brother out of the Multitude and charging him to speak to the enraged People for if it were to no purpose that they attempted it it was at least without apprehension of any danger either to themselves or him Whence it follows that not onely without any necessity but also without any ground it is imagined that St. John who was not yet come to Ephesus when the Edict of Claudius came forth against the Jews was driven thence by Virtue of that Edict which no way concerned him and that if there never could be any excuse to introduce Novelties into the Business of Religion we should be much further from advancing ruinous Hypotheses to maintain the more ruinous Design of opposing common Sentiments So that no man should think it strange if through the just Judgment of God those who take a pleasure in contradicting things that are most evident unadvisedly engage themselves in inconsistent Opinions to the prejudice of their Reputation and such as are more apt to raise Compassion for their Weakness then Jealousie upon account of the great Esteem due to them CHAP. IV. A Refutation of the Sentiment of Johannes Hentenius of Maechlin concerning the Time of the Apocalyps HAving demonstrated the Improbability of the Sentiment as well of St. Epiphanius as of him who would needs make it his ground to build upon not considering he should do himself a thousand times more injury by following it contrary to the Truth then he could have done by contradicting it to promote the Truth he made it his Design to establish I conceive it lies upon me to discover the absurdity of another fond Conceit which to bring with less inconvenience the Tradition of the Church into Dispute about the year 1545. hath referred the writing of the Apocalyps to the Time of Nero ten years and more later then according to the Computation of Saint Epiphanius Johannes Hentenius an Hieronymite born at Maechlin who is the Authour of it would needs in his Preface upon the Commentary of Arethas entertain us with the following Discourse It seems to me that John the Apostle and Evangelist who is also called the Divine was Banished to Patmos by Nero at the very same time that he put to death at Rome the blessed Apostles of Christ Peter and Paul Tertullian who lived near the Times of the Apostles affirms as much in two several places Eusebius also treats of the same thing in his Book of Evangelical Preparation though in his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History he saith it happened under Domitian which St. Hierome and divers others follow But to these last mentioned Books as such as were written some years before there is not so much Authority attributed as to that of Evangelical Preparation which was an after Work on which more care and exactness was bestowed Thus are we furnished by this man with a third Opinion inconsistent as well with the two precedent as the Truth it self which declares onely for the first confirmed by St. Irenaeus and others of the Antients and what should make this new Production the more contemptible is that it will be found grounded onely upon Chimaerical Suppositions and taking it at the best advantage speaks nothing positively Affirmative For whereas it is confidently affirmed that Tertullian assures us in two several places that Saint John was Banished at the time of the Martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul it is absolutely false that Father who makes mention of the Sufferings of the Saints Peter Paul and John jointly all together in one onely place to wit in the thirty sixth of his Praescriptions expressing it onely in these Terms That Church to wit that of Rome is very happy for which the Apostles spent their Doctrine and spilled their Blood where Peter was equalled to the Passion of his Lord that is to say Crucified where Paul was crowned with the same way of Departure as John that is to say Beheaded as St. John Baptist was where the Apostle John after he had been cast into the seething Oil yet suffered nothing was Banished into the Isle Whence it is evident that his Design was to shew that St. John was persecuted not at the same Time but at the same Place where St. Peter and St. Paul were so that his Discourse which proves nothing of what is in Question abates nought of its Truth though it be believed that Saint John's Banishment happened under Domitian and that eight and twenty years after the Martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul under Nero. Besides the place before cited there is in all the Works of Tertullian no more mention of the Writing of St. John then there is of the Discovery of the West-Indies so that Hentenius who brags that he had read what he says in them must needs read it in his Sleep Nor is there less Imposture in what he attributes to Eâ—sebius who in his third Book of Evangelical Preparation and the seventh Chapter having spoken of the Imprisonment of all the Apostles by the High-Priests of Jerusalem and afterwards of their Scourging of the Stoning of St. Stephen of the Decollation of St. James the Son of Zebedaeus of the Restraint of St. Peter and the Stoning of St. James the Brother of our Lord adds Peter was crucified at Rome with his Head downwards Paul had his Head cut off and John was Banished into an Isle For it is manifest that this Discourse designing neither the Place nor the Time of the Sufferings of these Holy men cannot oblige any Body to believe that they were persecuted by the same Tyrant and at the same Time and that nothing hinders but that according to Eusebius himself as well in his Chronicle as History the two former were put to Death by the command of Nero and the last Banished eight and twenty years after by Virtue of a Decree of Domitian's So that for a man to imagine the contrary from Eusebius cannot be without wresting his Words and to think to deduce it from the same words by the force of Ratiocination will amount to as much as a discovery of want of Reason and argue that the Person who attempts it dreams waking The said Authour thinks to give us a third Proof for confirmation of his Opinion when relying on a wrong Interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
it was no less then the height of impertinence in her to call her self as she did Noah's Daughter-in-law and to boast that she had seen a ruin 2068. later then the death of Noah and 2427. years after the Deluge as if according to the Fable advanced by Ovid in the thirteenth Book of his Metamorphoses that pretended Prophetess having obtained the Privilege of living as many years as there were Grains in the heap of Sand shewed by the Cumaean Sibyl to Apollo she had at the time of her Writing already passed not 700. years as that Prophetess of Ovid but above 2400. and expected to continue till the end of the World whereas the Cumaean Sibyl as is reported of her thought she was to become at the end of a thousand so wasted as not to have any Body at all having after the dissolution of her precedent Form onely her voice left her to foretell what was to come Her words taken out of the fifth Book page 49. are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nor longer shall in Thee the Virgin quire The Fuel finde of their perpetual Fire The Amiable House long since by thee Hath been destroy'd The second I did see The guardian-Temple o' th' Divinity That ever flourishing house in 'ts Ashes lie Fir'd by an impious hand c. Which Discourse cannot clearly relate to any thing but the Conflagration of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romane Army as a Punishment for which act the Authour of the Sibylline Oracles pretends that Rome should be lai'd desolate in such manner as that the Vestals should not any longer keep in the Fire which they called Sacred and Divine CHAP. VI. Of the Time when the Sibylline Books were written FRom what hath been said is manifest that the Opinion of Possevin concerning the Time wherein the Person who counterfeited the Sibyl lived is ill grounded and our Method now calls upon us to make enquiry how many years we must ascend assuredly to finde it out That he Writ under Antoninus his own words were sufficient to convince any man that should well consider them but his credit sequestered from the things which may otherwise keep it up being with good reason of no account his sincerity is greatly to be suspected and his discourse requiring much caution it is necessary we finde other helps to confirm what is advanced and preferr the Testimonies of those whom his Imposture hath circumvented before any thing he could have represented of himself Theophilus of Antioch who died on the thirteenth of October in the year 180. in regard he hath inserted into his Books To Autolycus divers things taken out of the Sibylline Writings does irrefragably prove that they were before him in Time and that contrary to the conjecture of Possevin the Authour who first writ them reached not the Reign of Commodus who when Theophilus died onely began the eighth Moneth of his Reign Athenagoras who in his Embassy to the Emperours Marcus Aurelius and Verus on the behalf of the Christians copied six Verses out of the second Book shews that this counterfeit Prophecy was in Vogue some time before the year 170. in which Verus died Hermas whom Tertullian affirms to have been Brother to Pope Pius the First who took the Chair on Sunday the seventh of March 146. under the Consulship of Clarus and Severus and died on the eleventh of July 150. under the Consulship of Gallicanus and Vetus discovers that he had a particular knowledg of the said Writings since that in his Work entituled The Pastour he hath not onely shuffled many fantastick Imaginations suitable to those of the pretended Sibyl but designed the Authour by the very Name he would go under For as much as in the second Vision of the first Book having imagined that an Aged Woman had while he was in Ecstasie given him a little Book to transcribe containing Exhortations to Penance he expressed what he seemed to believe of it in these Terms Brethren it hath been revealed to me in my Sleep by a Young man of a goodly appearance and saying to me Who do you think this Aged Woman is of whom you received the Book and I said The Sibyl Whence it follows That before the year 150. this Opinion had gained Footing at Rome among the Christians That a Sibyl much unlike that of the Heathens gave Sinners wholesom Instructions in order to the Exercises of Penance and true Piety And whereas Pope Pius in his second Epistle to Justus of Vienna makes mention of the Death of his Brother saying The Priest called The Pastour hath founded a Title and is worthily departed in the Lord it justifies that between the year 146. and 150. Hermas had maintained the Suppostion of the Sibyl and that the Authour of the Books attributed to her must be yet more antient St. Justin a Christian Philosopher a Native of Neapolis in Palaestina sometime called Sichem and who afterwards suffered Martyrdom at Rome on the first of June 163. does in his First Apologie presented to the Emperour Antoninus his Adopted Sons and the People before Marcus Aurelius had been received into Partnership of the Empire and consequently about the year 141 or 142. complain of the Prohibition had been made that none upon pain of Death should read the Books of Hystaspes and the Sibyl which he presented to the Princes and Senate as things deserving to be highly esteemed and it is not to be doubted but that Holy Person spoke of those which are come to our hands since that in his Exhortation to the Greeks he copied three Verses out of his Preface three out of the third Book and Seaven out of the Fourth a manifest Argument that they were already published since they had passed through his Hands and that he objected them as Pieces generally known to the Heathen themselves whose Errours he opposed CHAP. VII A Conjecture concerning the Authour of the Sibylline Writings IT were at this Day impossible for any man to be so happy in the discovery of the Authour of that Imposture as that he might without any fear of Mistake make his Name publike to be covered with the shame and enormity of his sacrilegious attempt against the sincerity of the Church But methinks there is some ground to charge if not as the principal advancer of the Cheat at least as a complice of his crime Hermas who as hath been observed spoke of the Sibyl in the year 148 or 149. and who was grown infamous for another kind of Supposititious dealing whereby he presumed to feign Apparitions of Women and Angels disguised like Shepherds who furnished him with Instructions of Penance pestered with fantastick Imaginations which he hath expressed in as wretched Greek as that of the Sibylline Writings and such as equally with the other deserves perpetual dishonour Though he were a Native of Aquileia yet was his residence with his Brother Pope Pius at Rome that is in the Heart of that place which for the space of
who would prove their Custom out of the Old in the same manner as these later disclaim all the advantage which St. Chrysostom had promised himself in the allegation of the Apostolical Law Secondly That it argues want of circumspection to suppose as acknowledged what is in Question viz. That the Synagogue under the Old Testament made any Prayers for the dead and that their Practice can be justified by Writings either precedent or immediately subsequent to the Birth of Christianity For since the Hierosolymitane Talmud was not by the Confession even of the Jews themselves began till one hundred sixty two years after the Destruction of both Jerusalem and its Temple and consequently fifteen years at least after the Death of Tertullian which happened as S. Hierome would have it under Caracalla Assassinated on the eighth of April in the year 217. seventy nine years after the first littering of the pretended Sibylline Writings that the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud began not till the 476. year after the final Destruction of the Temple that is to say in the year of our Lord 546. that it took up an hundred years to finish it that these two Collections were made by the implacable enemies of the Gospel and its Truth such as have thrust together without either sincerity or judgment all the Extravagancies that ever troubled the Brains of their Ancestours delivered over as themselves into a reprobate sence and that their Opinions concerning the State of the dead hold correspondence neither with the Sentiment of the Fathers nor with that of the Greeks nor lastly with that which the Church of Rome holds at present there cannot with reason any certa in relyance be made thereon Thirdly That to no purpose is alledged the seventeenth Verse of the fourth Chapter of Tobit which runs thus Pour out thy Bread the old Latine Version made according to the Chaldee adds and thy Wine on the Burial of the Just but give nothing to the wicked because First it is not manifest that there ever was really such a man as Tobit and that the Relation of his Adventures smell as much as may be of a Romance Secondly That the Jews as well Antient as Modern have not attributed any authority thereto Thirdly That all the Greek Fathers unanimously and many of the Latine have held it to be Apocryphal Fourthly That though of all the Canonical Books it were the most Canonical yet neither ought the words alledged out of it to be taken literally since they are notoriously figurative nor could they have any relation to the Custom either of praying or making Offerings for the Dead but according to the use of Funeral Entertainments or Banquets ordained not to procure ease to the Departed but to relieve the kindred he had left to induce them to an oblivion of their mourning and to comfort them For as the Prophet Jeremy threatning the Jews with the Judgment of God which was likely to deprive them of all means of comforting one another said Neither shall men break Bread for them in mourning to comfort them for the Dead neither shall men give them the Cup of consolation to drink for their Father or for their Mother so Tobit exhorting his Son to the Offices of Charity towards his afflicted Brethren orders him to Pour out his Bread and his Wine on the Burial of the dead and by a kind of speaking to fill it by kindly treating those that were in mourning upon their accompt and raising them out of their Heaviness which does not inferr either Prayer or Offering for the dead but onely a charitable care and tenderness towards the living Fourthly That the words of the Son of Sirach in the thirty third Verse of the seventh Chapter of his Ecclesiasticus A gift hath grace in the sight of every man Living and for the Dead detain it not make nothing to the Business of Offerings and Prayers for the Dead to which some would have them relate in as much as that Authour who made his Collection of Sentences in the year 247. before the Birth of our Saviour is so far from saying that the gift which was to be given upon the accompt of the dead was to be exercised towards the departed Person himself that he expresly declares it was so done upon the accompt of the dead that it referred as to its proper object to the surviving adding in the next verse Fail not to be with them that weep and mourn with them that mourn as if he said That that kindness which he desired should not be detained for the dead consists not in praying for the dead but in having a sympathy for their affliction who bewail him and endeavouring to comfort them Besides it is to be noted by the way that the Book of Ecclesiasticus though very antient since it was written 247. years before the Birth of our Saviour and very full of good Doctrine upon which accompt it hath been cited by the Fathers was never enrolled among the Canonical Books neither by the Jews nor by any of the Greek Fathers nor by most of the Latines Fifthly That there cannot be a clearer Evidence to convince those of Errour who suppose that the Custom of Praying for the Dead was antiently among the Jews then to urge that there is not the least track of it in those who were Contemporary with the Apostles viz. Philo who had made himself Master of all prophane Wisdom and the Philosophy of Plato and who was in Caligula's Time reputed the Glory of his Nation and Josephus who was one of the chief Commanders of the Jewish War under Nero and the most diligent searcher into the Antiquities of his Nation under Domitian So that the later Jews must needs have borrowed the Custom they still continue either from some piece of Heathenish superstition or from the Opinions crept into Christianity through their means who were admirers of the pretended Sibylline Writing Sixthly That the second Book of the Maccabees was neither known nor of any accompt among the Jews For as it is manifest that it hath no coherence with the first neither in respect of the observations of time nor in respect of events and their circumstances so we both may and ought to hold it for certain that Josephus who very strictly followed the first either had not any knowledg of it or if he had made no accompt of it since that even when it was his business to represent some History whereof there was also a relation in that Book he hath not onely related it according to his own way but hath often laid it down in circumstances as to the matter of fact incompatible with what was reported thereof in the said Book Whereto may be added the strange obscurity of it which is such that it is not known neither who they were nor about what Time flourished either Jason the Cyrenian the first Authour or the Abbreviator who reduced into a small Epitome the five Books of
Jason nor yet in what Language Jason had first writ them nor whether he was more antient then Josephus who finished his Work Of the Antiquities in the year of our Lord 94. concurrent with the thirteenth of Domitian and the fourty fourth before the Forgeries of the counterfeit Sibyl appeared nor lastly whether that Abridgment came betimes into the hands of the Christians it appearing not that any of them had seen it before the year of our Loâ—d 200. Seventhly That it is absolutely impossible that any of the Christians of the second third and fourth Ages should in their Prayers for the dead have proposed to themselves for a Pattern the Example of Judas Maccabaeus and the Judgment which either Jason the Cyrenian or his Abridger made of it And that for these reasons First Because it was not cited by any of the Fathers till 280. years after the first coming abroad of the pretended Sibylline Writing For St. Augustine having first cited it in the year 416. Prosper Africanus followed him about the year 450. It was afterwards cited by Bacchiarius in his Epistle to Januarius about the year 460. and Julian of Toledo about the year 680. in the one and twentieth Chapter of the first Book of his Prognosticks and Damascene about the year 760. in his Oration De dâ—…nctis and Peter sirnamed the Venerable Abbot of Clugny about the year 1150. in the second Epistle of his first Book and Ecbert a Priest of Bonne near Cullen about the year 1160. Adversus Cathar serm and Guy of Perpignan first General of the Order of the Carmelites afterwards Bishop of Majorca about the year 1318. De Haeresibus Secondly Because we do not finde that any of the Fathers have cited or so much as made the least discovery that they had seen the second Book of the Maccabees before Clemens Alexandrinus and Origene among the Greeks about the year 200 and 240. the former in the fifth of his Stromata and the later in the first Chapter of the second Book De Principiis and his third Homily upon Solomon's Song and his eighteenth Tome upon St. John and upon the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes and St. Cyprian among the Latines in the year 252. in his four hundred and fifty sixth Epistle De exhortatione Martyrii the eleventh Chapter and Zeno of Verona about the year 360. Sermone de Resurrectione De Sancto Arcadio Thirdly In regard that as not any one of the Greek Fathers either in Councel or in any particular Writing held the second Book of the Maccabees for Canonical so many of the Latines for instance Tertullian in his fourth Book Adversùs Marcionem carmine scripto cap. 7. St. Hilary in his Prologue upon the Psalms Philastrius Bishop of Brescia in the Chapter de Apocryphis St. Hierome in his seventh Epistle and the one hundred and third and his Prologue upon the Book of Kings and Solomon Ruffinus upon the Crede the Priests of Hilary's Epistle to St. Augustine Primasius Bishop of Adrumetum in Apocal. lib. 1. cap. 4. Junilius another African Prelate in the seventh Chapter of his first Book De partitione Divinae Legis St. Gregory in the seventeenth Chapter of the nineteenth Book of his Morals upon Job the Authour of the Book De mirabilibus Sanctae Scripturae lib. 2. cap. 33. Beda De sex aetatibus In Reg. lib. 4. In Apocal cap. 4. Ambrose Ansbert In Apoc. lib. 3. cap. 4. Alcuinus Adversùs Elipand lib. 1. Charle-Maigne in his Capitulary of the year 789. cap. 10. and the Commentaries attributed to St. Victorinus Bishop of Poictiers those to St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain and those to St. Augustine upon the fourth Chapter of the Apocalyps have all in imitation of the Greeks especially of the Councel of Laodicea put this Book out of the Canon that is out of the List of the Writings inspired by God to be received as a Rule of Faith And this Remark seems to be the more necessary in as much as it contributes to the reconciling with the Greek Fathers and with the Latines that have been of the same Opinion those others of the Latine Church who have comprehended within the Canon of the Holy Scriptures as well the Maccabees as the other Books accounted Apocryphal by the Jews and several of the Christians For if the Councel met at Carthage on the twenty fifth of August 397. during the Popedom of Siricius and since adapted by I know not what Rhapsodist under the Name of the Sixth Councel of Carthage to the twenty fifth of May 419. under the Papacy of Boniface the First if St. Augustine in the eighth Chapter of his Second Book Of Christian Doctrine writ immediately after the Councel of the year 397. if Innocent in his Epistle written to Exuperus Bishop of Tolosa on the twentieth of February 405. if the Councel assembled at Rome in the year 494. under Pope Gelasius and if Isidore Arch-Bishop of Sevil in the sixth Chapter of his first Book of his Etymologies sent to Braulio Bishop of Saragossa after the year 626. inserting the Books of the Maccabees into the Canon of the Scriptures had taken the words Canon and Holy Scriptures in the same sence as the Jews the Greeks and the Latines adhering to their Sentiment concerning the List of the Books bestowed on the Church for a Rule of Faith since they have esteemed Canonical the Books which the rest of the Fathers formally excluded out of the Canon and that holding in appearance one the affirmative the other the negative of the same Proposition they seem to be formally contradictory it were absolutely impossible to reconcile them all and there would be a necessity of charging with prevarication contrary to the judgment of the Romane Church declared by Innocent the First and the Councel assembled under Gelasius Gregory the Great who expresly qualified not-canonical the Maccabees received into the Canon of the Holy Scriptures by Innocent and numbred by the Councel under Gelasius among the Prophetical Scriptures Histories of the old Testament Nay it would be contrary also to that of the African Church declared by the Councel of Carthage and by St. Augustine Primasius and Junilius Africans who formally confined themselves to the Canon of the Jews nay it were hard to avoid making St. Augustine contradict himself in as much as after he had affirmed that the Maccabees were held by the Church to be Canonical he presently adds That they are not among the Holy Scriptures called Canonical saying Supputatio Temporum non in Scripturis sanctis quae Canonicae appellantur sed in aliis invenitur in quibus sunt Maccabaeorum libri quos non Judaei sed Ecclesia fro Canonicis habet c. The computation of Times is not found in the Holy Scriptures which are called Canonical but in the others among which are also the Books of the Maccabees which are held to be Canonical by the Church but not by the Jews
that they would suffer themselves as Children of Peace Domesticks of the Prince of Peace to be won into thoughts of Compassion and love for the Salvation of those who perish and not be afraid after the Example of our Saviour who came from Heaven and descended into the lower parts of the Earth to seek for the Children of wrath to become as his Apostle all things to all men that by all means he might save some When such a noble desire shall once possess mens Spirits inclining them not to endeavour the Conquest of their own glory but to procure as far as lies in them the Victory and Triumph of Truth for the glory of God it will be impossible but that cruel and murthering animosities the ordinary but ever-fatall Consequences of Debates concerning Religion which is thereby ruined must vanish as so many infernal shades chaced away by the amiable raies of the Sun of Righteousness who brings life and healing in his Wings Nor ought we whatever some Earthly Souls may conceive of their own carnal and violent Counsels hopeless then that in the extraordinary confusion of the last times some change for the better may happen Heretofore the Church soon after the departure of the Apostles had the misfortune that Hermas Papias Justin Martyr Athenagoras Theophilus of Antioch St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian in a word all the most excellent Persons of whom we have ought left led away by the extravagances and fantastick Imaginations of the counterfeit Sibyll believed themselves and perswaded others that the Souls of all men were from the departure out of the Body detained in Hell till the Resurrection that the just rising again before the others should reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth and live a thousand years in Jerusalem made glorious and flowing with corporeal enjoyments or at least in the Terrestrial Paradise and that the Bodies of the greatest Saints should pass through the last conflagration of the World as through a Refiner's Furnace The Fathers of the following Ages happily shook off these unmaintainable conceits but finding Prayer for the Dead in the publick Service of the Church they extended it as well to the blessed as the damned The Church of Rome who approves not of praying for either of those two States hath at last brought into credit her Purgatory a thing not known before why may we not hope it from the goodness of God that he will dispel this last Imagination as he hath done the precedent and every where establish his Truth in its full lustre Let therefore those who at the present quarrel at the simplicity of the Protestants who neither maintain the Hypotheses of the Fathers which the Opinion of Purgatory hath discredited nor hold Purgatory which is made up of the rubbish of the precedent suppositions for their discharge consider that they have on the one side learnt from the instructions as well of Scripture as of the Fathers and all the antient Liturgies even that of the Church of Rome that her Purgatory hath no sound foundation and on the other that the Church of Rome her self hath by her example given them the boldness to recede from the practise of the Fathers which she first relinquished And as I have made it my business as much as lay in my power to give an accompt of their demeanour searching into the true causes of the differences that have appeared in the Perswasions and Customs of the Christians who have passed through so long a revolution of Ages and shewing those who now live how deeply it concerns them to build on the firm and unmoveable foundation of the Scriptures and avoid the quick-Sands of humane apprehensions so shall I be the first to censure my self if contrary to my intention I may have chanced to be mistaken and so far from being displeased with those who shall charitably advertise me thereof that I shall highly celebrate their good Offices and acknowledg upon all occasions that as we can all of us do nothing against the truth so I shall never as to my own particular presume to attempt any thing to its prejudice but hold with St. Cyprian that we must not erre always because we have sometimes erred and make it my chiefest address to the Father of Lights from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down that he would lift up the light of his countenance upon all his Children give them the grace to understand their errours and cleanse them from those which are yet secret and make the words of their mouth and meditations of their hearts acceptable in his sight and advantageoâ—is to their own and their Neighbours salvation Amen A TABLE Of the Chapters BOOK I. CHAP. I. THat the most earnest Pursuers of Truth are as others subject to Mistakes Page 1 II. Instances of certain Misapprehensions of Justine Martyr 2 III. The Writings pretended to be Sibylline discovered in several particulars to be Spurious and Supposititious 4 IV. The Judgment of Antoninus Possevinus concerning the Writings pretended to be Sibylline taken into Examination 6 V. The Recommendation of the Sibylline Writings attributed by Clemens Alexandrinus to Saint Paul brought to the Test 9 VI. An accompt of several instances of Dis-circumspection in Clemens Alexandrinus 12 VII Reflections on several Suppositious Pieces whereby many of the antient Christians have been imposed upon and abused 14 VIII The different Opinions of the Antients concerning the Sibyls 19 IX The precautions of Rome while yet in Paganism to prevent the reading of the Books which she believed really Sibylline 23 X. The Motives which he might have gone upon who was the first Projector of the Eight Books which at this day go under the Name of the Sibylline 27 XI A Discovery of the mistakes of the Emperour Constantine the Great concerning the Sibyl and her Writings 29 XII The Sentiment of Cicero concerning the Acrostick attributed to the Sibyl further cleared up 32 XIII The Sentiment of Virgil in his fourth Eclogue examined and cleared up and that it hath no relation to the Writings pretendedly Sibylline which were composed a long time after made apparent 34 XIV Remarks on some less considerable mistakes of the Emperour Constantine in the Explication of Virgil's fourth Eclogue 40 XV. That it cannot be said that Virgil in his fourth Eclogue disguised his own Sentiment 45 XVI That Apollodorus had no knowledg of the Eight Books which go under the name of the Sibylline ibid. XVII That Pausanias hath not writ any thing which may give credit to the Book unjustly called the Sibylline 47 XVIII That the Prohibition made to read the Books called the Sibylline and that of Hystasphes adds no Authority thereto 48 XIX That the Letter written by L. Domitius Aurelianus to the Senate gives no credit to the Sibylline Writings 50 XX. Other Discoveries shewing the Supposititiousness of the Sibylline VVriting so called 51 XXI That it cannot with any likelihood of Truth