presuming to derive her thence A manifest Argument that Apollodorus could not ground his pretension on her contradictory Testimony but that the Counterfeit Sibyl having seen as being later by many Ages what he had written took occasion to oppose it as incompatible with his Fiction Thirdly For that she quarrels with the Greeks for having said of her things which not any one in particular could be convinced to have affirmed to wit That she was the Daughter of Circe and by Father of Gnostus for all those among the Antients who have left any thing behind them have made the Erythraean Sibyl the Daughter of Jupiter or of Apollo and Lamia or of Aristocrates and Hydole or of Crinagoras or in fine of the Shepherd Theodorus and the Nymph Idea and not any one of Circe besides that indeed they could not have done it without Absurdity For how could it have come into their minds to make her born at Erythrae a City of Asia if they had thought her the Daughter of Circe by Nation an Italian born and dwelling near Rome upon the Mount called to this day by her name Monte Circello I pass by as of less Consequence the Stupidity of that pretended Prophetess who to put a slur on the reputation of Homer betrayed her own Ignorance saying That Homer should write not truly but clearly of Ilium because he should see her Works For who will say they are things incompatible To say the Truth and To speak clearly Are they who speak Truth necessarily obliged to conceal themselves and Liers to discover themselves Or can it be said that the Consequence is good He hath my Verses therefore He shall not speak the Truth unless it be presupposed that those Verses are full of Untruths and teach him that hath them to Lie But the Books pretended to be writ by the Sibyls though they have for these fourteen hundred years and still do dazle the eyes of many swarm with such Impertinences CHAP. XVII That Pausanias hath not written any thing which may give credit to the Books mis-named the Sibylline NOr is there any more reason we should take the Discourse of Pausanias who says The Isle of the Rhodians hath been much shaken so that the Oracle of the Sibyl which had been given concerning Rhodes is come to pass for any confirmation of what the pretended Sibyl had writ in two several places The greatest unhappiness that may be shall happen to the Rhodians For he speaks of the Earth-quake which happened in that Isle almost two Ages before under Augustus soon after which Tiberius had in a manner raised it again through his continual Residence therein from the year of Rome 748. to the year 755. upon which account it is that the Epigram of Antiphilus calls him its Restorer and the pretended Sibyl threatens it with a Ruin to come at the end of the World when Rome having accomplished its Period nine hundred fourty and eight years shall be so destroyed by Nero returned from Persia that it shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a street Delos shall be no more and Samos be turned into an Heap of Sand. Which may serve to justifie the mistake of Tertullian who thrusting into his Book De Pallio these last words dis-joynted from the Precedent and Consequent applies them to that Desolation of those Isles which reached to his Time saying Of the Isles Delos no longer is Samos is become Sand and the Sibyl is no Lier whereas he should necessarily have concluded That she had lyed in referring to the end of the World and of Rome what had happened long before as also that all the eight Books in three whereof the Mis-fortune of that Isle was recapitulated in the same Terms were contrary to the Opinion since embraced by Lactantius the Draught of one and the same hand CHAP. XVIII That the Prohibition made to read the Books called the Sibylline and that of Hystaspes adds no Authority thereto THere is yet less ground to rely on the Words of Justine Martyr writing to the Emperours Through the working of Evil Spirits is it come that it is forbidden upon pain of Death to read the Books of Hystaspes â—…he Sibyl or the Prophets that so those who read them might by fear be diverted from taking cognizance of good things for we not onely read them without any fear but also as you see we recommend them to your inspection knowing they would be acceptable to you all Yet if we perswade but a little we gain much for that as good Labourers we shall receive a reward from the Master For though we may with some likelyhood conjecture that the Antient Prohibition to read the Prophetical Books was much more strictly observed after the discovery of the forged Pieces of Hystaspes and the Sibyl among the Heathens and that they had a particular aversion for those who gave credit thereto Yet is there not found in their Books any Law to that purpose nor does it appear that they made it much their business to prevent the reading of those Writings which they justly esteemed Supposititious and such as had never been among their Archivi nor yet that they decreed any Punishment to be inflicted on the Readers and Admirers of the Prophets of Israel since the exercise of the Jewish Religion had been always tolerated in the Empire and the Synagogues were continued every where And if the liberty of such as were inclined to Judaism was less after the tumult of Barchochebas and the whole Nation more hated yet did not that Hatred occasion the interdiction of the Prophetical Books but onely the Banishment of the natural Jews out of Palestine and some addition to their Taxes And as Justine neither says nor could have said That the Prohibition made to read the Fatidick Books in the Empire was more particularly levelled against the Christians then others since it was so general that it comprehended all Nations under the Romane Jurisdiction without distinction or exception and that it is manifest it was done upon occasion of the Books laid up first in the Capitol and afterwards under the Base of Apollo Palatinus So was there not any ground to imagine that it proceeded from the suggestion of Devils rather then from a deep Political Prudence which very rationally apprehended that these Oracles for which the Common People though they knew them not had so great an esteem upon this very account that they introduced Novelties into the antient Superstition and if I may so express it clad it in a new Dress notoriously derogated from the Customes derived from Father to Son were likely to fill mens minds with fruitless Curiosities and as Cicero says Valebant ad deponendas Religiones As for the Supposititious Pieces of Hystaspes and the Sibyl which under pretence of teaching the Worship of one God and recommending unto men the Mysteries of Christian Religion filled it with false Opinions and raised upon some sound
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
read or interpret it and that the Quindecem-viri themselves whose particular Privilege it was durst not attempt any such thing without the express Order of the Senate Whence it follows that the Heathens had good reason to Charge with Imposture the Pieces produced by the Fathers upon this account particularly That they saw them in their hands and by them published nor could the Christians justly press them to produce what none of them could come at and was to continue locked up under the Key of a perpetual secret But all this notwithstanding Origen's Answer was not necessary Celsus does not demonstrate that the things which he conceives shuffled into the Works of the Sibyl are reproachfull or detractive therefore they are not such For though the imputation of Heathenish Superstitions be not properly detraction but a most true and most just reproach of their Impiety yet was it a Detraction according to their Opinion and to bring the Charge by a Sibyl that is the Person the most unfit to act such a part was to exercise a kind of Detraction against her Memory and to bear a false Testimony under her Name very well deserving to be taken off by the general complaint of all the Unbelievers Wherefore the Defence of Origen against the Objection of Celsus who as Contemporary with Justine Martyr and Lucian who dedicated his Pseudo-mantis to him had seen the breaking forth of the Imposture being but an Elusion and no more Saint Augustine hath had a thousand times more reason to leave it to the Adversaries of the Church to acknowledge or disclaim at their own choice the eight Books pretended to be Sibylline saying Therefore though they should not believe our Scriptures their own which they read with blindness are fulfilled upon them unless it happen that some may say The Sibyl ' s Prophecies are but the Fictions of the Christians And again But what other Prophecies soever there pass concerning Christ some may imagine forged by the Christians and therefore there is no way so sure to convince such as are Strangers in this matter and to confirm those of our own Profession as by citing the Prophecies contained in the Jews Books I would to God the Church's children had continued in these Terms and so have cleared their hearts of the evil Ambition of having been the Authours of some Pious Frauds and conceive an holy shame at their being employed in those which Imposture had endeavoured to introduce into the House of God For though they had not thought it fit to make any reflection on the Arguments I have brought against the spuriousness of the Sibylline Writings they needed no more then to have called to account those that produced them whence they had had them taking them up sharply with the ensuing Demands or the like How could these Sacred Privileges of the Empire and Religion come â—…o your hands By what Artifices could you you who call your selves The Faithfull possess your selves of the Treasure committed to the Custody of the Quindecem-viri the sworn Enemies of your Faith How comes our Age to be so happy as to have the advantage to discover and make publike the Predictions which had been concealed above six hundred and twelve years Especially seeing the lateness of their Discovery made after the Death of Adrian the confident Publication of the highest secret of Paganism and the contrariety of the Consequences arising from its Publication to all that Antiquity had heard of it for six Ages before might have given them more then a presumption of the Imposture particularly to Justine Martyr who writ his Apologie five years or ten at most after the Advancement of it And here I can do no less by the way then advertise the Reader that he who after the year four hundred and six took upon him under the name of that Holy Doctour to answer the Questions of the Greeks seems to be mistaken when having writ That the end of this World is the Judgment of the Wicked by Fire according to what is said in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles he adds As also of those of the Sibyl according to what is said by the blessed Saint Clement in the first Epistle to the Corinthians For first The Epistle of Saint Clement which hath in some manner received a second life fifteen years since when England restored it to the Church of God says nothing of the Sibyl and though there be a Leaf wanting at the end yet is there not any likelyhood that in that later part which contained the Conclusion of all the precedent Discourse woven up of Scriptures the Holy Martyr should have recourse to the Authority of a strange Testimony and draw out of a prophane Source 2. The Allegation of the Sibyl's Words concerning the Judgment by Fire is in the Sixth Chapter of the fifth Book of the pretended Apostolical Constitutions where the fourteen last Verses of the fourth Book of the Counterfeit Sibyl have been inserted after the Texts of the Prophets and Apostles as of Genesis Chap. ii 7. and Chap. iii. 14. Isaiah Chap. xxvi 19. Ezekiel Chap. xxxvii 13. Daniel Chap. xii 2. St. Matthew Chap. iv 23. St. Luke Chap. xxi 18. and St. John Chap. v. 28. and xi 43. so that it is evident that the Authour of the Answers to the Questions of the Greeks was extremely mistaken negligently confounding the Constitutions unjustly attributed to St. Clement with his Epistle to the Corinthians 3. If the recourse to the Testimony of the Sibyl really be in the said Epistle it would be an Argument of the corruption of that precious Jewel of Christian Antiquity rather then a legitimate Confirmation of the Authority of the Books pretended to be Sibylline which we have demonstrated to have been forged after the Death of Adrian that is to say thirty eight years after the Martyrdom of St. Clement and sixty after his Banishment to Chersonesus CHAP. XXI That it cannot with any likelihood of Truth be maintained That the Books called the Sibylline were written by Divine Inspiration HAving according as the necessity of Reason and Truth required presupposed that the eight Books pretended to be Sibylline are the Fiction of some bold and busie Christian who would needs have his own fantastick Imaginations pass for Oracles This Question Whether they were writ by Divine Inspiration falls of it self to the ground For it would argue a total Eclipse of sense and understanding to think that God who is the source of Truth would be the adviser of an Imposture and to say he were Authour of it no less then stark madness since there is no communion between the light of Wisdom and the darkness of Lying Whereof the Result is That the Sibyls from whose Oracles the Idolatrous Romanes always derived Encouragements of Impiety to heighten their Superstition neither were nor could be in that regard the communications of the Spirit of God to whose Glory and Worship those Divinations were directly
〈◊〉 which is equivocal he supposes the Chronicle of Eusebius and his History were written before his Work of Evangelical Demonstration and as less elaborate were of less Authority For whence does he inferr it Eusebius in the thirteenth Chapter of his sixth Book of his Evangelical Demonstration had used these worrds And if our own enquiry into things that concern our selves is of any account we have seen with our own eyes Sion which was of old so celebrious plowed up with Oxen and subjected to the Romanes And every one knows that Eusebius who lived not far from Sion and was a Native of the Countrey might discourse to that effect with the more certainty by reason of his having had the opportunity to go thousands of times to the Place nay what is more that at this day as in the Time of Adrian who re-edified Jerusalem under the Name of Aelia Sion which in our Saviour's Time was within its Walls and the Fortess thereof is wholly out of the Compass of it and in a manner uninhabited so that the ground thereof is and may be cultivated by the labour of Oxen. But Hentenius imagining that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not signifie any thing but his Ecclesiastical History suffered to slip out of his Memory what the Place of the Authour he had in hand should have suggested to him to wit that that very word is there as frequently in other good Writers used to denote an enquiry a survey a visit as when Plutarch in his Book Of the Cessation of Oracles and Theodoret in the second Chapter of the first Book of his Ecclesiastical History make use of it and when Suidas explicates the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay further though we were apt to understand it otherwise Eusebius himself would not permit it nor yet that we should suppose his Evangelical Demonstration was or was written after or of greater account or more elaborate and correct then his History since that in the third Chapter of the first Book of his History he cites the Demonstration saying Having disposed into Commentaries purposely designed for that end the Extracts of the Prophets concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ and in others demonstratively confirmed the things which have been declared of him and clearly proves that he had written it before and it follows not that if he had writ it afterwards it should be ever the more elaborate for as much as The Life of Constantine whereof contrary to what many at this day think he declares himself the Authour was written after the year 337. long after his Ecclesiastical History yet was never the more elaborate since that what it hath common with the History is alleged in express Terms in several places which shews that Eusebius had not any thing better to entertain us with nor could have expressed himself in better Terms then he had done in his History which he carried on but to the the year 325. The same may be said of his Chronicle which being cited as well in the Evangelical Praeparation as in his Ecclesiastical History must of necessity have been written first For it is so far upon that account from being less correct and elaborate that on the contrary we must necessarily by it correct several Passages which he hath without sufficient recollection thrust into his History which in that regard is the less elaborate Add to this the likelyhood there is that the Chronicle which at present makes mention not onely of the Death of Licinius of the Councel of Nice and the wretched end of Crispus killed in the year 326. was reviewed by him after the setting forth of his History and consequently more elaborate then any other of his Works which Consideration contributes as much or more then any thing hath been said to the conviction of Hentenius of mistake and to the making of his imagination of no account It is therefore manifest by the Testimonies of St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Eusebius and St. Hiâ—rome in the places alleged as also by Severus Sulpitius in the second Book of his Sacred History by Paulus Orosius in the tenth Chapter of the seventh Book of his History by Primasius Bishop of Adrumetum in his Commentary upon the Apocalyps by Jornandes in his Book De Regn. success by Isidore of Sevil in his Chronicle and his Book of the Death of the Saints by the Authour of the Preface put before the Treatises of St. Augustine upon St. John by Maximus on Dionysius his tenth Epistle by the Counterfeit Abdias and Prochorus in the Life of St. John by Bede on the Apocalyps and Of the six Ages by Him who wrote Of the Martyrdom of St. Timothy by Ambrose Ansbert upon the Apocalyps by Paul the Deacon in Miscelia by Freculsius of Lizieux Tom. 2. Book 2. Chap. 7 and 8. by the Romane Martyrologies of Bede Usuard Ado Notker c. by Michael Syncellus in Encomio Dionysii by Regino by Arothas Arch-Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia by Simeon Metaphrastes by the Greek Fasti by the Arabian Prolegomena by Hermannus sirnamed Contractus by Lambert of Schaffnabourg by Marianus Scotus by Zonaras by Cedrenus by Nicephorus Callistus in the eleventh Chapter of his first Book and the fourty second Chapter of his second Book by Georgius Paechymerius on â—ionysius his Episiles and by almost all those that have written since the Time of St. John that that great Apostle received the Revelations from God under Domitian near the end of his Reign that he was recalled from Paâ—mos by Nerva and writ his Gospel after his return to Ephesus and ended this Life in the third year of Trajan so that whosoever will have the Obstinacy to maintain the contrary must needs before he pretend to have any credit given himself wholly take away that of all Antiquity Fourty two years after the re-establishment of Saint John at Ephesus and thirty eight years after his Death the Emperour Adrian troubled with a mortal Disease and without Issue did upon the five and twentieth of February in the year 138. adopt Antoninus sirnamed The Debonnaire conditionally that the Adoption should be extended to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus the Sons of his former adopted Son who died on the first of January in the year 137. and he himself coming to die the 12th of July following immediately thereupon came abroad the Poem attributed to the Sibyls wherein the Authour who towards the end of the 8th Book assigned the utter destruction of Rome to happen in the four hundred ninety eighth year after its Foundation coincident with the year 195. of our Saviour upon this very account that giving two several times a List of the Emperours he reckons after Adrian Antoninus and his two adopted Sons evidently shews that he lived and writ after their Adoption His own words make it manifest After him that is to say Trajan another one with a Silver Head that is to
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
that God would grant them an early Resurrection as a recompense for their short Life his meaning was not to require that they should rise before the Last Day but in the same moment with others but as to order in the most worthy and first in excellence viz. that of the Patriarchs and Apostles and that because those Princes were descended of a Christian Father because they had from their Mother's Breasts been imbued with Piety and had never no more then the Patriarchs and Apostles been defiled with the Superstition of the Heathen out of which most of the Christians of their time had been delivered CHAP. XXIII The Time when Praying for the Dead was first introduced into the Service of the Church HAving given an accompt of the Motives which the Antients had to Pray for the Dead it may haply be questioned by some When this kind of Office which is not grounded upon any Precept or Example of either Old or New Testament came to be used in the Church In answer to which I make no difficulty to affirm That it might be practised some time before the year 200. in as much as Tertullian the most Antient of all those that say any thing of it numbred it even then among the Customs received in his Time writing in the year 199. Oblationes pro Defunctis pro Natalitiis annua die facimus c. Upon a certain Anniversary-day we make Oblations for the Dead and for Birth-days meaning by those Birth-days the days of the Passions of the Martyrs on which putting a Period to their Lives and Combats they entred as it were by a second-Birth into the enjoyment of their true Life and their Glory And in another place treating of the Duties of the Surviving Husband towards his deceased Wife Pro anima ejus orat refrigerium interim adpostulat ei in prima Resurrectione consortium offert annuis diebus dormitionis ejus c. He prays for her Soul and in the mean time begs she may finde refreshment and that he might enjoy her Society at the first Resurrection and offers upon the Anniversary-days of her falling-asleep that is to say of her departure Again Jam repete apud Deum pro cujus Spiritu postules pro qua Oblationes annuas reddas Stabis ergò ad Deum cum tot uxoribus quot illas oratione commemoras offeres pro duabus commemoras alias duas per Sacerdotem de Monogamia ob pristinum de virginitate sancitum circumdatum virginibus univiris c. Consider now well for whose Spirit thou makest thy Addresses to God for whom thou dost return annual Oblations Wilt thou therefore stand before God with as many Wives as thou dost in thy Prayers commemorate and wilt thou offer for two and dost thou make Commemoration of those two by the Priest who after his once marrying because of the precedent Ordinance concerning Virginity is encompassed with Virgins and Women that have had but one Husband From the things which this Great Person the most Antient and most Learned of all the Latines that we have remaining does advance as to matter of fact concerning the Oblations which were publickly made and the employment of Priests the onely Ministers of the Publick service as a thing ordinary and grown into Custom it is manifest that Praying for the Dead was in his Time used not onely by particular Persons but also in the Body of the Church and that the Liturgies thereof were full of it So that if we admit as equally if not more antient then Tertullian the Formularies of his Service such as we have them now we should not upon that accompt have any Inconvenience to fear But seeing that Tertullian who the first of all the Authours we have remaining gives us occasion to observe what the Practice of the Christians of his Time was relyed as well for the Prayers as the Offerings upon no other Hypotheses then those proposed by the Authour of the pretended Sibylline Writing and that he had reverenced it as a Piece not to be charged with any insincerity alledging it with this Elogie in the year 208. Et Sibylla non mendax that is And the Sibyl no Lyar I finde my self forced to believe that from that Sink over-easily taken by Antiquity for a pure and sacred Source was from the midst of the second Age derived the Custom which had already gained strength when Tertullian writ the Books we have cited I think also that who will but consider that there are threescore years aâ—d above between the year 138. wherein the Romance of the Counterfeit Sibyl seems to have come first abroad and the year 199. in which Tertullian writ his Book De Corona and that the Books De exhortatione Castitatis and De Monogamia are yet later will easily judge that space of Time more then sufficient to give Birth unto spread and confirm as well by solemn Formularies as by constant Practice the Custom which though with great alterations hath continued even to this day Add to this that as none of the Antients who in the second Age made mention of the State of the Dead either writ before the year 138. or made any difficulty to go upon the Hypotheses of the Counterfeit Prophetess who hath described it according to her Fancy or thought it much sometimes to have recourse to her Authority so all those who after Tertullian and the use confirmed in his Time spoke of Prayers for the Dead have built upon the same Foundations some as Lactantius have alledged her pretended Oracles and not any one would presume to derogate from the Reputation which she had but too too easily acquired I could wish for their sakes who after they had disclaimed the first causes for which Tertullian St. Epiphanius and others of the Antients thought it necessary to Pray for the Dead are yet resolved to retain the Custom of Praying for them that it were in their power to discover a beter ground whence their Observation might derive its Origine I should entertain with joy and respect what they might have to acquaint me with in recommendation thereof and would freely subscribe what satisfactory Testimony can be produced but I hope they will bear with me if taking the liberty to discover my Thoughts I say they have not any thing of greater weight then the Custom alledged by Tertullian and introduced by those who for the space of threescore years together had been deceived by the Writing unjustly called the Sibylline I am not ignorant how that St. Chrysostom two hundred years after Tertullian spoke advantageously of this Custom writing in the twenty first Homily upon the Acts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not in vain that the Deacon crys for those who rest in Christ and those who make Commemorations for them c. the Spirit hath ordained all these things c. it is not the Deacon which utters that voice but
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
question the truth of other times Of that kind is that which is attributed to the Sibyl of Moses hinting at and foretelling the Deluge Lib. 1. p. 9. as also what is found written in the same Book pag. 11. that the Sibyl her self with her husband her Father-in-law Mother-in-law her brethren-in-law and others was tâ—ss'd up and down by the waves in the time of the Deluge But it is evident rom pag. 30. that those very things which have come abroad under the name of Oracles were written fifteen hundred years after the Empire of the Greeks whereof whether we take the beginning from the reign of the Argives or Sicyonians or Athenians or whether it be taken from Moses from the reign of Solomon the Macedonian Empire or the four Monarchies those things which are called Predictions will be frivolous and after the things done They will be found also to be wanting as to truth if the government of the Greeks began since Moses for from the departure of Moses and Israel out of Aegypt to the destroying of the Administration or Commonwealth and Government of the Jews under Vespasian are reckoned one thousand four score and two years Further what can be said as to what we find in the fifth Book p. 49. where the Sibyl affirms that she had seen a second conflagration of the Temple of Vesta And that according to the testimony of Eusebius it happened under the Emperour Commodus in the year 199. for in that year the Temple of Vesta and the Palace and the greatest part of the City was burnt whereas the first conflagration happened in the 134. Olympiad Whence it is to be conceiv'd that the Prophetess if it may be lawfull to call her such prophesy'd not before the birth of Christ but long after and pretends not to any thing beyond Commodus since that in the eighth Book p. 57. she says that three Emperours shall reign after Adrian that is to say Antoninus the Debonnaire Antoninus the Philosopher and Commodus To this may be added that it is apparent from the first Book of Lactantius Firmianus Chap. 6. that each of the Sibyls writ her own Book and yet that now they seem to be all the Work of one because they all go under the name of the Sibyl and that we cannot distinguish them nor assign to any one her own unless it be to the Erythraean who put her name into her Poem and is called Erythraea now that was the Work of the Erythraean which takes up the third place among those Books The Author of the first Book feign'd himself to be daughter-in-law to Noë the second and the seventh seems to personate a most impudent strumpet pag. 56. though there want not some credible Authors who affirm that the true Sibyls were chast and inspir'd of God The sister of Isis challenges the fifth Book the rest were publish'd under the names of uncertain Authors By way of Annotation upon this granting what he sayes as to the supposititiousness of the pretended Sibyl as also that Moses is more ancient then any that have gone under that name I affirm In the first place That the writing which goes commonly under that title does not introduce Moses but Noah himself foretelling the Deluge which speaks yet a little more confidence 2. That from the departure out of Aegypt to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus there are 1600. years compleat 518. more then was thought 3. That the Author of the Sibylline Books does not affirm he saw the second conflragration of the Temple of Vesta but the last of Jerusalem The house sometime so much desir'd by thee says he to Rome when I saw that house pull'd down and set on fire the second time by an impure hand a house ever flourishing and having God in it which house he supposes that Christ himself descending from heaven will come and re-establish together with Jerusalem to reign there in his glory Which manifestly argues that though threatning Rome with finall destruction he writes The Virgins shall not always find the Divine fire yet he neither saw nor foresaw the conflagration that happened in the twelfth year of Commodus which was but the 191. of our Saviour but reflected on the Prediction of St. John expressing that Rome should be utterly burnt with fire and be found no more at all so that he thought it would be to no purpose to look there for Vesta's fire and other Monuments of her Paganisme 4. That if his intention had been to denote the conflagration happened under Commodus he could not truly have call'd it the second for that besides the first mentioned in Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and happening under the Consulate of Gracchus and Falto in the third year of the 135. Olympiad and the 516. of Rome there had been a second observ'd by Tacitus and other creditable Authors under the Consulship of Bassus and Crassus in the fourth year of the 210. Olympiad which was the 817. of Rome the 64. of our Saviour and 11. of Nero. 5. That he doth not onely not pretend to any thing beyond Commodus but makes an apparent stop at Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus which latter he presum'd must needs as being the younger by seven years out-live the other After him saith he whose name begins with a T. the note of the number three hundred that is to say Trajan another shall reign a person with a silver head that is one that was already arriv'd to grey hairs or shall be as he speaks in the eighth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoary and his name that is to say Adrian shall be deriv'd from the Sea Adriatick and he shall be good all manner of wayes and shall know all things and under thee O man absolutely good excellent all manner of wayes and hoary headed and under thy boughs that is to say thy adoptive sons the last dayes shall come to pass three shall reign that is to say Antoninus Marcus and Lucius but the last that is Lucius shall obtain the soveraignty of all things And in the eighth Book After him that is to say Adrian there shall reign three who shall see the last days filling the Name of the heavenly God whose kingdom is now and to all ages that is to say they shall be called Antonini or according to our manner of pronouncing Andonini from the name Adonai and Adonim that is Antoninus the Debonaire Antoninus the Philosopher and Lucius Verus Antoninus who he pretends ought as being the youngest to survive the other two succeed them and continue til the 948. year of Rome or the 195 of our Redemption in which he would have been 67. years of age never imagining that Lucius by his irregularities would prejudice his health so as to be cut off in the flower of his age in the midst of Winter between the years 169. and 170. 6. That though Lactantius carried away with the prejudice of his time conceiv'd that the Books called Sibylline
by any thing of voluptuousness that he hath no further need of patience temperance c. That he is impeâ—â—able That Saint Matthias was chosen because he had shewen himself worthy to be an Apostle That the Sun and the Stars were bestow'd on the Gentiles to be adored by them That by the worship of the Stars they should have looked up to God That it is lawfull to lye for the safety of another That God would have a faithfull man to be so far his own guide as not to need any other assistance That after Marcion whom he acknowledges to have liv'd under the Empire of Adrian and Antoninus Simon did for a short time hear Peter preaching c. He discovers also that he had not met with very skilfull Masters in the Hebrew when he writ that Hosanna interpreted in Greek signifies light glory and praise with supplication to the Lord Again that Abraham is by interpretation elected father of the sound and gave other such Etymologies of the Hebrew names CHAP. VII Reflections on severall supposititious pieces whereby many of the ancient Christians have been imposed upon and abused ARe we then to think it much after so many strange remarks that he who with an excessive easiness of belief could take things from all hands from Heathens from Hereticks from Judaicall Traditions from the Apocriphall Writings of Christians and upon the credit of the false Pastor of Hermas introduce our Saviour and his Apostles preaching in hell should be drawn in to admit the predication father'd on St. Paul the Apostle and swallow down the pretended Oracles of the Sibyl which deriv'd their recommendation from it And why should we make any difficulty to acknowledg what expeâ—â—ence proclaims as it were in the open streets In the second Age the first year whereof had been signaliz'd by the decease of St. John the Evangelist Satan not satisfy'd with the open war there was against the Church by the persecution of the Heathen would needs fasten on her skirts a numerous crue of Hereticks of all sorts execrable in their Opinions and deprav'd in their Manners and made it his business to pull all into disorder within by the uncontrolable licentiousness of forgers and Impostors who with a certain earnestness and in a manner at the same time have either to gratifie some particular Heresie or under the specious pretence of engaging against the Idolatry of the Heathen with greater advantage out of a pious fraud fill'd the world with adulterate and supposititious pieces In so much that it may be said there was not any season more fruitfull in those pernicious excrescencies and Apocriphall Writings then that Age nor haply at any time a greater disposition in mens minds to give them credit and entertainment the simplicity of some not permitting a perfect anatomy of the evil and the confidence of those who were either satisfy'd therewith or suspected it inclining them to this opinion that they might make some benefit thereof to the confusion of falshood and advantage of truth Nay those whom learning had a little more refin'd and a conversation with the Sciences made more capable of things as such as being well advanc'd in years had forsaken the banners of Paganisme were apt enough to bring into the Church some tincture of the Opinions they had been imbu'd with before and thinking by the correspondence they still held with the Philosophers to make them more susceptible of piety imagin'd themselves concern'd in point of honour to reconcile their own Maximes to Christianity which by that base allay lost much of its naturall lustre and beauty As therefore men were either totally hereticall or incendiaries and troublesome accordingly did they impose upon the credulity of the simple some broaching and advancing false Prophesies and Histories such as were those of Jaldabaoth of Seth of the sons of Seth of Enoch of Cham c. The Prayer of Joseph the Assumption of Abraham Moses Eldad and Modad The Testament of Moses Esdras Baruc Abacuc Ezekiel Parchor Zephany the lesser Genesis the Book attributed to Zacharias father to St. John the Repentance of Adam of James and Mambres the Book of the Giant Ogenes Jacobs Ladder the Testament of Job the greater and lesser Symphony the Prophesies of Marsiades and Marsian the Ascension of Isaiah c. Others vented counterfeit Gospels such as were those of Eve Peter Andrew James the less Philip Barnabas Matthias Thaddaeus of the Apostles of the Aegyptians of the Hebrews of Judas according to Basilides and Apelles that which the Gnosticks call'd the Gospel of Truth and Perfection whereto upon the declination of the third Age the Manichees added that of Thomas and some others later Impostors that of Nicodemus Others false Acts as those of Peter Andrew Paul and Tecla John Philip Thomas forg'd in some part by Nexocharides or Lucius Charinus and Manes after whom a new Impostor 300. years after puts upon the world the life of St. John under the name of Prochorus and a Rhapsodist who liv'd about 860. years since and took upon him the name of Abdias the Babylonian the lives of all the Apostles Others scatter'd abroad false Relations such were the Books entituled The infancy of our Saviour of the Questions of Mary of the extraction of Mary of the Assumption of Mary of the Nativity of our Saviour of the Lots of the Apostles of the commendation of the Apostles of the Ascension of Saint Paul of the Itinerary of Saint Peter of the preaching of Saint Peter of the doctrine of the Apostles of Apostolicall Constitutions of the Controversie between St. Peter and Appion of the Passion of St. Peter and St. Paul by Linus the Pastor of Hermas whereto about the beginning of the fourth Age Maximian the Emperor caus'd to be joyn'd the Acts of Pilate Others disperc'd counterfeit Epistles such as was that of Abgarus Prince of Edessa to our Saviour with our Saviours pretended answer thereto those that go under the name of St. Barnabas of the B. Virgin to St. Ignatius of St. Ignatius himself of St. Paul to the Laodiceans of the same a third Epistle to the Corinthians as also a third to the Thessalonians the second to the Corinthians wrongfully attributed to St. Clement Others started counterfeit Apocalypses such as were those of Adam Abraham Eliah Paul Thomas Stephen c. Others there were who looking with a jealous eye on what ever was remarkable among either Jews or Heathens would needs make it contribute to Christianity and appropriate all the glory of it to the Church Thus to rob the Grecian Jews of their golden-mouth'd Philo it must be feign'd he had had some conversation with St. Mark and to apply to Christian Monks who began not till the times of Paul and Anthony the Hermits whereof one dy'd the tenth of January in the year 343 and the other the seventeenth of January 358. what he had expresly written of the Esseni a Sect much given to contemplation seated
not many years after and gave notice to the Lesbians long before it happened that they should lose the soveraignty of the Sea and the Camaean Pausanias as hath been already seen numbers four Lamia otherwise called the Lybian Sibyl Herophila otherwise called the Delphick or Erythraean Demo the Cumaean and Sabba the Babylonian Aelian raised the number to ten that is the Erythraean the Samian the Aegyptian the Sardinian the Cumaean the Judaick and four others Clemens Alexandrinus though he cites not any thing of them but what 's in the singular number expresses himself in these terms whence it may be inferr'd he admitted divers Manto and a multitude of Sibyls the Samian the Colophonian the Cumaean the Erythraean Phyto Taraxandra the Macedonian the Thessalian the Threspotick Lactantius from Varro affirms their number to be ten and observes that the first was of the Persians of whom Nicanor who writes of the Acts of Alexander the Macedonian makes mention The second was the Lybian mentioned by Euripides in the Prologue to his Lamia The third the Delphick of whom Chrysippus speaks in a book he writ Of Divination The fourth the Cumaean or of Cumae in Italy named by Naevius in his books of the Punick War and by Piso in his Annals The fifth the Erythraean whom Apolodorus the Erythraean affirms to have been of the same City with him c. The sixth the Samian of whom Eratosthenes hath written consonantly to what he had found written before in the ancient Annals of the Samians The seventh the Cumaean under the name of Amalthaea who by others is also called Demophila or Herophila c. The eighth the Hellespontick born in the country neer Troy at the Town of Marpessus near the City Gergithum whom Heraclides of Pontus writes to have li'vd in the time of Solon and Cyrus The ninth the Phrygian who Prophesied at Ancyra The tenth the Tiburtine called Albunea who is serv'd as a Goddess at Tibur which stands not far from the River Anio in the bottome whereof it is reported that her Image was found holding a book in her hand Issidorus of Sevil follows Lactantius save that speaking of the Delphick he addes that she was begotten in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi That the fourth was the Cimmerian of Italy That the fifth that is to say the Erythraean called Erophila was Originally a Babylonian and that she was called the Erythraean because her Verses were found in that Issand and that the sixth namely the Samian was called Samonota from the Isle of Samos whence she took her sirname In a word Suidas who hath glean'd together all he could meet with in other Authors standing much upon the number of ten in imitation of Lactantius says that the Chaldaean or Persick whose proper name was Sambetha was descended from the most blessed man Noah That she spoke before of the things that are reported of Alexander the Macedonian that Nicanor who hath writ the History of the life of Alexander makes mention of her that she foretold ten thousand things concerning Christ our Lord and his coming that the rest agree with her and that moreover there is of hers four and twenty books treating of all nations and places Again that her fathers name was Berosus and her mothers Erymantha that the Delphick was born at Delphi that the Samian was called Phito the Cumaean Amalhaea or Herophila And whereas Lactantius and Isidorus have written that the Hellespontick had liv'd in the time of Solon and Cyrus he makes this referr to the Town of Marpessus and the little City Gergithum which sometime were in Troas in the time of Solon and Cyrus And elsewhere speaking of the Sibyl in generall he makes this Discourse The Sibyl was the daughter of Apollo and Lamia according to some of Aristocrates and Hydole and as others would have it of Crinagoras or as Hermippus affirms of Theodorus She is called Erythraea because she was begotten at a place of Erythrae called Batti and now that place encreased into a City is called Erythrae Some have thought her a Sicilian others a Sardian others a Gegithian others a Rhodian others a Lybian others a Lucanian others a Samian c. The Sibyl Helissa hath written in Verse certain Prophesies and Oracles The Colophonian Sibyl whose name was Lampusa the daughter of Calchas hath also written in Verse certain Oracles and Divinations and other things The Thessalian Sibyl whose name was Manto was the daughter of Tiresias The Sibyl by some called Sarbis by others Cassandra by others Tarraxandra hath also left Oracles Nor have the Cumaean and Threspotick Sibyls left us without their Oracles Thus then according to his account the two Sibyls of Martianus Capella four of those of Aelian that is the Erythraean the Samian the Aegyptian the Sardian three of those cited by Clemens Alexandrinus that is the Samian the Erythraean and Phyto five of those mentioned by Lactantius as also by Isidorus who hath follow'd him that is the Libyck the Erythraean the Samian the Hellespontick and the Phrygian all reduc'd to one Sibyl Pausanias who distinguishes the Libyck from the Erythraean makes another kind of reduction affirming that the Phrygian the Samian the Colophonian the Delphick and the Erythraean were all but one and the same person residing in severall places Martianus Capella gives us another after his dressing making the Cumaean and Erythraean one and the same Sibyl And Justin Martyr shoots his arrow much to the same mark when he takes for one Sibyl the Cumaean and the Babylonian as Isidorus after the Author of the book De mirabilibus auscultationibus in Aristotle confounds the Erythraean and Cumaean And as the same Isidorus is extremely mistaken when he reckons Erythrae which was in the Continent over against Chio among the Islands and makes his Samonota fly with the wind so Suidas maintaining after Justine Martyr that the Chaldaick Sibyl was the daughter of Berosus does in some sort agree with Pausanias who places her among the last but he palpably contradicts First what he had said of her being daughter to Noah and more ancient then Alexander and Secondly the sentiment of Varro who had in Lactantius adjudg'd to the Persick who was no other then the Chaldaick the prerogative of Antiquity Another contradiction of his is where he writes that the Erythraean was 483. years after the war of Troy in which assertion he comes neer the opinion of Eusebius who hath given her place in his Chronologie under the reign of Romulus who began it 431. years after the taking of Troy for in the next page he acknowledges she was before the taking of that place which confirms the sentiment as well of Dionysius Halicarnssaeus who relates that she was consulted by Aeneas as that of Lactantius who affirms from Apollodorus that she foretold the Grecians the issue of the siege they were to make to that famous place and that of Solinus who observes that she was some few
years after the Delphick who had liv'd before the expedition of the Greeks Clemens Alexandrinus lays it down for certain that the Delphick whom he names Artemis the daughter of Lamia a Sidonian liv'd before the time of Orpheus who made one of the Argonauts 79 years before the Trojan war and in the mean time Diodorus Siculus who calls her Dapâ—â—e the daughter of Tiresias makes her taken together with her father 52. years after at Thebes by the Epigoni Diodorus affirms further that she was seated by them at Delphi and Pausanias that she came thither from Asia Plutarch from Helicon and that she was the daughter of Lamia On the otherside Isidorus and Suidas pretend that Delphi was the place of her Nativity nay this later who names her Manto the daughter of Tiresias a Thebane seems to have forgotten his Geography when he makes her a Thessalian as if Baeotia and Thessaly neighbouring Countries had been in effect the same Canton What he writes also of Lampusa the Colophonian the daughter of Calchas contradicts not only what is affirmed by Pausanias who bestows the title of Colophonian Sibyl on Herophila descended from Jupiter and Lamia but also that probability which seems not easily to permâ—t that the daughter of Calchus an European who had accompany'd the Greeks should be born in Asia Virgil calls the Cumaean Deiphobe the daughter of Claucus and makes her contemporary with Aeneas but there is not any one of the other Authors that speak of her agrees with him about either her name her extraction or the time she liv'd in but make her to flourish a long time after Pausaniasâ— gives the Chaldaick the name of Sabba Isidorus calls her Erophyla and Suidas Sambetha and here I think it not unfit to observe by the way the inadvertency of Possevinus who making generall what Suidas had particulariz'd sordidly imagin'd that all the Sibyls went among the Chaldaeans under the name of Sambethae Pliny and Solinus hold that the Cumaean Sibyl having written three Books burnt two of them and sold the third to Tarquinius Superbus but this latter pulls down with one hand what he had built with the other relating this sale to have been in the 50. Olympiad which was about the 35. year of Tarquinius Priscus and the 47. before the reign of his Son besides that Varro in Lactantius and Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Aulus Gellius who in the mean time attribute it to the later Tarquin and Servius and Isidorus and Suidas affirm there were nine books whereof six were burnt and three remaining sold to Tarquinius Priscus Eusebius not agreeing with the sentiments of others nor indeed with himself gives entertainment to the Samian Sibyl one while under Numa and another under Tullus Hostilius and Suidas to satisfie the world that there is nothing so fantastick but there may be some brain which hath garret-room to receive it contrary to the opinion of all Authors who generally hold that Sibyl is an Aeolick word would have it pass among us for a Roman as if it had been of the invention of the Latines and receiv'd its originall from them CHAP. IX The Precautions of Rome while yet in Paganisme to prevent the reading of the Books which she believ'd really Sibylline INto whose hands soever of the Roman Kings the Sibylline Writings fell and whensoever it happen'd is not much materiall it is evident from the unanimous consent of all the Ancients that they have been always kept under so strict a guard that as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus observes the Romans kept not any thing how holy or sacred soever as they did those Oracles Tarquin had at the very begining committed them to the custody of two persons of quality who under the title of Duumviri of the sacred things had the express charge to preserve them religiously as also to consult read and interpret them when need should require which was not put in execution but in some extraordinary emergency and was observ'd with so much rigour that Tarquin inflicted the punishment of Parricides on M. Attilius who had lent them to be copied out to Petronius Sabinus Some 213. years after that is to say in the year of Rome 388. the number of the keepers being increased to ten their Colledge went under the name of The Decemviri of sacred things and under their charge and inspection the Writings of the Sibyl was kept entire 283. years being disposed under ground in a chest of stone plac'd in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus till the conflagration of the Temple which happened in the year of Rome 671. and was the second of the 147. Olympiad and the 83. before the Incarnation of our Lord under the Consulship of Scipio and Norbanus Now these execrable Monuments of Heathenish Idolatry coming by that accident to be consum'd with the other Ornaments of the Temple to repair the pretended damage of this imaginary loss there were after a solemn debate in the Senate concerning it sent away three Ambassadors namely P. Gabinius M. Octacilius and L. Valerius who brought from Erythrae about a thousand Verses which had been transcrib'd by private persons And thence it comes that Dionysius Hâ—…carnassaeus speaking of that recovery says that those which are now extant are pieces glean'd up from severall places some having been brought from the Cities of Italy others from Erythrae in Asia according to the decree of the Senate Ambassadors having been purposely sent to take Copies thereof others came from other Cities copied out by private persons among which there are some imposed upon the Sibyls which are discover'd by those things which are called Acrosticks Luctantius adds to what he had observ'd concerning the sale of the three Books of the Cumaean Sibyl to Tarquin that the number hath since been increased upon the repairing of the Capitol as having been under the name of some Sibyl or other got together and brought to Rome from all the Italick and Grecian Cities especially from Erythrae And whereas Dionysius Halicarnassaeus had concluded his Discourse with this protestation I follow in this what Terentius Varro hath related Lactantius puts a period to this with this conclusion which is equivalent We have already shewen that Varro hath delivered the same thing and yet prejudicially to this and contrary to what Dionys Halicarnassaeus had gathered as well from the Treatise of Varro as the practice of his time which was that all the Oracles brought out of Italy and Asia to Rome were so carefully kept in the same place that none could have the sight thereof but the Commissioners particularly entrusted with the charge of them he sayes The Poëms of all these Sibyls are publish'd and all easily met with except those of the Cumaean whose books are kept secret by the Romans who permit them not to be seen by any but the Quindecimviri For if as Pausanias assures us the Cumaeans themselves had not any Oracle of the Sibyl to produce what production could be
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
in this third Volume to Probus held this Discourse The Gauls were antiently by reason of the Whiteness of their Bodies called Galatae and the Sibyl calls them so Which the Poet would express when he said Their Milkie Necks enchac'd in Gold when he might as well have said White For it is evident First That he attributes not to the Sibyl the Words which Virgil made use of but onely the Use of the word Galatae derived according to the common Opinion from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Milk Secondly That he would not say that Virgil took his Conception from the Sibyl but that he as well as the other reflected on the Etymologie of Galatae derived fron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and applied to the Gauls by reason of the Whiteness of their Bodies Besides in the pretended Sibylline Writing upon which Lactantius onely cast his eye the word Galatae is not used to signifie our Western Gauls who are therein called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to design the numerous Colony they had sent into the East of Gallo-Grecians or Asiatick Gauls and the Counterfeit Sibyl hath not any where insinuated that these Gauls derived their Name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Lactantius presupposed it as likely though without any necessity CHAP. XXVIII That the Conjecture of Cardinal Baronius concerning the Correspondence between Virgil and Herod is not maintainable CArdinal Baronius fixed in the Imagination that Virgil had learned from the Sibylline Verses the approaching Advent of the great King and that he had out of flattery wrested the Sence and applied it to Pohio's Son alledges the Authority of the Emperour Constantine whereto we have answeredalready then makes this Observation The said Maro might also have understood something from the Hebrews concerning this Business fâ—r Herod King of the Jews when he came to Rome had often as Josephus writes been entertained at the House of Pollio Virgil ' s great Friend Now I intreat the Reader to consider that all this is nothing but Wind. For First Josephus who acknowledges that Pollio was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the number of those who made greatest account of Herod ' s Friendship does not particularly denote of which Pollio he speaks and it is generally known that besides Virgil's great Friend mentioned by Pliny there was at the same time in Rome Vedius Pollio a man no less familiar with Augustus then Asinius as is observed by the same Pliny Secondly Though Herod came four several times to Rome yet is it impossible to make the conceit of Baronius to suit with any one of them For the first Journey he made thither was in the year of Rome 714 during the Consulship of Pollio to implore the assistances of the Senate against the Parthians and then he was in a private Condition made little stay had other Things in his thoughts then Discoursing with Virgil who was then onely beginning to come into Repute without minding ought of Religion and having his Imagination employed how to get as he afterwards did the Crown of Judaea he would have been more likely to entertain Virgil and Pollio with the Rising of his own Glory then of that of our Saviour whom the Scripture calls the King of the Nations and the Day-spring from on high As for the other three they were all of them some years after the Death of Virgil which happened on the two and twentieth of September in the year of Rome 735. For the first was in the year of Rome 738. to carry away the children of Mariamne into Judaea the second in the year 744. to accuse them before Augustus and the last in the year 746. to restore into favour Archelaus King of Cappadocia his Ally So that Virgil was not then in a Condition to learn any thing either of him or of any of his Retinue or yet of his Friend Pollio Thirdly Josephus does not say that Pollio was ever Host unto or entertained Herod at his House but that he lodged his Children from the year of Rome 733. at which time Virgil was in Greece to the year 738. which was the third after his Death And it is so far from being a good Consequence Pollio entertained in his House the Children of Herod therefore He received Herod himself into his House that the contrary seems rather to be inferred He lodged the Children of Herod therefore He could not at the same time lodg Herod himself their Father who had a Royal Retinue about him and was more vain-glorious then any Prince of his Time I press not that Cardinal Baronius directly contrary to the Emperour Constantine who commends the Piety of Virgil censuring his prophane Flattery renders him so much the more criminal for that having learned of the Jews the Mysterie of the Messias he out of a voluntary Malice applied the Prophecy to Pollio and his Son All which considered gives me the Confidence to affirm that the presumed communication of Virgil with the Jews is a groundless Imagination and no more CHAP. XXIX That the Opinion of Anthonius Possevinus concerning the Sibyls and their pretended Writings is not more rational then that of Cardinal Baronius ANthony Possevin carried away with the Tortent of the common Opinion makes as the rest no small Stir with the Sibyls saying That Plato Iamblichus Porphyrius and the other Academicks of whose Doctrine Petrus Crinitus hath written have treated of the Sibyls Cicero hath treated of them and Pliny and before them Varro in his Books Of Divine things To Caesar As also afterwards Cornelius Tacitus Solinus Fenestella Marcianus Capella Virgil Servius and others and of the Greeks besides the Platonists Diodorus Siculus Strabo Suidas Aelian in his Books De varia Historia nay among the Christians and antient Greek Fathers Eusebius Justin Clemens Alexandrinus Stratonicus Cumanus Theophilus in his Books to Autolycus and among the Latines Lactantius Hierome Augustine c. Now many of the Fathers have affirmed that these Sibyls had foretold things through the inspiration of God and the Apostle St. Paul exhorted the Gentiles to read their Oracles as Clemens Alexandrinus hath left in writing c. Peter Garcias Galarza hath so Treated of all this whole matter that comparing the Verses of the ten Sibyls with the Prophecies of the Holy Scripture he hath shewed the admirable Harmony between them But the Reader will be pleased once more to consider the inconsiderateness of this otherwise learned man who cites among the Authours that have spoken of the Sibyls Theophilus of Antioch and in his Apparatus questions whether he should be admitted into that number saying Theophilus of Antioch in Case that Theophilus ever writ of the Sibyls For First The Heathens knew not of any Sibyl but the Idolatrous as hath been already proved and cite not any thing of what the Christians thought Sibylline the Christians on the
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the Tree were for the healing of the Nations The same Imagination so gained upon the holy Fathers that lived after the middle of the second Age that those good Souls prepossessed by the Opinion they had conceived of the pretended Sibylline Writing took literally and apprehended after the Jewish sence whatever they met with in Esay and Saint John concerning the First Raesurrection of those who died for the Testimony of Jesus their reign of a thousand years and all the glory of the celestial Jerusalem Thus Justin Martyr in his Dialogue against Trypho answering that Jew who page 306 had asked him Whether he acknowledged that Jerusalem should be rebuilt and the Christians assemble there and rejoyce with Christ in the company of the Patriarchs Prophets c. not onely confesses it but maintains further that he had already averred it reflecting no doubt on those words of page 271. where he saith that Christ being raised should come again inâ—â— Jerusalem and then drink anew and eat with his Disciples And secondly that he had signified unto him that Many among those who were not of the pure and religious sentiment of the Christians acknowledged it not whereupon he adds I and as many others as are of the right and truly Christian sentiment in all things know that there must be a Resurrection of the Flesh and the Prophets Ezechiel Esay and others confess that after Jerusalem shall be built adorned and amplified a thousand years shall be spent there alledging to that purpose the sixty fifth Chapter of Esay and the twentieth of the Apocalyps And reinculcating it page 340. where he says He viz. Jesus is the eternal Light which is to shine in Jerusalem and page 369. where he writes of the Christians that they know with whom Christ they shall be in that Land viz. Judaea which he had called the Land of all the Saints and that they shall inherit eternal and incorruptible goods Eusebius in the nine and thirtieth Chapter of the third Book of his Ecclefiastical History attributing the same opinion to Papias Bishop of Hierapolis who had been a follower of the Disciples of Saint John hath this Discourse He affirms also many other things that are more fabulous among which he saith that there are a certain thousand of years to pass after the Resurrection and that Christ shall reign corporally in the same Land Things which I think he hath onely imagined upon a misapprehension of the Apostolical Expositions Saint Irenaeus in the thirty fifth Chapter of his fifth Book does not onely agree with Papias but relyes upon his authority citing out of his fourth Book these words which Papias attributed to Saint John The daies shall come wherein there shall grow up Vines having each of them ten thousand Branches and upon every Branch ten thousand Boughs and on every Bough ten thousand Buds and on every Bud ten thousand Bunches and on every Bunch ten thousand Grapes and every Grape pressed shall yield twenty five Measures of Wine And when any one of the Saints shall take one of the Grapes another shall cry I am a better Grape take me and bless God by me In like manner one Corn of Wheat shall bring forth ten thousand Ears and every Ear shall have ten thousand Crains and every Grain shall give ten Pounds of clear and fine Flower and all other Fruits Seeds and Herbs proportionably Was ever the Synagogue cut off from the Covenant of God delivered of an Extravagance more deserving contempt then this which feigns Bunches of Grapes speaking and Vines yielding infinitely beyond all imaginable force of Nature millions of millions of measures of Wine And yet the Holy Martyr Saint Irenaeus out of an excess of respect by no means excusable in him preferring the authority of Papias deceived by the counterfeit Sibyl before all reason blindly swallowed it and in his two and thirtieth Chapter inferred from it that The Just shall reign here below before the day of Judgment that on the day of the Sabbath of the Just they shall have a Table furnished from God who shall replenish them with all manner of Viands That The Wolves shall feed with the Lambs and the Lyon shall live on Straw and in the thirty fifth Chapter that The Just shall reign on earth in the thirty sixth that proportionably to the fruit they have brought forth an hundred sixty or thirty for one they shall be placed either in Heaven or in Paradise or in Jerusalem and that In that regard it was that the Son of God said In my Father's House are many Mansions Tertullian who lived near the same time to shew us that he was carryed away with the same Prejudice cryes out in the twenty fourth Chapter of his third Book Against Marcion We confess that the Kingdom is promised us upon Earth for a thousand years after the Resurrection in the City of Divine workmanship Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven There is some ground to think that Meliton Bishop of Sardes Contemporary with Justin Martyr was of the same Opinion with him concerning the temporal Reign of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem in asmuch as to maintain it he writ upon the Revelation of Saint John the words whereof have been extreamly wrested by the Patrones of that Imagination but in regard I am nothing pressed and have onely Conjecture to inferr it from I shall forbear to urge it I come to Nepos the Aegyptian Bishop reverenced by Dionysius of Alexandria for his Faith and great Learning in the attainment whereof he had spent himself to the Last Of this Prelate Eusebius saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Teaching that the Promises made to the Saints in the Holy Scriptures were to be accomplished after the manner conceived by the Jews supposing that there were to pass a certain thousand of Years in the pursuit of corporal Enjoyments upon Earth and being of opinion he might confirm his Supposition by the Revelation of John He writ concerning the said Revelation a certain Discourse entituled A Reprehension of the Allegorists as not able to endure that men should take otherwise then Literally the Promises proposed by the Holy Spirit for the comfort of the Church nor that they should be understood mystically About fifty years after appeared our Victorinus Bishop of Poictiers who suffered Martyrdom on the second day of November in the year 303. after he had composed divers Treatises great indeed in respect of the sense and slight in respect of the contexture of the Words according to the observation of Saint Hierome which cannot be contradicted since there is nothing left of them and that the Commentary upon the Apocalyps which goeth under his name contains at this day nothing of what the Antients had read in it But Saint Hierome assuring us that he was of the number of those who expected to come from Heaven a Jerusalem adorned with precious Stones and Gold we need not fear upon his Affirmation to
the Spirit And in the fourty first Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians where he speaks of Prayers Offerings and Alms for the Dead and says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things are done by the direction of the Spirit For what other Judgment could he have made of a Custom which he approved and admired the more he saw it confirmed by the Practice of those who had preceded him and for whom he had an high esteem as Persons truly taught of God With the same confidence did he alledge the Authority of the Apostles writing in the third Homily upon the Epistle to the Philippians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not in vain that the Apostles have made Laws concerning these things For though he found not so much as one Iota in their Writings that might invite him to that perswasion yet according to the prejudgment of St. Hierome in his Epistle to Licinius Unaquaeque Provincia abundet in suo sensu praecepta Majorum Leges Apostolicas arbitretur c. Let every Province abound in its own sense and account the Precepts of our Ancestours as Apostolical Laws he presumed that what â—ad been practised by men that had lived near the Apostles Times and were famous for their Piety came from the Apostles themselves and indeed it were impossible to conceive any thing more plausible then to attribute to the Apostles the Custom which men reputed Apostolical had introduced For who would have thought upon the first Start that Papias that Antient Bishop of Hierapolis whom St. Irenaeus in the thirty third Chapter of his fifth Book Eusebius in the nine and thirtieth Chapter of the third Book St. Hierome in his Catalogue and the Martyrologies upon the two and twentieth of February have with an excess of sincerity qualified Auditour of St. John and Companion of Saint Polycarp and whom St. Hierome assures us to have given out the Apostles for Authours of his Relations was such as Eusebius qualifies him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of little understanding apt to circumvent and to scatter abroad under venerable Names as of our Saviour or his Disciples or of Aristion and John their Auditours all the feigned Stories he had either dream'd or heard of And who could have imagined that Saint Irenaeus of whom St. Basil in his Book Of the Holy Ghost in the nine and twentieth Chapter says that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A neighbour of the Apostles and St Epiphanius in his twenty fourth Haeresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Successour of the Apostles and Tertullian in the fifth chapter of his Book Against the Valentinians Omnium doctrinarum curiosissimus explorator c. The most diligent Inquisitour of all Doctrines and St. Hierome in his twenty ninth Epistle Vir Apostolicorum temporum c. A man of the Apostolical Times and upon the sixty fourth Chapter of Esay Vir Apostolicus c An Apostolical man who writ with great diligence and St. Augustine in his first Book Against Julian Antiquus homo Dei c. The antient man of God who I say could have imagined that this Great man should suffer himself to be so far surprized by the fond Conceits of Papias as to have as we have already made appear by what is above alledged out of the thirty fifth Chapter of his fifth Book embraced them and given occasion to St. Hierome to write that he was Papiae discipulus c. the Disciple of Papias c. from whose hands he received the Principal Hypotheses of the Sibylline Writing concerning the State of the departed Yet hath he done it with all those who were his Contemporaries of whom we have any thing left and though they might all or most of them in some respect have attributed to them the Name of Apostolicks Lights of the Church and Martyrs of God yet have they cast Shadows and furnished Posterity with examples of Infirmity which oblige it and all Christians religiously to practise the advice of St. Paul Prove all things hold fast to that which is good and to conclude with the Prophet It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man But since St. Chrysostomâ—â—th â—th thought fit to deduce the Original of Praying for the dead from I know not what Law and Ordinance of the Apostles whereof there is no Track to be found in their Writings since that of this kinde of Office which he pretended prescribed by such a Law no Christian Authour of whom we have ought truly Authentick remaining hath made any mention before Tertullian who first spoke of it in the year 199. and continued till about the year 212. And lastly since that there are at this day some Persons who will needs ascend much higher and derive as to this particular the Christian Liturgie from the Custom they are pleased to attribute to the Jews as if the shame they conceive it to acknowledg as they are obliged to do Tertullian a Montanist a Millenary and Admirer of the pretended Sibyl to have been the first certifier of one of their Principal Observations had reduced them to a necessity of appealing to the Synagogue and taking up its Authority for a Buckler against the Protestants who do not think themselves any way obliged to the admission of any Worship proceeding from the Will of man without the Word of God we come now to see what probability there may be in their Opinion CHAP. XXIV Whether the Prayers made by Christians for the Dead are indeed grounded on the Second of the Maccabees and the Examples of the Jews THey affirm then that there was no necessity of making any Regulations in the Church concerning the Offices of the living towards the dead in as much as the Faithfull being at first called from among the Jews had learned the necessity thereof even in the Synagogue before they were admitted into the Society of the Christians They further hold that it is manifest from the Sentiment of the Jews under the Old Testament by the Example of Judas their General who as we finde it in the twelfth Chapter of the second Book of Maccabees caused Sacrifices to be offered and Prayers to be made for those of his Army who had been killed in the fight against Gorgias In answer to which not to insist on the Considerations which might be made as well on the difference there is between the States of the Synagogue and the Church as the remarkable diversity of the Legal Administration and Evangelical Grace which is enoug to hinder a man from concluding necessarily This was practised under the Old Testament Therefore it ought to be under the New I make in the first place this Observation That those who have recoursee to this kinde of Defence make a formal disacknowledgment of St. Chrysostome who grounding his Hypothesis onely upon the Law of the Apostles under the New Testament hath even in that discovered how vain and frivolous he thought their undertaking
be there that is in glory St. Hierome in the year 386. Ubicunque tibi locum praeparaveris futurámque sedem sive ad Austrum sive ad Boream ibi cùm mortuus fueris permanebis c. Mortis tempestate subversus ubicunque cecideris ibi jugiter permanebis sive te rigidum trucem sive clementem misericordem ultimum invenerit tempus c. Lignum quod in hac vita corruerit concisione mortalitatis fuerit incisum aut peccavit dum staret in Boreae parte posteà ponetur aut si dignos Austro fructus attulit in plaga jacebit Australi c. Whereever thou shalt have provided a place for thy self and the seat thou shalt come into whether it be towards the South or towards the North there shalt thou remain after thy death c. Being once overwhelmed by the tempest of death in what place soever thou shalt fall there shalt thou perpetually remain whether thy last hour have found thee there harsh and cruel or mild and mercifull c. The Tree which shall be faln in this life and hath been cut down by the stroak of Mortality or hath sinned while it stood shall afterwards be placed on the North side or if it hath brought forth Fruits worthy the South he shall be disposed into the South Quarter St. Chrysostome in the year 396. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After we are departed it is no longer in our power to repent and to cleanse our selves of the sins which we have committed St. Augustine in the year 420. Qualis in die isto quisque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur c. Such as every one dyes in this day as such shall he be judged in that day Again Qualis exîeris ex hac vita talis redderis illi vitae c. Such as thou shalt depart this life such shalt thou be delivered up to the other Olympiodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In what place soever a man at his departure hath been seized whether it were of light or of darkness as also in what work whether of iniquity or of virtue he shall remain in the same degree and rank either in Light with the just and Christ the King of all or in Darkness with the unjust and the Prince of this World For if from the very hour of their departure the Faithfull are no longer subject to any sin if repentance and remission of sin have place onely in this life and if such as men die such they shall rise again and be judged at the Last-day there neither is nor can be any pardon either to be asked or to be obtained for them after their death Whereof the Consequence is that the Prayers which are made for them are by their very Confession who have most recommended them unreasonable in that they suppose what according to their own Principles neither is nor can be viz. that the Faithfull departed in Jesus Christ are subject to sin besides they are fruitless in that they demand according to the same Principles an effect which is already fully accomplished and is to be unchangeably such to all Eternity CHAP. XXXIII The Censures pronounced by the Doctours of the Church of Rome against the Fathers taken into Examination BY those Prayers it was and still is demanded that God would place the Departed in the Bosom of the Patriarchs in the Society of the Saints in the Region of the Godly the Saints and the Living in the Pleasures of Paradise in a place of Refreshment Light and Peace granting them the passage from Death to Life the participation of the redemption of God the rest of Beatitude the opening of the Gates of glory the Happiness and Joy of an everlasting Light the fulness of Glory c. All these things I say are prayed for on the behalf of the departed as if they were not in the enjoyment of any of them or as if it being granted they were it were convenient to demand for them what they are already in possession of as if they were absolutely deprived thereof This kinde of Office is very consonant to the first Hypothesis as well of the pretended Sibylline Writing as of those who were of a perswasion that all Souls were sent to Hell and there confined till the Resurrection of their Bodies Nor is it unsuitable to what is told us by several of the Fathers of later Times who continuing the Forms of their Ancestours endeavoured to avoid the inconvenience of the Imagination which their Predecessours had as it were from hand to hand transmitted to them Thence comes it that Stapleton measuring the more and the less Antient by the same measure never considering whether the later any way moderated what had been in high esteem among the former makes no difficulty to entertain us with this disadvantageous Language which equally charges them all Tot illi tam celebres antiqui Patres Tertullianus Irenaeus c. So many antient and so eminent Fathers as Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Chrysostome Theodoret Oecumenius Theophylact Ambrose Clemens Romanus Bernard were not of that Sentiment which at last after so great Disquisition was defined to be an Article of Faith in the Councel of Florence viz. That the Souls of the Just enjoy the Beatifical Vision before the day of Judgment but delivered the contrary Opinion Sixtus Senensis had put also into the same Predicament Justine Martyr Lactantius Victorinus of Poictiers Aretas and Pope John the Two and Twentieth Nor do I deny but that very ill Consequences may be drawn First From what St. Ambrose hath written in the second Chapter of his second Book Of Cain and Abel Anima post finem vitae hujus adhuc tamen futuri Judicii ambiguò suspenditur c. After this life ended the soul is yet in suspense through the uncertainty of the future Judgment c. And elswhere Videntur usque ad diem Judicii per plurimum scilicet temporibus debitâ sibi remuneratione fraudari c. Satis fuerat dixisse illis quod liberatae animae de corporibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peterent id est locum qui non videtur quem Latinè Infernum dicimus c. Expectant remunerationem debitam c. Mens souls till the day of Judgment that is to say for a very long space of time seem to be defrauded of the remuneration due to them c. It had been sufficient to tell them viz. the Heathens that the souls freed from their bodies go to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to a place not to be seen which in Latine we call Infernum Hell c. They expect the reward due to them Secondly From what St. Chrysostome says in several places making use of a Figurative and ambiguous manner of Expression when he conceives it enough to call the place where the souls of the Just are disposed Abraham's Bosom and in some other Places seems to deny their
and favour of God ever faithful in his promises and whose Gifts are without Repentance that in this very regard that he continually conserves them he seems to make a new distribâ—…on thereof every moment and by the perpetual influence of his benediction on those whom he hath received into glory to assure them more and more of their possession thereof others I say out of such or the like Considerations were perswaded that there was no inconvenience in demanding for the departed what they already had their own reason telling them that the Authour of so good a gift ceases not to give it in continuing and conserving it to those whom he had once made partakers thereof For as those on whom he here below bestows abundance of temporal goods are not less obliged to beg of him every day their daily Bread then if as he sometime did to the Israelites in the Desert he dealt them onely one day's Provision at a time the plenty which they had so liberally received from his hand though such as might suffice for their whole life and that with so much certainty in appearance as nothing could reduce them to want no way hindring but that they should acknowledg their indigence and natural insufficiency and have a constant recourse to his Grace to desire as the most unworthy that he would give them their Bread for as much as though they have enough lying by them yet is it their evident concernment that he who hath given them should every day renew his Donation in conserving them and sanctifying them to their use So the Saints who in the other life are possessed of Celestial goods are by the necessity of the same reason obliged to make perpetual acknowledgments notwithstanding that the immutability of the Counsel according to which he bestows them for ever and the nature of those very goods not subject to perish and decay seems not any way to hinder but that they should every one for himself and the surviving upon Earth for them all desire the conservation and continuance of them though that be so much the more certain and infallible in as much as it is grounded on the unchangeable Decree of the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning In this sense it might be thought that Jesus the Head and finisher of our Faith who was yesterday is to day and shall be the same for ever though he were confident of the issue of his combats and was so much the more certain that nothing could prevail against him that he sustained himself by his own Power yet forbore not to recommend himself to his Father and to desire of him the glory he was possessed of and had had with him before the World was and consequently that the antient Church neither made nor ought to have made any difficulty to pray for all the blessed whose State she knew to be unchangeable and whose Felicity unalterable and accordingly is it that as she does in general make a Commemoration of all those who sleep the Sleep of Peace so hath she particularly comprehended in her Prayers the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs without any regard to the inconvenience which some have alledged since that to pray for a Martyr is to be injurious to him Nay the Church of Rome her self to shew that she could not recede from the Sentiment of Primitive Antiquity as we have above represented it hath not ceased nor does to this day cease to make this Prayer contained in her Missal Deus cui soli cognitus est numerus Electorum in superna felicitate locandus tribue quaesumus ut univer sorum quos Oratione commendatos suscepimus omnium fidelium vivorum atque mortuorum nomina beatae praedestinationis liber adscripta retineat per Dominum c. O God to whom alone is known the number of the Elect who are to be placed above in Felicity we beseech thee to grant that the Book of blessed Predestination may retain written the name of all those whom we have taken upon us to recommend in our Prayers as also those of all the Faithfull both dead and living through our Lord c. I seriously ask whether it be possible any thing should be blotted out of the Book of Life which is God himself whose Counsel shall stand eternally And since there is no danger should make us fear that God will deny himself and that the Book of his Predestination should not retain the Names which his Hand hath written in it to desire of him that it might retain them is it not to pray him to do what it is absolutely impossible but he should and after the Example of the Antient Christians to make a Prayer for the Blessed that they might be blessed not indeed as if they were to pass from misery to the possession of Bliss but in persisting as it must of necessity be in the enjoyment of the Bliss which hath been once for all communicated to them Lastly The Antients considering that the Felicity which the Faithfull enjoy from the instant of their departure is not that absolute Fulness of Glory wherewith they expect to be Crowned at the Resurrection of the Just and that they might justly desire of God the accomplishment of what is expected according to the Word of his Grace as well for themselves as for others since it is a signification of the coming of his Kingdom that we are all taught by the Lord himself earnestly to desire and hasten it as much as may be by our Wishes Secondly That the Motion of all the Creation groaning and travelling till such time as it is delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God is expressed to us by St. Paul as a great and violent desire inclining the Creatures to expect the manifestation of the Sons of God and incites us so much the more by how much we who have the first fruits of the Spirit are all together waiting for the Redemption of our Body Thirdly That in that Noble desire is shewn the principal Effect of the Sympathy which ought to be beween all the Saints Members of the same mystical Body and Members one of another for if the Holy Spirit to rejoyce the spirits of the Just in Glory and crying with a loud voyce that the Lord would judge and revenge their Blood on them that dwell on the Earth proposes to them as the principal Subject of their Joy the approaching accomplishment of their Fellow-servants and Brethren yet engaged against the Militia of Satan the world here below why should not these Champions who are still sweating and out of breath in the Field where they are all covered with Blood and Dust have their courage heigthned by reflecting on their advantages who had gone before them that as they aspire to those White Robes of Glory wherein their Brethren are for
that we are made partakers of their Dignity that they are to be honoured by way of imitation and not adored upon any religious accompt In a word that neither the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Saviour nor any of the Saints of either Sex can pretend to any part of that religious homage Saint Epiphanius one of the most earnest maintainers of Prayer for the Dead hath left to them and the whole Church of these last times these remarkable Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed the Body of Mary was holy but it was not God the Virgin was indeed a Virgin and honoured but she was not given us to be adored on the contrary she adored him who was begotten of her as to the flesh c. If God will not have the Angels to be adored how much rather will he not that she who was born of Ann should be c. God came from Heaven and the Word was clad in flesh taken from the holy Virgin but the Virgin is not adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Spirit be adored Let no man adore Mary though Mary be excellent and holy and honoured it is not that she should be adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Lord be adored But not to press any further this notorious defect which we finde at present in the Service of the Greeks we are to observe that among them the Office of the Dead is full of Prayers whereby is desired as in the Latine Service the mercy of God the remission of the sins of the deceased his absolution his blessed resurrection his introduction into rest into Abraham ' s Bosom into the Mansion of the blessed into refreshment into Paradise into the Tabernacle of God into his Kingdom glory light to the right hand of the great Judge into the Society of the Saints and Angels all which Expressions according to the Hypotheses of Antiquity may be applied to the Spirits already received into glory Which is so much the more evident for that the particular Office which concerns the Obsequies of Children is full of these Prayers that God would number the deceased among the Children to whom he hath promised his Kingdom that he would place him among the just who are acceptable in his sight that he would make him partaker of the good things which are above this World that he would let him enter into the joys of the Saints that in his holy Mountain he would gratifie him with celestial goods that he would write his name in the Book of those who shall be saved that he would make his face to shine upon him that he would lodge him in Abraham ' s Bosom that he would grant him the enjoyment of his Kingdom c. Yet were not these Desires made without a presupposition of his Beatitude as First when it is said to him He who hath taken thee from the Earth and gives thee place among his Saints shew◠that thou O truly blessed Childe art a Citizen of Paradise The Sword of Death falling on thee hath cut thee off as a tender Branch O blessed art thou who hast made no tryal of worldly pleasures but behold Christ opening the Gates of Heaven to thee numbring thee◠out of his great goodness among the Elect◠Secondly When he is brought in making this Discourse Why do you bewail me a Childe translated out of the World for I am not a Subject to be bewailed The joy of all the just is required for those Children who have not done works worthy Tears Thirdly When he acknowledges that Death is a freedom to Children that they are thereby exempted from the miseries of life and that they are gone to rest that they rejoyce in Abraham ' s Bosom in the divine Quires of Blessed Children and assuredly dance because their departure hence was a deliverance from the corruption which loves sin If then the Ritual of the Creeks be full of Prayers for the Children whom they unanimously acknowledge to be among the Blessed what inconvenience can there be to attribute to them that they had the same apprehension for persons of age of whose felicity they no way doubted But though reason should not lead us to think so yet does their formal confession obliges us to believe as much for there is not any deceased person for whom they say not to God Mercifully receive the faithfull person departed who hath holily quitted this life and is O Lord passed towards thee and whose Funeral Solemnities they do not conclude saying to him three several times Our Brother worthy to be ever blessed and always remembred thy memory is eternal To every Monk without any exception they address these words Brother thè way thou art in is that of bliss for that a place of rest is prepared for thee adding to that purpose the sixteenth Verse of the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt kindly with thee and a little after He who is taken hence hath passed through the ever-troubled Sea of Life and by Faith is arrived at his Port conduct him O Christ with the Saints into thy tranquillity and ever-living pleasures In like manner to every Priest Thou hast piously signalized thy self in Faith Charity Hope Gentleness Purity of life and in the Sacerdotal dignity and therefore O Brother of eternal memory God who is before all Ages whom thou hast served will himself dispose thy Spirit into a place full of light and pleasure where the just are in rest and will make thee obtain of Christ at the day of Judgment pardon and great mercy And the deceased Person is introduced using these words I am now at rest and have found great favour for that I have been transferred from the corruption of life glory be to thee O Lord c. Thy divine Servant Deified in his Transportation by thy now-enlivening Mystery is come towards thee To every Woman departed Detain not any longer O malicious Hell the Souls of the Elect in the condemnation of the Transgression for all being now made assuredly conformable to Christ instead of Death receive divine life In a word she is made to say the same words as had been attributed to the Priest I am now at rest c. All these Confessions grounded on the Lessons of Scripture which for the most part contain assurances of the Love of God towards those who serve him and promises of their future Beatitude and glorious Resurrection demonstratively prove that the first Compilers of the Greek Office agreeing in what is most substantial with the Protestants believed that whoever dies in the Faith of the Lord does from the moment of his Death enjoy rest and glory in him and with him But for as much as from time to time the purity of belief and worship receiving adulteration among them there rose up a sort of people apt to feign any
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
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
neer Alexandria upon the Lake Maria Eusebius himself who had acknowledg'd as much in his eighth Book of Evangelicall preparation Chap. 11. does in his Ecclesiasticall History retract what he had deliver'd before and by his example hath so prepossess'd those that came after him that St. Epiphanius was perswaded that Philo spoke not of the Esseni whom he names in express terms but of the Tesseni of whom he said not any thing either good or evil supposing them to be some of the first Christians and to have derived their denomination either from Jesse the father of David whence St. Paul takes occasion after Isaiah to call out Saviour the root of Jesse or from Jesus himself But all without any ground for the description of Philo cannot any way be attributed to Christian Monks since he says of his contemplative Esseni 1. That they went away so as never to return again forsaking brethren children wives kindred c. directly contrary to the command of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 7. 12. c. 2. That they spent the whole day as well in reading the sacred books and the Commentaries of the Ancients to Allegorize upon them as in the composing of certain Hymnes which shews their conversation to have been onely with the Old Testament and their study therein wholly after the manner of the Jews 3. That they met together every seventh day that is to say every Saturday 4. That the most austere among them did not break their fast but onely on the sixth day consequently Friday contrary to the custom of the Christians 5. That they celebrated the Pentecost as their principall Feast and that in honour of the number of seven seven times reiterated a conceit not deriv'd from the Gospel but the Discipline of Pythagoras 6. That in their common Festivities the Males were seated on the right hand and the Females on the left a custom which never was of any account in the Church 7. That there was no flesh eaten among them but onely leavened bread salt and Hyssop 8. That they drunk nothing but Water Wine being accounted poyson with them an evident testimony that their entertaiment had nothing common either with the Eucharist where there is such a necessity the Chalice should be fill'd with Wine that those who endeavour'd to reduce it to Water have been branded as Heretiques under the name of Aquarii and Hydroparastati nor with the Love-feasts of the Primitive Christians who used Wine freely and in abundance and condemned the Tatianites and Encratites who abstain'd from it as what might not lawfully be drunk and call'd it in imitation of the Esseni The poyson of the Dragon 9. That having ended their Feast they spent the night in dancing and singing first in two Quires afterwards in one in imitation of Moses and his sister Miriam after the passage through the Red-Sea a ceremony which hath not onely never been observ'd in the Church but hath been expresly condemn'd by her in the Councel of Laodicea forbidding dancing even at the marriages of Christians 10. That seeing the day break turning towards the East they pray'd which done every one return'd to his Cell Which last ceremony is all that might seem contrary to the common practice of the Jews and to have some relation to that of the Christians who in their Prayers turn to the East whereas the Jews look'd towards Jerusalem in what part soever of the world they made their supplications But as to what he observes that this Sect of people were not serv'd by slaves as esteeming that the possession of servants was absolutely contrary to nature it speaks somewhat dissonant from the generall belief and practice as well of the Ancient Jews who permitted slavery as the Primitive Christians who disallow'd it not as appears by the words both of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 21. Philemon 16 and St. Peter 1 Epist Chap. 3. 18. but it was indeed common to all the Esseni of whom Philo said There is not so much as a slave among them but all are free yet mutually serving one another and they condemn Masters not onely as unjust defiling holiness but also as impious With the same design of making some advantage of Josephus hath some bold hand or other inserted into his Antiquities Lib. 18. cap. 4. certain words which are so much the less likely to come from him for that they contain an honourable testimony as well of the person of our Saviour as of the holiness and truth of Christian Religion from the profession whereof that Author ever stood at a great distance besides it is notoriously remarkable that they are hedg'd in so as not to have any coherence with the rest of his Discourse either going before or coming after and put into the place which they take up rather out of affection to some certain party then any reason there was to do it Of the same thread is also if I am not deceiv'd in my conjecture that Encomium of St. John inserted in the sixth Chapter for besides that he describes him as a very good person one whose advice it was to those Jews who exercised vertue and were observers of justice one towards another and piety towards God to become as it were one by Baptisme and that this Discourse can speak no less of him who made it then that he was a Disciple of St. John's the contexture of the whole Story formerly concludes and evidently shews that it was thrust in it may be out of some zeal but certainly with much want of sincerity Tiberius says Josephus being extremely incensed at the attempt of Aretas writes to T. Vitellius that he should declare war against him and if he took him alive to send him â—…und in chains to him if he were kill'd that he would send him his head Tiberius sent Orders to the Generall of his Army in Syria that he should do these things and Vitellius as it were for the war against Aretas prepar'd two Legions c. And it is to be noted that the defeat of Herod by Aretas happening seven years after the suffering of St. John seeing Vitellius being upon his way to take his revenge of that affront receiv'd four days before his arrivall at Jerusalem the news of Tiberius's death there is very little likelihood that the Jews who had delivered our Saviour to Pilate though they had follow'd and admir'd him after the martyrdom of St. John which had not wrought any alteration in them should have had for so long time so lively a remembrance both of the unworthiness of his death and the sanctity of his life It was also conceiv'd in the time of Origen that Josephus desirous to find out the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple had said that those things were happened to the Jews in revenge of James the Just who was the brother of Jesus called Christ since they had kill'd him though a just person and no
say Grey-haired shall reign who shall derive his Name Adrian from the Adriatick Sea There shall be another Person absolutely good who shall know all things that is to say Antoninus the Affable and under thee O most Excellent and best of men who art Brown-haired and under thy Branches to wit Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus will come the time of the accomplishment of all things Three shall reign and the third shall have the government after all the rest And elsewhere speaking to Rome he says After that three times five Kings that is to say Julius Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Piso Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva and Trajan shall have reigned in Thee and subdued the World from East to West there shall be a King with an Hoary head taking his Name to wit Adrian from the Sea Adriatick c. Besides him there shall reign to wit Antoninus Marcus Aurelius and Verus under whom shall be the last of Times and by the Name they all shall have of Antoninus fill the Name of the celestical God to wit Adonai whose Power is now and will be for ever CHAP. V. A Refutation of Possevinus concerning the Time when the Sibylline Writing came first abroad IT must therefore of necessity follow that the Impostour who to draw up Catalogues of the Emperours had borrowed the Name of the Sibyl put that Cheat upon the World since the year 138. let us now see how long after Possevin in his Apparatus Sacer upon an imagination that he speaks of the second Conflagration of the Temple of Vesta makes him live after that Accident and thereupon is mistaken in four several respects For First he makes an ill concurrence between the year 199. with the Empire of Commodus Assassinated the 31th of December 192. Secondly he no less unjustly assigns the Conflagration of Vesta's Temple in the year 199. since that according to Dion in his seventy second Book Herodian in his first Book and Orosius in the sixteenth Chapter of his seventh Book it happened toward the end of Commodus's Reign who left this world seven years before To which may be added that Eusebius whose Authority he notoriously abuses determines the time of that ruinous Accident affirming it to have happened in the third year of the 242. Olympiad and the twelfth of Commodus which concurr onely with the 191. year of our Saviour Thirdly When he designs the three Successours of Adrian omitting Verus taken into Partnership of the Empire by Marcus Aurelius he reckons in his stead Commodus on whom the pretended Sibyl neither thought nor could have thought since she writ her Poem above fifteen years before the Birth of that Prince which was on the thirty first of August 161. and above thirty years before his association in the Empire happening on the twenty seventh of November 176. Fourthly Though the Authour of that Romance might have spoken somewhat of the Conflagration of Vesta's Temple since that upon the very account of his having supposed that Rome should be burned in the year after its Foundation 948. concurrent with the year 195. of Christ and the third of Severus he would insinuate that all the Temples of that City that of Vesta among the rest should be consumed by Fire and could not as being dead before either see the Conflagration of it or according to his own Hypotheses say that he had seen it yet how after he had measured the duration of Rome by the Lives of Antoninus and his two Adopted Sons Marcus Aurelius and Verus shewing thereby he writ in their Times and consequently before the year of Christ 160. could he have been in a capacity to speak of commodus who was born the last of August 161. five Moneths and twenty four days after the Death of Antoninus and affirm he had seen the second Conflagration of Vesta's Temple which came not to pass till the year 191. and the twelfth year after the Death of Marcus with whom he seemed to imagine that Rome and the whole World should perish For instance in the third Book page 27. he had written that Rome should become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a Village which he had done in imitation of the Apocalyps Chap. xvii Verse 16. and Chap. xviii Verse 8. and Chap. xix Verse 3. openly threatening it with a final destruction by Fire saying in the second Book page 14. Rome's seven-hill'd People God shall shake And Fire of much Wealth shall destruction make Snatch'd up by Vulcan's ravenous Flames And page 20. By a sad Fate There shall be three will lay Rome desolate All men shall in their Houses be destroy'd By Cataracts of Fire from Heav'n And in the fifth Book page 40. Surrounded with a burning Fire go dwell In the dreadfull aboad of lowest Hell And in the eighth Book page 58. To Naphta thou Bitumen Sulphur Fire reduc'd shalt be But Ashes to be burnt t'eternity Nay that there should not be the least difficulty as to what concerns the Time of that Catastrophe he had declared himself in these Terms page 59. Thou shalt compleat Three times three hundred years and fourty eight Of thy Name then the Number being past Thy wretched Fate shall Thee surprize in haste That is to say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof the Letters produce the Number 948. thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 100. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 800. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. But could he without being ridiculous and passing for a Fool brag that he had survived those under whom Rome and the World should come to its Period but also that he had been Spectatour of an Accident which but four years preceeded the day he had assigned for that utter desolation Or could he with any countenance have acknowledged that he had out-lived the Time which he had assigned for the determination of the Empire and the Universe But he hath not shewed himself so much a Fool as a confident Impostour and his words which Possevin thought might be applied to the second Conflagration of Vesta's Temple relate onely to the final Destruction of that of Jerusalem which he calls the Amiable House the Guardian-Temple of the Divinity an Elogie which could not be given the Temple of Vesta by him who undertook to dispute against the Idolatry of the Heathen for the worship of one God Besides the Remark which Possevin makes of the Authour of the second Conflagration of that Temple which the Counterfeit Sibyl meant saying That he had with an impious hand attempted clearly discovers that he reflected on the Hand of that Infidel Souldier who had fired the Temple of Jerusalem and was declared impious by the Judgment of Titus General of the Romane Army For the Counterfeit Prophetess might well brag of the sight of that horrid Accident since it had happened in the year of our Lord 76. sixty eight years full before the reign of the Antonini under whom she writ though