of the particular devotion which Augustus had for Apollo to whom not many years after he dedicated a magnificent Temple in the Mount Palatine and that in his secret Debauches as for instance in his Banquet sirnam'd Of the twelve gods he had represented Apoâ—… and that with the greater Analogie in regard of his being the great King among men as the Sun amongst the Starrs and was then in the prime of his age being four and twenty years old as the Sun who never growing old looks always with the same countenance According therefore to his first mis-representation Constantine imagin'd that Virgil had by the multitude of new men meant the Christian Church But it is clear that his imagination ran onely upon that race which he supposed was under the Consulship of Pollio to begin the Golden-Age after the expiration of that of Iron From thence the Emperour comes to make this Remark What can there be more manifest for he adds The Oracle of the Cumaean Prophecy is come to its period clearly signifying the Cumaean Sibyl And I acknowledge that Virgil speaking of the coming of the last Age of the Cumaean Prophecy reflected on that of the Cumaean Sibyl but I affirm withall First That to alledge any such thing is manifest to shoot wide from the Mark and not to say any thing pertinent to the Discourse which had preceeded that is to say that Cicero had copied out and translated the Acrostick attributed to the Erythraean Sibyl Erythraea and Cumae are they the same thing And to persuade people that those who had spoken of the Inhabitress of one of those two places are at no difference with the Authours who maintain the other was it not necessary to make it appear before-hand that she made her residence in both successively Secondly I say that this supposition being allow'd it would not follow from the words of Virgil that he had or could have read the Sibylline Prophecy since he was neither Patrician nor Quindecem-vir to whose Colledge that priviledge was reserv'd nay indeed not of a competent age to be entertain'd into that Society which consisted onely of antient men and not of young men such as Virgil then was as being about the thirtieth year of his Age. Thirdly That though he had been one of the Quindecem-viri yet can it not be granted he could have any knowledg of those Cumaean Oracles which had been brought to Tarquin for they were destroyed fourty three years before in the time of Sylla those which Rome was possessed of in the time of Cicero and Augustus were according to the observation of Dionysius Halicarnassaeus certain Collections gotten out of a thousand several places and went under the name of the Cumaean improperly onely in as much as they were disposed into the place of the real Cumaean ones Fourthly That though it were granted that the true Cumaean Writings which had nothing common with those reputed such at this day had been preserv'd entire and that Virgil had been of the number of those to whom the reading thereof was allow'd yet had he according to what is suppos'd discover'd therein any thing of Prediction concerning the Saviour of the World he would not as he hath done wholly have adapted the Sence of the Oracle to Pollio and his Son and principally to Augustus not onely in that place but also above sixteen years after in the sixth Book of the Aeneids where he introduces Anchises saying to his Son Aeneas of the Prince so highly qualified in the â—…ucoliks and called Heav'nly race great progeny of Jove c. There there 's the Prince oft promis'd us before Divine Augustus Caesar who once more Shall Golden days bring to th' Ausonian Land I' th Kingdoms where old Saturn did command All therefore that can be with any reason gather'd from the allegation which he hath in a word made of the Cumaean Prophecy is that being carry'd away as well as others of his time with the common perswasion that the Oracles which were kept at Rome in the place of the Cumaean and upon that occasion went under their name contained the Fate as well of that City which pretended to Eternity as of the Universe and consequently were to regulate both till the return of the great Platonical year which should reinstate the world in the felicity of the Age of Saturn and accordingly to flatter the growing power of Augustus and to heighten with extravagant hopes the Ambition of Pollio one of his greatest Benefactours and most intimate Friends he seems to have held it as a thing most manifest that that Age crown'd with peace and glory would be restored under the Monarchy of Augustus and take its Commencement from the Consulship of Pollio The Emperour prosecuting his design saies Virgil is not satisfied with this but pressing farther there being a necessity of his Testimony what hath he more to say This sacred Order of Ages is rais'd for us the Virgin comes the second time conducting the desirable King Who then shall be the returning Virgin but she who is full of and hath conceived by the Divine Spirit And who hinders but that the Virgin who hath conceived and is full of the Divine Spirit still is and continues a Virgin He will also come the second time and upon his coming will comfort the Universe To this I answer First That there is a great distance between the Greek and the Latine which as it were particularly to point at the great Revolution of the Platonick-Year and the Restauration of the Saturnian Age and to discard all other speculations spoke thus much Now Time's great order's born again The Maid returns and the Saturnian reign So that to render it exactly it should have been written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly That though the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Mother of our Lord and Saviour and the Conception of that great Saviour by the Holy Spirit and his happy return at the last Judgment ought to be acknowledg'd by all the World yet doth it not thence follow that Virgil had any knowledg thereof and much less that he spoke ought of it Besides that in rigour it cannot be said of the Blessed Virgin-Mother that she return'd into the World when she Conceiv'd our Saviour so as that having been before upon Earth she had been absent from it to the end she might return thither again in the fulness of time or haply that having been brought forth once before she was snatch'd out of it and then return'd again into the World by a second Production and consequently That which way soever it be taken this Imagination will still have a savour of Origenism if not some thing worse To conclude therefore since it is impossible without great Inconveniences to adapt to the sacred Virgin this Discourse of Virgil who neither did nor could have thought of her there will arise a â—ecessity to acknowledg that the Phantasie of this poor
made thereof at Rome if so any were desirous to do it If the books of all the Sibyls were equally sought for up and down were all committed to the oversight of the same Guardians who kept them lock'd up altogether in the same place and all preach'd one only God especially those of the Erythraean esteem'd the most famous and most noble among them what reason or likelihood is there they should not be as highly valu'd and priviledg'd as those of the Cumaean And if he cite Verses out of the Erythraean with this particular remark thereupon That she inserted her own reali name into her Poëm and foretold that she was to be call'd Erythraea though she were originally of Babylon shewing that he speaks of the pretended Authoress of that Rhapsody which we have at this day how came it into his imagination that the Heathens extraordinarily jealous of the secret of their Mysteries would have been so careless of a piece which they thought the noblest of all and that was in effect so opposite to them as that should it have fallen into the hands of the Christians they must needs expect it would have been publish'd to their confusion But observe by the way that he speaks of the Quindecimviri for that between the year of Rome 671. wherein the Capitol was burnt and the 675. in which Sylla laid down the Dictatorship fifteen men had been appointed to keep that collection which the Senate and People of Rome had made of the Oracles they had met with up and down through the diligence of their Embassadors For though since that time according to the observation of Servius the number of these Guardians was augmented to fourty there wasâ—…o alteration either as to their former Title or their Function nay after the coming of Christian Princes to the Empire the fall of Paganisme the cessation of the priviledges of its Ministers the prohibition of sacrifices and the desolation of Temples had not abolished either the Sibylline books transferr'd by Augustus to the Temple of Apollo Palatinus nor yet the ancient regulation made for the custody thereof among the Inâ—idels who notwithstanding the loss of their credit abated nothing of their courage in maintaining their inveterate customes Ammianus Marcellinus relates that in the year of our Lord 363. The Sibylline books were consulted at Rome by the command of Julian and that the twentieth of March in the night time Apronianus being Praefect the Temple of Apollo Palatinus was set on fire in the eternall City where had it not been for the assistances of all sorts of people the greatness of the flames had consum'd the Cumaean Poëms In like manner from the Itinerary of Rutilius Claudius Numatianus it appears that they had been preserv'd even to the year of our Lord 389. since that that Author who writ in the year of Rome 1199 or the 416. of our Lord objects to Stilico kill'd by the command of Honorius on the three and twentieth of August 408. that he had not onely committed his rapines against Rome by the arms of the Goths but that he had before burnt the Destinies of the Sibylline assistance as not presuming to fasten that execution on Honorius who had commanded it out of revenge for that the Idolaters had forg'd I know not what Greek Verses as if they had been communicated by the Divine Oracle to some person that consulted it wherein they made Christ really innocent as to the Religion they abhorred as of a sacriledge but that Peter had by Magick founded the worship of the Name of Christ for 365 years and that at the expiration of that number of years there should be no more heard of it But certain it is that the Emperour justly incensed at the impudence of a rascally sort of people that durst presume to bark at the Dignity of the Religion he profess'd and terminate the continuance thereof to 365. years expiring under his fourth Consulship with Eutychianus in the year of our Lord 398. issu'd out his commands the year following that the Sibylline books whence the pretended Prophesie had been taken should be burnt and the Temples demolish'd The year following saith St. Augustin Manlius Theodorus being Consul the time being already come wherein according to that Oracle of evil spirits or humane fiction there should have been no longer any profession of Christian Religion c. in the most eminent and known City of Africk namely Carthage Gaudentius and Jovius Governours under the Emperour Honorius did upon the ninteenth of March cause to be pulled down the Temples of the false gods and their Images to be broken Prosper Africanus confirms the same thing though he attributes that command to Theodosius who dy'd at Millain the seventeenth of January 395. and the Edicts of the nine and twentieth of January directed to Macrobius Praefect of Spain of the thirteenth of July to Eutychianus Praefect of the Praetorium in the East and of the twentieth and twenty ninth of August to Apollodorus Proconsul of Africk do yet satisfie the world of it But however the case stands it matters not while the Sibylline books were in the custody of the Heathens and they possessors of the Empire the provision made on that behalf was that they should never be consulted without express command from the Senate the sight and reading thereof was absolutely forbidden all but the Quindecimviri and all the places whence they had been gotten depending on the Roman Monarchy must necessarily have been oblig'd to the same Law Whence it came that as nothing more sharpens the edge of curiosity then the rigour of prohibitions and that the dis-satisfaction men conceive at their being incapable to exercise it openly makes them beyond all reason daring so were they not a few who endeavour'd to sift the secret out of the Quindecimviri or made their brags that they had learn'd part thereof of themselves Nay sometimes it came to that heighth that the State became engag'd in the distractions occasion'd by that superstitious passion Of that nature was what happen'd in the 710. year of Rome when to gratifie Caesar and compell the Senate to honour him with the royall Diadem those who were the Guardians of the Oracles scatter'd abroad of themselves this false report that according to the saying of the Sibyl the Parthians could not be destroy'd nor the Common-wealth be secure from their arms but by a King which no doubt had been put to the triall of experience had it not been for the murther committed in the person of Caesar the fifteenth of March the same year which was the four and and fourtieth before our Saviour Twenty years after under the Consulship of the two Lentulus's Augustus gave command to the Priests to copy out with their own hands those of the Sibylline Verses which time had defac'd to the end that no other should read them And to the same effect Suetonius relates that after he had taken upon him
the charge of the High-priesthood of the Divinatory Writings as well Greek as Latine he burnt above two thousand books brought together from all parts and divulg'd either without Authors or under the names of Authors not much to be credited and reserv'd onely the Sibylline and that after tryall made thereof he lock'd them up in two golden Drawers under the basis of Apollo Palatinus To which relates also that saying of Horace Lib. 1. Epist 3. Et tangere vitet Scripta Palatinus quaetunque recepit Apollo So that it was then in vain to look for them any more in the Capitol or for any to pretend a more familiar acquaintance with them then before Under the Consulship of Silanus and Norbanus in the year of Rome 771. which was the ninteenth after the Incarnation according to our accompt now and the fifth of Tiberius a certain Oracle which agreed not with the time of the City put the people into no small disturbances for it said that three times three hundred years being come and gone an intestine sedition and a kind of Sibaritick madness would prove the destruction of the Romans But Tiberius found much falt with that Verse as guilty of imposture caused a review to be made of all the books which contain'd any prediction rejected some as being of no worth or credit and retain'd others And in the eighteenth year of his Empire which was the 785. of Rome and the two and thirtieth of our Lord under the Consulship of Domitius and Camillus it was propounded in the Senate by Quintilianus Tribune of the people concerning the Sibyls book which Caninius Gallus one of the Quindecimviri had requested might be receiv'd among other books of the same Prophetess and demanded it might be so established by Decree of the Senate Which being uanimously granted Caesar sent Letters somewhat reprehending the Tribune as ignorant of the old custom by reason of his youth and upbraided Gallus that having grown old in knowledge and the Ceremonies he had nevertheless demanded the opinion of the Senators it being uncertain who was the Author thereof and before the Colledge had yielded their judgement neither as the custom was the Verses having been read and taken into consideration by the Masters He further represented what abundance of vain things were published under so celebrious a name that Augustus had under a certain penalty set down a day within which such books should be brought to the Praetor of the City and that it was not lawfull for any to have them in their private possession That the same thing had been decreed by their Ancestors that after the burning of the Capitol during the time of the civil war their Verses were sought at Samos Ilium and Erythrae through Africk also Sicily and the Colonies of Italy whether there were one Sibyl or many and a charge was given to the Priests to distinguish the true Prophesies from the false as near as might be by the judgement of man so the book was referr'd to the examination of the Quindecimviri To be short two and thirty years after viz. in the year of Rome 817. which was the 64. of our Lord and the tenth of Nero under the Consulship of Bassus and Crassus the City having been set on fire on the ninteenth of July the fire could not be stopped till it had devour'd the Palace and Nero's house and all about it And though as Tacitus observes recourse was then made to the books of the Sibyl yet the whole Quarter where they had been disposed by Augustus being destroy'd by the fire it is very probable they were in no less hazard then they had been six and fourty years before when the Capitol was burnt as it was again afterwards in the year of Rome 822. in the month of December CHAP. X. The Motives which he might have gone upon who was the first Projector of the eight books which at this day go under the name of the Sibylline AFter so many irreconcileable differences making it undeniably apparent that the ancient Heathens never had any thing which might be rely'd on as certain concerning their Sibyls after the conflagration of the books sold by one of them to Tarquin and the severall accidents which since the time of Sylla happened to that confused collection which the superstition of the Romans had glean'd together from all quarters of the world after the Senate had in the first place interposed their judgement on all that had been sent to them and that Augustus had 65. years after smothered to the number of two thousand books such as were thought either supposititious or of little consequence and exercised his censure on the rest after that Tiberius had two severall times taken into a re-examination the sentence of Augustus to cull out as superfluous what he had any quarrell at and the fire if not devour'd or prejudic'd at least come very near what had after so many disquisitions and retrivals been preserv'd who I say all these things considered can think it strange that Posterity should from time to time have been guilty of a presumption of furnishing the Romans with some new piece of that kind though it were done meerly by reason of their being the more inquisitive after Writings of that nature by how much they both were and were oblig'd by their own provisions and orders to that purpose to be ignorant of what they contain'd and consequently that they should deferr the publishing thereof till after the death of Adrian at which time supposititious pieces of that kind had free toleration even among the Pagans 74. years after the conflagration of Mount Palatine under Nero and 69. after the desolation of the Capitol under Vitellius and Vespasian And to give a check to the Authority of the Heathenish Prophetesses and confirm this common principle of both the Jews and the Fathers that the most ancient monuments of Idolatry were later then the Writings of Moses and to raise a greater reverence thereof in the Christians who were not acquainted with any thing at so great a distance from their own times they brought upon the stage Noah's daughter-in-law who liv'd eight Ages before and much about the same time that the Gnosticks who called his wife Noria made it their brag among the Christians that they had some of her Writings out of a design to corrupt the simplicity of the Church by a supposititious piece pretending to so great Antiquity the Millenaries and some counterfeit Christians scatter'd up and down certain spurious Oracles and Predictions under the name of one of his sons wives especially among the Gentiles imagining not without some likelihood that the curiosity of those blinded wretches would open a gap for the cheat and dazle their understandings into admiration and that the Christians overjoy'd to find therein the condemnation of idolatry the preaching of one only God the prediction of the Incarnation of the Word the redemption of mankind by the blood of
the Birth of men so they shew'd that Pollio's Wife who had been very much indisposed during her Pregnancy should after her Delivery make her self known to her childe by her joy that that Joy was as it were the Earnest of the child's Blessing as it were a signification of Misfortune to him if his Parents were not joyfull at his Birth But the Emperour transforming the Discourse of Virgil according to his own way makes him say Begin laughing and lifting up thy sight to know thy Mother who should be dear to thee for she hath carried thee in her womb many years thy Parents have not smiled on thee at all thou hast not been put in a Couch nor had splendid Banquet Whereupon he adds by way of Comment upon it How have not the Parents smiled on this childe Certainly it was because he who begot him is a certain Power that hath no Qualities nor can be figured by the delineation of other things nor hath a humane body Now who knows not that being a holy Spirit it can have no experience of Coitions And what inclination and desire can be imagined in the disposition of that good with a greediness whereof all things are inflamed Or what compliance is there between Wisdom and Pleasure But let these things be said onely by those who introduce I know not what humane generation of God and endeavour not to cleanse their minds of every bad Word and Work What a small matter needs there to divert men from the Truth since the pure Imagination of a Mystery where there is not any is able to do it Certain it is that as God the Father hath neither Qualities nor Figure nor Body nor Passions nor Desires so the eternal Generation of his Word hath nothing common with that of men But nothing of all this coming to the knowledg of Virgil and his words neither expressing nor capable of expressing it since the Greek properly speaking is a corruption of the Latine which tended to no other end then to promise Happiness to Pollio's young Son to what purpose have some thought to Philosophize as they have done For there had been no occasion given had they not altered the Sense by supposing as many have done that Pollio's little childe had laughed assoon as he was born and that upon that extraordinary Laughter the whole Prediction of his Happiness had been grounded and imagining that Virgil had said of the child's Laughter what he meant of the Mother's as also that she had born him several years and that he was not descended of Parents subject to either any inclination to Laughter or the natural necessity of Sleep and Rest For should that Great man have returned to Earth again he might with reason have said to Constantine what St. Augustine said since to Julian the Pelagian Restore me my Words and thy dreaming Imaginations will vanish CHAP. XV. That it cannot be said That Virgil in his Fourth Eclogue disguised his own Sentiment THe same thing may also be said of the same Emperour 's supposing that the Poet spake Figuratively and disguised the Truth out of a fear that any of the Potentates of the Royal City should charge him with writing against the Laws of his Country and dcrogating from what had sometime been the sentiment of his Ancestours concerning the Gods and that he wished the prolongation of his own life to see the coming of our Saviour For as it happened about three hundred years since that the Poet Dante mov'd by an Admiration of that incomparable Wit would needs deliver him out of his Hell in like manner the good opinion Constantine had conceived of him hath made him read in his Poem what indeed is not in it out of such an Imagination as those have who looking up to the Clouds think they see such and such Figures therein And thence comes it that he hath spoken so much to his advantage though without any ground either in Truth it self or indeed in the very outward Dress of his Work which was not done according to the certain Pattern of any antient Oracle of the Sibyls nor yet to the eight Books now extant among us and which were writ above one hundred fourscore and six years after the Consulship of Pollio but was design'd onely to express the desire which Virgil had to comply with Augustus and Pollio and to insinuate more and more into their Favour Whereupon I conclude That the antient Paganism what Opinion soever Constantine and others may have had to the contrary hath not given any Testimony either in favour of these pretended Sibylline Oracles which openly oppose Idolatry or yet to confirm the perswasion which the Fathers have had thereof CHAP. XVI That Apollodorus had no knowledg of the Eight Books called the Sibylline FOr to think with the generality of modern Christians that Apollodorus the Erythraean had seen the Third Book because as Lactantius observes from Varro he had affirmed of the Erythraean Sibyl That she was of his City and that she had Prophecied to the Greeks going to Ilium that Troy should be destroyed and that Homer should write Lies is a manifest abuse The Words we read to this purpose are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Troy I compassionate thy Miseries A fair Erinnys shall from Sparta rise Which Europe and the Asian Realms will vex But thee 'bove all with many Woes perplex Her self much crown'd with Fame that never dies An Aged Man Authour of many Lies Shall flourish next of unknown Country blind His Eyes but of a clear quick-sighted Mind He his conceptions into Verse shall frame And what he writes stile with a double Name Profess himself a Chian and declare Th' Affairs of Ilium not as they were Yet clear both in my Words and Verse for he The first that looks into my Works shall be This I say is a manifest Mistake For First It is no hard matter to imagine that the Impostour who composed the Eight Books of the Sibyls and had impudently taken upon him the name of Wife to Noah ' s Son two hundred years after the Death of Varro who died according to Eusebius in the seven hundred twenty and sixth year of Rome might at his ease and long enough before have read what he had alledged out of Apollodorus who was more antient whether in his Latine or in the Greek Text of Apollodorus and that he could do no less for his own Reputation then produce as a probable Argument of his pretended Antiquity what he had found in him Secondly For that Apollodorus who attests of the Erythraean Sibyl that she was born in his City and acknowledged a Native thereof whether by common Report or upon the Credit of her Writings could not have said any such thing of our Counterfeit Sibyl who says she came from Babylon and was Noah's Daughter-in-law and formally denyes that she was by Country an Erythraean and charges the Greeks with Imposture for
the fourty Martyrs are entred in the assurance of their Combats having without suffering passed through the Flame which we also having undaunted passed through may be received into Paradise And thence it comes that in his Funeral Orations upon Pulcheria and Flacilla her Mother he says of the former The Plant hath been removed hence but it hath been replanted in Paradise and of the later By that that is by Faith was she carried hence into the Bosom of the Father of Faith Abraham near the Fountain of Paradise Saint Ambrose upon the twentieth Section of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm according to the Greeks lays it down as hath been already shewed for certain that it is necessary those who desire to return into the Paradise out of which Adam had been driven should pass through the Fire of Judgment Paulinus having forsaken the World to lead a Religious Life afterwards Bishop of Nola in his second Fpistle to Severus his intimate Friend This is acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God that our good should be voluntarily that we might receive the things which are ours that is to say the house of Paradise and eternal Life wherein we were created and which if we purged from the possession of this earth whereinto we came through condemnation regain then may we as truly recalled from Banishment into our Country or returned after a long Pilgrimage into the house we were born in say God is our Portion in the land of the living c. Prudentius in the tenth of his Hymns While thou O God recallest and reformest thy body subject to dissolution in what Region wilt thou command the pure Soul to rest it self Hidden in the bosom of the Blessed Old man it shall lodge there where Eleazar is whom the rich man burning sees from afar off encompassed with flowers all about O Redeemer we follow thy Sayings whereby Triumphing over black Death Thou commandest the Thief who was Companion of thy Cross to come after thee Behold already the lightsom way of spacious Paradise opened to the Faithfull and it is lawfull to go into that Grove of which man had been deprived by the Serpent The Authour of the Homily upon the Thief unjustly attributed to Eusebius Emissenus This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise as in thy hereditary and paternal seat which at thy entrance shall be opened though upon the expulsion thence of Adam nay of two to wit Adam and Eve it had been shut up to innumerable people Enter thou therefore the first of all but with a happier entrance then the first into Paradise it being not required thou shouldest with Adam see hell Fear not thou shalt there meet with any mortal Viand any Law any Tree I will be to thee both Food and Life And that thou mayst not have the least apprehension that there may haply be some enemy in that blessed Grove and that the antient Thief may lay Ambushes for thee I will bring thee into it and confirm the possession thereof to thee The Authour of the Questions attributed to Justin Martyr in the seventy fifth Question The souls of the Just are carried into Paradise where they have the conversation and sight of the Angels and Archangels and the Vision of Christ our Saviour And in the seventy sixth Question It was profitable for the Thief at his entrance into Paradise to learn by the effects the advantage of Faith by which he had the honour to be admitted into the Assembly of the Saints where he is kept till the day of the Resurrection and retribution Now he hath that Sentiment of Paradise which is called Cogitative according to which the Souls see themselves the things that are below them and moreover the Angels and Daemons It were no hard matter to add to this number those Authours who have followed the same prejudicate Opinion as the Monk Caesarius in his third Dialogue St. Hierome in his hundred twenty ninth Epistle c. But the fourteen before cited are sufficient to shew that till after the year 450 their Opinion which had its first rise from the pretended Sibylline Books was so common in the Church that it met not with any Contradiction CHAP. XII The fourth Capital Tenet proposed by the Sibylline Writing THe fourth Supposition advanced by the Authour of that Counterfeit Piece concerning the State of the departed is That Jerusasalem rebuilt and made more glorious then ever the Son of God being descended from heaven shall establish a reign of a thousand years full of sensible enjoyments and a miraculous fertlity and abundance of corporal goods He spreads his Fiction before us in these Terms in the second Book page 14. The fruitfull earth shall again bring forth several Fruits And page 18. The Angels raising the Good out of the midst of the burning River shall convey them into light and bring them to a life free from care There is the immortal way of the great God and three Fountains of Wine Honey and Milk the earth also common to all and being divided by neither walls nor hedges shall then of it self bring forth several Fruits And in the third Book page 32. Then shall God give uno men a very great joy For the earth the Trees and the innumerable flocks of Sheep shall furnish men with the true fruit of Wine sweet Honey white Milk and the best Corn that ever mortals had And page 35. The Wolves upon the Mountains shall eat grass with the Lambs the spotted Lynxes shall feed with the Goats the Bears with the Calves and all Mortals the flesh-devouring Lion shall eat straw in the Manger c. And the Dragons shall rest themselves with the motherless little ones And in the six and fourtieth page of the fifth Book The Land of the Hebrews shall be holy and bring forth all things viz. the River of the Rock that distills Honey and the immortal Milk shall fall down upon the tongues of all the Just And in the fourtieth page All those who live a godly life shall live again upon the earth And in page the nine and fourtieth God hath made the City he delighted in more bright then the Stars the Sun and the Moon So that it is without all question it was the design of this Impostour who in imitation of the second Book of Esdras in the 19th Verse of the second Chapter and the 35th Verse of the fourteenth Chapter would needs entertain us with such extravagant Narrations to abuse the words of Esay and Saint John who in the twentieth and one and twentieth Chapters of his Apocalyps mystically represents the Church under the Name of the holy City the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven built of Gold and precious Stones having no need of Sun or Moon and in the midst of it and of either side of the River was there the Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of Fruits yielding its fruit every Moneth and the leaves of
before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sin of those that were slain And when he had made a gathering throughout the Company to the sum of two thousand Drachms of silver he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering In this Relation we are to observe 1. The crime of the Persons killed condemned in the seventh of Deuteronomy verse 25. in these Terms The Graven Images of their Gods shall ye burn with fire thou shalt not desire the Silver or Gold that is on them nor take it unto thee lest thou be snared therein for it is an abhomination to the Lord thy God 2. The judgment of all the people acknowledging that they had been punished according to their sin 3. The procedure as well of Judas as the whole Army thereupon in praying that the sin might be forgotten and pardoned not to the dead who had perished upon that occasion but to the Army which had been infected therewith as with a pestilent contagion in like manner as when upon the sacrilege of Achan God said to Joshua Israel hath sinned and they have also transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stollen and dissembled also and they have put it even amongst their own stuff Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed c. There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee O Israel thou canst not stand before thine Enemies till ye take away the accursed thing from among you As also when God having sent a Famine of three years answered David It is for Saul and for his bloody House because he slew the Gibeonites And when some years after God upon David's pride slew in one day seventy thousand persons For the people had not contributed to the sin of Achan nor to that of Saul nor lastly to that of David who acknowledging them no way chargeable therewith made this observable reflection on it Lo I have sinned and done wickedly but these sheep what have they done To prevent the like misfortunes God had made these Ordinances And if the whole Congregation of Israel sin through ignorance and the thing be hid from the eyes of the Assembly and they have done somewhat against the Commandements of the Lord concerning things which should not be done and are guilty When the sin which they have sinned against it is known then the Congregation shall offer a young Bullock for the Sin and bring him before the Tabernacle of the Congregation And the Elders of the Congregation shall lay their hands upon the Head of the Bullock before the Lord and the Bullock shall be killed before the Lord c. And the Priest shall make an atonement for them and it shall be forgiven them Again If one be found slain in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess lying in the field and it be not known who hath slain him Then thy Elders and thy Judges shall come forth and they shall measure unto the Cities which are round about him that is slain And it shall be that the City which is next unto the slain man even the Elders of the said City shall take an Heifer which hath not been wrought with and which hath not drawn in the Yoke And the Elders of that City shall bring down the Heifer unto a rough Valley which is neither eared nor sowen and shall strike off the Heifer's neck there in the Valley And the Priests the Sons of Levi shall come near for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him and to bless in the Name of the Lord and by their Word shall every Controversie and every stroak be tryed And all the Elders of that City that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the Heifer that is beheaded in the Valley And they shall answer and say Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it shed Be mercifull O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel ' s charge and the blood shall be forgiven them If the Elders of the People were obliged in their own Names to beg pardon for the evil which had been committed without their knowledg as soon as they had discovered it if there was a necessity that the Priests should make an atonement for the whole Body of the Congregation whereof some Members onely had been guilty and if the City in the Confines whereof a Murther had been committed though the Authours of it had not been known stood in need of purification and the Elders innocent of the Crime were not to pray for the dead Person murthered but to make a publick Protestation of their innocence and to beg of God that he would be pleased to turn away from the innocent Community the miseries where with the Murther seemed to threaten it how should not Judas and all the Army acknowledging that the hand of God had been upon many of the Souldiery who had some days before lost their lives for the sacrilege committed by them and whereof they were found seized think it necessary to pray not for those wretches that died in their sin but for the whole Body of the Army which they had as much as lay in them prophaned and deprived of the protection of God He therefore according to the Law makes Prayers immediately for himself and for all the people that were left and because Jerusalem was the onely place where the Expiatory Victims were to be sacrificed and that the urgency of Affairs permitted him not to go thither in Person with the Army he sends thither and raises a Contribution for the Sacrifice of two thousand Drachms amounting to about fourty two Marks of Silver after he had exhorted the people not to Pray for the dead but to beware of doing that which was evil and take example from the calamity of those who came to destruction through their own fault As therefore it is manifest from what we have observed that the procedure of Judas Maccabaeus was most conformable to the Law and that it may be conceived such without any difficulty so it will be most easie to deduce that the same thing cannot be said of the Application which Jason the Cyrenaean or his Abridger would have made thereof since it disguizes the Intention of that Prince under pretence of making a natural representation of it Having then related how he had sent two thousand Drachms to Jerusalem for the Sin-offering the Historian adds of his own these words Doing therein very well and civilly in that he was mindfull of the Resurrection For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead And also in that he perceived that
the same Tabernacle how the Napkins that were about his face were snatched away to serve for Preservatives to the Faithfull that the King putting on a sad Countenance by reason of the affliction and rising from his Throne be added to the Relation and that the whole City met together at the Obsequies of the Saint Wherefore comfort one another with these Words c. Saint Hierome represents something of the like Nature at the Interment of Paula saying Exhinc non uluatus c. Assoon as she had given up the Ghost there was no more Bewailing nor Lamentation heard as is wont among the men of this World but the noise of swarms of Psalms resounding in several Languages and being transported by the Hands of Bishops and some among the Priests putting their Shoulders to the Bier whilest others carried Torches and Wax-Candles before and others brought up the Quires of those that sung Psalms she was carried into the midst of the Church called the Grot of our Saviour a multitude of people out of the Cities of Palaestina meeting at her Funeral Obsequies He says as much of those of Fabiola dead three years before writing to Oceanus Nec dum spiritum c. She had not yet given up the Ghost and recommended to Christ the spirit she ought him but Fame the flying Messenger publishing beforehand the great Lamentation there should be brought together all the People of the City to her Funeral the Psalms resounded and the cry of Halleluiah Ecchoing smote the gilt Roofs of the Temples c. Nor is it any wonder that men should rejoyce for her salvation for whose conversion the Angels were rejoycing in Heaven Eusebius assures us that threescore and four years before the same Honour had been done to Constantine the Great saying of those of his Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lighting Lamps all about in Vessels of Gold they presented an admirable spectacle to the Beholders And this is enough to justifie that the Antient Church exercised in respect of all those who died in the faith the same Offices whereby she celebrated the Memory of the greatest Martyrs and Confessours For what a strange Solemnity was that of the Transportation of the Reliques of the Prophet Samuel from Palaestine to Constantinople Omnes Episcopi c. All the Bishops saith St. Hierome carried them in Silk and in a Vessel of Gold c. the People of all Churches met them and as if they had seen the Prophet present and alive received them with so great joy that swarms of people joyned together from Palestine even to Chalcedon and with one voice celebrated the praises of Christ c. Nay though there be no Reliques of Martyrs yet when the Gospel is to be read the Luminaries are lighted through all the Churches of the East even though the Sun be up which certainly is not done to chase away the Darkness but for a sign and demonstration of Joy Whence it also came that when the Body of St. Chrysostome was to be brought from Comana to Constantinople it was received with the same Solemnity People going in Multitudes to meet it with lighted Torches in the day-time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Assembly of the Faithfull says Theodoret making use of the Sea by the convenience of Boats as they would have done of the Continent covered with Lights the entrance of the Bosporus towards Propontis Thus have we seen there were Assemblies of the Clergie and of the People the singing of Halleluiahs and Psalms and Lights employed at the Interments of all the Faithfull without exception so as that there could not be observed at the Funerals of the less considerable and less eminent for Piety and those of the most celebrious Martyrs and Confessours any other difference then that of more and less which never were able to change the nature of the thing in it self nor hinder but that it remained in such manner common among all that the Offices exercised in those Solemnities have been all together as well as some one in particular so many Discoveries of the joy of the surviving First for the Victory obtained by the Departed over sin and the world Secondly for the Happiness whereto the Church thought them actually advanced And thence also it follows That in the Office of the dead she sung not the Libera as is done at this day but Psalms of Instruction and Thanksgiving to God as for instance the three and twentieth and the two and thirtieth and the one hundred and sixteenth according to the Hebrews particularly alleged by St. Chrysostome or haply such other as the Friends of the Deceased made choice of for their consolation as the one hundred and first which Euodius appointed to be sung at the departure of St. Monica the Mother of St. Augustine as that Holy man relates in his Confessions saying Cohibito à fletu illo puero Psalterium aperuit Euodius c. The Body being quieted Euodius opened the Psalter and began to recite this Psalm I will sing unto thee O LORD Mercy and Judgment to which all the House answered And when the people heard what had happened many Friers and Religious Women came thither to us and particularly they whose Office it was taking care for the Burial I the whilest when conveniently I could did entertain those who thought it not fit to leave me with something pertinent to the occasion CHAP. XXXVII A particular consideration of the Sentiment of St. Augustine and his Prayers for his Mother THe particular Relation of all these proceedings concerning departed persons and their Interments irrefutably proves That neither St. Augustine nor his Company nor those of Ostia who came to visit him in the time of his Affliction were any way doubtfull of her felicity who was then newly departed this life since that instead of imagining her detained in any place of Torment and upon that accompt of standing in need of their Tears and the assistance of their Prayers necessary according to the presuppositions at present for her deliverance they had their thoughts unanimously inclined to Exercises which presupposed no such thing as the singing of the one hundred and first Psalm whence there cannot be any thing inferred relating to the state of the dead in as much as it contains onely a Protestation to glorifie God in living well and afterwards to familiar Discourse such as was suitable to the time and occasion Besides St. Augustine in the precedent Words had given an equally-evident Testimony of his intention when after he had made a description of the grief which had lain so heavy on him during the Agony of his Mother he had added Tum ubi efflavit extremum spiritum puer Adeodatus exclamavit in planctum atque ab omnibus nobis coërcitus tacuit c. At the Instant of her giving up the Ghost the Boy Adeodatus brake forth into a loud lamentation but reprehended by us all he held his
369. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He receives the Rewards of his new-created Soul which the Spirit had reformed by Water And of his Sister Gorgonia who died not long after viz. on the ninth of December 372. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The things which are now present to thee are much more precious then those which are seen The noise of those which make a Feast the Quires of the Angels the Order of Heaven the contemplation of Glory and more then all this the Irradiation of the Trinity which is above all things and of all things the most pure and most perfect And â—f St. Athanasius who died May the second 371. That thou wouldest he pleased to look on us from on high Of Gregory his Father who died the year following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Make known unto us in what place of Glory thou art and the light which encompasseth thee Of his dear Friend St. Basil who died January the first 378. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is now in Heaven St. Gregory Nyssenus of St. Ephraim who died on the 28th of the same Moneth of January 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He expired in the quiet Haven of the Eternal Kingdom and is kindly received into it But where otherwise may it be conjectured that his Soul hath been deposited if not as indeed it is manifest in the Celestial Tabernacles where are the Batallions of Angels a Populace of Patriarchs Quires of Prophets the Thrones of the Apostles the Joy of the Martyrs the Exultation of Saints the Splendour of the Doctours the Assembly of the First-born the perfect Noise of those that are a Feasting To those good things in which the Angels desire to rest themselves that they may see them into that sacred place the most blessed in all kinds and most holy soul of our Blessed and worthy-to-be-celebrated Father is passed Of the great Meletius Arch-Bishop of Antioch who died on the twelfth of February 381. before he could have enjoyed the Communion of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. No longer as through a Glass and obscurely but face to face he prays to God Of Pulcheria Daughter to the Emperour THEODOSIUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was transferred from one Kingdom to another Of Flavilla first Wife to the same Prince who died in the year 385. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her conversation is in the Royal Palaces of Heaven St. Ambrose of his Brother Satyrus who dyed September the seventeenth 383. De istius Beatitudine dubitare nequaquam debemus c. We ought not to doubt of his Beatitude Of the Emperour VALENTINIAN the Second two Moneths after his Assà ssination which happened on Saturday Whitsun-Eve May the fifteenth 382. before that Prince had received Baptism Ille etiam talis ut ei nihil timeatis c. He is now in such a condition that you need not fear what may happen to him as before c. I ask whether there be any Sentiment after death or not If there be he lives or rather because he lives he is already in possession of Eternal Life c. That he was so soon snatched from us we are to grieve that he is passed into a better Estate it should be our comfort c. Thou lookest on us Holy Soul from an high place as casting thy sight on things that are below c. Now borrowing light from the Sun of Righteousness thou enjoyest a clear day c. His going hence was most noble as a Flight into Heaven c. What thou hast sown upon Earth reap it there c. The stain of Sin being done off he whom his Faith washed his Prayer consecrated is gone up cleansed into Heaven c. joyned with his Brother Gratian he enjoyes the pleasures of eternal Life c. Of the Emperour THEODOSIUS who dyed January the seventeenth 395. Regnum non deposuit sed mutavit c. He hath not layd by but exchanged the Royal Dignity being admitted by the Prerogative of Piety into the Tabernacles of Christ into that Jerusalem which is above where being now placed he saith As we have heard so have we seen in the City of the LORD of Hosts c. Having gone through a doubtfull combat Theodosius of famous Memory does now enjoy perpetual Light and a Tranquility of long continuance and hath the self-satisfaction of what he did in his â—…ly in the Fruits of divine remuneration c. He hath deserved admittance into the Society of the Saints c. His abode is in light c. He is over-joyed to be in the Assemblies of the Saints c. There he now embraces Gratian c. Who enjoyes the rest of his Soul c. Being pious he hath passed from the obscurity of this World to eternal Light c. Now does he know that he reigns since that he is in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus and considers his Temple c. Constantinople thou art evidently happy who receivest a Guest of Paradise and shalt entertain in the narrow Inn of a Sepulchre an Inhabitant of that City which is on high c. And of Ascholius Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica who dyed about the year 385. Est Superorum incola possessor civitatis aeternae illius Hierusalem quae in caelo est videt illis facie ad faciem c. He is an Inhabitant of the places which are above a Possessour of the Eternal City of that Jerusalem which is in Heaven there he sees face to face St. Hierome of Blaesilla who died in the year 382. Postquam sarcinâ carnis abjectâ c. Having layd down its burthen of Flesh the Soul is fled back to her Authour after a long Pilgrimage she is ascended into her antient possession c. Me-thought then when her Coffin was making ready she cryed from Heaven I know not those Garments that Covering is not mine c. Blaesilla now followeth Jesus she is now in the society of the holy Angels c. She is passed from Darkness to Light c. She lives with Christ in the Heavens c. Of Lea who died March the two and twentieth 384. Universorum gaudiis prosequenda c. She is to be attended with the joy of all who having trod Satan under foot hath received the Crown of Security c. For a short trouble she now enjoyes eternal Beatitude she is received into the Quires of Angels she is cherished in the Bosom of Abraham c. she follows Christ and saith All the things which we have heard of the same we have also seen in the City of our God c. Of Nepotianus a Priest of Altinum who died in the year 397. Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo Sanctorum mixtum Choris c. Corpus terra suscepit anima Christo reddita est c. We know that our Friend Nepotianus is with Christ and among the Quires of the Saints c. The Earth received his Body his Soul
Opinion which the Sibylline Writing falsly so called had introduced among Christians hath unanimously embraced and constantly taught the Protestants the Sentiment which they with one accord follow concerning the State of the Faithfull departed in Jesus Christ it were no hard matter for them to make a more ample Production of Instances since that in a manner all we have left of the Lives of Persons who have made profession of Piety assures us that all without any distinction Martyrs Confessours Prelates Religious Persons Laicks c. even to the Catechumens whom an invincible necessity deprived of the Baptism they had earnestly desired were upon their dissolution translated to Heaven where they have been and still are in Rest Happiness and Glory expecting the Resurrection of the Bodies they have deposited in Earth And as we might justly rely on the grave Remonstrance which Saint Hierome made above one thousand two hundred and seventy years ago even in Rome it self to Paula excessively lamenting the death of her Daughter Blaesilla speaking of himself and of all Christians in general Nos quorum exitum Angelorum turba comitatur quibus obviam Christus occurrit gravamur magis si diutiùs in isto mortis Tabernaculo habitamus c. In Jesu mortem gaudia prosequuntur c. We whose Departure the Assemblies of Angels accompany whom Christ comes to meet are more grieved that we dwell any longer in this Tabernacle of Death c. Joys attend the death which is in Jesus c. So might we with good reason summon those who hold the contrary to let us know what they have of greater Consequence then the unanimous Consent of Eusebius's Athanasius's Gregory's Ambrose's Hierome's Chrysostome's c. and might induce them not to embrace it and force us to change our Opinion CHAP. XXXIX The same Sentiment further confirmed from Sepulchral Inscriptions BUt though we should be willing out of a Design to gratify our Adversaries not to bring into any accompt at all the Depositions of all these Great Persons and make a voluntary loss of their Writings and Judgments yet would the Epigrams and Inscriptions of antient Monuments which Rome and her Correspondents preserve for us be enough to keep us from falling into so great a weakness as the renouncing of our present Opinion concerning the State of the Faithfull departed Nay though all the Doctours of the Church were silent and their Testimonies cast out of all respect the Stones as long as they shall remain will not cease publishing and that very loudly the truth of the perswasion maintained by us Let us then consult those half consumed Epitaphs which the Providence of God hath made to triumph over so many ruins and make our advantage of the hardness of Marbles which have hitherto stood out against the injury of Times to confound the insensibility of those who seem desirous injuriously to smother a most evident Truth Let us propose it to their own Consciences whether it be not a very strong presumption against them that not any one of those Antient Inscriptions whereof they are the Preservers and Admirers can without violence be applied to their Sentiment and that all of them presuppose ours which yet they charge I know not upon what accompt with Novelty Which to make so much the more manifest I shall begin with the most simple which I shall reduce into Classes alledging of every one some Instance then conclude with those which being of greater length make a clearer discovery of the Design of their Authours The Book entituled Roma Subterranea in as much as it contains a Description of the Vaults and Cemiteries digged under ground in and about that City furnishes us with about ninety Examples of Epitaphs which say simply In Pace c. In Peace as that of Proclus Interred under the eighth Consulship of Honorius that is to say in the year 409. that of Hilara deceased under the Consulship of Opilio that is to say in the year 453. those of Crescentina Honoraius Pelagia Ulpius Festus Quartina c. Others had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Place of Rest As that of Ammonius and of Eutyches Locus GerontI Presbyteri c. The Place of Gerontius the Priest deceased the seventeenth of June under the Consulship of Avitus that is to say in the year 456. Hîc habet sedem Leo Presbyter c. The Priest Leo hath his Seat here Others which in some sort savour of the Style of the Heavens As Domus aeterna Ex. Tyres in Pace c. The eternal house of Ex. and Tyre in peace and that of Valeriana in like manner Others had onely this word Quiescit c. He rests As that of Victoria that of Pancratius the Bishop deceased in the year 493. and that of Alix the Daughter of Pipin Interred at St. Arnoul-de-Mets Or Requiescit which signifies the same thing As that of Gordianus Interred the ninth of September under the Consulship of Symmachus that is to say in the year 485. That of Aemiliana Interred the eleventh of October under the Consulship of Probinus viz in the year 489. That of Pelagius the First deceased the fourth of March 558. That of Augustine Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased the twenty fifth of May 604. That of Boniface the Fourth deceased the eighth of May 614. That of Theodore who died in the year 619. That of Theobald Bishop of Ostia That of Roderick last King of the West-Goths in Spain who died on Sunday the eleventh of November 714. That of Alcuin deceased the nineteenth of May 804. That of Bernard King of Italy deceased April the 17 th 871. and Interred at Milan that of the Abbot Vintila deceased at Leon the three and twentieth of December in the year 928. Others Quievit c. He is at rest As that of Susanna deceased the seven and twentieth of July under the Consulship of Caesarius and Atticus in the year 397. Or Requievit as that of Leo the Neopâ—yte deceased the four and twentieth of June under the Consulship of Philippus and Sallea in the year 348. and that of Leontius the Spanyard deceased the four and twentieth of June 510. Others Depositus c. He is left as a Pledge c. As those of Macedonia and Fortunula Others Quiescet in pace c. He shall rest in Peace As that of Marinus deceased the thirtieth of November under the Consulship of Arbaethio and Lollianus in the year 355. Others Requiescet in pace which signifies the same thing as that of Felix Others Requievit in pace c. He is at rest in peace as that of Litorius deceased at Talabriga or Talavera della Reina the four and twentieth of June in the year of the Aera 548 or 510 of Christ That of Primus deceased at Evora the thirteenth of March according to the Aera 582. or 544 of Christ That of Paulina deceased the eighteenth of November under the Consulship of Datianus and Cerealis in the year 318. That of
1. v. 2. Satyr 2. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 1 King 11. 5. c Jer. 7. 18. 44. 17 25. d Lib 9. e De Ling. Lat. lib. 4. f P Victor in descript Regionis 12. De praep lib. 1. cap. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Apol c. 23. i De Civit. Dei l. 2. c. 4. k Lib 9. l De Dea Syria m Saturn lib. 1. cap. 23. a Metam 1. * Sandys b Psal 72. 16. c Isa 11. 6 7 8 9. and 65. 25. J. O. a Josh 5. 14. b Heb. 1. 3. Luke 19. 12. c Jo. 3. 17. 12. 47. d 2 Cor. 5. 19. Ephes 2. 13. Colos 1. 20. J. O. a Lib. 1. c. 7. b Lib. 3. pag. 28. c Helene d Homer e Ilium ulysses in the Iliads and the Odysseis f Twenty seven years before our Saviour and nine years before the Death of Virgil. a Corinthior lib. 2. pag. 47. b Lib. 4. pag. 38. lib. 8. pag. 54. c Dio lib. 55. Patere lib. 2. d See lib. 3. pag. 27. lib. 4 pag. 38. lib. 8. pag. 59. And these fine allusions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Apol. 2. pag. 82. b Rom. 3. 8. a Vopiscus in Aureliano b Appar Sect. 20. c Doct Temp. lib. 13. ad A. D. 271. d Can. ult e A. D. 272. Sect. 20. f Josephus in the first of his Antiquities chap. 5â—… cites the words of a Pagan Sibyl who says That the Gods having sent Winds overthrew the Tower and gave to every one his own Language and thence it happened that the City was named Babylon which the Counterfeit Sibyl hath expressed in part lib. 3. pag. 21. borrowing from Josephus a Lib. 2. cap. 4 7. b Lib. De Civitate Dei c De Divinat lib. 1 2. Epist 7. lib. 1. Famil d In the places before-cited f In Julio g Cap. 8. h In the places before-cited and in Theseo Demosthene Cicerone and the Book De Pythiae Orac. i Lib. 2. p. 97. Achaic lib. 7. pag. 41 2. Phocaic lib. 10. pag. 626. k In Caesare Tiberio Nerone l Lib. 13. m In Peregrino Pseudomanti n Lib. 2. Ad Autolyc o Lib. 7. cap. 19. p Lib. 7. cap. 24. q Orat. ad sanctorum coetum cap. 20. r Apud Origenem lib. 7. contra Celsum s Ad Sanctorum coetum t Lib. 7. contra Celsum u De Civit. Dei lib. 18. cap. 46. x Augustin ibid. cap. 47. y Resp ad Quaest 74. a 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 6. 16. b Lib. 1. cap. 26. c Numb 22. 28. d Opposit inchoatae in Ep. ad Rom. e Rom. 1. 2. f 1 Cor. 2. 12. apud Ambrosium a Problem Sect. 30. q. 1. b De Pyth. Orac. J. O. c Castal edit pag. 193. d Pag. 214. e Pag. 238. f Pag. 282. g 2 Cor. 13. h Acts 9. 15. i 2 Cor. 12. 4. k 1 Cor. 2. 2. a Exhort ad Graec. b Praef. in libros Sibyllinos c These words are transcribed out of Suidas and unjustly attributed to Lactantius who says no such thing a Aeneid 6. b Satyr 8. c And about the year 1520. one John Wolf an Inhabitant of Zuikaw in Woitland with like sincerity produced the Epitaph of the Sibyl Suanichilda Daughter of Ulba and Cygneus descended fronâ— Cygnus the Son of Hercules wherein Langius who made a great noise about it was deceived a 1 Sam. 18. 10. b 1 Sam. 19. 23. c Verse 24. d Hos 9. 7. e 〈◊〉 Kings 9. 11. f Jer. 29. 26. g In Psal 39. h Insaniae i In excessâ— mentis positi k Acts 20. 24. l Andr. du Val a Doctour of Sorbon in the Life of Sister Mary of the Incarnation a Carmelite Nun. m Tertullian lib. De Anima cap. 9. n At Carthage where Prisca and Maximilla who never were out of Phrygia never were o Cap. 11. p Cap. 45. q Cap. 27. r Cap. 45. s Advers Marcion t Luke 9. 33. u Irratione w Lib. 5. Advers Marcion cap. 8. x Advers Prax. cap. 15. y De Scriptoribus Eccles verbo Apollonius z Tertullian a Epiphan Haeres 48. cap. 4. b Ibid. c. 13. c Euseb lib. 5. cap. 16. d Ibid. c. 17. e Lib. 1. c. 9. f Strom. 1. g In Ezek. Hom. 6. h 1 Cor. 14. 30. i In Isai Serm. 1. Praef. k Haeres 48. cap. 3. l Heb. 3. 2 5. m Isa 1. 1. n Chap. 6. verse 1. o Ezek. 4. 9. p Verse 12. q Verse 14. r It is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it is likely it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s Dan. 1. 4. t Montanus and his Followers u In Psal 45. 1. x In 1 Cor. 12. Homil. 29. y Homil. 36. z Praef. in Nahum a Praef. in Habaâ— b 1 Cor. 14 30. c Verse 33. d Praef. in Isai 33. e 1 Tim. 1. 7. f Prov. 16. 23. g Acts 7. 22. h Ezec. 28. 3. i Psalm k 1 Cor. 14. 32. l Ibid. 29 30. m Zach. 1. 9. n Gal. 4. 6. o Psalm p In Isai lib. 1. cap. 1. q Apud Ambrosium r 1 Cor. 12. 8. s 1 Cor. 14. 4. t 1 Cor. 14. u In 1 Cor. 14. w 1 Cor. 2. 15. x In 1 Cor. 14. 32. y See him also upon the 2d Epistle of St. Peter chap. 1. verse 20 21. a Annal. part 2. b I. ib. De Sibyllis c Haeres 48. cap. 4. d Catech. 5. e In Isai lib. 17. cap. 64. f Epist 7. g Aeneid lib. 2. h Apol. ad Pammach pro libris Advers Jovin i Lib. 2. cap. 36. a Epist 155. b Exposit inchoat Epist ad Roman c De Civitat Dei lib. 10. cap. 27. d Orig. lib. 9. cap. 11. e Aeneid lib. 8. f Praef. in lib. 2. Comment in Epist ad Galat. g Lib. 5. h Lib. 7. a Appar Sect. 23. b Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 15. c Lib. 36. cap. 5. d Lib. 9. cap. 23 53. e Jer. 10. 7. f Luke 1. 78. a Biblioth lib. 2. cap. 71. b De Honesta Disciplina lib. 7. cap. 1. c De Divin lib. 1 2. d Hierom. lib. 1. contrâ— Jovin Euseb lib. 5. Hist Eccles. Lactant. lib. 1. Divin Instit August lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 23. De Civ Dei Just Martyr lib. 4. Advers Gentes e Cod. lib. 1. Tit. 18. cap. 9. A. D. 305. Decemb. 8. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Euseb ex Clemente lib. 3. cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Quam Irenaeus interpretatur g Quarto decimo igitur anno secundam post Neronem Persecutionem movente Domitiano c. h A. D. 92. Sect. 3. i Decimo quarto post obitum Neronis anno k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l Decimo quarto anno secundam Persecntionem movente post Neronem Domitiano m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n Apolog. cap. 5. Orosius also lib. 7. cap. 10. says that as soon