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nature_n	person_n	son_n	unity_n	4,772	5	9.3919	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28402	A treatise of the sibyls so highly celebrated, as well by the antient heathens, as the holy fathers of the church : giving an accompt of the names, and number of the sibyls, of their qualities, the form and matter of their verses : as also of the books now extant under their names, and the errours crept into Christian religion, from the impostures contained therein, particularly, concerning the state of the just, and unjust after death / written originally by David Blondel ; Englished by J.D.	Blondel, David, 1591-1655.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.	1661 (1661)	Wing B3220; ESTC R38842	342,398	310

Activity Who is so much liable to the interposition of the Lion and Dragon to endure the open Ravage of his Violences and the secret mischief of his Ambushes as he who like an undischarged Debtour is dragged before the dreadfull Tribunal of God's avenging Justice Can Debts of what nature soever they are be Legally exacted of those who are by the Acquittance of the Creditour absolutely discharged Are they in fine to fear any Unhappiness whose Sins our Lord bore in his own Body upon the Tree and blotted out the Hand-writing that was against them Thirdly That the Church of Rome in whose Communion there is not any one that prays for St. Monica whom the said Church hath taken out of their Rank for whose benefit she designs her Suffrages to raise her into the Sphear of Glorious Spirits whose Intercession she begs however she may make a great stir about the Example of St. Augustine does not onely not satisfy the Intreaty of that Great man any more then the Protestants whom she accuses as desertours of the antient Tradition but conceives it neither just nor rational to satisfy it And as she does not think her self guilty of any breach of Duty in forbearing to pray for St. Monica because she accompts her to be in Bliss and as such not in a capacity to receive the assistance of the Living in their Prayers nor that they should according to the desire of St. Augustine expect inspirations from God such as might incline them to demand things already done and undertake what she conceives neither rational nor feasable so the Protestants who in this particular are the more willing to follow his Sentiment the more consonant they finde it to the Word of God and to Reason cannot whatever the Church of Rome may say to insinuate the contrary be perswaded they err in not-acknowledging any Object of Religious Adoration however it may be conceived other then God alone Father Son and Holy Ghost blessed for ever according as the Church of Rome her self expresses it in the first of her Commandments One onely God shalt thou adore nor any Advocate properly so called other then him who is proposed to all Christians by St. John as a propitiation for the sins of all the World For as they have learn'd of St. Paul that there is one Mediatour between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all whence Avitus Arch-Bishop of Vienna inferred That if our Saviour was not according to his Humane Nature taken into the Unity of Person Father's Hand-writing against us They religiously stand to the Protestation made by the Primitive Christians concerning their Martyrs viz. We adore him who is the Son of God but we love according as it is required of us the Martyrs as Disciples and Imitatours of our Lord and Saviour and to that of St. Augustine We honour the Martyrs by a Worship of Dilection and Society by which the Holy men of God are in this life also honoured Whence they conclude That according to the common Sentiment of the purest part of Antiquity there cannot be done to the Citizens of the Jerusalem that is on high any Honour but what may be called a civil Honour or of Society Whether they are actually received into that blessed Habitation or are in their way thereto that they have been and ever shall be entertained there immediately upon their departure out of this World and that the honourable Solemnities which accompany their Bodies when they are deposited in the Earth never had any Ceremony which served not to demonstrate the assurance and joy which the surviving had conceived of their happy Condition CHAP. XXXVIII The Sentiment of the Protestants confirmed by the Eloges antiently bestowed on the Faithfull departed THe same thing may be said of the Eloges wherewith the worthy Persons of Antiquity have honoured the Memory of those for whom the Custom would have Prayers made Eusebius speaking of the Death of Helene who died on the eighteenth of August about the year 330. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. She was called to a better Lot c. So that those who had a right Sentiment justly conceived that that thrice-happy Lady should not die but to say the Truth expect the Exchange and Translation of a Terrestrial life into a Celestial Her Soul therefore returned to the Principle thereof being received into an incorruptible and Angelical Essence near her Saviour And of Constantine who preparing himself for Death protested of himself that he was making haste and that he would no longer delay his departure towards his God he affirms that on Sunday May 22.th 337. being Whit sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He was gathered to God leaving to Mortals what was of the same Nature with them and as for himself uniting to God whatever his Soul had that was Intellectual and beloved of God Then representing the common Belief of all the Subjects of the Empire concerning his Beatitude he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Having framed a figure of Heaven in a draught in colours they painted him above the Celestial Vaults resting in an heavenly Mansion c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They graved his Effigies upon Medals having on one side the Pourtraiture of the Blessed Emperour with his ●…ead veiled and on the Reverse the same mounted on a Chariot drawn by four Horses as if he drove it raised into the Seat by an hand reached forth to him from heaven on the right side which Description might as well relate to the carrying up of Elias rather then to the Apotheoses of the Heathens which Constantine upon his embracing of Christian Religion had absolutely renounced Saint Athanasius who observes that St. Anthony had seen the Monk Ammonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raised from the Earth and the great joy of those that came to meet him affirms that on the seventeenth of January 358. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As having seen friends coming towards him and filled with joy because of them he fainted The same St. Athanasius making a Relation of the wicked attempt of Magnentius upon the Life of Constans who was murthered on the eighteenth of January 350. and numbring that Prince among the Martyrs hath these remarkable Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That to the Blessed Man proved the occasion of his Martyrdom St. Gregory Nazianzene represents in Celestial Glory Constantius who after he had through misapprehension persecuted the Orthodox died on the third of November 361. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I know that he is above our Reprehension having obtained a place with God and possession of the Inheritance of the Glory which is there and transported to such a distance from us as the Translation from one Kingdom to another amounts unto The same St. Gregory saies of his Brother Caesarius who died on the 25.th of February about the year

opposite So that I cannot conceive any thing but an over-earnestness of Dispute should force St. Hierome to make such ostentation of the Sibyls and maintain against Jovinian That They had for their Livery Virginity and that Divination had been the reward of their Virginity for it is an horrid Reward to be made the Instrument of the Devil to publish his Lies and to contribute to his Deceits Nor can I see how the greatest of Ills can be ranked among Goods nor at hazard to say something to the advantage of the Sibyls that any Advantage can be made of this improbable shift that they made any other Predictions then these which induced the Pagans into Errour and that upon the account of them and their Virginity they have been thought worthy recommendation Not that I would deny but it had been as possible for God to declare by those women the Secrets to come as to make Balaam's Ass to speak or move Balaam himself to Prophecy the coming of the Messias one thousand four hundred ninety and two years before it happened especially seeing St. Augustine expounding these words of Saint Paul Whom he had before promised by his Prophets took from the Prejudice he had conceived thereof occasion to write That there have been Prophets who were not of him in whom also we finde some things which they have sang as having heard them of Christ as it is said of the Sibyl But I hope he and the other Fathers will pardon me if I presume to answer That they have grounded their Opinion on a broken Reed to wit the Authority of the eight Books of the pretended Daughter-in-law of Noah For First They have taken for very antient a Piece that was very new and adulterate Secondly Though it were as antient as they thought yet could it not be Divine for this very reason that it contains as hath been already observed abundance of Errours which no man unless lost to his Senses will ever impute to Celestial Revelation Thirdly Though it were granted that those Pieces are as free from Errours as they are full of them and that their Original is to be taken much higher then the Birth of our Saviour yet would Hilary the Deacon deny that it necessarily followed thence that they came from God The spirit of the world saith he is that which possesses persons subject to Enthusiasms who are without God for it is the chiefest among the worldly Spirits Whence it comes that he is wont by conjecture to fore-tell the things which are of this World and it is he who is called Python or the Prophecying Spirit it is he who is deceived and deceives by things that have a probability of Truth it is he who spoke by the Sibyl imitating ours and desirous to be numbred among the Celestial For my part I freely confess it were a very hard matter to maintain that the eight Books of the Sibyls which copy out the best part of the History of the Gospel had been written before our Saviour's coming into the Flesh and ●…at they were the Productions of some Python or Prophecying Spirit but it is evident that Hilary reflecting on the fond Imaginations wherewith they are pestered chose rather to think them the Work a Fanatick then a Divine Person and in that though contrary to the Opinion of many of the Fathers he is much in the right For though we should lay the Spunge on all the marks of their Supposititiousness before alleged yet could we not any way wipe out that Character which the said Rhapsody hath with its own hands imprinted so deep in its forehead that it is remarkable in the chiefest of those great men who would acknowledg its authority and oppose it to the Heathens CHAP. XXII The Sentiment of Aristotle concerning Enthusiasts taken into Consideration ARistotle had been of Opinion That the heat of Melancholy being near the place of Intelligence many were taken with Frantick and Enthusiastical Diseases That thence came all the Sibyls Bacchides and inspired Persons that is when they became such not through disease but the temperament of nature and thereupon alleges that Maracus of Syracuse was a better Poet when he was besides himself discovering thereby That according to his Sentiment to say of a woman that she was a Sibyl was to put her into the qualification of Hypochondriacks and such as are subject to black Choler But the common Opinion of the Heathens was that the Sibyls were seized by a supernatural power and not warmed by a simple Ebullition of black Choler and that their being so seised made while it lasted so strong an impression upon their minds that it deprived them of all Intelligence and Memory Thus Heraclitus in Plutarch affirms that the Sibyl had with her frantick mouth said things which are neither ridiculous nor gaudy nor adulterate Virgil introduces Helenus speaking to Aeneas of the Cumaean Sibyl Thou the enraged Prophetess shalt see And elswhere making a Description of her Transports he uses these express terms This said her colour straight did change her face And flowing Tresses lost their former grace A growing passion swels her troubled breast And fury her distracted soul possest And a little after When she not able to endure the load Of such a pow'r strives to shake off the God The more she chaf'd the more he curbs her in Tames her wilde breast and calms her swelling spleen And again Then Phoebus slakes His curbing reins and from her bosom takes His cruel Spurs granting a little rest Soon as her Fit and high Distraction ceas'd Lucan's Description is much to the same purpose and Claudian in imitation of them calls the Place of the Cumaean Sibyl The Porch of the enraged Sibyl But this Description which naturally expresses the violent possession of an evil Spirit tormenting the person it seises in stead of raising an horrour in the Writer of the eight Books attributed to the Sibyls enflames him with an emulation insomuch that that impertinent person hath not been ashamed to attribute to the God of glory extravagant sallies like those of the Devils and to say of himself what the prophane Poets had writ of their Prophetesses Corpore tota stupens trahor huc ignara quid ipsa Eloquar ipse sed haec mandat Deus omnia fari And elswhere Sed quid cor iterùm quatitur mihi ménsque flagello Icta foràs vocem prorumpere cogitur omnes Ut moneam And again Ut mihi divino requieta à carmine mens est Orabam magnum genitorem vis ut abesset Sed mihi suggessit vocem sub pectora rursum Pérque omnes terras praecepit vaticinari And that she came from Babylon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 furious or fanatick All which affords us a manifest Argument that the unhappy Impostour who took upon him to play the Sibyl was besotted with such an extravagant conceit that he would upon any terms be taken