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

A DISQUISITION Touching the SIBYLLS And the Sibylline VVritings IN WHICH Their Number Antiquity and by what Spirit they were Inspired are succinctly discussed The Objections made by Opsopaeus Isaac Casaubon David Blondel and others are examined as also the Authority of those Writings asserted Which may serve as an Appendix to the foregoing Learned Discourse touching the Truth and Certainty of Christian Religion Quoniam difficilis est inventu veritas undique nobis est vestiganda S. Basil in Prooemio Lib. de Sp. S LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The PREFACE Together with the occasion of Writing SIR I Have to my no little satisfaction and delight perused your accurate Tractate concerning the Certainty and Reasonableness of Christian Religion As well against the Atheists of this Age who believe no God at all As the Scepticks and Considerers of our time who before they think themselves bound to believe any thing will first contemplate and by the model of their own fallacious and erring reason judge of and accordingly embrace all Christian Truths that are propounded and recommended either to their Faith or Practice Not that I would be thought to blame the use of Reason in the examination of Divine Truths so as it be still as a Director and Tutor not an absolute King and Governour in what is either above or any way past its reach to comprehend Against both these you have directed this short Treatise and in it insisted on the only right way whereby Gainsayers may be convinced Atheists and Vnbelievers converted That is by Arrows fetch'd out of their own Quiver Arguments drawn from the mouths of their own Writers which they dare not nay cannot with any shew of Reason deny This you have happily done in this short Book and drawn together into one Scheme not only what hath been forced out of the mouths of the Heathens but what the ancient Christians Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen Arnobius Lactantius and St Augustine as the later Ludovicus Vives Morney du Plessis with the most Learned Hugo Grotius have gathered together upon this Subject And though I must acknowledge that I think it improper for a Lay-man to busie himself too much in the abstruse and knotty points of Divinity fit only for Casuists and School-men to wade through Yet surely the study of the Historical and Practical parts thereof is not only commendable in but the duty of every Christian so far to look into as his time and abilities will permit For certainly every person whatsoever is bound to be able in some measure to give an account of his Faith and Practice Nay I heartily wish more of our Learned Nobility and Gentry would employ some part of their time and excellent parts upon Subjects of the like nature by which Learning would be advanced the Countrey they live in receive benefit and their own Memory for ever honoured But I shall let this pass Yet because you have had just occasion to insist upon the Authority of the Sibylline Books whose Writings I find questioned by the Learned Pens of Opsopaeus Isaac Casaubon David Blundel and others I have thought fit to offer to your consideration my thoughts upon that Subject and shall endeavour to vindicate them at least so much as concerns Christians from the unjust exceptions urged against them leaving it then to your farther judgment to make use of all or any part of what shall be written as your self shall see occasion CHAP. I. That there were Sibylls whence their Name their Number and the Time of their Living examined THat there were certain Foeminae Fatidicae Women that foretold future Events I shall not go about to prove the Records of all History making it manifest Pausanias tells you speaking of Delphos That one Daphne was appointed by the Earth her self the President of the Oracles in that place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausanias in Phocicis pag. 320. lin 29. Edit Francos an 1583. And a little after intimates That the gift of Oracles belonged only to women according to the sence of those that recorded events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 321. l. 6. in Phocicis Neither shall I spend much pains to examine from whence they had their Name whether as Lactantius Lactant. li. 1. de fals Relig. p. 31. Edit Hackii 1660. Montac excer 4. p. 126. in analect Baronius and others from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Aeolick Dialect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Counsel as if they were Counsellers of God Which I should not so well like whilst it remains questionable by what Spirit they were inspired and that Phrase so far as I remember not used to any other except to him whose name was Wonderful Counseller the Mighty God Our Industrious and Learned Countrey-man Mr William Howell in his Institution Historical a piece well worth the perusal of every man seems to derive them from the genitive case of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Howell p. 171. calling them such to whom the Counsel of Jupiter was imparted Or whether the word Sibylla were not the proper name of the first Hom. Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 351 Edit Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Princess of them as Eustathius the learned Bishop and Christian in his Notes upon Homer would have it or lastly as Suidas who saith it is a meer Latine word signifying a Prophetess any of which the Reader may make choice of as it shall most agree with his own judgment But how many in number they were in what ages of the world they lived and how inspired will admit of a larger debate Cornelius Tacitus speaking of them Tac. an lib. 6. pag. 149. Edit Antw. 1627. and their Verses hath these words Vna seu pluves fuere leaving it doubtful whether there were one or more Martianus Capella reckons only two Erophile the Trojan daughter of Marmesus Mart. Capel in nuptiis Philolog lib. 2. Sibylla vel Erithrea quaeque Cumana est vel Phrygia Quas non decem ut asserunt sed duas fuisse non nescis id est Erophilam Trojanam Marmesi filiam Symmachiam Hippotensis filiam qua Erithrea progenita Cumis quoque est vaticinata which he thinks to be the same with Phrygia and Cumaea and Symmachia born at Erithre who likewise gave out Oracles at Cumes and saith particularly they were not ten as was affirmed but only two Erophila and Symmachia Pliny speaks of the statues of three seen at Rome near the pleading Pulpits Equidem Sibyllae statues juxta rostra esse non miror tres fint licèt Una quam Sextus Pacuvius Taurus aedilis plebis restituit duae quas Marcus Messala Plin. nat hist lib. 34. cap. 5. one of which Sextus Pacuvius Taurus restored being Aedile of the common people the other two Marcus Messala These Solinus tells you cap. 7. Polyhistor were Delphica

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

Enthusiasme be natural and to that purpose the authority of Aristotle is produced who discoursing of the several passions arising from drink love and the like or from some melancholy heat tells you the story of one Maracus of Siracuse a Poet who never made so good verses as when he was made and immediately before hath these words Many because that heat is near the seat of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist. Probl. 30. Quest 1. are taken with sundry frantick and Enthusiastick diseases from whence they all become Sibylls Bakides or inspired whereas they become not so by any disease but a natural temperament From which words we may observe two things First That he doth not in this place point at any Sibyll in particular of which many had been before his time but takes Sibylls there for persons any way inspired as the Bakides and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with them were supposed to be And in the next place That he must not to contradict himself take disease in a different sence in the same place for in the beginning of the sentence he tells you They are taken with many frantick or Enthusiastick diseases and soon after saith They become so not from any disease but a natural crasis or temperaments in the last place therefore he must take disease in that stricter notion for such an affection as shakes and weakens the whole frame of the body in the first for such a distemper as drunkenness love poetical rapture and the like such as he calls natural Enthusiasme which will either be its own cure or vanish away with time the constitution being sound though the action be altered but however it will from these words of Aristotle follow that in his sence much of this kind of illumination proceeded from an exaltation of the mind by some ecstatick operation of the soul and not from any possession or inspiration of it by either good or evil spirits And undoubtedly great examples in all ages may be produced out of the Observations of several Physitians to this purpose some where of have been meer cheats to gain credit to such as should cure or exorcise them others true or natural where through some melancholy heat or strong imagination or lastly through custom and use See Montagnes Essays Strange effects from the force of imagination in his Chapter upon that subject Fienus de viribus imaginationis the persons affected have brought upon themselves such a habit of body that their fancy prevailing over their judgment and understanding they have really believed themselves possessed with a spirit of Prophesie and enlightning from God whereas in truth there was no such thing I my self have known two examples in Persons both of this Nation of good Rank and Quality the one a man whom I have often seen and sometimes heard discourse but was then too young my self to converse with him but am well assured he was otherwise a very sober person but in that particular of explaining difficult prophesies did think himself strangely indowed insomuch that his confidence so far misled him that he could no way be driven out of that opinion That the eleventh Chapter of the second Apocryphal Book of Esdras denoted King James who was the Lion of the North who plucked at the feathers of the Eagle which he conceived to be the Emperour Nay his confidence in this fancy was so great that after the death of the King he believed he should rise again out of his grave to make good his conjecture The other was a Lady of Noble Rank who pretended much to this gift of Prophesie and having unhappily foretold the death of a great person which by chance fell out true she was mightily puft up with it and followed by some of the giddy multitude she undertook to denounce the end of the world writ upon the prophecy of Daniel very idly and at last lived to see her self deceived in all her vain extravagancies These two might certainly be reckoned amongst the Enthusiasts of Aristotle who laboured under some light disorder of the brain which disturbed their judgment as to that particular though in other matters they were sober enough and under the same notion must I look upon the false Prophets Dreamers and Quakers whereof this Age hath been very fertile who pretend themselves endued with an extraordinary measure of the Spirit of God first dream dreams then see visions then expound them after their own imaginations and would obtrude these upon the ignorant multitude as Revelations of God which are indeed no other than the effects of a disturbed brain what they foretel rarely coming in any measure to pass and themselves never able to confirm their mission by any miracle whatsoever to induce men to believe them Prophets Some of them are not unlike the Derevises or Torlaces in Turky who by frequent using their bodies to turn round can at their pleasure fall into extasies in which they pretend to receive messages from God and deceive those that give credit to them though to speak truth the sad consequences that have followed from the doctrine of some of these pretenders to new Lights may give us good cause to believe them to have been led away into these extravagancies by the spirit of errour and delusion and not wholly by a natural disturbance of the brain Unless as we have great reason to suspect that many of them have been carried on by interest and design by such pretences to deceive others thereby to compass their wicked designs of which we have seen too sad effects From this and much more which might be materially added to this purpose it will be evinced that Aristotle had much of truth and reason in what he said but because some were either cheats or Hypochondriaque that therefore all were and among them the Sibylls as D. Blundel would infer I can no way be induced to believe nor doth he produce any reason that they were so whereas the very great time between the predictions and the fulfilling of them sufficiently evince that they came from a higher cause then a melancholick heat In which I have ever observed that between the Prophesie and the time allotted for the adimpletion of it seldom interceded more then a score of years sometimes not so many moneths Beside we find that as well the Sibylline Predictions as all other Oracles ceased at or soon after the preaching of our Saviour whereas melancholick distempers continue still which to me seems a strong argument that they were different in their causes Neither ought the authority of Aristotle too much to sway us in this thing I allow him to be one of the greatest Masters of reason that ever was but withal must remember that being contemporary with Plato and sometime his Scholar but resolving to set up a new Philosophy different from that of his Master would not comply with him in that particular in which he deemed him faulty For it

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