most Antient and the Exercise of the same Prayers as they had made use of For though they make mention of the Last day's Fire and are absolutely silent concerning Purgatory yet do not those in the Western-Church who pray for the Dead hardly fasten their thought on any thing but their deliverance out of the pretended place of Pain and their disposal into rest and I am to learn whether there be any who think of the Resurrection to which alone relate even to this day both the Texts and Prayers usually read in the Office of the Dead Besides it be thought shamefull to pray as in the Times of St. Chrysostome Prudentius and St. Augustine for the Damned not out of any hope to attain their absolute deliverance but onely some alleviation of the Paiâ—s they suffer in Hell And the Legends of Faâ—tonilla and Trajan rescued out of eternal Damnation by the Prayers of St. Thecla and Gregory the Great are somewhat offensive to the Learned even of the Roman Communion who are not a little troubled to excuse John Damascene as to that particular To be short not one of the Doctours before the year 590. proposed to himself any such thing as either the confinement of the Dead in Purgatory or Prayer for their deliverance out of it CHAP. XLIII The Obscurity and Uncertainty of the Opinion of Purgatory GREGORY the Great the first of all those of whom we have remaining among us any Monuments to this purpose having in the year 593. begun to fasten together in his Dialogues and Sermons the Discourses he had heard and which he recommends to us with this notable Observation that they were Novelties not heard of before since he brings in Peter his Deacon putting this Question to him Quid hoc est quaeso te quod in his extremis temporibus tammulta de animabus clarescunt quae antè latuerunt c. What means it I beseech you that in these Last Times there are discovered concerning souls so many things which were hidden before The Leaven so spread it self since that in the Time of Beda viz. one hundred and twenty years after St. Gregory some numbred cold and temperate Purgatories as well as hot ones which was further heightned by Visions and Prodigious Relations as if the confidence of Feigning should as it grew Elder grow also stronger But though there were no other reason to quarrel at this Opinion then the Novelty of it as such as had not appeared in the West before the end of the sixth Age and could never obtain Naturalization in the East and South where it is yet unknown to the Vulgar and discarded by the Learned and the irresolution wherewith its Principal and first Promoter Pope Gregory spoke whether of the place of Hell or the activity of Infernal Fire upon the Spirits which according to his Imagination are tormented therein yet they clearly justifie that he Treated not the Question of the State of the dead but as it were by conjecture and upon the Imaginations of Persons so apt to be mis-informed as that there needed onely some common Report and the affirmation of a confident Dreamer to perswade them to any thing I know well enough that Cardinal Bellarmine to derive the Business somewhat higher cites St. Augustine who being in some difficulty about the Explication of those Words of Saint Paul He shall be saved yet so as by Fire had about the year 410. made use of these Words which manifestly discover how far he was unresolved in the Case Sive in hac vita tantùm ista homines patiuntur sive etiam post hanc vitam talia quaedam Judicia subsequuntur non abhorret quantum arbitror à ratione veritatis iste intellectus hujus Sententiae veruntamen etiamsi est alius qui mihi non occurrit eligendus non cogimur dicere injustis c. Salvi eritis c. Whether it be in this Life onely that men suffer such things that is to say dolefull Regrets for the things of this World which they have carnally loved or that after this Life some such Judgments follow this way of understanding the place of the Apostle is not in my Judgment repugnant to the reason of Truth yet if we must pitch upon another sense which is not obvious to me we are not forced to say to the unjust c. You shall be saved Continuing still in the same posture about the year 419. he writ to his Friend Laurence Tale aliquid c. That some such thing may happen even after this Life is not incredible and whether it be really so may be questioned and it may be either found true or remain concealed to wit whether some of the Faithfull according as they have more or less loved perishable Goods may be sooner or later saved through a Purgatory Fire And note that having not any thing more certain to answer he kept to the same Terms in resolving the first Question proposed to him by Dulcitius Nay in the year 424. which was the seventh before his death publishing his Books Of the City of God he harped on the same Doctrine saying Post istius sanè corporis mortem c. But as for the time between the bodily death and Last Judgment if any one say that the Spirits of the Dead are all that while tried in such a Fire as they do not any way feel who were not subject to the same Inclinations and Affections in this Life that their Wood Straw and Stubble might be consumed but that others who carry hence such Buildings do onely here or both here and there or here so as not there pass through the purging Fire of a Transitory Tribulation which burns the things of this World though Venial in respect of Damnation I reprove him not for that it is possible he is in the right But the Proceeding of the present Church of Rome who triumphs so much upon these Passages whereby she pretends to draw St. Augustine to her side is so much the more unjust towards him the more she presumes on the Testimony of a Witness who does not onely not say any thing as to what she would have him but absolutely destroys it in as much as he speaks of a Fire which some feel even in this Life and others after it Whence it follows that his Imagination reached no further then a Metaphorical and Intentional Fire which may be felt even during the Life of this Body whereas the Romane Church supposes a real and material one which burns not the living but torments the spirits of the Departed Secondly That he is not confident of his having found out the true sense of St. Paul's Words but ingenuously confesses that they may be understood in some other to him absolutely unknown Thirdly That treading as it were upon Thorns he is not over-ready to give us any thing for certain but entertains us with a simple Conjecture which might be brought to Question
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
presuming to derive her thence A manifest Argument that Apollodorus could not ground his pretension on her contradictory Testimony but that the Counterfeit Sibyl having seen as being later by many Ages what he had written took occasion to oppose it as incompatible with his Fiction Thirdly For that she quarrels with the Greeks for having said of her things which not any one in particular could be convinced to have affirmed to wit That she was the Daughter of Circe and by Father of Gnostus for all those among the Antients who have left any thing behind them have made the Erythraean Sibyl the Daughter of Jupiter or of Apollo and Lamia or of Aristocrates and Hydole or of Crinagoras or in fine of the Shepherd Theodorus and the Nymph Idea and not any one of Circe besides that indeed they could not have done it without Absurdity For how could it have come into their minds to make her born at Erythrae a City of Asia if they had thought her the Daughter of Circe by Nation an Italian born and dwelling near Rome upon the Mount called to this day by her name Monte Circello I pass by as of less Consequence the Stupidity of that pretended Prophetess who to put a slur on the reputation of Homer betrayed her own Ignorance saying That Homer should write not truly but clearly of Ilium because he should see her Works For who will say they are things incompatible To say the Truth and To speak clearly Are they who speak Truth necessarily obliged to conceal themselves and Liers to discover themselves Or can it be said that the Consequence is good He hath my Verses therefore He shall not speak the Truth unless it be presupposed that those Verses are full of Untruths and teach him that hath them to Lie But the Books pretended to be writ by the Sibyls though they have for these fourteen hundred years and still do dazle the eyes of many swarm with such Impertinences CHAP. XVII That Pausanias hath not written any thing which may give credit to the Books mis-named the Sibylline NOr is there any more reason we should take the Discourse of Pausanias who says The Isle of the Rhodians hath been much shaken so that the Oracle of the Sibyl which had been given concerning Rhodes is come to pass for any confirmation of what the pretended Sibyl had writ in two several places The greatest unhappiness that may be shall happen to the Rhodians For he speaks of the Earth-quake which happened in that Isle almost two Ages before under Augustus soon after which Tiberius had in a manner raised it again through his continual Residence therein from the year of Rome 748. to the year 755. upon which account it is that the Epigram of Antiphilus calls him its Restorer and the pretended Sibyl threatens it with a Ruin to come at the end of the World when Rome having accomplished its Period nine hundred fourty and eight years shall be so destroyed by Nero returned from Persia that it shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a street Delos shall be no more and Samos be turned into an Heap of Sand. Which may serve to justifie the mistake of Tertullian who thrusting into his Book De Pallio these last words dis-joynted from the Precedent and Consequent applies them to that Desolation of those Isles which reached to his Time saying Of the Isles Delos no longer is Samos is become Sand and the Sibyl is no Lier whereas he should necessarily have concluded That she had lyed in referring to the end of the World and of Rome what had happened long before as also that all the eight Books in three whereof the Mis-fortune of that Isle was recapitulated in the same Terms were contrary to the Opinion since embraced by Lactantius the Draught of one and the same hand CHAP. XVIII That the Prohibition made to read the Books called the Sibylline and that of Hystaspes adds no Authority thereto THere is yet less ground to rely on the Words of Justine Martyr writing to the Emperours Through the working of Evil Spirits is it come that it is forbidden upon pain of Death to read the Books of Hystaspes â—…he Sibyl or the Prophets that so those who read them might by fear be diverted from taking cognizance of good things for we not onely read them without any fear but also as you see we recommend them to your inspection knowing they would be acceptable to you all Yet if we perswade but a little we gain much for that as good Labourers we shall receive a reward from the Master For though we may with some likelyhood conjecture that the Antient Prohibition to read the Prophetical Books was much more strictly observed after the discovery of the forged Pieces of Hystaspes and the Sibyl among the Heathens and that they had a particular aversion for those who gave credit thereto Yet is there not found in their Books any Law to that purpose nor does it appear that they made it much their business to prevent the reading of those Writings which they justly esteemed Supposititious and such as had never been among their Archivi nor yet that they decreed any Punishment to be inflicted on the Readers and Admirers of the Prophets of Israel since the exercise of the Jewish Religion had been always tolerated in the Empire and the Synagogues were continued every where And if the liberty of such as were inclined to Judaism was less after the tumult of Barchochebas and the whole Nation more hated yet did not that Hatred occasion the interdiction of the Prophetical Books but onely the Banishment of the natural Jews out of Palestine and some addition to their Taxes And as Justine neither says nor could have said That the Prohibition made to read the Fatidick Books in the Empire was more particularly levelled against the Christians then others since it was so general that it comprehended all Nations under the Romane Jurisdiction without distinction or exception and that it is manifest it was done upon occasion of the Books laid up first in the Capitol and afterwards under the Base of Apollo Palatinus So was there not any ground to imagine that it proceeded from the suggestion of Devils rather then from a deep Political Prudence which very rationally apprehended that these Oracles for which the Common People though they knew them not had so great an esteem upon this very account that they introduced Novelties into the antient Superstition and if I may so express it clad it in a new Dress notoriously derogated from the Customes derived from Father to Son were likely to fill mens minds with fruitless Curiosities and as Cicero says Valebant ad deponendas Religiones As for the Supposititious Pieces of Hystaspes and the Sibyl which under pretence of teaching the Worship of one God and recommending unto men the Mysteries of Christian Religion filled it with false Opinions and raised upon some sound
enquiry into the Motives which might have induced the Authours of those Epitaphs to insert into them Prayers for their departed Friends and to place their Tombs near those of the Martyrs who had sealed with their Blood the Truth of Christianity The most antient Epitaph we finde containing a mixture of Wishes and Prayers is that which St. Gregory Nazianzene writ in Honour of St. Basil deceased the twelfth of January in the year 378. where we read these Words concerning that Great Prelate gathered to his Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God give him Happiness as if he had not been in the actual possession thereof and as if St. Gregory had not expresly required of him before that he would appear for the World and offer gifts to God and that in consequence of his being in Heaven as he had desired Again That he had quitted his Episcopal See as Christ would have it that he might become one among the Inhabitants of Heaven It seems then he believed him in Heaven and possessed of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven as soon as he had at his departure out of this World quitted his Episcopal See and yet he desires that God would give him Happiness meaning that he would confirm and improve the gift he had already made him which hath nothing common with the Hypotheses maintained at this day by the Church of Rome In the year 395. deceased the Prefect PROBUS and his Epitaph which loudly published that he was in the Plains of Heaven seated among the Saints possessed of perpetual Rest that he lived crowned with bliss in the Everlasting Mansions of Paradise concludes with this Prayer Hunc tu Christe Choris jungas Coelestibus oro Te canat placidum jugiter aspiciat Quique tuo semper dilectus pendet ab ore Auxilium soboli conjugióque ferat Joyn'd with Celestial Quires O Christ may he Thy praises sing thy constant favour see Whō ever-lov'd did ev'r on thee depend May he to 's Race and Widow some help lend Shall we say he was in Heaven and yet not joyned with the Celestical Quires That he was in any danger to see his Saviour incensed and that he could be possessed of Paradise without Happiness If not it must needs be that the Authour of his Epitaph prayed that he might enjoy it without any diminution and be eternally in the Favour and Peace of his Saviour in the Society of the rest of the Blessed Saints which hath nothing common with what is now desired by the Church of Rome We have such another Desire made in the Epitaph of Pope BENEDICT Hic Benedictus adest meritò sub rupe Sepulchri Quem tenet Angelicus Chorus in arce Poli Aurea saec'la cui pateant sine fine per aevum Sorte beatificâ scandat ut aetheria c. Here Benedict justly beneath this Stone Is plac'd whom Angels in the Heav'ns enthrone To whom be golden Ages without end That he the Skies may ever-bless'd ascend For who sees not that he who is enthroned by Angels in Heaven must of necessity be there and stood not in need of ascending thither nor that any golden Ages should be desired for him But in as much as he was to ascend thither in his Body after the general Resurrection the Authour of the Epitaph makes a Wish to that purpose and requires that the Happiness which he was then possessed of as to his Spirit might be ever continued to him that he might be eternally filled with Joy as well in body as soul thereby discovering that he reflected not in the least on the Purgatery held by the Church of Rome which none of her Followers ever yet placed in Heaven or any way thought on the delay of Benedict's Felicity whom he esteemed already received into the Society of the Angels The same accompt is to be given of the Epitaph of Marinian Arch-Bishop of Ravenna deceased in the year 601. where we finde these words Ipsius in locis sit tibi certa quies c. Mayst thou with God assured rest obtain As also of that of Venerable Bede deceased in the year 735. Dona Christe animam in Coelis gaudere per aevum c. Dáque illum Sophiae inebriari fonte Christ grant his soul in heav'n eternal joy c. And him inebriate with Wisdom's spring For it does not thence follow either that he was at the hour of his death deprived of the Joy of Heaven or that Wisdom had not filled him with the Effects of her Virtue or lastly that those who are once entred into the Joy of Heaven could ever forfeit it or be deprived of the communication of eternal Wisdom but that the Surviving thought they might rationally demand for their deceased Friends the perpetuity of their Happiness though they certainly knew it could never be taken from them That of Pope ADRIAN the First writ either by Charle-maign or in his Name by Alcuin notwithstanding he had presupposed that his Death was the entrance of a better Life yet forbore not to make these Wishes for him Cum Christo teneas regna beata Poli c. Quique legis Versus devoto pectore supplex Amborum mitis dic miserere Deus Haec tua nunc requies teneat charissime membra Cum sanctis Anima gaudeat alma Dei Ultima quippe tuas donec Tuba clamet in aures Principe cum Petro Surge videre Deum Auditurus eris vocem scio Judicis almam Intra nunc Domini gaudia magna tui Tum memor esto tui Nati c. Mayst thou with Christ a blessed Seat obtain c. Who humbly readst this Verse with pious heart May God his mercy say to both impart May here the precious body finde it's Rest May the fair soul rejoyce among the blest Since when the latest Trump shall summon thee God and the great Saint Peter for to see I know thou 'lt hear the Judge's gentle voyce Of thy Lord enter into the great Joys Remember then thy Son Now as the demand he made for Adrian that he might obtain a blessed seat with Christ in Heaven did not signify that he was not yet admitted into the Possession of that better Life whereof his death was the entrance so the Invitation to implore for him the Mercy of God was no argument that he had not obtained it since that even then he exhorted his Soul to rejoyce with the Saints of God and shewed that he thought it not tormented in a Fire such as were likely to deprive it of all Joy but that it was in Bliss reigning in the Company of the Saints of the Apostle St. Peter and our Saviour a felicity whereto nothing could be added by desire but the perpetuity of it which yet is so much the more certain in as much as it is grounded on the unchangeable counsel of God whose Gifts and Calling are without repentance That of Charle-maign of whom the Authour viz. Agobard Arch-Bishop of Lions said That he
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. LONDON Printed by T. R. for the Authour MDCLXI To the worthy of all Honour Sir EDVVARD MAUNSELL of Margam in the County of Glamorgan AND Sir EDVVARD MAUNSELL of Mudlescomb in the County of Carmarthen Baronets Most Honoured THE Favours receiv'd from Men have this Allyance with those descend from Above That how secretly soever they may have been conferred we may without the least hazard of Modesty make the most Publick Acknowledgments we can of them Nor is it unlikely that Addresses of this Kinde were the Issue of some such Reflection They who make them being desirous they should rather be thought the Effects of a Duty then the Satisfaction Men are apt to conceive from their acquainting the World how highly they are obliged to Great Persons Hence those excessive Celebrations frequent in Dedicatories a Custome I am the more unwilling to comply with out of a Caution lest what I should say might be thought Advanced to Commend my own Choice And yet what could I not say of two Persons the Glory of a most Noble and Antient House One heightned with all the Advantages of a Princely Education and Travel The Other so Transcendent in the Constancy of a Noble Passion as known would reconcile our Faith to Romances and make us confess it possible that Representation may be indebted to Reality As to the Present Treatise What Importance it may be of I rather leave to be seen in the Perusal of it then insist on here 'T is a Discovery of the Pious Frauds and Impostures which having crept into Christian Religion even in its Infancy have ever since poisoned it more or less by their Continuance therein a Design may justly be termed Great if out of no other Consideration yet this at least that it imposed a Necessity on the Authour to unravel all Antiquity to find them out and bring them to the Tribunal of a Rational Disquisition For my own Endeavours herein they are left to the success Time and Mens Censures shall afford them with all my Wishes summ'd up in this That my addressing of them to so Noble a Name may be look'd on as an Eternal Testimony of my humblest Respects thereto and the greatest Expression I can at present make of my being Most Honoured Your Most Obedient and Most Obliged Servant J. DAVIES A TREATISE OF THE SIBYLS BOOK 1. CHAP. I. That the most earnest Pursuers of Truth are as others subject to mistakes THough according to the judgement of Tertullian it be much better for a man to be less knowing then to know that which is worse and to erre then deceive it being the Characteristick of that Charity which is recommended by St. Paul as the greatest of the Vertues to believe and hope all things so far as concurrence and compliance with reason may permit yet ought not the credulity which accompanies Charity nor its hope what latitude soever we may imagine to allow it as it were out of a design to be enslav'd to impostures and circumventions put out its eyes for fear lest it should be in a condition to discover and elude them And if it be requisite it should be free from all servile stupidity since it is the principall effect of the holy Spirit who calls and conducts us by the liberty of his Grace to that of Glory it may with much more reason be expected it should be far from being subject to blindness because it presupposes the conduct of Faith which is in some sort the eye of the regenerate soul in whom the simplicity of the Dove which is of it self inclin'd candidly to interpret what there might be some difficulty to exempt from the censures of persons not easily satisfi'd is ever attended by the prudence of the Serpent whose vigilancy is employ'd to foresee and prevent surprises The same profession of piety which encourages sincere souls to walk in an innocent confidence is also their perpetuall remembrancer that Truth perswades by teaching whereas on the contrary Impostors who are loth to communicate themselves even to their own Disciples till such time as they have gain'd them artificially endeavour to perswade before they instruct and discovering that they make it their main business to conceal what they preach if so it may be said of those who smother what they would have the world acquainted with that they preach it make it appear that they are therein diametrically opposite to the Truth which blushes at nothing so much as the regret she conceives at her being undiscovered Hence comes it to pass that the just and vertuous having their brests open and void of all dissimulation are according to the saying of the same Tertullian likened to the Dove which is the Figure of the holy Spirit and loves the East the Figure of Christ and are willing to leave to Impostors the shamefull imitation of the Serpent who arrogates to himself the image of God the beast which shuns the light hides himself as much as may be that smothers all the prudence it hath in obscure places that lurks in blind holes that eludes those who would see it by decietfull contractions of its own length and goes in folds and wrinckles and is never at once wholly seen For after the manner of Serpents those who think it a glory to deceive are never reduc'd to any complyance with truth but by force and can hardly avoid being at difference even with themselves nor will express themselves to others the malice which they are ever guilty of who are engag'd in a design to surprize others to make the event of their attempts the more certain putting on all manner of masks and leaving no wayes unsought to prepossess the minds of the good who thinking there cannot be a greater subtilty then to live without subtilty imagine it somewhat unreasonable to conceive at the first sight any suspicion of those by whom they had not as yet been over-reached And thence it comes to pass that the best men have this misfortune upon no other ground then that they are the best to be the more credulous and inclining rather to security then diffidence easily give advantage to those who by their craft and insinuations make it their design to triumph over their simplicity CHAP. II. Instances of certain misapprehensions of Justin Martyr THough there be no Age which cannot furnish us with severall examples what effects Imposture hath had on such as have been most ardently zealous for the Truth yet were
question the truth of other times Of that kind is that which is attributed to the Sibyl of Moses hinting at and foretelling the Deluge Lib. 1. p. 9. as also what is found written in the same Book pag. 11. that the Sibyl her self with her husband her Father-in-law Mother-in-law her brethren-in-law and others was tâ—ss'd up and down by the waves in the time of the Deluge But it is evident rom pag. 30. that those very things which have come abroad under the name of Oracles were written fifteen hundred years after the Empire of the Greeks whereof whether we take the beginning from the reign of the Argives or Sicyonians or Athenians or whether it be taken from Moses from the reign of Solomon the Macedonian Empire or the four Monarchies those things which are called Predictions will be frivolous and after the things done They will be found also to be wanting as to truth if the government of the Greeks began since Moses for from the departure of Moses and Israel out of Aegypt to the destroying of the Administration or Commonwealth and Government of the Jews under Vespasian are reckoned one thousand four score and two years Further what can be said as to what we find in the fifth Book p. 49. where the Sibyl affirms that she had seen a second conflagration of the Temple of Vesta And that according to the testimony of Eusebius it happened under the Emperour Commodus in the year 199. for in that year the Temple of Vesta and the Palace and the greatest part of the City was burnt whereas the first conflagration happened in the 134. Olympiad Whence it is to be conceiv'd that the Prophetess if it may be lawfull to call her such prophesy'd not before the birth of Christ but long after and pretends not to any thing beyond Commodus since that in the eighth Book p. 57. she says that three Emperours shall reign after Adrian that is to say Antoninus the Debonnaire Antoninus the Philosopher and Commodus To this may be added that it is apparent from the first Book of Lactantius Firmianus Chap. 6. that each of the Sibyls writ her own Book and yet that now they seem to be all the Work of one because they all go under the name of the Sibyl and that we cannot distinguish them nor assign to any one her own unless it be to the Erythraean who put her name into her Poem and is called Erythraea now that was the Work of the Erythraean which takes up the third place among those Books The Author of the first Book feign'd himself to be daughter-in-law to Noë the second and the seventh seems to personate a most impudent strumpet pag. 56. though there want not some credible Authors who affirm that the true Sibyls were chast and inspir'd of God The sister of Isis challenges the fifth Book the rest were publish'd under the names of uncertain Authors By way of Annotation upon this granting what he sayes as to the supposititiousness of the pretended Sibyl as also that Moses is more ancient then any that have gone under that name I affirm In the first place That the writing which goes commonly under that title does not introduce Moses but Noah himself foretelling the Deluge which speaks yet a little more confidence 2. That from the departure out of Aegypt to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus there are 1600. years compleat 518. more then was thought 3. That the Author of the Sibylline Books does not affirm he saw the second conflragration of the Temple of Vesta but the last of Jerusalem The house sometime so much desir'd by thee says he to Rome when I saw that house pull'd down and set on fire the second time by an impure hand a house ever flourishing and having God in it which house he supposes that Christ himself descending from heaven will come and re-establish together with Jerusalem to reign there in his glory Which manifestly argues that though threatning Rome with finall destruction he writes The Virgins shall not always find the Divine fire yet he neither saw nor foresaw the conflagration that happened in the twelfth year of Commodus which was but the 191. of our Saviour but reflected on the Prediction of St. John expressing that Rome should be utterly burnt with fire and be found no more at all so that he thought it would be to no purpose to look there for Vesta's fire and other Monuments of her Paganisme 4. That if his intention had been to denote the conflagration happened under Commodus he could not truly have call'd it the second for that besides the first mentioned in Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and happening under the Consulate of Gracchus and Falto in the third year of the 135. Olympiad and the 516. of Rome there had been a second observ'd by Tacitus and other creditable Authors under the Consulship of Bassus and Crassus in the fourth year of the 210. Olympiad which was the 817. of Rome the 64. of our Saviour and 11. of Nero. 5. That he doth not onely not pretend to any thing beyond Commodus but makes an apparent stop at Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus which latter he presum'd must needs as being the younger by seven years out-live the other After him saith he whose name begins with a T. the note of the number three hundred that is to say Trajan another shall reign a person with a silver head that is one that was already arriv'd to grey hairs or shall be as he speaks in the eighth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoary and his name that is to say Adrian shall be deriv'd from the Sea Adriatick and he shall be good all manner of wayes and shall know all things and under thee O man absolutely good excellent all manner of wayes and hoary headed and under thy boughs that is to say thy adoptive sons the last dayes shall come to pass three shall reign that is to say Antoninus Marcus and Lucius but the last that is Lucius shall obtain the soveraignty of all things And in the eighth Book After him that is to say Adrian there shall reign three who shall see the last days filling the Name of the heavenly God whose kingdom is now and to all ages that is to say they shall be called Antonini or according to our manner of pronouncing Andonini from the name Adonai and Adonim that is Antoninus the Debonaire Antoninus the Philosopher and Lucius Verus Antoninus who he pretends ought as being the youngest to survive the other two succeed them and continue til the 948. year of Rome or the 195 of our Redemption in which he would have been 67. years of age never imagining that Lucius by his irregularities would prejudice his health so as to be cut off in the flower of his age in the midst of Winter between the years 169. and 170. 6. That though Lactantius carried away with the prejudice of his time conceiv'd that the Books called Sibylline
by any thing of voluptuousness that he hath no further need of patience temperance c. That he is impeâ—â—able That Saint Matthias was chosen because he had shewen himself worthy to be an Apostle That the Sun and the Stars were bestow'd on the Gentiles to be adored by them That by the worship of the Stars they should have looked up to God That it is lawfull to lye for the safety of another That God would have a faithfull man to be so far his own guide as not to need any other assistance That after Marcion whom he acknowledges to have liv'd under the Empire of Adrian and Antoninus Simon did for a short time hear Peter preaching c. He discovers also that he had not met with very skilfull Masters in the Hebrew when he writ that Hosanna interpreted in Greek signifies light glory and praise with supplication to the Lord Again that Abraham is by interpretation elected father of the sound and gave other such Etymologies of the Hebrew names CHAP. VII Reflections on severall supposititious pieces whereby many of the ancient Christians have been imposed upon and abused ARe we then to think it much after so many strange remarks that he who with an excessive easiness of belief could take things from all hands from Heathens from Hereticks from Judaicall Traditions from the Apocriphall Writings of Christians and upon the credit of the false Pastor of Hermas introduce our Saviour and his Apostles preaching in hell should be drawn in to admit the predication father'd on St. Paul the Apostle and swallow down the pretended Oracles of the Sibyl which deriv'd their recommendation from it And why should we make any difficulty to acknowledg what expeâ—â—ence proclaims as it were in the open streets In the second Age the first year whereof had been signaliz'd by the decease of St. John the Evangelist Satan not satisfy'd with the open war there was against the Church by the persecution of the Heathen would needs fasten on her skirts a numerous crue of Hereticks of all sorts execrable in their Opinions and deprav'd in their Manners and made it his business to pull all into disorder within by the uncontrolable licentiousness of forgers and Impostors who with a certain earnestness and in a manner at the same time have either to gratifie some particular Heresie or under the specious pretence of engaging against the Idolatry of the Heathen with greater advantage out of a pious fraud fill'd the world with adulterate and supposititious pieces In so much that it may be said there was not any season more fruitfull in those pernicious excrescencies and Apocriphall Writings then that Age nor haply at any time a greater disposition in mens minds to give them credit and entertainment the simplicity of some not permitting a perfect anatomy of the evil and the confidence of those who were either satisfy'd therewith or suspected it inclining them to this opinion that they might make some benefit thereof to the confusion of falshood and advantage of truth Nay those whom learning had a little more refin'd and a conversation with the Sciences made more capable of things as such as being well advanc'd in years had forsaken the banners of Paganisme were apt enough to bring into the Church some tincture of the Opinions they had been imbu'd with before and thinking by the correspondence they still held with the Philosophers to make them more susceptible of piety imagin'd themselves concern'd in point of honour to reconcile their own Maximes to Christianity which by that base allay lost much of its naturall lustre and beauty As therefore men were either totally hereticall or incendiaries and troublesome accordingly did they impose upon the credulity of the simple some broaching and advancing false Prophesies and Histories such as were those of Jaldabaoth of Seth of the sons of Seth of Enoch of Cham c. The Prayer of Joseph the Assumption of Abraham Moses Eldad and Modad The Testament of Moses Esdras Baruc Abacuc Ezekiel Parchor Zephany the lesser Genesis the Book attributed to Zacharias father to St. John the Repentance of Adam of James and Mambres the Book of the Giant Ogenes Jacobs Ladder the Testament of Job the greater and lesser Symphony the Prophesies of Marsiades and Marsian the Ascension of Isaiah c. Others vented counterfeit Gospels such as were those of Eve Peter Andrew James the less Philip Barnabas Matthias Thaddaeus of the Apostles of the Aegyptians of the Hebrews of Judas according to Basilides and Apelles that which the Gnosticks call'd the Gospel of Truth and Perfection whereto upon the declination of the third Age the Manichees added that of Thomas and some others later Impostors that of Nicodemus Others false Acts as those of Peter Andrew Paul and Tecla John Philip Thomas forg'd in some part by Nexocharides or Lucius Charinus and Manes after whom a new Impostor 300. years after puts upon the world the life of St. John under the name of Prochorus and a Rhapsodist who liv'd about 860. years since and took upon him the name of Abdias the Babylonian the lives of all the Apostles Others scatter'd abroad false Relations such were the Books entituled The infancy of our Saviour of the Questions of Mary of the extraction of Mary of the Assumption of Mary of the Nativity of our Saviour of the Lots of the Apostles of the commendation of the Apostles of the Ascension of Saint Paul of the Itinerary of Saint Peter of the preaching of Saint Peter of the doctrine of the Apostles of Apostolicall Constitutions of the Controversie between St. Peter and Appion of the Passion of St. Peter and St. Paul by Linus the Pastor of Hermas whereto about the beginning of the fourth Age Maximian the Emperor caus'd to be joyn'd the Acts of Pilate Others disperc'd counterfeit Epistles such as was that of Abgarus Prince of Edessa to our Saviour with our Saviours pretended answer thereto those that go under the name of St. Barnabas of the B. Virgin to St. Ignatius of St. Ignatius himself of St. Paul to the Laodiceans of the same a third Epistle to the Corinthians as also a third to the Thessalonians the second to the Corinthians wrongfully attributed to St. Clement Others started counterfeit Apocalypses such as were those of Adam Abraham Eliah Paul Thomas Stephen c. Others there were who looking with a jealous eye on what ever was remarkable among either Jews or Heathens would needs make it contribute to Christianity and appropriate all the glory of it to the Church Thus to rob the Grecian Jews of their golden-mouth'd Philo it must be feign'd he had had some conversation with St. Mark and to apply to Christian Monks who began not till the times of Paul and Anthony the Hermits whereof one dy'd the tenth of January in the year 343 and the other the seventeenth of January 358. what he had expresly written of the Esseni a Sect much given to contemplation seated
blinded Prophet amounted to no more then that the Kingdom of Saturn being to be restor'd the celebrated Virgin of the Heathens that is Urania or Astraea would return Of whom Ovid and Juvenal had written That at the Commencement of the Iron-Age the Virgin Astraea the last of the Celestial Deities had relinquished the Earth flowing with Blood So that in the pretended Prophecy of Virgil there is no other Virgin to be sought but Astarte or Hastoreth and Astaroth and Atargatis that famous Goddess of the Sidonians which Salomon ador'd in his old age which the antient Idolaters of Israel and Apuleius and Varro and the Romanes in general called the Queen of Heaven which Philo Biblianus in g Eusebius affirms taking it from Sanchoniathon of Berytus to have been the daughter of Uranus Sister to Rhea and Dione and one of the Wives of Cronus or Saturn her Brother by the Father's side For to lier it is that he particularly gives the Title of Virgin Tertullian calls her the Celestial Virgin who promiseth rain St. Augustine the Celestial Virgin worshipped by the Carthaginians Apuleius an African also and a most superstitious Adorer of this imaginary Deity the Virgin which sumptuous Carthage serves who riding on a Lion ascended to Heaven upon which account it is that in the antient Medals of Severus and Caracalla she is represented riding on a Lion And Lucian who proposes her under the name of the Goddess Tyria or Juno of Hierapolis says in two several places that Lions carry her which is affirm'd also by Macrobius CHAP. XIV Remarks of some less Considerable Mistakes of the Emperour Constantine in the Explication of Virgil's fourth Eclogue THe Observations which we have made of these Principal Mistakes of the plain-dealing Emperour Constantine were enough to take off the Credit of what other Conjectures he may have made upon the Poem of Virgil yet to make his Misapprehensions the more apparent I shall not think much to add these further Remarks He says in the first place That the Poet had written That Altars were to be erected the Temples to be adorn'd and Sacrifices to be offered to the new-born childe but there is not a Syllable to this purpose in all the Eclogue Then he is deceiv'd again when he conceives it is of the same new-born childe that the Poet said He shall lead the life of the incorruptible God for besides that the Latine hath it Ille Deûm vitam accipiet The life of the Gods it is most evident that the words of these Verses and the two next ensuing were by the Authour applied to Augustus under whom had happened the Birth he so much celebrated As to these insinuating Expressions The Flocks shall not be afraid of the great Lions The Serpent shall be crush'd and the noisome Plant destroy'd Assyrian Amomum grews every where upon occasion whereof the Emperour observes that The Faith shall not be daunted at the greatness of Royal Courts that The Serpent and Death are overcome by Jesus Christ that The Church shall spread it self from Syria all the world over I so acknowledg the undeniable Truths of those Remarks as while I admit them to affirm withall that they have not been rationally deduced For Virgil having no more in his fancy then to promise the Reign of Augustus the felicity of that of Saturn makes a Description of the Advantages thereof suitable to the imagination which the Heathens had of the first Race of men and their Lives so as they are represented by Ovid when he says The yet-free Earth did of her own accord Untorn with Ploughs all sorts of Fruit afford Warm Zephirus sweetly blew On smiling Flowers which without setting grew Forthwith the Earth Corn unmanured bears And every year renews her golden Ears With Milk and Nectar were the Rivers fill'd And Hony from green Holly-Oaks distill'd Add to this That from the Analogie and resemblance there may be between the Descriptions of Heathen Poets and those we finde in the Scripture where we read that under the Reign of the Messias There shall be a handfull of Corn sown upon the Top of the Mountains the Fruit whereof shall shake like Lebanon and the People of the Cities shall flourish like Grass of the Earth and The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little childe shall lead them And the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox And the sucking childe shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned childe shall put his hand on the Cockatrice's den they shall not hurt nor destroy there is not any ground to conclude That the Idolatrous Writers had any sentiment of the future and That they themselves or their Sibyls were Divinely-inspir'd because there seems to be a consonancy as to the Words and Sense between them and the Prophets For besides that the Bible was Translated into Greek two hundred and nine years before the Birth of Virgil the Writings of the Prophets had not been even before absolutely kept from the knowledg of the Gentiles Nay it being supposed that having had some acquaintance with the Prophetical Oracles they might have adapted the words thereof to the Description of their Mythological Golden Age under the Reign of Saturn and apply'd to things pass'd what the Spirit of God denounc'd as to come there were not any inconvenience at all provided it be remembred that these People have not pronounc'd the Sentences of Celestial Predictions otherwise then as Parrats without meaning or aiming at any thing thereby but to heighten their particular Fancies with something that were strange and borrow'd Thus it is more then probable that Virgil for example it being granted he had seen somewhat of the Prophecy of Esay in the Greek having no other design then in Hyperbolical Terms to express his wishes for the Prosperity of Augustus's Reign and the Felicity of his Friend Pollio had no more in his Fancy then the restauration of the Saturnian Age and accordingly makes a Description of it not onely suitable to that of Ovid in the first Book of his Metamorphoses where to represent the Tranquillity of the first Inhabitants of the Earth not interrupted by any trouble and that as yet there was no object of Fear he says that it was not till the coming in of the Iron Age that Poison began first to be mingled War to be made c. and that after the Deluge the Earth first brought forth Monsters and among others Python whose Serpentine Figure was unknown to the new Race of People but also in a manner the very same with what he makes himself elswhere viz. in the first of his Georgicks speaking of Jupiter Before Jove's time c. All common was and of
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 â—…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 forà s 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
〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his intention had been to tell us that Saint Irenaeus declared the Apocalyps rather then to give us to understand that according to the Declaration of that great Martyr St. John saw his Apocalyps not onely under Domitian but the fourteenth year of that Prince or to express it in his own Terms towards the end of his Reign But with this little distortion of the words of Eusebius St. Hierome in his Catalogue expresses their true sence saying Domitian in his fourteenth year raising after Nero the second Persecution John banished to the Isle of Patmos writ the Apocalyps which Justin Martyr interprets and Irenaeus So that we must not with Cardinal Baronius give that Interpretation to his Discourse as if Domitian had began his Reign fourteeen years after Nero. For though it be indeed true since Nero died the tenth of June 68. and Domitian came into his Brother's place on the eighteenth of September 81. thirteen years three moneths and eight days after the unfortunate End of Nero and consequently about the beginning of the fourteenth year yet was it not the intention of St. Hierome to acquaint us what number of years had passed between the Reign of Domitian and that of Nero but that Domitian in the fourteenth year of his Reign which was the twenty seventh after Nero's Death raised the second Persecution against the Church So that it was inconsiderately done of him who Translated the Greek Version of Sophronius the antient Interpreter of St. Hierome's Catalogue into Latine to make him say as he fancied The fourteenth year after the Death of Nero instead of turning it according to the proper expressions as well of St. Hierome as Sophronius The fourteenth year Domitian raising after Nero the second Persecution nor indeed could it have been without contradiction to St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius nay to himself and that so much the more notorious by how much the more he pretended to follow the last whose Discourse he hath Translated in a manner word for word The Arabian Prolegomena upon the Gospels published by Peter de Kirstein have these words in them John made his aboad at Ephesus seven and twenty years that is to say six under Nero ten under Vespasian two under Titus and nine under Domitian then was he Banished by Domitian into the Isle of Patmos where he stayed seven years till such time as he was called back by Nero the younger that is to say Nerva By this account the Apostle of God should have retired out of Palaestine into the Proconsulary Asia not as the Greek Fasti very probably suppose in the 68. of our Saviour because of the Revolt of the Jews from the Empire and the Eruption of the War brought into the Heart of their Country by Vespasian immediately upon the retreat of the Church of Jerusalem to Pella but in the year sixty three concurrent with the ninth of Nero and the time of St. John's Abode both at Ephesus and Patmos should have been thirty four years comprehending six years of Nero and the whole Reigns of Vespasian Titus and Domitian For Nero killed himself as hath been already observed the tenth of June 68. Vespasian having news brought him in Palaestina of the Murthering of Galba which happened on the sixteenth of January 69. as also of the Tragical End of Otho on the twentieth of April following and of the Rising of his Friends in Rome assumed the Empire and kept it till the twenty fourth of June 79. and Domitian who had succeeded his Brother Titus dying the 13th of September in the year 81. was violently forced out of the world on the 18th of September in the year 96. leaving the Empire vacant to Nerva who nulled all his Acts and by that means gave St. John the Liberty to return to Ephesus But if this Calculation be receivable in as much as it maintains the common Sentiment of the Fathers concerning the time of St. John's return yet can it not agree with the Relation of St. Irenaeus affirming that almost in his time Domitian began the Persecution towards the end of his Reign and leaving it to be inferred that the Persecution was of no long continuance which could not be said if according to the account of the Arabians we must assign it seven years that is to say a full half of Domitian's Reign and not onely the End whereto St. Irenaeus Eusébius and all the Fathers strictly limit themselves among whom Tertullian Contemporary with St. Irenaeus expresly observing the Violence of that Persecution to have made no great Havock says Domitian an Imp of Nero as to cruelty had designed a Persecution but being also himself a man he easily smothered what he had begun having re-established those whom he had Banished So that according to his Opinion the mischief was stayed by his very Order who had occasioned it But whereas by attributing to him the Re-establishment of the Banished he derogates from the Authority of the Tradition of the Antients which according to Eusebius delayed it till the Reign of Nerva whom the Prolegomena I know not why call Nero the younger I shall by no means presume so much upon his particular Opinion as to oppose it to the common belief of all the Fathers Which having forced us to reduce onely to one the seven years assigned by the Prolegomena for the Banishment of St. John imposes upon us yet a greater necessity to quit the Opinion of the Greek Fasti which place the return of St. John under the twelfth year of Domitian coincident with the ninety third of our Saviour and commit therein an Errour so much the more unmaintainable in that they make the Persecution cease as also the effect it had by the confession of all caused two years before it began and ridiculously presuppose that St. John was by the Decree for his Release restored to his former Liberty before he had been in a capacity to lose it by the unjust Decree for his Banishment He who hath busied himself in writing a Synopsis of the Lives of the Prophets and Apostles under the Name of Dorotheus having by mixture of his own Conceptions corrupted the words of the Synopsis of St. Athanasius imagines that St. John was Banished by Trajan that he lived one hundred and twenty years and returned from Patmos to Ephesus after Trajan's Death But all yet followed as it should seem by Suidas is contrary both to Tradition and the Truth since First Trajan came not to the Empire till the twenty eighth of July in the year 98. the very next to that wherein St. John was restored by Nerva Secondly St. John was according to the Opinion of St. Hierome honoured with the Apostleship in his Youth and while he was yet a Boy so that the hundredth year of our Saviour wherein he was Translated to Celestial glory could not have been much beyond the ninetieth of his Age to
which according to our Computation cannot concur but with the year 156. and is necessarily false as to their Judgment who preceded in Time For Claudius Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia limits the first eruption of the Montanists to the Proconsulship of Gratus which is consonant to the year 142. or thereabouts and Apolionius the Romane Senatour who suffered Martyrdom under Perennius on the eighteenth of April 181. observes that fourty years before that Sect pretended to a Prophetick Spirit thereby insinuating that it had broke forth about the year 139 or 140. not much differing from the time assigned by Apollinaris but three years later then St Epiphanius would have it in his Dispute against the Alogians and thirty six years sooner then he said in his Treatise against the Montanists Fifthly This Sect rose up particularly in Phrygia at a little Village called Pepuzium which the Inhabitants upon occasion of their pretended Prophets who were Natives thereof named Jerusalem and not as Epiphanius imagined in Thyatira in Lydia which though adjacent indeed and lying upon the Frontiers of Phrygia yet made a Province of it self as appears by the Testimony of Strabo in his thirteenth Book by Ptolomy in the second Chapter of his first Book by the Councel of Nice Assembled by the Emperour Constantine the Great in the year 325. and by that of Lydia convened by Order of the Emperour Leo the First in the year 450. where the Bishops of Thyatira subscribed with the Lydians as being of the same Division Nay though there were onely to satisfie us but the very Denominations of Cataphrygians Phrygastae and Pepuziani given by the Catholicks to the Montanists they might suffice to make us apprehend that we are not to look for their extraction in Thyatira out of Phrygia from which they are specifically denominated Sixthly From the application of the Name Jezabel arises a new Difficulty against the Sentiment of St. Epiphanius For whether we read with St. Cyprian in his fifty second Epistle and with Primasius Andrew of Caesarea and Aretas Thy Wife Jezabel which is consonant to the Reading as well of the antient Copy of Alexandria wrote above thirteen hundred years since by Thecla and given to King James of Great Britain by the Patriarch Cyril as of that of the French King's Library followed by Robert Stephen in the Edition of the New Testament in folio that of Alcala de Henares and that which was followed in the Edition of the great Bible of Andwerp and other Impressions of Plantine Or simply The Woman Jezabel as is done by Hilary the Deacon upon the eleventh Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians Tychonius in the Homilies unjustly attributed to St. Augustine Beda Ansbert who joyns the two different Lections and Berengandus whose Commentary was published by Cuthbert Tonstal Bishop of Durham under the Name of St. Ambrose Or lastly take the Names of Woman and Jezabel properly to attribute either to the Wife of the Pastour of Thyatira or of some other particular Person subject to his Government Or whether lastly they be understood Figuratively of the Heresie as most of the antient Interpeters do we shall not finde any reason to apply them as St. Epiphanius does to the three Prophetesses of the Montanists Prisca or Priscilla Maximilla and Quintilla put together nor to any one of them in particular not onely because they were neither born at nor Inhabitants of Thyatira but Phrygians Natives of Pepuzium but also because the reprehension of the Son of God charging the Jezabel of the Thyatirians with Adultery and the use of things sacrificed to Idols can no way be said either of those Women whom Saint Epiphanius would have designed by the Name of Jezabel or to any of the Montanists persisting in the strict observation of the corrupt Maxims which made them to err For those People were so far from introducing Licentiousness and Dissolution into life and as Tertullian speaks unbuckling the Thong of Christian Discipline to give way to crimes that they passed to the other extreme of the most scrupulous and superstitious Austerity condemning Second marriages the Use of things sacrificed to Idols the Eating of juycie flesh and meats during the time of Fasting Flight in time of Persecution and much more the denial of Christianity Adultery and Idolatry from which as indeed from all impurity of life which they reproached the Catholicks with attributing to them a Beastial faith and upon that acount crying out against them by the Name of Psychici they thought themselves so free that they called themselves the Spiritualized followers of the Discipline of the Spirit which endeavoured after the Example of St. Paul to smother all the lusts of the Flesh and which to subdue it proposed those burthen om things which the Son of God meant when he said to his Disciples I have yet many things to tell you but you cannot now bear them But the crimes of the Jezabel of the Thyatirians were remarkable in the Sects of the Gnosticks Nicolaitans and others whom St. Irenaeus Tertullian Saint Epiphanius himself St. Augustine and all the Heresiologists that came after charge with the commission of them so far that Tertullian a Montanist and admirer of those Women whom St. Epiphanius pretends to have been designed by Jezabel engages agaiust the Gnosticks because they were guilty of the crimes mentioned by Saint John as his Scorpiacum and his other Writings justify This I say demonstratively proves against St. Epiphanius that we must seek out the Jezabel of the Thyatirians elsewhere then among the Montanists and mildly interpret what seems harsh in the Discourse of that good man wherein after he had said that the Apostle speaks under the Name of Jezabel of the seduced and seducing Women of the Montanists he adds that in that place St. John wrote that a Woman should call her self a Prophetess For one Woman to take the word strictly is not Women but I am rather apt to suppose he took the word Woman collectively and in that comply with his meaning As to his maintaining that the Holy Apostle was Banished to Patmos and there writ his Apocalyps under the Reign of Claudius at least fourty two years sooner then is held by the common Tradition of the Truth I desire the Reader to see him refuted by the very Acts of the Apostles where he may finde in the eighteenth and nineteenth Chapters that Saint Paul having in the year of our Lord 51. coincident with the eleventh of Claudius sowed the first Seeds of Christianity at Ephesus departed thence to go and keep Easter at Hierusalem and that after his Return he continued constantly at Ephesus two years that is to say the fifty second and fifty third of our Saviour concurrent with the twelfth and thirteenth of Claudius who died on the thirteenth of October 54. on the twentieth day of the ninth Moneth of his fourteenth year For since
Saint Paul was the Founder of that famous Church which hath been as it were the Mother of all her Neighbours that it is not likely St. John who seems to have been then teaching the Parthians to whom his first Epistle was according to the Opinion of some Antients directed should come thither during the aboad of Saint Paul and that after the Departure of Saint Paul hastened by the Insurrection of Demetrius Claudius Reigned but nine Moneths there is no likelyhood to presume that in so short a space of time there should come to pass all those things which Antiquity assures us happened to Saint John that is to say that he Confirmed the Church of Ephesus and Planted the Neighbour-Churches and Confessed the Name of Christ at Rome where having been cast into a Vessel of seething Oil he came forth more fair and more vigorous then he was when he went into it anointed indeed and no way burnt That afterwards pressing forward as a Champion of Christ to receive the Crown he was immediately Banished to the Isle of Patmos and that during the Time of his Banishment he was honoured with Visions from God Secondly Though a man should run the hazard of imagining that all these Accidents which require much longer time happened in the turning of his hand yet could he not thereby shift off the difficulty in asmuch as all Antiquity attributing the Banishment of St. John to Domititian who assumed the Empire twenty six years and eleven Moneths precisely after the Death of Claâ—…us does as it were by an unanimous consent contradict the particular Sentiment of Epiphanius which ought not what esteem soever we may have for him to be opposed either to Probability universal Tradition or the Authority of such as are more antient and more creditable then he upon this account that they lived nearer the Age of Saint John and might be more easily informed of the Truth Thirdly For that the Church hath always held it for certain First That full eleven years after the Death of Claudius the first Persecution was raised by Nero to derive upon the innocent Christians the Indignation of the Romanes exasperated by the resentment of their own Losses in the firing of the City which that Monster himself commanded to be done Secondly That the Banishment of St. John was consequent to some Persecution St. Hierome Contemporary with St. Epiphanius and his familiar Friend assuring us that because of the Martyrdom St. John immediately before his Transportation to Patmos was at Rome cast into the vessel of seething Oyl Thirdly That all Epiphanius onely excepted reduce the Banishment of St. John to the second Persecution which they would have break forth towards the end of Domitian's Reign Fourthly That with the same unanimity of Sentiments they attribute to Nerva who nulled the Acts of his Predecessour the calling back of St. John and that not any one no not St. Epiphanius himself ever charged Claudius whose Acts were confirmed by his Apotheosis with having ill-entreated the Christians Whence it must of necessity follow that the Banishment of St. John could not have been under his Reign and consequently that the Opinion of St. Epiphanius which we have demonstrated not to be maintainable in any of its parts neither can nor ought in this to be followed by any one CHAP. III. The Sentiment of the late Grotius concerning the time of the Apocalyps refuted FRom the year 375. wherein St. Epiphanius writ against the Alogians to the year 1640. the Opinion of that Father was not embraced but onely by one Person that made Profession of Letters a man indeed of extraordinary Endowments whether we consider the transcendency of his Wit the Universality of his Knowledg which cannot be too highly esteemed and the diversity of his Writings or reflect on the greatness of his Employments but still a Man and upon that account not free from the hazard of misapprehension and sometimes making the worst choice This man having published a little Treatise in Latine entituled Commentatio ad loca quaedam Novi Teslamenti quae de Antichristo agunt aut agere putantur expendenda eruditis makes this Remark well worth our Notice on the ninth Verse of â—…e seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps John went first to Patmos and began to be illuminated by Visions from God in the Time of Claudius which is the Sentiment of the more Antient Christians and not in the Time of Domitian as others would have it See Epiphanius in the Heresie of the Alogians Claudius had as appears by Acts xviii 2. forced out of Rome the Jews among whom at that time the Christians were also numbered as hath been observed by many learned men Which example there is no doubt but divers Governours of the Romane Provinces imitated by which means John was forced to leave Ephesus But I maintain in opposition to the Prejudice of this Great man First That not any one of the Antient Christians nor yet of the Modern either were of the Opinion of St. Epiphanius or favoured it Secondly That St. Epiphanius who was neither preceded nor followed by any one in his Sentiment says not any thing that is maintainable and is not peremptorily refuted as well by the Tradition universally received in the Church as by Reason it self Thirdly That the Singularity and Novelty of that Father's Sentiment being contrary to those of all the rest and in some manner to himself should rather have raised his Distrust then prepossessed him Fourthly That it cannot by any Monument of Antiquity be made good that the mistake of the Heathen taking the Christians for Jews had reduced in the Time of the Emperour Claudius under whom the Jews were the onely Persecutours of the Church any one of the Faithfull to suffer Banishment upon the account of his being of the Faithfull or a Christian and that to presuppose it onely by way of simple Conjecture without any Proof is no other then openly to prejudice one's credit and to abuse their plain dealing and easiness of perswasion who might comply therewith Fifthly That it is impossible to make it good that the Edict of Claudius which Banished the Jews onely out of Rome had been or could have been imitated by any of the Governours of the Romane Provinces who knew there was but one Rome in the World and that it was not within any of their Jurisdictions Sixthly That by the History of the Acts it is evident that after the Edict of Claudius the Jews enjoyed in all other places of the Empire as absolute Freedom and Toleration as they could have done before since St. Paul and Silas and Aquila and Priscilla his Wife lived without any trouble at Corinth where those of their Nation had their Synagogue and assembled as they were wont without any Disturbance Seventhly That though the Governours of the Romane Provinces should have been enclined in imitation of their Emperour to pack the Jews out of their Jurisdictions yet would it not be just
to imagine any such thing of the Proconsul of Asia nor to presuppose that to comply with that Extravagance he had driven St. John who was not within his Jurisdiction from any place when at the same time that the Jews were forced to depart Rome St. Paul Priscilla Aquila and Apollos who were no less of Jewish Extraction then John sojourned at Ephesus without disturbance their Brethren according to the Flesh enjoyed there as much liberty as ever nay even when Demetrius had with those of his Profession made an Insurrection in the City against Saint Paul they thought themselves sufficiently Authorised to pacifie the Tumult thrusting out Alexander their Brother out of the Multitude and charging him to speak to the enraged People for if it were to no purpose that they attempted it it was at least without apprehension of any danger either to themselves or him Whence it follows that not onely without any necessity but also without any ground it is imagined that St. John who was not yet come to Ephesus when the Edict of Claudius came forth against the Jews was driven thence by Virtue of that Edict which no way concerned him and that if there never could be any excuse to introduce Novelties into the Business of Religion we should be much further from advancing ruinous Hypotheses to maintain the more ruinous Design of opposing common Sentiments So that no man should think it strange if through the just Judgment of God those who take a pleasure in contradicting things that are most evident unadvisedly engage themselves in inconsistent Opinions to the prejudice of their Reputation and such as are more apt to raise Compassion for their Weakness then Jealousie upon account of the great Esteem due to them CHAP. IV. A Refutation of the Sentiment of Johannes Hentenius of Maechlin concerning the Time of the Apocalyps HAving demonstrated the Improbability of the Sentiment as well of St. Epiphanius as of him who would needs make it his ground to build upon not considering he should do himself a thousand times more injury by following it contrary to the Truth then he could have done by contradicting it to promote the Truth he made it his Design to establish I conceive it lies upon me to discover the absurdity of another fond Conceit which to bring with less inconvenience the Tradition of the Church into Dispute about the year 1545. hath referred the writing of the Apocalyps to the Time of Nero ten years and more later then according to the Computation of Saint Epiphanius Johannes Hentenius an Hieronymite born at Maechlin who is the Authour of it would needs in his Preface upon the Commentary of Arethas entertain us with the following Discourse It seems to me that John the Apostle and Evangelist who is also called the Divine was Banished to Patmos by Nero at the very same time that he put to death at Rome the blessed Apostles of Christ Peter and Paul Tertullian who lived near the Times of the Apostles affirms as much in two several places Eusebius also treats of the same thing in his Book of Evangelical Preparation though in his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History he saith it happened under Domitian which St. Hierome and divers others follow But to these last mentioned Books as such as were written some years before there is not so much Authority attributed as to that of Evangelical Preparation which was an after Work on which more care and exactness was bestowed Thus are we furnished by this man with a third Opinion inconsistent as well with the two precedent as the Truth it self which declares onely for the first confirmed by St. Irenaeus and others of the Antients and what should make this new Production the more contemptible is that it will be found grounded onely upon Chimaerical Suppositions and taking it at the best advantage speaks nothing positively Affirmative For whereas it is confidently affirmed that Tertullian assures us in two several places that Saint John was Banished at the time of the Martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul it is absolutely false that Father who makes mention of the Sufferings of the Saints Peter Paul and John jointly all together in one onely place to wit in the thirty sixth of his Praescriptions expressing it onely in these Terms That Church to wit that of Rome is very happy for which the Apostles spent their Doctrine and spilled their Blood where Peter was equalled to the Passion of his Lord that is to say Crucified where Paul was crowned with the same way of Departure as John that is to say Beheaded as St. John Baptist was where the Apostle John after he had been cast into the seething Oil yet suffered nothing was Banished into the Isle Whence it is evident that his Design was to shew that St. John was persecuted not at the same Time but at the same Place where St. Peter and St. Paul were so that his Discourse which proves nothing of what is in Question abates nought of its Truth though it be believed that Saint John's Banishment happened under Domitian and that eight and twenty years after the Martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul under Nero. Besides the place before cited there is in all the Works of Tertullian no more mention of the Writing of St. John then there is of the Discovery of the West-Indies so that Hentenius who brags that he had read what he says in them must needs read it in his Sleep Nor is there less Imposture in what he attributes to Eâ—sebius who in his third Book of Evangelical Preparation and the seventh Chapter having spoken of the Imprisonment of all the Apostles by the High-Priests of Jerusalem and afterwards of their Scourging of the Stoning of St. Stephen of the Decollation of St. James the Son of Zebedaeus of the Restraint of St. Peter and the Stoning of St. James the Brother of our Lord adds Peter was crucified at Rome with his Head downwards Paul had his Head cut off and John was Banished into an Isle For it is manifest that this Discourse designing neither the Place nor the Time of the Sufferings of these Holy men cannot oblige any Body to believe that they were persecuted by the same Tyrant and at the same Time and that nothing hinders but that according to Eusebius himself as well in his Chronicle as History the two former were put to Death by the command of Nero and the last Banished eight and twenty years after by Virtue of a Decree of Domitian's So that for a man to imagine the contrary from Eusebius cannot be without wresting his Words and to think to deduce it from the same words by the force of Ratiocination will amount to as much as a discovery of want of Reason and argue that the Person who attempts it dreams waking The said Authour thinks to give us a third Proof for confirmation of his Opinion when relying on a wrong Interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
And that among the Liturgies of the Greeks Armenians c. there are onely two viz. those of St. Basil and St. Chryâ—ostome drawn up one by the other which have onely this word of it by the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resting in hope of Resurrection and eternal life Where it is evident to any one that hath but common sense that he who pronounces the Prayer desires not for the Dead either Resurrection or Life but onely declares that both of them have ever been the Object of their hope To be absolutely silent in it as the Canon of the Latine Mass is or to speak uncertainly of it without making any request is that proposing to one's self the pretended Example of Judas Maccabaeus and the Tradition of the antient Synagogue Or can it either enter into any man's Imagination to say they imitate who neither in their Discourses nor in their Actions express any thing of what is contained in the Original If it be said that the Latins in the Office of the Dead added to the Canon demand the Resurrection of the departed Person whom they recommend to God in their Prayers it will be easie to reply that of three and fourty Prayers whereof that Office consists one onely viz. the fifth proposes in one word that kinde of supplication saying Partem Resurrectionis accipiat Anima famuli tui c. That the soul of thy servant may participate of the blessed Resurrection three others which spake of the Resurrection presuppose it without making any demand and amount to no more then to require onely the effect of it as for instance the second layd down in these Terms Inter Sanctos Electos tuos resuscitati gloriâ manifestae contemplationis perpetuò satientur c. That thy servants being raised again may be perpetually silled among the Saints and Elect with the glory of a manifest contemplation the fourth which hath Ad propria corpora quandoque reversuras Sanctorum tuorum caetibus aggregari praecipias c. That thou wouldest command that the souls of all the Faithfull which are one day to return to their bodies may meet together in the Assemblies of thy Saints and the nine and thirtieth which contains these words In Resurrectionis gloria inter Sanctos Electos tuos resuscitati respirent c. That thy servants of both Sexes being raised up may live among thy Saints and Elect in the glory of the Resurrection From all which Forms it necessary follows that the Latine Church never thought of framing her Service according to the Example of Judas Maccabaeus and that it is vainly and without any shadow of Proof that any Venture at this day to maintain it never considering that if the first Authours of Praying for the Dead among Christians had had any design to build their Form of Service upon the pretended Pattern of the Maccabees they could not without prevarication from their own Intentions fo far have missed the Lineaments thereof as to have omitted in their Canon what they had proposed to themselves to put in Practice or not to insist on it but obliquely and perfunctorily not making it as they should have done their Principal business CHAP. XXXII That the Primitive Sence of the Prayers whereby the Remission of Sins is demanded for the Dead is not embraced by any THe Prayers which the antient Church made for Remission of Sins on the behalf of the Faithfull departed did not onely proceed from the Hypothesis of the Sibylline Writing concerning the consinement of all Souls in Hell and of Justine Martyr concerning the power of the Devils even over those of the greatest Saints but is also an effect of their Opinion who imagined that our Saviour and his Apostles after his Example being after their departure descended into Hell had preached there and in effect converted many of those who were gone thither in the state of Sin For looking upon as reduced to the Trial of some punishment those whose Beatitude was during their restraint in the common prison of the Dead deferred and conceiving that their Condition was capable of being changed into better they inferred very suitably to these Opinions that it was necessary to implore the mercy of God and to demand on their behalf the forgiveness of their Sins which for a time kept the Gates of glory shut against them and exposed them in some manner to the violences of Evil spirits till such time as that by their own supplications and the suffrages of their surviving Friends they might better their Condition We have already produced Examples of those Prayers and there is not any Expression so strong or efficacious which we finde not employed to make us comprehend that heretofore the surviving Faithfull were of a Belief that their departed Brethren were treated as Malefactours and in a manner covered with the wrath of God But from the beginning of the Third Age and afterwards those among the Fathers who had more attentively considered the Oracles of God affirming That There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus That No man is able to pluck them out of his hand That They are at the hour of death taken away from the evil to come That They depart out of the Body to be with the Lord That Their iniquity shall be sought for and there shall be none because God hath pardoned them That as soon as they are dead in the Lord they rest from their labours and according to what we finde in express Terms in the Canon of the Mass sleep a sleep of Peace as being actually in Peace and freed from Sin which deprives a man of it and makes a separation between the Lord and him that commits it the Fathers I say not discontinuing out of the respect they had for their Ancestours the Prayers inserted by them upon prejudications both ill-grounded and extremely mistaken into the Service of the Church do by the formal Confession of the insufficiency of those Principles make a certain disclaim of the Prayers enough to justifie that according to them being taken literally they are absolutely unprofitable as being destitute of Truth and a maintainable Foundation Hence is it that in the year 252. St. Cyprian tells us of the advantage which accrews to the Faithfull at their death Lucrum maximum jam nullis peccatis vitiis carnis obnoxium fieri c. It is a very great gain not to be any longer subject to sins and the lusts of the flesh St. Cyril of Jerusalem about the year 350. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remission having its Ordinance onely in this life St. Epiphamus in the year 375. in the nine and fiftieth Haeresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not any progress either of Piety or Repentance after death St. Ambrose about the year 378. Qui hic non acceperit remissionem illic non erit c. He who shall not have received remission here shall not