CHAP. I. That the most earnest Pursuers of Truth , are ( as others ) subject to mistakes .

THough ( according to the judgement of Tertullian ) Adver. Valentin . 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 1 Cor. 13. 7. 13. 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 Rom. 8. 20. 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 , Matth. 10. 16. 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 Tertul. loco ci●to . 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 , Ibid. Matth. 3. 16. Luke 1. 78. 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 Tertul. loc. citat . 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 it hard , in all the series of Time , to meet with any one more remarkable , then that of the mistake of Saint Justin , a Person very recommendable , if any may be admitted such : First , for his Antiquity , since he dy'd but very little after the midst of the second Age of the Church . Secondly , for his knowledge , as being one , who ( before his reduction to the Christain Faith ) had , by profession , been a Philosopher . Thirdly , for his piety , since he became so constant a maintainer of the true Religion , as that he was , at last , honour'd with the Crown of Martyrdom . All these advantages might have rais'd him above the ordinary rate of men ; yet have they not exempted him from being abus'd by certain advancers of foolish Stories , who having perswaded him to take the Idol of Semo Sangus , one of the false gods of Semo Sangus . the Sabini , for the Statue of Simon Magus , engag'd him ( I know not Simon Magus . how ) to maintain his mistake in the presence even of some of the Heathens , and that with so much confidence , as clearly discover'd , he said nothing but what he really believ'd . He it was also , who thought himself very much in the right , when he boasted , that he had seen at Pharos neer Alexandria , the remainders of the LXXII . Cells , where the Interpreters of the Bible had been employ'd in that Work ; nay some others , as Saint Irenaeus , Saint Cyril , and Saint Augustine have believ'd him ; and yet Saint Lib. 3. c. 26. Catech. 4. De Civit Dei , l. 18. c. 42. In Ezech. l. 10. c. 33. Epist. 104. Lib. 5 advers. Cels. Hierome ( who ; as well as the other , had been upon the place , and taken more particular notice thereof ) does not onely laugh at it , but says , I know not who by his glozing hath built them . With the same security , disputing against the Heathens , who ( according to the observation of Origen ) by way of derision , called the Christians Sibyllists , he opposes thereto the Authority of Hystaspes , a supposititious Author , of whose Works there is , at the present , nothing extant ; as also the Oracles of the Cumaean Sibyl , whom he pretends to have been the Daughter of Berosus , * * Tatian sayes , that he dedicates his three books of the Chaldaick History to Antiochus Soter , who began hisreign in the year of Rome , 472. or the 472. after the death of Cyrus . Ph●cai . lib. 10. who was later then Cyrus by 250 years , and dyed in the 225 year of the foundation of Rome , and the fourth of the reign of Tarquin , to whom many hold , that one call'd Amalthaea Sibylla , sold at an excessive rate , the books since known by the name of the Sibylline , and preserv'd in Rome for the space of above 440 years , till the civill wars of Sylla ; not minding , it seems , that ( according to the generall perswasion of the Romans ) the Cumaean Sibyl had entertain'd Aeneas , who dyed 639 years before Cyrus possess'd himself of Babylon ; nor yet reflecting on what Pausanias , an Author much about his own time , observes ( from Hyperochus Cumanus , and other Ancients ) 1. That the Sibyl who convers'd in that place , was called Demo ; 2. That the Cumaeans had not any Oracle to shew of hers : 3. That she had not been preceded by any , but by Lamia , the daughter Of the same opinion is Plutarch , De Pythiae Orac. i of Neptune , sirnamed by the Lybians , Sibylla ; and Herophila , the daughter of Jupiter and Lamia , who had her residence sometimes at Ida in Phrygia , sometimes at Mapessos , sometimes at Samos , sometimes at Claros of Colophon , and sometimes at Delos and Delphi . 4. That her Monument and her Epitaph , grav'd upon a pillar , was at Troas : 5. That the Erythraeans would not onely have it that she was born among them of Theodorus a Shepherd , and the Nymph Idaea , but also that she gave Hecuba the interpretation of her dream : and , 6. That , after the Cumaean Demo , the Hebrews who live above Palestine , set up Sabba , the daughter of Berosus and Erimantha , who went under the name of the Babylonian or Aegyptian Sibyl : Nor lastly , regarding , that the very argument , whereof he thought to make his greatest advantage , in order to the conviction of Pagan Idolatry , expresly maintains , that she , who compos'd it , was wife to one of Noe's Sons , and of neere kin to him , who departed this life , 1697. yeares before Antiochus Soter was established in Babylon , and that Berosus ( whose Daughter they would have her to be , meerely because her VVriting intimates her coming out of Babylon ) could have been allow'd the name of Father : For these are her words . O the great joy I have had , since I have escap'd the destruction of the Deep , having Lib. 1. ad finem . before undergone many misfortunes , toss'd up and down by the waves with my husband , my sisters-in-Law , my Father and Mother-in-Law , and those who were married together . And elsewhere , When the World was overwhelm'd Lib. 3. ad finem . with waters , and that a certain man , who had undergone the tryall , was left alone , exposed to the waters , in a house cut out of the Forrest , with the beasts , and birds of the aire , to the end that there might be a Restauration of the World ; to that man was I daughter-in-law , engendred of his blood .

By which words she clearly destroyes what she had writ some lines before ; saying , that the Greeks took her for the daughter of Circe , and Gnostus , or rather Ulysses , whom she entitles known Father , because of the reputation of his name , never considering that 800. yeares and more , were slipped away , between the death of Noe , and the arrivall of Ulysses , at Cir●aeum . She further affirmes , that she came from Babylon in Assyria , speaking so much the more improperly , for that Babylon was neither built , nor named , till 153. yeares after the Deluge , nor was it of Assyria properly so called , but of another different Country , that is to say , of Sennaar , and that it took not the name of Assyria , till above 165. yeares afterwards . Nay , the impudence of the Imposture is so much the more palpable , in that this pretended daughter-in-law of Noe , describes her selfe as a notorious strumpet , saying , Ah wretch that I am ! what will become of me in that day , for all the things I set Lib. 2. my mind upon in my folly , having no regard of either my Marriage , or my reason ? And again , What great evills have I heretofore committed , wittingly , Lib. 7. ad finem . and willingly , and how many other things have I imprudently run after , without the least remorse thereat ? I have taken my lustfull pleasure with ten thousand , and have not had the least consideration of my marriage , &c.

CHAP. III. The supposititiousnesse of the Writings pretended to be Sibylline , exemplified in severall particulars .

IF St. Justin Martyr had been but pleased , I will not say to look a little better about him , but only to open his eyes , and fasten them with ever so little recollection on what he read , he had met with a thousand instances of imposture in those pleasant Oracles , which he objected against the Heathens , employing against them three Verses out of the first book , as many out of the third , and seven out of the fourth . For he would upon the first sight , have perceived , that that ill-digested collection , written in wretched Greek , and coming from the hands of a person who discovers his ignorance of the Hebrew , could not be attributed either to Noah's daughter-in-law , who liv'd above 250. years before the confusion of Tongues , and consequently before there was any Greek ; nor yet to the daughter of Berosus , born in the Metropolis of Chaldaea , and later ; by almost 1700 years . Nay , he would have thought , that the Impostor , who had made it so much his business to gain reputation by a cheat of so great antiquity , had sufficiently discover'd himself an upstart :

1. In deriving Adam from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if it were a word of Greek extraction . Lib. 1. p. 7.

2. In saying , * * ΑΔΑΜ . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. p. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 1. p. 8. The Hebrew letters . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 produce but 41. Lib. 1. p. 12. that the same word signifies , East , West , South , and North , by its four letters , though in the Hebrew and Chaldee it hath but three .

3. In supposing that the letters of the Name of God make up the number of 1697 which cannot be true , but onely writing it in Greek characters , and that barbarously too , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .

4. In drawing , from those of the Name of Jesus , which he makes to consist of four vowels , and two consonants , the number of 888. which again cannot agree With the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is onely of five letters , all consonants , and exceed not the number of 391. unless it be in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .

5. In affirming that the duration of Rome shall be 948 years , because Lib. 2. p. 58. the number 948 arises from the Greek letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and not from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make onely 251.

6. In placing Ararat ( where the Ark stay'd ) in Phrygia . Lib. 1. p. 10.

7. In affirming that Phrygia was the first Countrey discovered after Lib. 1. p 9. 11. 7. p. 53. the Deluge , and that Noe , who continu'd in the Ark from the seventh day of the second Month , to the twentieth day of the second Month , in the year following , stay'd there but one and fourty days .

8. In imagining that the Fables of the Titans were true Histories . Lib. 1. p. 11.

9. In supposing ( according to the heresie of the Chiliasts ) that Jerusalem shall not only be re-built again , but shall be the Imperiall seat of Lib. 2. p. 14. 17. 18. 3. p. 34. 49. the Son of God , where the faithfull , having pass'd through the purgatory fire of the worlds conflagration , shall enjoy all manner of delights , corporeall and spirituall .

10. In feigning that the Eurotas , a River of Laconia in Peloponnesus , Lib. 3. p. 22. issues aut of Dodona in Epirus , and mingles with the Peneus , a river of Thessaly ; Again , that Gog and Magóg are among the Aethiopians . Lib. 3. p. 26.

11. In foretelling that the Italians shall become subject to the Ibid. Asiaticks .

12. In maintaining , that Nero is the great Antichrist , that he is retir'd Lib. 5. p. 41 , 43 , 44. 49. into Persia , and that returning from Babylon with an army of Jews , he will destroy Rome , and set it on fire .

13. In confounding Alexandria with Memphis .

14. In feigning that Eliah shall come down from Heaven in a Chariot ; Lib. 8. p. 57. Lib. 2. p. 15. Lib. 5. p. 41. Lib. 5. p. 46. Lib. 5. p. 41. Lib. 8. p. 57. That Joshuah , rais'd again , shall restore the Jews ; That Tyberius was to set upon Persia and Babylon ; That Trajan , a native of Italica , in the extremities of Spain , was born among the Gauls ; That Adrian strangled himself with a string ; That under Antoninus , sirnamed the Lib. 8. p. 57. Debonnaire , whom he impertinently calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and his two adoptive Sons , Marcus Aurelius , and Lucius Verus , one whereof must necessarily survive the other , would be the end of the world ; That Rome , being destroy'd in the 948. year after Lib. 8. p. 59. its foundation , should come to its period in the year of our Lord , 195. which was the third year of Severus : And lastly , after all this , in acknowledging himself to be a Christian , by these words , which absolutely take off all the precedent suppositions ; And yet we descended from the Lib. 8. p. 66. holy geniture of Christ , are called of the same blood .

For , from the consistency of all these remarks , this consequence must necessarily ●e deduced ; that the Impostor , who took upon him the name of Noës daughter-in-law , and perswaded St. Justin , that he was the daughter of Berosus , was , by Profession a Christian , but ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue , and true Theologie , no less then of Geography and History , and that he compiled his Rhapsody between the year 138. wherein Adrian was by death deliver'd of his disease on the twelfth of July , and the year 142. or 151. in which Cardinall Baronius , with divers others , affirm , that justin presented his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus , and the Caesars his adoptive sons , and consequently , that this counterfeit piece was just come out of the Mint , and was not quite cold when he undertook the dispersing of it , and , by his example , recommended it to Athenagora , Theophilus of Antioch , Clemens Alexandrinus , Tertullian , the Author of the Work , called , The Apostolicall Censtitutions ; Lactantius , Constantine the Great , Eusebius , Optatus , Hierom , Augustin , Prosper , Palladius , Sozomenus , Junilius , &c who have all drunk out of the common shore , of the Sibylline Imposture , and that with so little difficulty , and so strong a prejudice , that nothing could ever offend their stomacks . If therefore so many great men , and Justin himself , who first broke the Ice before them , could find any relish in so unsavory a dish ; and if they have ( with a kind of emulation ) serv'd it up , and commended it to others , with so much assurance , as begat an imagination , that , to express any horrour thereat , was to quarrell with God himself , who can think it strange , that the example of their credulity should be able in as high a measure to injure others ?

CHAP. IV. The judgement of Antonius Possevinus , concerning the W●itings pretended to be Sibylline , taken into examination .

IT is no miracle to me , if , after the antiquity of the first Ages had been circumvented through the excess of their credulous sincerity , ours ( though much refin'd from the scurf of ignorance , and forc'd by the necessity of so many difficult experiments , to be more cautious and diffident should not be wholly free from the remainders of the same misfortune , in so much , that we now find there are some very grave men , such , for instance , as Onuphrius , Sixtus of Sienna , the Cardinalls , Baronius and Bellarmine , and the Bishop of Norwich , Montague , enslav'd by the tyranny of the popular errour , fortifi'd by length of time , and consent of such Christians as are admirers of inveterate opinions . Yet can I not but express my dissatisfaction with the judgment of Antonius Possevinus , a Divine of the Society of Jesus , who , having discover'd the Imposture of the Sibylline books , hath chosen rather to think them corrupted , then supposititious . I shall therefore in the first place , to make a full discovery of this forgetfulness in him , lay down his censure , with some observations thereupon , and afterwards examine the ground of his Sentiment . It is apparent ( saith he ) both from the Fathers and other Ecelesiasticall Writers , Appar . Sacr. verbo Sibyllarum . that there was not any Sibyl before Moses , to the end the world might know , that , if , in the Oracles publish'd under the name of the Sibyls , and compriz'd in eight Books , there be any thing relative to what was before the Age of Moses , it is counterfeit and false , as having been since sown by Satan , out of a design , that falshood , being thrust in together with truth , might bring into 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 t●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 Apoc. 18. 8 21 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 Lib. 2. 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 Annal. 15. 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 Marcus was born in the year 121. and Lucius in the year 128. Lib. 5. 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 Ga'en . de praecogn . post . c. 9. years 169. and 170.

6. That though Lactantius , carried away with the prejudice of his time , conceiv'd that the Books , called Sibylline , had no other Authours then the ancient Sibyls , celebrated by Varro ; and that they had been chast and inspir'd of God ; yet hath he not escap'd a mistake , as we shall make appear more at large hereafter .

7. That the Author of the third Book , neither was , nor would be thought the Erythraean Sibyl , but wife to one of the sons of Noah , come from Babylon to Greece ; for those are her own words : These things I tell thee far from the walls of Babylon , &c. The men of Greece will say , I am of another Countrey , born in Erythraea , &c.

8. That the first Book is ( as all the ensuing ) of the same vein .

9. that the impudence and whoredom , so much bewail'd in the second and seventh books , were by the third acknowledg'd for the proper description of the pretended wife to Noah's son , who cries , Men will say , I am of another Countrey , and shameless . In a word , that all the eight books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . are the extravagant fictions of the same Impostor , who , under pretence of advancing the truth , hath perfidiously dishonour'd it .

CHAP. V. The recommendation of the Writing , pretended to be Sibylline , attributed by Clemens Alexandrinus to St. Paul , examined .

TO qualifie , with more ease , the reproach consequent to so unworthy an attempt , and in some sort , to save his reputation that was guilty of it , there are many , who ( as it were out of a certain emulation ) alledge that St. Paul himself recommended the reading of the Sibyls , and , to justifie their assertion , bring in Clemens Alexandrinus , speaking in these terms : Besides , the preaching of St. Peter , the Apostle , St. Paul Strom. lib. 6. p. 136. will declare the same , saying , take also the Greek books , acknoweledge the Sibyl , how she discovers one onely God , and the things that are to come ; and taking Hystaspes , read , and you will find the Son of God much more manifestly and openly described . But I shall not stick to presume their pardon , though I affirm they heap evil upon evil . For if it be blame-worthy for a man ( as St. Justin did ) to subscribe a piece of forgery which he was not able to discover , how odious must needs be the malice of that false witness , who ( to deceive Clemens Alexandrinus , and other Christians ) would needs maintain the supposititiousness of the Sibylline writings , by a worse Imposture , and feign that St. Paul himself had brought them into credit by his recommendation ? If souls perfectly vertuous cannot without difficulty endure that Encomiums of chastity should be bestow'd on common Prostitutes , who among such as are truly Christian , will be able to suffer comparisons to be made between the Prophets of God , and persons in the depth of an extravagant melancholy , between their celestiall Oracles and the disorder'd resueries of the other , and that the Projector of so base a cheat should presume to give it the greater reputation , produce the Apostle as a complice of his sacrilegious insolence ? And yet there are those who would , that , out of this vessel of election , should come the words alledged by Clemens ; and whereas there cannot any such thing be found in his Epistles , they imagine them spoken by him in his popular Sermons , as if it were possible , that he , who sacrificed his life Baron . Appar . 19. Sixt. Sen. Bibl lib. 2. Possevin . Appar . & Bib. Sel. lib. 2. c. 71. Lib. 17. c 20. in a glorious martyrdom , in the 65. year of our Lord , should give his approbation to a piece full of errors , and forg'd since the year 137. as it were out of a design , by that recommendation , to oppose the Authority , as well of the old Testament , and the Son of God himself , as his own preaching and the most excellent of his Epistles . For if , among the Heathens , the Sibyl and Hystaspes , have not onely declared one God , and manifested the things to come , but also describ'd the Son of God after a manner more clear and convincing , with what credit could David have written , It is in Jury that God is known ; God sheweth his words unto Jacob , his Statutes Psal. 147. 19 , 20. and his Judgements unto Israel . He hath not dealt so with other nations ; and as for his judgements , they have not known them ? Or , how comes it that the Saviour of the World hath decided the case on the behalf of the Jews , saying , Salvation is of the Jews ? And upon what ground doth St. Joh. 4. 22. Acts 14. 16. Paul make this precise Declaration to the Lycaonians ; God in times past , suffered all nations to walk in their own wayes : and speaking to the Athenians , ( the most refin'd people of all the Europaeans ) call the times preceding the publication of the Gospel , The times of ignorance ; and maintain Acts 17. 30. in his Epistle to the Romans the advantage of the Jew , to be much every way ; chiefly , because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God : Again , Rom. 3. 1 , 2. that to the Israelites pertaineth the glory and the covenant , and the giving of Rom. 9 4. the Law , and the service of God , and the promises ; and put other nations , in comparison of them , into a qualification of such as are no people , and a Rom. 10. 19. nation voyd of understanding ? Certainly , if the Gentiles ( according to the pretended presupposition of St. Paul , in Clemens Alexandrinus ) have been depositaries of the Oracles of God more clear and manifest then the Prophets , they neither have , nor ought to have granted , that God hath not shewen them his Ordinances and Judgements , and that on the Jews behalf ( over whom they were notoriously advantag'd ) the advantage was much every way . For since , before the Incarnation of the Messias , they had , in their hands , the illuminating predications of the Sibyls , which furnish'd them with historicall descriptions of what in the Propheticall Writings , is but aenigmatically proposed , their time was not a time of ignorance , but of light and knowledge , more distinct then that of the Jews , and it must have been false , that God was only known in Jury ; since that we do not esteem ignorant , at least comparatively to another , him who in the same matter of fact , knowes as much , if not more , then the most knowing , and that these propositions are formally contradictory : the advantage is of the Jews , and the advantage is not of the Jews . Again , the advantage of the Jews over the Gentiles consists , having the Oracles of God committed to them ; and , the Oracles of God committed to the Gentiles by the means of the Sibyls , are more clear and manifest then those of the Jews .

From all which I must needs inferr , that , it being impossible , a person sound in his intellectuals , should at the same time , hold both parts of the same contradiction , and there being yet a greater impossibility , that such as are inspir'd from God , should be guilty of such a miscarriage ; St. Paul did not onely not say what is attributed to him in Clemens Alexandrinus , but could not have said it . And thereupon I shall desire the prudent Reader , to take four things into his consideration :

1. That he who hath presum'd to borrow his name , to gain the greater credit to his fond imaginations , does , by the generall description he hath given us of what is contain'd in the pretended Sibylline predictions , saying , they declare one onely God , discover things to come , and the Son of God , clearly shew , that he alludeth to those very books , which are now extant of them , and consequently , that his work was hatch'd after that , entitled the Sibylline , and must needs be later then the year of our Lord , 137.

2. That , with Justin and Clemens , he acknowledges but one Sibyl , who manifested one onely God , which shews , it were to little purpose to look for different Authors for the eight books that are come to our times .

3. That the most clear and remarkable descriptions of the Son of God , palpably relate to the designation as well of the four vowels and two consonants , which make up the Greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the number precisely arising thence ; as also the Acrostick of the eighth book , wherein we have consecutively the names of Jesus Christ , Son of God , Saviour , and Cross , with the Paraphrase on the greatest part of the history of the Gospel .

4. That the more express and historicall these descriptions are , the more apparent it is that they are supposititious , and written after the event , the Spirit of God having never thought it convenient to propose things to come otherwise then aenigmatically , and under the veil of severall figures , and there being no instance but onely of one person , whose proper name it hath express'd in its Oracles , that is to say , Cyrus , twice nam'd by Isaiah , 175. years before he was possess'd of the Monarchy Isai. 44. 28. and 45. 1. of the Universe .

Clemens might soon have observ'd this , if , to compass his design , he had made it as much his business to exercise his judgement , as exhaust his memory ; but having resolv'd to make use of Heathens and Hereticks against themselves , so to undeceive them all , without taking heed himself of being surpriz'd , he , as well as others , is fallen into the snare , and the cloud of witnesses , he had to produce , suffer'd him not to see the bad marks which some of them carried in their very faces . Accordingly do we find , That this vast Wit , whom nothing escap'd , and who thought to make his advantages of all , and take away ( as sometimes Israel did ) all the treasures of Aegypt , after he had with a miraculous ostentation laid down the Depositions of 250. Heathen Authors , as well Philosophers , as Historians and Poets , and given quarter to the most execrable Heretiques , such as Basilides , Carpacrates , Julius Cassianus , Epiphanes , Heracleon , Hermogenes , Isidorus , Marcion , Prodicus , Tatian , Valentin ; &c. and opened his brest to Apocryphall pieces ; that is to say , the Prophesies of Enoch , Cham , Abacuc , Esdras , Parchor , and Sophony , the book of the Assumption of Moses , the Gospels of the Aegyptians and Hebrews , the Sermons of St. Peter , and St. Paul , the Traditions of St. Matthias , the Epistle of St. Barnabas , the Pastor of Hermas ; Brother to Pope Pius the first , ( a piece which dazled the eyes of St. Irenaeus , and many others ) hath also given credit to the counterfeit Sibyll , whose discourse he thought so much the more authentick , the more directly it contributed to his design .