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.

CHAP. XXI. That it cannot, with any likelihood of Truth, be maintained, That the Books, called the Sibylline, were written by Divine Inspiration.

HAving (according as the necessity of Reason, and Truth, re∣quired) presupposed, that the eight Books, pretended to be Si∣bylline, are the Fiction of some bold, and busie Christian, who would needs have his own fantastick Imaginations pass for Oracles: This Question, Whether they were writ by Divine Inspiration, falls of it self to the ground. For, it would argue a total Eclipse of sense, and under∣standing, to think, that God, who is the source of Truth, would be the adviser of an Imposture, and to say he were Authour of it, no less, then stark madness; since a 1.1 there is no communion between the light of Wis∣dom and the darkness of Lying. Whereof the Result is, That the Sibyls (from whose Oracles the Idolatrous Romanes always derived Encou∣ragements of Impiety to heighten their Superstition) neither were, nor could be, (in that regard) the communications of the Spirit of God; to whose Glory, and Worship, those Divinations were directly op∣posite. 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, b 1.2 That They had, for their Livery, Vir∣ginity;

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 pos∣sible for God, to declare by those women the Secrets to come, as to make Balaam's Ass to c 1.3 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. d 1.4 Augustine, expounding these words of Saint Paul, e 1.5 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 pre∣tended 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 al∣ready 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. f 1.6 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 Pro∣phecying Spirit; it is he, who is deceived, and deceives by things, that have a probability of Truth; it is he, who spoke by the Sibyl, imitating ours, and desirous to be numbred among the Celestial.

For my part, I freely confess, it were a very hard matter to maintain; that the eight Books of the Sibyls, which copy out the best part of the History of the Gospel had been written before our Saviour's coming into the Flesh, and •…•…at they were the Productions of some Python, or Prophe∣cying Spirit: but it is evident, that Hilary, reflecting on the fond Imagina∣tions, 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.

Notes

• a 1.1

  2 Cor. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 6. 16.
• b 1.2

  Lib. 1. cap. 26.
• c 1.3

  Numb. 22. 28.
• d 1.4

  Opposit: in∣choatae, in Ep. ad Rom.
• e 1.5

  Rom. 1. 2.
• f 1.6

  1 Cor. 2. 12. apud Am∣brosium.