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. XIII. Inducements of Praying for the Dead, arising from the Hypothe∣ses proposed in the pretended Sibylline Writing.

BY this means had the Opinion of the Millenaries (with a success equal to that of the other Supposi•…•…s of the pretended Sibylline Wri∣ting) not onely found Partisans among the Christians; but also gained the applause of many of the most eminent among them: and all had conceived this apprehension thereof; that it was impossible to main∣tain all the Hypotheses contained in it, without inducing, by a necessary consequence, Prayer for the Dead: whom they imagined to stand so much the more in need of the Assistances of the living; by how much they imagined them exposed, as well to the disturbances, which those might be subject to, who are reduced to the expectation of their Hap∣piness, as to the Temptations, and Assaults, which the Faithfull are ex∣ercised with, through the implacable malice of Evil Spirits; and are ob∣liged, at last, to stand to the rigorous Judgment of the God of glory.

We cannot make a better representation of the State, whereto the Chri∣stians of that Time conceived their deceased Brethren to be reduced; then by copying-out what Justin Martyr, who had seen the Eruption of the first Sibylline Imposture) hath written of the condition of our Saviour himself, to whom he very justly applied those words of the two and twentieth Psalm (according to the Hebrews) a 1.1 Save me from the Lyon's Mouth. That he prayed his Soul might be delivered from the Sword, from the Lyon's Mouth, and the Paw of the Dog, was a request, that none should prevail over his Soul; to the end, that, when we come to depart this life, we should desire the same things, as he did of Almighty God; that every wicked bold Spirit may be prevented from taking our Souls, as being what the Souls ex∣pect. I have shewn as much, in that Saul required, that the Soul of Samuel might be evocated by the Witch. It appears also, that the Souls of all those, who have been Just, and Prophets, are subject to such Powers, as (by the effect) it is manifest, was that, wherewith the Witch was Possessed. Whence it is, that he teacheth us by his Son, that we (for whose sake it is clear, that that was done) should Fight all manner of waies, and desire, at our Departure out of this life, that our Souls may not fall under any such Powers, for as much, as when he gave up the Ghost upon the Cross, he said b 1.2 Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.

From which Discourse we learn; that he had a certain persuasion of four things;

1. That our Saviour, at the time of his Passion for our salvation, pray∣ed, that his Soul might not fall under the power of the Devils.

2. That we are obliged, upon our approaches to Death, to imitate his Example.

3. That the Prophets were, after death, exposed to the insolencies of Evil Spirits, in such manner, that the Soul of Samuel could be evocated by the Witch of Endor.

4. That the Souls, of the Faithfull, who dayly depart this world, are subject to the same inconveniences; and, consequently, do all stand in extraordinary need of being relieved by the Prayers of the Living.

In like manner do we see, that upon this mold must needs be fashioned those Antient Prayers, which the Church of Rome makes, at this day, for the Faithfull departed; saying, Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera ani∣mas omnium Fidelium defunctorum de manu Inferni, & de profundo lacu. Libe∣ra eas de ore Leonis; nè absorbeat eas Tartarus; nè cadant in obscura Tenebrarum loca. Fac eas, Doni•…•… transire te de morte ad vitam San ctam, &c. Liberatae de principibus Tenebrarum, & locis paena rum, &c. Repelle, quaesumus, Domine, ab ea omnes Principe Tenebrarum, &c. That is to say; O Lord, Jesus Christ, King of Glory, deliver out of the hand of Hell, and from the deep Lake, the souls of all the Faithfull departed. Save them from the mouth of the Lyon; that Hell do not swallow them up; and that they may not fall into the obscure places of Darkeness, &c. Lord make them to pass from Death to an Holy Life, &c. may they be delivered from the Princes of Darkness, and the places of Torments, &c. Drive away from them all the Princes of Darkness, O Lord we beseech thee. Nay the ten∣der Saint Augustine had such a kind of Letany in his Imagination; when, celebrating, in his Confessions, the Memory of Saint Monica his

Mother, who was c 1.3 dead at least six years before, he hath this Lan∣guage. d 1.4 Nemo à protectione tua dirumpat eam: non se interponat, nec vi, nec insidiis, Leo, & Draco; nec enim respondebit illa, nihil se debere, nè convin∣catur, & obtineatur ab Accusatore callido, &c. Let no body snatch her out of thy protection: let not the Lion, or the Dragon interpose themselves, either by force, or by ambush; for she will not answer, that she ows nothing, lest she be convicted, and carried away by the crafty Accuser.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Psal. xxii. 21.
• b 1.2

  Luke xxiiii. 46.
• c 1.3

  May the fourth, in the year of Christ 389.
• d 1.4

  Lib. 9. cap. 13.