e whole History of our Saviour, &c. But if the Sibyls Verses had been all burnt or loft, or if they had been kept so close, that no body could poffibly come to the Knowledge of them, without leave from the Senate, there could have been no pretence for any Imposture, nor would the Chriftians ever have alledg'd them as genuine. Celfus objects only, That many things were added to the Verfes of the Sibyls: Not that they were all Counterfeit, or that the Chriftians had no means of coming by the True: which was an Advantage that an Adverfary much lefs fubtle than Celfus would not have omitted, if there had been any ground for it. Origen replies, That it was a malicious Accufation, and that he was able to bring no Proof of it, by producing ancient Copies more genuine than those which the Chriftians made use of. Blondel argues. very well, that it had been the greatest Rafhnefs and Imprudence imaginable, and most destructive of the Defign, at which they aim'd, the Establishment of Christianity, for the Fathers to cite Books, which the Heathens were fure could never come to their Knowledge, and which those, to whom they cited them, knew to contain no fuch things as they pretended to produce from them. "When this, fays he, is as im t pudent and fenflefs, as if fome Jew, from Wri"tings lately forg'd, full of Criminal Accufations a"gainst the Saviour of the World, fhould maintain "to the very Faces of Christians, that he found them "in the New Teftament, that the Apostles were the "Authors of them, and that the Church having al"ways had them in her Cuftody, had conceal'd them. He fays, "That this and much more to the fame " purpose, any Man of common Reafon might easily "perceive, and that Justin Martyr would have ob "ferv'd it, if he had confider'd things with more "Calmnefs. But what is there in all the Writings. e Origen. contra Celf, 1, 7. f Lib. I. cap. 18. of of Justin Martyr, that discovers his Want of Calmnefs, or rather, that does not fhew him to have been confiderate, learned, and prudent? He is effectually vindicated from the Mistake, with which he has been charg'd, concerning the Statue erected at Rome, of Simon Magus: and a probable Account has been given, that not by His, but by fome Tranfcriber's Miftake, Herod is made contemporary with Ptolemaus Philadelphus. However, every candid Reader must acknowledge, as well that Justin Martyr could not be fo far ignorant of the Age when Herod liv'd, as that it was impoffible for fo obvious Inconveniences, as Blondel mentions, to escape the Obfervation of Juftin or of any of the Fathers, or almost of any other Man. If Justin Martyr were void of all Senfe and Modefty, would the reft have pursued the fame Course of Folly, only to make themselves ridiculous and odious by his Example? They were neither impudent nor ftupid Men, and that which could proceed from nothing, but a Mixture of Impudence and Stupidity, can with no Reason or Juftice be charg'd upon them, and therefore they must be allow'd to have cited the genuine Verfes of the Sibyls. And if the Sibyls had deliver'd nothing relating to thefe Matters, why fhould any one counterfeit Verses in their Name, rather than under the Title of any other Oracle? There must be some Ground and Foundation of Truth, to give any Opportunity or Pretence to the Counterfeiting of it: And the Prophecies of the Sibyls concerning Chrift, must be the Occafion of all the additional ones which were falfly afcrib'd to them. 4. Ifaac Voffius thought that great part of these Oracles were compos'd by the Jews. And indeed, Paufanias fays, one of the Sibyls was by the Jews call'd Tillemont Memoir. Eccl. Tom. 2. Part. I. p. 340. h Grabe not. in Apol. I, i Paufan. in Phocic. p. 328, Sabba Sabba; the fame, I fuppofe, who is mention'd by Alian; and by Suidas, faid to be defcended from Noah, and named Sambethe, call'd the Chaldaan, and by fome the Hebrew, and alfo the Perfian Sibyl; whom Alexander ab Alexandro calls Sibylla Judaa; though Jofephus citing a Sibyl concerning the Tower of Ba bel, gives no fuch Account of her, but rather suppo fes the contrary. m But if these were only Heathen Oracles, yet there is reafon to believe that the Predictions concerning Chrift were very plain, though not fo particular as thofe now fet down in the Sibylline Books; both because the Heathen having but few Oracles of this nature, and so many of a quite contrary nature, it was the more necessary that these should be plain; and becaufe we find, that when God, in his infinite Wifdom, faw it fitting to reveal himself to others, he did it in as plain a manner, and fometimes in a plainer, than he did to his own People in any one Prophecy. Thus Balaam's Prophecy is as plain as any Prophecy of that time at least, and our Saviour discover'd himself more plainly to the Woman of Samaria, than he had yet done to any of his Difciples, John iv. 26. Not to mention the Dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, or the Meffage of Jonah to the Ninevites, And as Balaam, an Inchanter, or Sorcerer, deliver'd a true and famous Prophecy of Chrift, and the Devils were forced to confefs him to be the Son of God; fo it is reasonable to believe, that God might ordain, that these celebrated Propheteffes, whofe Oracles were otherwise the Devil's Inftruments to promote his Ends, fhould foretel our Saviour's Coming: And yet St. Auguftine affures us," that the Sibylla Erythraa, or Cumana, had nothing of Idolatry in her Verfes; but Ælian. 1. 12. c. 35. Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 16. spoke spoke so much against it, that he believ'd her to belong to the City of God. 5. The difference which there is between Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, and the Tranflation of it into Greek, in Conftantine's Oration, is rather an Argument for the Authority of the Sibylline Oracles, than against it. For Conftantine was wont to compofe his Orations and Epiftles in Latin, and they were tranflated into Greek by fome whom he employ'd in that Service: And the Author of the Tranflation tranflated only what was properly Virgil's; but when he came to what was by Virgil borrow'd from the Sibyl, he wrote down the Original Greek, not tranflating the Variations which Virgil had made from it, to apply the Prophecy to his own Subject. It is well known, that the Ancients took as great a Liberty as this, in their Tranflations; and it was the more allowable, when there could be no Design or Likelihood of Deceit in the Tranflation of fo famous. a Poem as that Eclogue of Virgil. This was but to point out the Alterations which Virgil had made, and to fhew how eafily thefe parts of his Poem might be fupply'd from the Original Greek: And perhaps this was a known Tranflation of that Eclogue which had been made with this Defign. It were no difficult matter, to Answer all the other Objections which are wont to be brought against the Sibylline Oracles, fo far as the Notion here propofed is concern'd in them. For tho' the Books which we have now, contain manifeft Falfifications and Forgeries; yet there must have been fomething real, to give a pretence and countenance to fo many elaborate Forgeries of this nature, and that was the Sibylline Oracles mention'd in Tully, Sallust, Virgil, &c. We may therefore conclude, that the True Religion re • Eufeb. vit. Conft. 1. 3. c. 13. ceived a confiderable Promulgation from these Oracles, which ferved to awaken in the Gentiles an Expectation of a King to be born in Judea. r : As foon as the Gospel appeared in the World, like the Rising Sun, it diffused its Divine Light and Influence into all Parts of the Earth; its Propagation was it self a Miracle, and answerable to that miraculous Power of Languages, and other means by which it was accomplished. Tertullian acquaints us, P that it was foon propagated beyond the Bounds of the Roman Empire; he speaks of the Northern Parts of Britain and we know it received as early a Propagation in other Places more remote, being preached by St. Bartholomew to the Indians, by St. Thomas to the Parthians, and to the Scythians by St. Andrew. * St. Thomas preached likewife to the Indians, and St. Matthew to the Perfians. In general we are told, that the Apostles preached to the Perfians, Armenians, Parthians, Scythians, Indians, and Brittans, to the Indians, Agyptians and Æthiopians, that they preached "not only to all under the Roman Empire, but to the Scythians, the Sarmatians, the Indians, the Ethiopians, the Perfians, the Seres, (Chinefes,) the Hyrcanians, the Bactrians, the Brittans, the Cimbri, the Germans, and in fhort to all Nations. The Eunuch Treasurer to Candace Queen of Æthiopia, being converted and baptized by St.Philip, returned and preached the Gospel there, whereby St. Cyril of Jerufalem obferves, that Prophecy of the Pfalmift was fulfilled, Ethiopia fhall foon stretch out her hands unto God, Pfal. lxviii. 31. " X t In St. Auguftin's time the Chriftians were more numerous in all the known Parts of the World, than the P Tertul. adv. Judæos, c. 7. Eufeb. Hift. 1. 3. c. 1. & l. 5. c.10. Eufeb. Dem. Evang. l. 3. c. 7. Theodoret. Tom. 1. in Pfal. exvi. " Id. Tom.4. Serm. 9. * Catech. 17. St. Aug. de Utilit. Credendi, c. 7. Jews |