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even of the pagans, before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, a great portion of the first and second books were ascribed to, or supposed to be, by the Judaised Christians about the first ages of the Church. Such is also the case in the fourth book, which encloses more foreign interpolations, and the origin of which is difficult to recognise.

Thirdly, the fifth book was composed under Antoninus by the heretics, probably the Ebionites and the Cerinthiens. The sixth and eighth books bear numberless traces of the same hand, and the rest is Jewish or pagan.

It is not worth while to divide ourselves into two camps and discuss the question bitterly, since both will arrive at a similar result.

Our readers will no doubt join with us in viewing the folly of long discussions, and they will do well to preserve the Sibylline verses as objects of pure curiosity, not of literature, and without attaching to them any great importance.

F

EXTRACTS FROM A SPANISH

BOOK,

entitled Oraculos de las doce Sibilas, Profetisas de Christo nuestro Señor. Por el Licenciado Bal

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In this work are quoted one hundred and thirty-three authorities from which the Author has collected the materials for his work on the Twelve Sibyls.

INTRODUCTION

Ćlement of Alexandria,* a most learned man, who, as St Jerome informs us, flourished about the year 207, says that in the same way as God our Lord gave to the Jews Prophets, in order that they should be apprised of the coming of the Son of God into the world-He likewise gave to the Greeks and Gentiles women Prophets, that they also might have the same knowledge, and not be able at any time to allege ignorance of such an important event.

The doctrines of the Sibyls were distasteful to many of the Gentiles, because what they prophesied appeared to them impossible—such as that the Messias was to be Man and God, and His Mother a virgin and mother, and that He was to be King and Priest. Hence many held these women to be mad, and they endeavoured to burn their oracles; and above all, because the Sibyls announced to them a new King and supreme Monarch.

St Justin Martyr,† who lived about the year 240, also says, "that among the impious Gentiles there was a punishment imposed upon those who

* Clem. 6, Strom. D. Hieron. de vir. illus.

† Inst. in Admonit. Get.

should read the oracles of the Sibyls, because these oracles were a confirmation of the doctrines and professions of the Christians. And another reason was that they prophesied the coming of Christ the Eternal King, at whose coming they judged would end their sovereignty. Of this punishment Flavius Vopiscus* treats in his life of the Emperor Valerian.

Here it is well to remark that in proportion as the Devil endeavoured to darken and to cast down the oracles and prophecies of the Sibyls during those first ages of the Christian Church, so much more were they proclaimed and extended throughout the world; and these prophecies all remained in their truth and purity until the time of Julian the Apostate, who wished to burn them on Mount Ethna, but his endeavours were vain because the Christians collected many verses of the oracles and placed them among their writings, and in this way they have been handed down to our times, particularly the oracles of the Sibyl Erithrea, as is affirmed by Lactantio Firmianus† and Marcus Varro.

The Sibyls were women full of God, as is told us by Diodorus Siculus, Servius, and Lactantius.

* Flau. Vopi. in vita Valer.

† Lactan. inst. lib. I. cap. 6, et in ira lib. I. cap. 22.

Marcus Varro✶ says that the word Sibyl is the same as "Counsel of God." The same is said by St Jerome. Suidas † writes, that Sibyl is a Roman name and means prophetess. John Boccacio, in his book on Illustrious Women, chap. 19, says: "Sirius in the Eolic language means God, and Boule Thought, or a person who carries God in his thought."

The Saints and Scholastic Doctors acknowledge that these Sibyls were prophetesses, and assert that they were saved and are Saints. It is said in a general way of them that they were women full of the Spirit of God, who rejected the gods of the Gentiles and confessed one only God—who kept perpetual virginity, and who knew the things to come. Clement Alexandrinus + quotes a saying of the Apostle St Paul in which he mentions the Sibyls, and although this saying of his is not part of the writing received by the Church, yet from the repute of the author, should be held in esteem. The quotation is as follows: "Libros quoq: Grecos summite agnoscite Sibyllam quomodo unum Deum significet et ea qua sunt futura," etc. Which means, "Read the Greek Books, and understand in them the Sibyls, who

* Mar. Varro in lib. ser. divin. Diodor. Sicul. lib. 5.
† Servio, lib. 4, Enead,
6 Stromat,

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