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Anf. I will readily reject the Acrosticks, which are now different from what Dionyfius and Cicero mention., The Cafars are mention'd, to fhew that the fucceeding Prophefies belong'd to the Roman Empire, and no Christian could tell the following Events without a Revelation.

The Names of the Heathen Gods are made use of, which the Jews would not do; Nimrod is Saturn; Belus, Jupiter; the Father of Saturn is Calum, and Wife Rhea.

Tho' Nero's Character be made use of, (i.e. his killing his Mother) yet his Name is not mention'd in the Defcription of the Cruelty of the Turks to their own Family. Their Murther of their Brothers and Relations is fitly reprefented by Nero's unnatural Cruelty to his Mother; and the Turks are only call'd Matrum Cafores, which the Romans finding in the Sibyls, apply'd that to Nero, who kill'd his Mother; and his flying beyond Euphrates, and coming again, was from their Sibyls Book: And that is also a Testimony, that these Books were extant in Nero's time.

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An Anfwer to du Pin and his English Commentator, (vol. 2.) That the Chriftians forg'd the ORACLES.

Object. 1. Tpitol, 4. V. Cond. 671, contain'd the Pagan Superftition, and directed Sports in honour of the Heathen Gods, to build Temples, and offer Sacrifices to the Infernal Gods; but the prefent Oracles direct no fuch thing.

HE Oracles burnt in the Ca

Anf. Tarquin had thofe Sibylline Verfes mention'd, from aWoman, and those might be a Contrivance of the Devil, to promote Idolatry: The prefent Oracles were collected by the Romans, revis'd in Auguftus's days, and could come from none without a prophetic Spirit.

Obj. 2. The Oracles describe Christ more plainly than the Jewish Prophets.

Anf Balaam was a Gentile, and fpake plainly of Chrift; and the Magi, by their Star, found Chrift more certainly than the Jews could by their Prophefies. God does fometimes infpire wicked Men with clear Prophefies.

Obj. 3. The Oracles are the fame as the Fathers quoted, and they appear'd first in the Second Century, in the time of Antoni

nus Pius.

Anf.

Anf. 'Tis certain these were collected by the Romans before Chrift, and quoted by the Clementine Constitutions, Jofephus, and the publick Apologifts for Chriftianity: No body ever told the Author of fuch Forgeries.

Obj. 4. The Emperors are defcrib'd after an historical manner, and not after a prophetical one; the Stile has nothing of the Tranfport, not like Homer's. Thefe Verfes are not obfcure.

Anf. Why did not thefe Authors explain thefe Prophefies, if they be not obfcure? Diodorus fays, Homer took Verses from the Sibyls.

Obj. 5. This Impoftor, who compos'd the Books of the Sibyls, was no Scholar; he derives Adam from Hades, and fays, that the 4 Letters in Adam's Name fignifie the four Parts of the World; whereas there are no more than three Letters in it, in the Hebrew or Chaldee Word.

Anf. This is a Miftake; for the Sibyls fay Ades is from Adam; Eft "Ans, quod eo primus defcenderit Adam. I will give Voffius's Anfwer to the other part of the Objection; Nec tamen verum eft quod dicunt tribus tantum apud Hebræos hanc vocem conftare literis, quia nempe compendii gratia, unica vocalis in fcribendo omittitur,fecus fe habet in pronunciatione. There is in the Oracles very much of Geography, old History, and true Religion; the Author could not be very ignorant..

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Obj. 6. The numeral Letters in GOD's Name are thought an Abfurdity.

Anf. To this I will give the Opinion of Voffius: Neq, recte carpunt quod nomen Dei, in iis Oraculis continere dicitur 1697, cum non fatis conftat quodnam vocabulum debeat intel ligi. Ego lubenter eorum fequor fententiam, qui de voce d'vixgav, idem quod avexgavnl©, accipiunt.

Obj. 7. The Fables of the Titans are put for true Histories, Mount Ararat plac'd in Phrygia, the River Eurota in Epirus, Gog and Magog are Ethiopians; all which fhew, that the Impoftor neither understood History or Geography.

Anf. I will give Voffius's Anfwer, De Saturno Titanibus que fcribuntur in Sibyllinis, non eft ut quenquam offendant, cum per Saturnum Noë, & per Titanas intelligantur ejus pofteri, qui turrim fint moliti Babyloniam. All the Northern Mountains in Afia, from Armenia to Tanais, were call'd Ararat.

Obj. 8. 'Tis faid of the City of Rome, that it should not last above 948 Years.

Anf. This Number is to be computed from the Rife of the Western Empire: All the other Objections are anfwer'd above.

Thefe Abfurdities follow from du Pin's
Opinion:

1. That all the Writers in the four Centuries were impos'd on by this Forgery.

2. Fuftin affirms in his Questions, that St. Clement quoted the Sibyls, which du Pin denies. Clemens Alexandrinus fays St. Paul quoted the Sibyls: Du Pin fays, the Author is mistaken; he denies that Jofephus quoted the Sibyls, and fays, it was added to the Text, but does not prove it.

3. He believes Celfus, who fays the Oracles were forg'd, more than Origen, who deny'd it, and defended them; and Origen challenges Celfus to produce the ancient Copies of the Sibyls, wherein that which the Chriftians cited was not to be found: How then could thefe Oracles be newly forg'd, when Origen challenges the ancient Copies to be fhew'd?

As old Rome forbid the reading of the Oracles, because they foretold their Deftruction, and forbid their Idolatry, so our modern Romanifts condemn the Sibyls, because they write against worshiping Images, and tell how and when Rome muft fall. And this is the true Reason why they condemn them as Impostures.

I will leave Voffius's Party to defend the Antiquity of the Sibyls against du Pin, and let him defend their late Forgeries against Voffius. I hope the Hiftories of the Turkish Conquefts, both in Afia and Greece, will prove the Sibylline Oracles to be true. muft appeal from our modern Criticks to the old ones, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Eufebius, St. Jerome, Lactantius, and St. Auftin, who all believ'd the Prophefies in the

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