scattered through the writers we have mentioned. We will bere quote some from both heathens and Christians :— Cicero, who lived seventy years before Christ, seems to corroborate these prognostications of the coming of Christ by the Sibyls, where he says—“If we attend to the rhymes of the Sibyls, they tell us-He whom we hold to be the true king, we must also style king, in order to become happy. And if these things are contained in those books, to what man and to what times do they apply ?'" (Cicero de divination. lib. ii. c. 110.) Virgil, the prince of poets, forty years before Christ sings (Virgil, Eclog. iv.): "Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto, Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna, etc. Casta Lucina fave." That is," A new race is sent down to us from heaven, the last of the ages sung by the Cumaan Sibyl, etc. Therefore, chaste Lucina, be gracious to this boy who shall be born, through whom the iron age shall cease, and the golden one shall be brought into the world." Tacitus (lib. xi.) says-"Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judæa potirentur.' Suetonius (in Vespasiano) and Livy were enemies of the Christians; yet they speak of a very ancient prophecy, that a man born in Judæa should become master of the whole world. One of the most furious enemies of the Christians, the Emperor Aurelian, forbade the books of the Sibyls to be read under the severest penalties. But as he did not see his way clear in the Markoman war, he wrote to the senate a letter, in which he said "I wonder, holy fathers, that it is so long delayed to open the Sibylline books, as if they belonged only to the Church of the Christians, and not to the temple of all the gods." St. Augustin is probably to be regarded as the most especial defender of the Sibylline books amongst the fathers (De civitate Dei, lib. xviii. c. 23.) In the very commencement of his work he speaks of the Sibyls, and quotes sevenand-twenty verses of the Erythræan Sibyl, which foretold the coming of Christ, and his sufferings. His words are "He will fall into the hostile hands of the wicked; with poisonous spittle will they spit upon him; on the sacred back they will strike him; they will crown him with a crown of thorns; they will give him gall for food, and vinegar for drink. The veil of the temple will be rent, and at mid-day there will be a darkness of three hours long. And he will die, repose three days in sleep, and then, in the joyful light, he will come again as the first." The learned Jesuit Canisius refers to other oracles which had foretold the same, which he says he drew from unprinted manuscripts, which Bethulejus also mentions. Lactantius, also, refers to these prophecies (Divin. institut. lib. i.) "I do not doubt," he says, "that in earlier times the books of the Sibyls were regarded as absurdities, because they were not understood. People called the miracles adventures, of which neither the time, the place, nor the worker, were identified." What Justin Martyr writes is very remarkable (Justin Martyr adversus gentes oratio, Admonitorum ad Græcos). "It would be easy to determine which is the true religion if people observed what the prophets and the Sibyls have foretold. The Sibyl was born at Babylon, and came thence to Cuma, where she revealed future things. In the midst of her dwelling are three cisterns hewn in the stone for bathing. The Sibyl, though she speaks great and wonderful things, knows not herself what she says. Especially when she begins to lose the inspiring spirit, she loses at the same time the memory of all that she has foretold. Therefore people are not accustomed to wonder at the deficiencies which are found in the books; the fault lies not in them, but in those who wrote the deliveries down, and who through ignorance did not write them down fully or correctly." Still more important is what he says in his second defence, which he laid before the Emperor Antoninus, and in which he greatly complained that the Christians were forbidden to read the books of the Sibyls. According to Clemens of Alexandria, even the Apostle Paul defended the oracle, which we learn from the inquiries of Crasset (Crasset, 1. c. p. 12.) Clemens makes the Apostle speak thus:"Take the books of the Greeks; behold the Sibyl, how she : maintains the unity of the godhead, and all things which shall come to pass. Take Hystaspes, and read him, and you will see that he speaks clearly and openly of the Son of God." To this place belongs the passage in Plato-" We derive great benefit from that rage which we see in the prophetesses of Delphi and Dodona, when under the divine influence. If, therefore, we were here to relate all that the Sibyls and others have foretold, we should require much time and labour; but these things are so well known to the world, that they require here no further remark." In Varro (Varro de re rustica, lib. i. c. 1.) it is said:—“I will not concede that the Sibyl has not sung what, as well during her life as since her death, has been of so much advantage, whose books we still publicly consult, if we desire to learn what we are to expect from this or that prognostication." Finally, Constantine the Great gives the highest and most weighty testimony. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that his speech on the Sibyls was read in the first council of the church at Nicäa. He had still the books, and it was not till fifty years after his death that they were burnt (Crasset.) To the literature regarding the Sibyls belong also the following writings :-E. Schmidii Sibyllina, Wittemb. 1618; Gutbier, de Sibyllis ejusque oraculis, 1690; Gaetani, de Sibyllis, 1756; Poseus, Sibyllarum icones. Colon. 1756; Wagneri Inquisitio in oracula Sibyllarum, Tübing. 1664; Koerber, de Sibyllarum libris, Geræ, 1680; Mark, de Sibyllinis carminibus, Francof. 1682; Sibyllina oracula cum commentario Galæi, Amstel. 1689. THE ORACLES. It has generally been believed that the Oracles, through the coming of Christ, had lost their voice, and that nothing was ever afterwards to be heard from them. This belief had its foundation in the ignorance of their nature, and in the superstitious notion that the devil through them carried on his evil work. This idea was strengthened by some occasional answers of the Oracles themselves, and, amongst others, Porphyrius received this response-" The voice comes no longer to the priestess; she is condemned to a long silence." To Augustus, too, who, according to Suidas and Nicephorus, sent to the Oracle to inquire what successor he should have, it was answered-"The Hebrew child, whom all the gods obey, drives me hence.' sometir autoric the Rom fonnse) anxiety i temple w pointed Esculapiu But the Oracles did not cease with Christ, since they continue still to speak; on the contrary, the clear light was indeed first kindled, and made so strong that no storm or wind has power to extinguish it; while before it only found security in dark caves. We can prove this from the earlier histories. Plutarch, who lived after Christ, says expressly: "The Oracle of Lebadia, that of Trophonius and of Delphi,ring cor continue still." In another place he says, "The temple of Delphi is more splendid than ever, all dilapidations are repaired, and new buildings erected, so that the little city of Delphi draws its support from it." Suetonius, in the Life of Nero, relates that the Oracle of Delphi warned Nero beforehand that he should beware of his three-and-seventieth year. Nero believed, therefore, sekness a pened, an eputation Quintus AWhen he h emple, dow serpent ro self down Accordin: mbassador that he should live to that age, and did not dream of the three-and-seventy years' old Galba, who deprived him of the empire. Philostratus speaks of Apollonius, who lived ninety years after Christ, and who had visited the Oracles Esculapius of Amphiaraus, of Delphi, and Dodona. Julian sent to Delphi to inquire whether he should undertake the expedi-Romans acq the Asclepia tion against Persia. Dionysius says that Amphilochus the anchor w vaticinated in dreams two-hundred-and-fifty years after Christ. Macrobius relates that in the times of Arcadius and Honorius, the god at Heliopolis in Syria, and Fortuna at Antium, still flourished. According to Kinderling on “The Somnambulism of our time compared with the Incubation or the Temple-sleep and Soothsaying of the Ancient Pagans," 1788, the temple-sleep was still in practice in the fifteenth century. The people were so confident of help in the temples that even to have imagined themselves in a temple became free ( in a dream was considered a sign of convalescence. The Greeks yet fast on certain days, in order more surely to obtain dreams. But with Constantine the temple establishments entirely ceased, as he forbade all offerings most strictly, as Cæsar already had pronounced sentence of death on all pagan soothsayers. High as stood the reputation of the Sibyls amongst the prang upon This was a si A temple, the established on reign of the Tas so much the cures do be healed; an this statement Consultations gives some of others, the r Tenomous crea of Elian and high reputati Romans, still higher were the Oracles esteemed amongst the Greeks; yes, even the expounders of the Sibylline books sometimes referred directly to the Oracles as to a higher authority. Apollo was very early paid divine honours by the Romans. The Consul Brutus sent to Delphi to seek counsel on account of the evil auguries which created such anxiety in Rome; and about 461 years before Christ a temple was built to Apollo, and the Vestal virgins were appointed to the service of it. Not long afterwards Esculapius was not less honoured here than in Epidaurus, having come in this manner to Rome. In a very fatal sickness amongst the people, the Sibylline books were opened, and the interpreters themselves counselled that a deputation should go to Esculapius to seek his advice. Quintus Apulinus was therefore sent thither the next year. When he had delivered his message, instead of an answer, a serpent rolled itself, to the admiration of all, out of the temple, down to the shore, sprang into the ship, and laid itself down quietly in the cabin of the ambassador. According to Ovid (Metamorph. lib. xv. v. 622) the ambassador received through a dream the revelation that Esculapius would change himself into a serpent. Some of the Asclepiads immediately accompanied him, to make the Romans acquainted with the service of the god. When the anchor was cast at the mouth of the Tiber, the snake sprang upon the Tiber island, and laid himself quickly down. This was a sign to them that the god must here be honoured. A temple, therefore, was built on the spot, and the worship established on the same plan as at Epidaurus. Under the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the temple of Esculapius was so much frequented, and so celebrated on account of the cures done, that masters sent their slaves thither to be healed; and by a decree of the emperor all so healed became free (Sueton. in Claud.) Petronus also corroborates this statement by the assertion that in Nero's time these consultations in the temple were very common; and Pliny gives some of the curative means recommended; amongst others, the roots of the wood-rose against the bite of venomous creatures. Others are to be found in the pages of Elian and Galen. The Egyptian Serapis had also a high reputation amongst the Romans; and a separate |