originals, which had been lost? To induce this suspicion or opinion, that the volume of oracles now extant is but a supposititious brood of later times, it is plausibly alleged by good writers, that thus much must be granted, or else we must grant, (which may seem worse,) that those mysteries of Christ and his kingdom, which we Christians believe, were more expressly revealed unto the heathen by these supposed prophetesses, than they were to the Jews, God's chosen people, either by Moses or the prophets for such is the nature and quality of these Sibylline predictions, as now we have them, that they may rather seem to be exegetical explications of Moses and the prophets, than original prophecies, which are for the most part enigmatical or parabolical. 2. All the arguments, notwithstanding, which can be 586 drawn from this or the like topic, are more plausible than pregnant, and, well examined, conclude aut nihil aut nimium; which way soever they be drawn or made to look, either they do not reach home to the point in question, or else they overreach or fall awry of it; none of them do punctually fall upon it: for no Christian or heathen writer, whether ancient or modern, hath hitherto made question whether the fourth eclogue of Virgil were penned by this heathen poet, or composed by some which lived after our Saviour's death, in favour of the Christians. Now if we had the notes of that plain song (on which this prince of Latin poets runs such curious descant) in the very characters wherein Sibylla Cumæa left it, (for Virgil, as he himself professeth, was but a commentator upon this one, among many other heathen prophetesses entitled to this name of Sibyl,) I do not see, nor can I conjecture, what passages in the Old Testament do more literally and plainly express the sacred mysteries concerning Christ and his kingdom, which the evangelists have unfolded unto us, than that one Sibylla did, on whose writings Virgil comments in lofty and curious verse. 3. The law and prophets (saith our Saviour) continued unto John the Baptist. His meaning is not, that the matter of those writings did then expire, or determine, or that the writings themselves should then become obsolete, or out of use; but rather, that John should take the lamps which they had lighted, and deliver them to such as were to pursue the same course which he after the law and prophets had undertaken. He was lucerna ardens et lucens, "a bright and a burning lamp," to enlighten such as lived with him or came after him, to follow his steps with zeal and devotion towards Him whom he did usher into the world. As John's entrance upon his office was a kind of period to the law and prophets, after which there was a new epocha, or distinction of times, to follow; so there was to be a determination of Sibyls' oracles about that time wherein Virgil wrote that fourth eclogue, Ultima Cumai venit jam carminis atas. Virgil did grossly err in the person or party of whom this prophecy of Sibyl was literally meant, according to the intention of the spirit of divination by which it was first conceived; and err he did, though not so grossly, in the circumstances of the time wherein it was to be accomplished. But these two errors and other circumstances being pardoned, the substance of his discourse or descant upon Sibylla Cumæa's verses is orthodoxal, and such as concludently argues the text whereon he comments to have been originally more than human, truly divine. 4. For however we have learned long ago, that all the gracious promises made by God unto the ancient לְעוֹלָם Israelites, for continuation of the Aaronical priesthood, and other like prerogatives peculiar to that nation, under the style or tenure of legnolam, for ever, were to determine at the revelation of their long expected Messias; and although many Christian writers, well versed in Hebrew antiquaries, assuredly inform us this was an unquestionable tradition amongst the ancient Hebrew rabbins, though now denied; yet no writer, either Jewish or Christian, gives me so full satisfaction in this point as Virgil in the forecited eclogue doth. For after he had said, Ultima Cumai venit jam carminis ætas, he addeth immediately, Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo. This implies, that as there was then an end of that age or world 587 wherein Sibylla Cumæa lived, so there was another age or world to begin at the accomplishment of her prophecy, which was to have no period, but to be, as we say, sæcula sæculorum, a world of worlds," or a world without end. Such we Christians believe the kingdom of Christ to be, which was to take its beginning here on earth at the accomplishments of the prophecies concerning his resurrection and exaltation. With his cross or humiliation Virgil meddles not, having transformed all that Sibylla prophesied of him into the similitude of the Roman empire as then it stood, goodly and glorious, and so to continue (as he hoped) with perpetual increase of strength and happiness. If we had all the single threads as Sibylla left them, which this heathen poet hath twisted into these and the like strong lines 66 Jam redit et Virgo: redeunt Saturnia regna: 5. Methinks they might lead us by a compendious and gain way unto a clearer view of many divine mysteries recorded by sacred writers concerning our Saviour's eternal generation, incarnation, nativity, and propagation of his kingdom, than we can hope to approach unto by the perplexed labyrinths of many modern interpreters, of divers schoolmen, or by any tradition of the ancient Hebrews, as now they are extant. But the exact parallel between the undoubted oracles of God's prophets, and such hints as Virgil descants upon from Sibylla Cumaa, I leave to younger academic divines or moralists. It shall suffice my present purpose to add some one or two more unto the former. The first revelation concerning Christ and his kingdom, which is extant upon sacred record, is that, Gen. iii. 15: I will put enmity (said God to the serpent) between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. That this woman's seed was to be a man, all that believed the truth of Moses' writings did know; but that he was to be the son of a pure virgin, was more (as is most probable) than our mother Evah, more than the father and mother of Noah at the birth of their first-born, did apprehend, and perhaps more than some prophets, and many godly men after them, did explicitly believe. Yet of this mystery that Sibylla whom Virgil follows had certainly a prenotion, though transformed by Virgil into poetical fictions of Astræa: for it is likely by Jam redit et Virgo, &c. he meant her return unto the earth. The accomplishment of that first prophecy, Gen. iii. 15, by our Saviour's victory gotten over Satan upon the cross, was first declared by himself after his resurrection to his disciples, Mark xvi. 17, 18: And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, &c. Of all this the heathen Sibylla had a prenotion, expressed by Virgil in few, yet pithy words: Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet. 6. The wilderness (saith the prophet Isaiah, xxxv. 588 1, 2.) shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom. It shall blossom abundantlya. And again, chapter xli. 19: I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together. All these and the like expressions of matter of joy in these two chapters, and elsewhere in this prophet, have their parallel in that forecited eclogue; and, as if he had foreseen that which the apostle tells us of, Ecce vetera præterierunt, nova facta sunt omnia. CHAP. IX. Answering the Objections against the former Resolutions; that God did deal better with Israel than with other Nations, although it were granted that other Nations had as perspicuous Predictions of Christ and of his Kingdom as the Israelites had. BUT if we acknowledge the revelation of these and the like divine mysteries unto the heathen to have a -Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum. &c. ver. 25. Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista, Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva; Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella. ver. 28. Nec nautica pinus Mutabit merces: omnis feret omnia tellus. Nec varios discet mentiri lana colores, &c. He concludes Adspice, venturo lætantur ut omnia seclo. |