wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

ecaufe,^'54 Of the Sihyllim Oracle's. B o o k I.than our Saviour Chrift a God ;taking notice of their ufing of thofe Sibyllineteftimonies againfl the Pagans, did not tax them for counterfeiting thewhole bufinefs of thefe Sibylline oracles, but only for inferting many thingsOrig. c. Cf// of their own into them ; iy-i^^ S\ -a-jm SiSy^.Aai/, « yjuuTxi ntsf J^ii'v, tUoTut aj1^ ^Xtt.Qipr.fj.x E('x-^ S\j-jx^i- Tou Chrijlians might much rather have ackficwledgedeven theS\hy\for the off-fpring of God •, but notvyou can boldly infert intohcr verfesmany^ and thofe rr.alcdicent things of ycur oxvn. Where Origen, that hemight vindicate, as well as he could, the honour of Chriflians, pleads intheir defence, t'lat Celfus, for all that, could not (hew what they had foifted"into thofe Sibylline verfts •,if he had been able to have producedmore ancient and incorrupt copies, in which fuch things were not found, hewould certainly have done it. Notwithftanding which, it is likely, that therewere other ancient copies then to be found, and that Celfus might have metwith them too, and that from thence he took occafion to write as he did.However, this would not juliify the prefent Sibylline books, in which thereare forgeries plainly difcovcrable without copies. Neverthelefs it feems,that all the ancient Chriftians did not agree in making ufe of thefe Sibyllineteftimonies, thus much being intimated by Cf//«j himfelf, in the fore-citedwords, V 'x^n-ic'Pixi Tiv£,- Jy.iJv, which fonie of you make ufe of; as they did not allacknowledge the Sibyi to have been a prophetefs neither : fince, upon Celfus 'mentioning a fec'T: of Chriftians called Sibyllifts, Origen tells us, that thefewere fuch as uHng the Sibylline teftimonies were called i"o in way ofdifgraceby other Chriftians, who would not allow the Sibyl to have been aprophetefs; they perhaps conceiving it derogatory to the Scriptures. Butthough there may be fome of the ancient Sibylline verfes ftill left in thatfarrago which we now have, yet it being impoftible for us to prove whichare fuch, we Ihall not infift upon any teftimonies at all from thence, toevince, that the ancient Pagans acknowledged one fupreme Deity. Notwithftandingwhich, we fhall not omit one Sibylline palfage, which we find recordedin Paufanias ', (from whence, by the way, it appears alfo, that the Sibyllineverfes were not kept up fo clofe, but that fomc of them got abroad)he telling us, that the defeat of the Athenians at JEgos Fotamos was prediftedby the Sibyl m thefe words (amongft others:)Kxi tot' 'A6»i'JJ"«fS'» (ix^'^rovac -Krihx S«5-£iZcii i;x|/»f jEjMfTJif, awff x^xT