lar meaning which the writer of the Oracles attaches elsewhere to his other terms, εὐσεβεῖς and δίκαιοι, leave no doubt that such subjects of persecution, as he intended to describe, were believers, or Christians properly so called. In another instance, lib. viii. 719, 7, the same sort of persecutors are called στTopleïs, or, as the metre requires it to be read, #1σtoπрolεis, or пισтоmpaleis. In another, the proper subjects of a violence, evidently meant of persecution, are actually called expioTo; lib. v. 556. 5. Persecution of the evσeßeis, in the same sense as before, is again predicted, iv. 529. 4 and 5. We may infer from this fact, also, that the author of such passages could not have written before Christianity had begun to be persecuted by Gentiles, and Gentile authorities; that is, before the reign of Nero at the earliest.

Again, lib. iv. 490, line 2, we meet with the following passage;

ὧν τρόπον, εὐσεβίην τε, καὶ ἤθεα * ανέρες ἄλλοι

οὔ ποτε μιμήσονται, ἀναιδείην ποθέοντες·
ἀλλ ̓ αὐτοὺς χλεύῃ Υ γέλωτί τε μυχθίζοντες,
νήπιοι ἀφροσύνῃσιν ἐπιψεύσονται ἐκείνοις
ὅσσ ̓ αὐτοὶ ῥέξουσιν ἀτάσθαλα καὶ κακὰ ἔργα.

The context of this passage shews that the author is contrasting the moral characteristics, habits, and usages of the worshippers of the true God, with those of the worshippers of idols; and when he proceeds to say that the rest of the world, " instead " of imitating their manners and their piety, should "treat them with insult and mockery," and not

* Supple 8.

y Supple re, or read χλεύῃσι.

content with that, "should impute to them, however

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falsely, even the abominations and impurities which

they perpetrated themselves"-it seems to me extremely probable that he had in his eye, not only such disrepute and contempt in general, under which Christianity must have laboured in his time, but certain calumnies in particular, of a more atrocious kind than common, which were circulated against it, and currently believed of it. For an explanation of the nature of these calumnies, I refer the reader to the notes, upon the exposition of the prophecy on the mount, vol. v. page 282. sqq. We may observe, with respect to them here, that they had reached their acme, and produced their worst effect to the prejudice of Christianity, by the beginning of the second century; soon after which time, I should suppose these Oracles to have been written.

Again, the author of the Sibylline Oracles was well aware of the war of the Jews with the Romans, in the time of Nero and Vespasian, of the destruction of the second temple, and of the rest of the calamities which befell the Jews about that period, in consequence of their revolt; whence we may draw the inference, that he could not have written before U. C. 823. A. D. 70. at least. See lib. i. 186. line 3. to the end of the book: lib. iv. 522. 6-523. 2: lib. v. 548. 4: ibid. 623. line 2. sqq. Cf. 575. 6, 7.

Again, lib. iv. 523, 1. 3—525. 3, an earthquake is predicted, by which Salamis and Paphus in Cyprus were to be destroyed; an event, probably the same which is shewn by Eusebius in Chronico to have

happened ad ann. Abrahami, 2091, in the seventh of Vespasian, U. C. 829, A. D. 762: and then a volcanic eruption, which is clearly perceived to be intended for that of mount Vesuvius, in the first year of Titus, U. C. 832, A. D. 79a. On this principle, the fourth book of the Oracles could not have been written before A. D. 79 at least. Immediately after, an allusion occurs to "the coming of the mighty fugitive of Rome, who is supposed to cross the Euphrates for that purpose, with many myriads of men"-which being historically understood, as the context requires it should be, is meant of the appearance of the Pseudo-Nero, abetted by the Parthians, in the reign of Domitian, A. D. 88 b.

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Again, in the second book of the Oracles, we meet with a remarkable passage; the general meaning of which I apprehend to be, under the figure of a great and universal άyv or contest, proposed by Christ, as the author and umpire of the contest, the crown of which is immortal life-to represent the peculiar character of that state of moral probation, to which all mankind should become subject on evangelical and Christian principles, from the time that the Gospel was thrown open to the whole world. It is a favourite practice, even with the inspired writers of the New Testament, to represent this state under the metaphor of one of the games of antiquity, of which so many were still in being in their own time; the subjects of this state as candidates for the prize in those games; and the z Cf. Sueton. Vesp. 17. a Vide Dio, apud Xiph. lxvi. 21. Cf. Euseb. Chron. ad ann. Abrahami, 2095. Titi 1. b Vide vol. i. of this work, 388.

reward of their faith and perseverance at last, as a crown, such as usually rewarded the victors in those games. Under ordinary circumstances, the part of a candidate for such a prize, in such a contest, is the discharge of the ordinary moral and religious duties belonging to his place and station; but under extraordinary circumstances, as in times of trial or persecution, it may be the part incumbent on the confessor or the martyr; both which we shall perceive are alluded to. The text in this passage is less corrupt, than in most other instances; and a very few corrections, each of them admissible on critical principles, will suffice to restore it to a tolerable degree of purity. Lib. ii. 192. 8.

καὶ τότε δὴ μέγα σῆμα θεὸς μετέπειτα ποιήσει·
λάμψει γὰρ στεφάνῳ λαμπρῷ παρομοίῖος ἀστὴρ
λαμπρὸς, παμφαίνων δέ τ' ἀπ ̓ οὐρανοῦ αἰγλήεντος
ἤμασιν οὐκ ὀλίγοις τόδε γὰρ στέφος ἀνθρώποισιν
δείξει ἀπ ̓ οὐρανόθεν, θέμ ̓ ἀγώνιον ἀθλεύουσιν.
καὶ τὸ θέμ ̓, ἠδ ̓ ὁ μέγας γὰρ ἀγὼν ἐσελαστικὸς ἔσται
εἰς πόλιν οὐρανίην, οἰκουμενικὸς δέ τε πᾶσιν
ἔσσεται ἀνθρώποισιν, ἔχων κλέος ἀθανασίης.
καὶ τότε δὴ πᾶς λαὸς ἐπ ̓ ἀθανάτοισιν ἀέθλοις
ἀθλήσει νίκης περικαλλέος· οὐ γὰρ ἀναιδῶς
ἀργυρίου τις ἐκεῖ δύναται στέφος ὠνήσασθαι.
ἁγνὸς γὰρ Χριστὸς τούτοις τὰ δίκαια βραβεύσει,
καὶ στέψει δοκίμους, αὐτὰρ θέμα μάρτυσι δώσει
ἀθάνατόν γ', ἄχρι καὶ θανάτου τὸν ἀγῶνα ποιοῦσι.
παρθενικοῖς δὲ δραμοῦσι καλῶς, ἄφθαρτον ἄεθλον
δώσει τοῦ θέματος, καὶ τοῖς τὰ δίκαια νέμουσιν
ἀνθρώποις πασίν τε, καὶ ἔθνεσιν ἀλλοδαποῖσιν,
τοῖς ὁσίως ζωσίν τε, θεὸν δ ̓ ἕνα γινώσκουσιν.

Then, after a long digression, from 202. 4-265. 1, consisting of a summary of moral duties, compiled chiefly from the Old and the New Testament, and in some instances expressed in their very words,

(not the least admirable part of these Oracles in general,) the subject of the ayw is resumed and concluded thus:

οὗτος ἀγὼν, ταῦτ ̓ ἐστιν ἀέθλια, ταῦτα βραβεία,
ἥδε πύλη ζωῆς τε, καὶ εἴσοδος ἀθανασίας,
ἣν θεὸς οὐράνιός γε δικαιοτάτοις ἀνθρώποις
ἔστησεν νίκης ἐπαέθλιον· οἱ δὲ λαβόντες

τὸ στέφος ἐνδόξως διελεύσονται διὰ ταύτης.

The importance of this passage, as furnishing any argument of the age of the writer, is due to the peculiarity of denomination given to the ayv in question, as one of the games known in ancient times by the name of the ἀγῶνες εἰσελαστικοί ; to which characteristic property of it a reference occurs again, as we have seen, at the end of the whole description. This circumstance contributes to fix the date of the passage to a period not earlier than the reign of Trajan. It may be inferred from two of the letters which passed between Pliny the Younger, in his government of Bithynia, and the emperor Trajan, that some of the games of antiquity, which before were Iselastic, were abolished by this emperor, probably because they had fallen into decay; and others, having probably acquired a degree of eminence, entitling them to that character, were appointed Iselastic, which were not so previously. The celebrity thus given to the games of this description, was in all probability the reason why the figurative contest, above represented, was set forth as one of that kind of games in particulare. If so, the al

c Perhaps, ἐσελεύσονται.

d Lib. x. 119, 120.

e The Iselastic games were so called, because they entitled the victors in such contests to the privilege of the eloλaois, that is, of returning in a kind of triumphal procession to their