The last age of the Cumeian song is now arrived. The Goddess, the virgin Astroa, (thought to be fled to Heaven) now approaches. The reign of Saturn returns. A new progeny descends from Heaven. Be thou propitious to the new-born son, by whom the iron age shall cease, and the golden age of peace shall arise on all the world. He shall participate the life of God; shall govern the world with the virtues of his sire. The earth shall bring forth with little culture, every where interspersed with shrubs and flowers, as first offerings to the auspicious babe. At morn and night the skipping goats shall come home with distended udders nor shall they fear the huge terrific lions; [nor shall the wolf lay stratagems against the sheep. Ecl. v. 60] Serpents and noxious herbs shall kill no more. The waving fields of corn shall gradually change to a golden hue, the blushing grapes shall hang in uncultivated clusters, and honey-dew shall distil from the hardy oaks.-Haste, O auspicious babe to know thy mother by her smiles. Ten long months she bore thee with dignified infirmities. Haste O mysterious babe, on whom thy parents never smiled; nor God honoured thee at his table, nor Goddess with her bed. *'

"When Celsus charged the Christians with having forged the writings of the Sibyls, Origen refuted him under the plea of impossibility, adding, that not one of the fathers had disbelieved them.' Gregory Nazianzen seems to stand alone in saying, Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem : Matri longa decem tulerunt fastidia menses: Incipe, parve puer; cui non risere parentes, Nec deus hunc menså, dea nec dignata cubili est.

that the Sibyline verses contain many things borrowed from the sacred Scriptures. Notwithstanding, Daille*, and some other modern critics, are of opinion that part of these verses are forged. Perhaps there is some truth in this, for according to Jerome, the notaries often wrote what they thought, instead of what they found.'+ Origen is however correct: in works so much diffused, in works lodged in the archives of the Senate, forgery to any extent was utterly impossible. These prophetesses have handed down to posterity what they conceived to be the true theology and hope of the ancient temples.

"It is therefore of no avail for Valesius, or any other Arian to defame these productions as forgeries, for this additional argument, that the Voluspa or oracle of the prophetess Vola, in sixty-five stanzas, celebrates much the same themes as those in the pagan Sibyls, and in the Hebrew prophets. This is a standard work of our northern fathers, and often quoted in the Edda.

"Speaking of the creation of Ask and Embla, I would say, Adam and Eve [the introductory lines being lost] she says, '**** Until there came

These verses Archbishop Parker turns as under, out of Constantine's oration :

Begin, sweet babe, with smiles thy mother to know,
Who ten long months did with thy burden go:

Sweet babe begin, cheer'd by no parents' look,

To's board no God, t'her bed no Goddess took.

* Le droit usage des Peres, Livre i. chap. 3.

Scribunt, says Jerome, non quod inveniunt, sed quod intelligunt; et dum alienos errores emendare nituntur ostendunt suos. Epis. 28. ad Lucin. tom. 1.

out of the throng of the Holy Gods [ginuheilog goth] convened on the plains of Ithavelli three ASAS to the temple, and found Askar and Emla extended on the ground, and undetermined to their future designation. They had neither spirit, nor mind, nor blood, nor aspect, nor beauteous tints. Odin gave them spirit, Heinir gave them intelligence, and Lothur superadded blood and beauteous tints.'

"Two obvious remarks here present themselves, that whatever might be the peculiar mythology of our gothic fathers, they cannot be suspected of having had the least intercourse with the priests of the Hebrew temple. Odin, the Goth, had come from the shores of the Don, bringing with him, like Cadmus, sixteen letters of the alphabet: prior to the building of the second temple, he, and his chiefs, were mostly called by the name of their God; a practice begun by the Antediluvian fathers; so we may read, Genesis iv. 26: Then

men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord.' Hence EL, Ethel, Asa, Atta, Allah, Adonai, Hadin, now Odin. It is secondly evident enough that the three persons concerned in the creation of man, indicate a belief in the Godhead, of whose unity our fathers were ignorant.

"The subsequent stanzas in the Voluspa coincide with the Hebrew prophets, and the Sibyline predictions; as well as with the expectations of the Brahmins in the tenth and long expected incarnation of Vishnoo. In the 63rd, 64th, and 65th stanzas, she augurs like Isaiah, that 'the unsown earth should yield a spontaneous increase; that all evils should subside; that Baldur, (the Lord, the Baal or Bel of antiquity) should come and dwell with Hauthr in Hropt's sublime abode. Then too shall Haner come, and fill the earth with light and joy.'-Dr. Eben. Henderson adds, in his travels in Iceland,

"A hall she sees
Out-shine the sun,

Of gold the roof,

It stands in Heaven;

The virtuous there
Shall always dwell,
And evermore
Delights enjoy."

HEBREW TESTIMONIES RESPECTING CHRIST.

"Before entering on the more hallowed ground of the Hebrew Scriptures, it ought to be remarked, that the sacred and profane writers are generally agreed, that God at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past to the fathers; Heb. i. 1. for which purpose he often appeared in glory, or veiled in angelic forms. Homer mentions numerous instances: Herodotus, far more chaste in manner, has named other appearances of the Gods.

In

particular, he mentions that when Cambyses was returning from his unfortunate expedition into Ethiopia, he found the people of Memphis dressed in their best clothes, and rejoicing. At first, he supposed this to be on account of his bad success, and began to kill them; but he was presently told that their God, Apis, not often seen, had appeared, and on that account the people were celebrating a feast.

"Again, with regard to India, the mythology and customs of the Brahmins have many resemblances to those of Egypt. In the eleventh conference of the Danish missionaries, with the Brahmins, being pressed as to the different forms of their idols in different temples, a priest replied, 'Our God has appeared eleven times, and in one temple he is made as he appeared in one place, and in another temple, as he appeared in another place.' The purer writings of Moses are unencumbered with these difficulties.

from the

"On the first verse of Genesis, plural noun, Elohim, is inferred a plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit; and that the Son of God, the Eternal Word, the Wisdom of the Father, was with him when he made the world.'-Henry's Comment. Matthew Poole has said the same, adding the force of the plural pronouns, then not used for the singular number, in the regal style. 'Let us make man in our image.' We have been fully taught in the increasing light of gradual revelation from the beginning, that this plurality is restricted to three adorable persons in the Godhead, as is inferred from the triple benediction, thrice repeating the name of JEHOVAH: Numb.