{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/201/2010680.htm","path":"chr/ecf/201/2010680.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/201/2010680.htm","text":"Chapter XVIII.\u2014Of the Erythr\u00e6an Sibyl, who pointed in a Prophetic Acrostic at our Lord and his Passion. The Acrostic is \u201cJesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross.\u201d\nMy desire, however, is to derive even from foreign sources a testimony to the Divine nature of Christ. For on such testimony it is evident that even those who blaspheme his name must acknowledge that he is God, and the Son of God if indeed they will accredit the words of those whose sentiments coincided with their own. 3458 The Erythr\u00e6an Sibyl, then, who herself assures us that she lived in the sixth generation after the flood, was a priestess of Apollo, who wore the sacred fillet in imitation of the God she served, who guarded also the tripod encompassed with the serpent\u2019s folds, and returned prophetic answers to those who approached her shrine; having been devoted by the folly of her parents to this service, a service productive of nothing good or noble, but only of indecent fury, such as we find recorded in the case of Daphne. 3459 On one occasion, however, having rushed into the sanctuary of her vain superstition, she became really filled with inspiration from above, and declared in prophetic verses the future purposes of God; plainly indicating the advent of Jesus by the initial letters of these verses, forming an acrostic in these words: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross. The verses themselves are as follows:\nJudgment! Earth\u2019s oozing pores 3460 shall mark the day;\nEarth\u2019s heavenly king his glories shall display:\nSovereign of all, exalted on his throne,\nUnnumbered multitudes their God shall own;\nShall see their Judge, with mingled joy and fear,\nCrowned with his saints, in human form appear.\nHow vain, while desolate earth\u2019s glories lie,\nRiches, and pomp, and man\u2019s idolatry!\nIn that dread hour, when Nature\u2019s fiery doom\nStartles the slumb\u2019ring tenants of the tomb,\nTrembling all flesh shall stand; each secret wile,\nSins long forgotten, thoughts of guilt and guile,\nOpen beneath God\u2019s searching light shall lie:\nNo refuge then, but hopeless agony.\nO\u2019er heaven\u2019s expanse shall gathering shades of night\nFrom earth, sun, stars, and moon, withdraw their light;\nGod\u2019s arm shall crush each mountain\u2019s towering pride;\nOn ocean\u2019s plain no more shall navies ride.\nDried at the source, no river\u2019s rushing sound\nShall soothe, no fountain slake the parched ground.\nAround, afar, shall roll the trumpet\u2019s blast,\nVoice of wrath long delayed, revealed at last.\nIn speechless awe, while earth\u2019s foundations groan,\nOn judgment\u2019s seat earth\u2019s kings their God shall own.\np. 575 Uplifted then, in majesty divine,\nRadiant with light, behold Salvation\u2019s Sign!\nCross of that Lord, who, once for sinners given,\nReviled by man, now owned by earth and heaven,\nO\u2019er every land extends his iron sway.\nSuch is the name these mystic lines display;\nSaviour, eternal king, who bears our sins away. 3461\nIt is evident that the virgin uttered these verses under the influence of Divine inspiration. And I cannot but esteem her blessed, whom the Saviour thus selected to unfold his gracious purpose towards us.\n[Daughter of Tiresias, and priestess at Delphi. She was called Sibyl, on account of the wildness of her looks and expressions when she delivered oracles (Lempriere in voc.).\u2014Bag.]\n574:3460\n[ \u1ffe\u0399\u03b4\u03c1\u03ce\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u03c7\u03b8\u1f7c\u03bd, \u03ba.\u03c4.\u03bb.\u2014Bag.]\n575:3461\n[It can scarcely be necessary to observe that the acrostic, the general sense of which has been aimed at in the above translation, must be regarded as the pious fiction of some writer, whose object was to recommend the truth of Christianity to heathens by an appeal to the authority of an (alleged) ancient heathen prophecy.\u2014Bag.] The quotation is found in the edition of Alexandre, Bk. VIII. ch. 219\u2013250. (Cf. translation in Augustin, De civ. Dei.) The translation of Bag., giving the \u201cgeneral sense\u201d and reproducing the acrostic, stands unchanged. The translation of 1709, much more vigorous and suggestive of the \u201cDies Ir\u00e6,\u201d is as follows:\n\u201cWhen the Great Day of Judgment shall appear,\nThe melting Earth shall then dissolve with fear;\nA King Immortal shall from Heav\u2019n descend,\nAt whose Tribunal the whole world attend.\nBoth Just and Wicked shall, when Time grows old,\nTheir mighty God in flesh array\u2019d behold;\nArmies of Saints on His Right hand shall come,\nWhilst Humane Souls expect their final doom.\nTh\u2019 Universe shall be a dry, Barren Strand,\nAnd Thorns shall flourish on the scorched land;\nMen shall with indignation cast away\nTheir Wealth and Idols in that dreadful day.\nThe parching Earth, and Heaven in flames shall fry,\nAnd searching fire drain the Ocean dry:\nAll flesh which in the Grave imprison\u2019d lay,\nShake off their Fetters, and return to Day.\nFire \u2019twixt Good and Bad shall diff\u2019rence make,\nAnd filthy Dross from purer Metal take.\nMan\u2019s secret Deeds shall all be open lay\u2019d,\nAnd th\u2019 obscure Mazes of their Hearts displayed;\nGnashing their Teeth, they shall their Fate bewail:\nThe stars harmonious dance, and th\u2019 Sun shall fail.\nThe Orbs roll\u2019d up, shrink into darkest night,\nThe Labouring Moon shall lose her borrowed light.\nMountains with Plains on the same Level lye;\nVallies shall gape no more, nor Hills be high.\nOn the proud Billows Ships shall ride no more:\nAnd Lightning the Earth\u2019s Face shall shrivel sore.\nThe crackling Rivers with fierce Fire shall burn,\nWhich shall their streams to solid Crystal turn.\nThe Heav\u2019nly Trump shall blow a doleful sound,\nAnd th\u2019 world\u2019s destruction, and its sin resound.\nThe yawning Earth Hell\u2019s vast Abyss shall shew;\nAll Kings before God\u2019s just Tribunal go.\nThen Liquid Sulphur from the Sky shall stream,\nGod shall pour down Rivers of vengeful flame;\nAll men shall then the Glorious Cross descry,\nThat wished-for sign unto a faithful eye:\nThe Life of pious Souls, their chief delight;\nTo Sinners an Offence, a dismal sight!\nEnlightening the called with its beams,\nWhen cleansed from sin in twice six limpid streams.\nHis Empire shall be boundless, and that God\nShall Rule the Wicked with an Iron Rod;\nThis God, Immortal King, describ\u2019d in Verse,\nOur Saviour, dying, shall man\u2019s doom Reverse.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol I: The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius.: Chapter XVIII","type":"page"}