Chapter XVI.--Testimony of the Sibyl.

We must also mention what the ancient and exceedingly remote Sibyl, whom Plato and Aristophanes, and others besides, mention as a prophetess, taught you in her oracular verses concerning one only God. And she speaks thus:--

"There is one only unbegotten God,

Omnipotent, invisible, most high,

All-seeing, but Himself seen by no flesh."

Then elsewhere thus:--

"But we have strayed from the Immortal's ways,

And worship with a dull and senseless mind

Idols, the workmanship of our own hands,

And images and figures of dead men."

And again somewhere else:--

"Blessed shall be those men upon the earth

Who shall love the great God before all else,

Blessing Him when they eat and when they drink;

Trusting in this their piety alone.

Who shall abjure all shrines which they may see,

All altars and vain figures of dumb stones,

Worthless and stained with blood of animals,

And sacrifice of the four-footed tribes,

Beholding the great glory of One God."

These are the Sibyl's words.