ouer to the sixtie and two seuens which follow which we will handle shortly least we be tedious The sixtie two seuens which succeede the seuen before spoken of begin from the twentie and one yeare of Artaxerxes Pius which is the fourth yeare of the ninetie two Olympiade from whence beginneth the eight of Daniels seuens But this time is ended and compassed in the beginning of the seuētieth seuen which falleth into the second yeare of the hundred one Olympiade when Quintus Tiberius Nero reigned in Rome after Octauius Augustus the yeare from the Citie built seuen hundred seauentie eight Now what was the state of the church in these seuentie two seuens is opened and taught by the visions of Daniel as before we haue said Therefore in the seuenth chapter of Daniel foure Monarchies are propounded vnder foure terrible beasts vnder whom the people of GOD was diuerslie afflicted Whom although earthlie and sen suall men desired to destroy consume yet they could neuer remooue the people of God from their constancie and faith God miraculouslie preseruing and defending his Church But the Iewes Commonwealth liued prosperouslie enough vnder Artaxerxes Pius when that Persian King vnto whom the rest of Asia and Syria obeyed cared for it and the people of God For hee after the death of Zorobabel compounded and established the Church causes as may be vnderstood by the Commentaries of Esdras and Nehemias After this Artaxerxes Pius wee haue taught the Empire of the East or the Persian Empire to succeed to Xerxes the terror of Graecia but from this Xerxes immediately to Alexander the great doth the Angel passe passing ouer the other Kings of Persia because they were inferiour in renowme to Xerxes neither greatlie regarded the causes of the Church but suffering them to passe according to the time being ouer seriouslie busied exacting and gathering vp of tributes and the yearely reuenue By the going downe of Alexander into Syria it might be thought that the Church of God should sustaine great dammage by reason of his warre against Tyrus and against Egypt for the going downe out of Phoenicia into Egypt is through Iudea and Alexander the great was verie angrie with the Iewes because they had denied him aid and prouision and because they tooke the Persians part whome they then obeyed Besides religion and true godlinesse dissenting from others who were idolaters prouoked wicked men and contemners of God against the people of God But God in whose hand are not onely the hearts of Kings but of all men reconciled Alexander to his people and brought the insolencie of a foolish and proud yong man intollerable through successe of his victories to a moderation and caused him to performe great signes and arguments of fauour to those with whom hee seemed to be most displeased Therefore in this Historie we may obserue the same which we vnderstand to haue fallen out in the first times of the Church of Israel betweene Laban and Iaacob Gen. 31. 24. For Laban with an exasperate minde and with a great band pursued Iaacob who fled from him in hope to finde Iaacob vnprouided to ouerthrow his substāce Yet this boldnesse of Laban God in a wonderfull manner kept vnder forbidding him not onely not to deale rashlie with Iaacob but not so much as to speake rashlie to him so God repressed this furious man and compelled him to seeke his friendship whom he went about to destroy In the same manner God made Alexander the great an insolent and proud king displeased with his people that is the Iewes whom in hope he had now deuoured and destroyed so quiet as a sheepe and brought him to wonder at thē and to preserue them whom he went to destroy But the Successors of Alexander some of whom ruled Asia some Egypt afflicted the Iewes afterwards with diuers miseries because when the one lay in waite for the others life wealth and Kingdome and destroyed thēselues through mutuall warres both of them aimed at Iudea as a reward of victoire These Histories which Daniel hath set downe in few words prophane Writers haue at large layde downe in their Writings from which wee vnderstand the word of God to be most true and all things to be gouerned by diuine decree and prouidence Neither doo we acknowledge the Church of God to bee subiect vnto the iniuries of tyrants without his certaine appointment And there are extant learned interpretations vpon Daniel not onely of auncient Diuines but also of later and of our time by the which his Visions and the Histories theretoo pertaining are expounded There are also added to Daniels writings certaine mens Cronicles by the which manie histories of Scripture are opened and explaned wherefore we neede not in this place be anie longer in the expounding of the Greeke and Romane Monarchies which are handled shortly in Daniels writings yet to those Monarchies Iudea became subiect euen as to the Persian Monarchy these sixtie and two seuens But we will onely by the way note this in this argument that the Greekish Monarchie is called that power of Alexander the great and his Successours which was afterwards ouerthrowen by the Romans as afterwards also the Romans which obscured all others was ouerthrowen by the Gothes But it is therefore callec the Greekish Monarchie because in the 8. of Daniel the 21. vers the Goate bucke which is Alexander the great is said to bee the King of the Graecians For by a common consent of all Graecia at a Councell helde at Corinth Alexander the great was declared Emperour of Graecia to pursue the Persians by warre Whereby it came to passe that the Macedonian Empire of Alexāder is named in Scripture the Graecian long before that Alexander was borne But Philip the Father of Alexander the great hauing ouercome the Graecians at Chaeronea commaunded himselfe to be called not the King but the Duke of Graecia as Iustine in his ninth booke declareth whose example Alexander the great following summoning the Cities of Graecia to appeare at Corynth after he had setled the state of the Kingdome hee caused himselfe to bee chosen Duke of Graecia in his fathers place as Iustine declareth in his eleuenth Therefore being chosen the Reuenger of Graecia so oftentimes inuaded by the Persians inuaded Asia which he subdued with that speede as the holie Oracles before opened to Daniel and had declared and denounced that those who meruaile at the felicitie of Alexander and as it is commonly called the fortune are to be sent to the diuine decrees ouer Kingdomes and to be admonished of the diuine will prouidence on which the condition state of all men dependeth Therefore what the Kingdome of Alexander the great was like to be how to bee diuided vnto maine it is easie to bee found out of Daniel In the which it is to be marked that by reason of the scituation of Iudea the Kings of the North are said to be the Kings of Asia and
A Short vievv of the Persian Monarchie and of Daniels weekes Beeing a peece of Beroaldus workes with a censure in some points LONDON Imprinted by Thomas Orwin 1590. A short view of the Persian Monarchie and of Daniels weekes being a peece of Beroaldus workes THe Persian Monarchie is first named siluerie because the people of God after the Temple restored and the Citie Ierusalem walled liued peaceablie vnder the Persians But how long this continued or how manie Kings it had neither the Historiographers of our time nor the prophane doo sufficientlie know which thing they doo declare in their diuers and vncertaine Histories showed foorth and published by them to the world of these matters But wee because we know the former Persian Kings out of the holie Scripture and the latter the prophane histories dooth mention of this matter therefore we are able more certainlie to determine than either Herodotus or Iosephus or Manetho or Metastenes or Ctesias from whō the true report of these matters is vsed to be cited Concerning the time and continuance of the Persian Monarchie we cannot doubt seing the beginning is apparāt out of the holy scripture and wee vnderstand from prophane Stories the ouerthrowe to bee by Alexander the Great Therefore let vs first speake of the time wherein the Persian Empire bare sway then of the Kings who gouerned that siluer Emperie which succeeded the golden Monarchie of the Babylonians The Persian Monarchie begins from that yeare in the which Cyrus the great was first aduaunced by God to the rule of Asia after Darius the Mede whom the holie Oracles call the King of Persia and endeth and is determined in the death of Darius the sonne of Arsanes for then no man resisting the Wealth of the Persians came to Alexander the great and Asia which before obeied the Persians became subiect to him Now the first yeare of Cyrus the greater or of the King of the Persians falls into the third yeare of the fourescore Olympiade which was from the beginning of the world three thousand foure hundred seuentie two and was the yeare since Rome was built 295. fortie yeares after the Kings were banished and exiled the Citie which wee vnderstand to be certaine laying down the times in order as they bee expounded in the holie Scripture and the Olympiades conferred and laide together with these and also the yeares of the continuance of the Citie of Rome And those things which haue been otherwise defined by prophane Writers and Writers of our time we haue obserued to be vnture Yet the death of Darius the last King of the Persians the prophane Historie referres to the first yeare of the hundred thirteenth Olympiade and that yeare is the fift of Daniels nineteenth weeke and the yeare of the Citie built foure hundred and fiue twentie and the yeare of the world three thousand three score two From which account of time we vnderstand that the Persian Monarchie is to haue allotted to it for the continuance a hundred and thiritie yeares although otherwise hereof other men haue determined But we cannot misse because we haue the time of the deliuerance from Babilon which is the beginning of the Persian Empire certainlie set downe and defined by the holie Scripture and the times which follow as the death of Darius the last King of Persia and of Alexander the great set downe faithfullie those who dissent from vs we are able by good reason to disprooue that especiallie seeing the exact time is set downe in the Scripture when Cyrus the greater began his Empire and the death of Alexander the great which fell in the next Olympiade from the death of Darius is agreed confessed and determined of manie Historiographers For then there was a more assured obseruation of the Greekish Historie manie learned and notable men hauing comprehended them in their writings agreeing in the setting downn of the accoūt of those times But those things which fell out before these times haue not so faithfullie been by Writers collected whereby it commeth to passe that the prophane storie is verie obscure which obscuritie we are able to dispearse to make cleere by that computation of time which we haue laide downe because this is grounded from a most vndoubted obseruation gathered from holie scripture which is not necessaire for vs at this time to handle more at large seeing it hath been handled before In the which treatise we haue set downe the exact account of time determined in the holie scripture which as it may bee referred to prophane stories if it hath little beene obserued by former Writers may yet now bee vnderstood by the table of this Chronicle continued and successiuely drawen downe from the beginning of the world euen vnto our times Now concerning the Kings of Persia who ruled these hundred thirtie yeares the place of Daniel which is in his eleuenth chapter and second verse is of great vse to the vnderstanding of the truth which is in this sort Beholde yet three Kings shall stand vp in Persia and the fourth shall be richer than they all and when he is growen great through his riches hee shall stirre vp all against the King of Graecia From this place of Daniel wee vnderstand that Persian King which afflicted Graecia with warre to bee the fift Monarch of the Persians from Cyrus the greater but the fift King in order from Cyrus by those things which he did from the monuments of prophane Writers wee doo finde to bee Xerxes for the Angel opened these things to Daniel in the third yeare of King Cyrus as it is cap. 10. ver 2. Because therefore besides Cyrus there were yet to bee 3. Kings of Persia after whom the fourth was to inuade Graecia by warre whom al prophane histories doo witnes to be Xerxes by good right therfore we say that Xerxes the terror of Graecia was the 5. Emperor of the Persians from Cyrus the greater Now who were Kings in the times which fell out betwixt these the holie writings doo suggest vnto vs who doo pursue and faithfullie expound the Historie of those Mesne times so farre as their knowledge concernes the Church of God by these names of Assuerus Darius Artaxerxes wee haue these Kings expressed in holy Writ who that they may be distinguished from other Kings who had likewise the same names they are to be assigned and set out by those epithites and surnames which may bee most agreeable and fit the present matter and historie which wee repeate out of Esdra and Nehemiah To Assuerus therefore wee will adde the surname of Artaxerxes Darius we will name Assyrius and we will surname Artaxerxes Pius for he bestowed a great care on the Church of God as afterwards shalbe vnderstood And that wee may proceede orderlie let vs first handle Assuerus who is made knowen vnto vs from Esdras historie In the which historie the 4. chapter and 6. verse The Enemies of the people of God
speaketh well theÌ„ he is voide of parcialitie Often he foloweth heathen or of malice crosseth prophecies and his whole nation theÌ„ his authoritie is nothing * And the Talmud Zoar and commentaries commonly * To the foundation in some plain forwardnes wherefore in the 3. of Cyrus Daniel was in heauinesse for the worke hindred Iosephus in Euseb dem 8. to the full finishing of the Temple reckoneth 49. yeres Though hee make some account of a nuÌ„ber certaine in Olympiades he might rather for this than anie thing else blame the heathen of vncertaintie In the Image legs chapt 2. fourth beast chap. 7 buckes hornes chap. 8. and in a proper speach chapt 11. and 12. * There is no word in Daniel which handleth the Romanes dealing against the lewes vntill they denie and kill Christ after the 490. Y. for which time their citie was called the holy Citie There onely the Romanes be noted and tearmed a wing or campe of Infidels or abhominable The not able horne in the forehead of the Bucke is the first King of Iauan Dan. 8. His Kingdome is a Leopard with 4. wings Dan 7. Ephes 1. * The Hebrue might be better translated for plaines but for smal things men should not fight The Greek Hebrue are omitted which bare English men neede not to be troubled with though he set them downe Whereas Mat. Beroaldus expoundeth the halfe seuen not onely the time of our Lords death to conteine the ministerie of doctrine which maketh strong the couenaunt for many that is the heatheÌ„ and the same time to cause sacrifice to cease as well by the doctrine teaching of that as by the Lords verie death Of this the reader is to be admonished least he should thinke him to say that Christ should die in halfe that seauen whereof he is of some vniustly blamed as also an other of his iudgement In Cereâ—â— * Carthusianus ap 11. expoundeth Beda That by dayes 1260. must bee vnderstood all the time of the Euangel call lawe because Christ had preached so long a time Beda vnderstood that time to haue been an allusion to the time of our Lords preaching * He followeth the Greekes most grosse errour by mistaking the Septuaginta vpon Gen. 15 11 The 4 yeare of the Olympiad 202. supposing his owne accoÌ„pt to be true as he placed Cyrus otherwise Olympiades are of no certaintie 784. For one yeares difference a modest student will not striue * A speciall point For if by proper scripture from Adam deriued our Lords time of suffering might not be shewed a matter most needful wished of al had been omitted but God omitteth nothing good for vs. * The Iewes feare disputing vpon this text more than anie other and lest meddle with it in their comments Zoar vpoÌ„ that place doth confesse the nature of God conteined in Shiloh and most Rabbines expound that place of Christ * Because it is not good to haue differing translations for smal points is one kingdom this for his was borrowed from a defender of his iudgment * Though these words be not in the text yet for light of the argument they may well be vsed so doo the best that profes folowing of the Hebrue They think it no departing from the Hebrue to adde words for explication and nothing is more vsuall It is maruell that some of iudgement blame so vsuall and lawfull a matter * Though many Translaters runne on the middle of the seauen yet many the eldest and the late follow the proprietie of the Hebrue word which most often is taken for halfe neuer for middle but when the matter forceth that signification But the whole sum of 490. yeare here suffreth it not to be wrested
first ioyned league with the Carthaginians After the Kings were exiled Rome the Consulls had ruled the Common-weale eight and twentie yeares before the first passage of Xerxes into Graecia But Rome was in subiection to Kings 243. yeare as Sextus Rufus maketh computation deducting the times of the Kings From that time if you reckon 28. yeare we shall come to the 3. yeare of the 74. Olympiade Now it is manifest and apparant by this that Pausanias and Diodorus Siculus as also Polybius moreouer Dionisius Halicarnasseus who is of their iudgment others who haue likewise noted these times vnto vs haue all erred because Cyrus Maior King of Persia ruled the Kingdome after Darius the Mede in the third yeare of the 80. Olympiade as the times determined by the testimonie of holie Scripture doo conclude And after Cyrus these three Kings succeeded in Persia Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius Assyrius and Artaxerxes Pius But the 20. yeare of Artaxerxes Pius the Temple was whollie restored and it is noted that the Citie Ierusalem was compassed with a wall as afterwards will appeare out of the historie of the seuen first seuens of Daniel But the seuenth seuē which is the limit of this time is ended in the third yeare of the 92. Olympiade Moreouer there is reckoned the 32. yeare of Artaxerxes Puis in the 13. of Nehem and the 6. vers which falleth out in the third yeare of the 95. Olympiade So it appeareth how farre these Writers are from the true obseruing of the times seeing it may seeme that the passing of Xerxes into Graecia was only about the 90. Olympiade because Artaxerxes Pius must haue reigned in Persia before Xerxes the terrour of Graecia as it is apparant out of the Prophecie of Daniel in whose eleuenth chaper and 2. verse it is plainlie said After Cyrus 3. Kings shall rule in Persia before Xerxes who shal trouble all Graecia Yet Xerxes might goe downe into Graecia vnder Artaxerxes Pius when hee was elected King For euen as vnder Cyrus reigned Assuerus so vnder Artaxerxes Xerxes might reigne and the Persian Monarchie euē as the Romanes at one time might haue manie Imperators By this it appeares that the errors admitted by prophane Historiographers and the Chronicles of our time in the supputation of times may be espied and in some part amended But it is requisite for vs for this time to pretermit that care to referre it vnto some other time least by handling of other matters we may seeme to haue forgot our own purpose These things haue been thus laid downe by vs out of the holie Scriptures concerning the Persian Monarchie and the Monarchs of Persia to lay open in some part the truth of the Persian Historie and to purge it from fables But now we are to come to the seuens of Daniel which in the chapter going before we haue taught to haue been deuided by the Angell into three parts yet so as he hath selected seuen out of them hath appointed them to the restoring of the Temple and the Citie Then he dooth enumerate sixtie two in the which the Church of God was afflicted diuerslie In the third place the last which is the seuentieth hath been set downe which hath with it the conclusion and end of all the ceremoniall of the lawe But the seuen forenamed seuens in the first place because they signifie a yearely time doo make fortie and nyne yeres for that number seuen times seuen doth amount vnto the Historie whereof the writings of Nehemias and Esdras doo conteine which the Latins comprehend in one volume so as the booke of Nehemias they call the second booke of Esdras And Ierome in his Episle to Paulinus concerning the books of holy scripture saith that Esdras Nehemias were streightned into one volume from the which this present Historie of seuen seuens or weeks is to be deriued And in the first chapter of Esdras the Edict of Cyrus is laid downe by the which the people of God is restored to his libertie after 70. yeares captiuitie in Babylon The people being returned into their Country the third chapter teacheth that the Altare was first built in the which they offered sacrifices to God which giueth vs also to vnderstand that in the second yeare after the returne into their Countrey the foundations of the temple were laid by Zorobabel the sonne of Salathiel Prince of Iuda and by Iosua the sonne of Iosedeck the high Priest In the fourth chapter Esdras teacheth that the building of the Temple was hindred by the commandement of Assuerus Artaxerxes nor begun again to be builded before the second yeare of Darius Assyrius But in the sixt chapter he sheweth the Temple was finished in the sixt yeare of Darius Assyrius Zorobabel and Iosua imploying and busying themselues chiefely about it being thereunto incited by the Prophets Aggey and Zacharie The Temple being restored and almost finished Zorobabel Prince of Iudea may be thought to die because Esdras is sent to Iuda from the King of Persia as Viceroy with agreat companie of voluntarie Iewes who remained in Chaldea after the Edict of Cyrus and the departure of their Countrey men who beeing by God awakened had rather leaue their wealth in Babylon to liue in their owne countrey than by enioying it to liue in a strange Countrey Yet Esdras is sent to Iudea chiefly to constitute Rulers Iudges who might minister iustice to the people thereby to establish the state of the Iewes Commonweale which is done in the seuenth yeare of Artaxerxes Pius as it is in Esdr the 4. the 24. After Esdras the same Artaxerxes Pius sendeth as his Embassador Nehemias with authoritie and commaundement for couering the gates of the Temple that is for finishing the building of the Temple as also for walling the Citie Ierusalem as it is in 2. Nehem and the 8. Now Nehemias had this Embassage in the twentieth yeare of Artaxerxes Pius as it is in the first verse of the 8. chapter which was 13. yeres after Esdras was sent Embassador to Iuda Yet Nehemias was ruler and protector ouer Iuda 12. yeares as it is declared in the 5. chap. and 14. verse But how great paines Nehemias tooke in fortefying the Citie Ierusalem and compassing it with a wal is declared from the second chapter to the seauenth And in the 6. chapter and 15. vers is declared the great diligence which both hee and the Iewes vsed in fortefying the Citie Ierusalem so great a worke being finished within fiftie and two dayes being the fiue twentieth of the moneth Elul which in our account is August And thus we haue the first seuen seuens fullie ended that is in the twentieth yeare of Artaxerxes Pius in the which Nehemias came to Iuda For so the Angel foretold Dan. chap. 9. verse 25. that to the building againe of streete and walls should be seuen seuens and that in a troublesome time The hostile attempts of the aduersaries of the people of