changelinges Pererius reprooueth Annius his childish ignorance follie rashnesse arrogancie and the writinges themselues he termeth false erroneous fained lies deceits with this conclusion in the end Valeat igitur in perpetuū valeat haec Anniana Chronologia quae toties a viris doctis profligata iugulata est iaceat in posterum sempiterna hominum obliuione sepulta nec sit post hac qui eam exhumare ad fidem aliquam atque authoritatem quasi ad vitam reuocare audeat Sat sit adhuc eam cum non erat bene nota imposuisse multis nunc detectis atque in apertum prolatis fucatis eius mendaciis fallaciis si quem circumuenerit ac deceperit nimis profecto stupidū vecordemeum fore necesse est That is Let this Chronologie therfore of Annius farewell yea for euer let it farewell and that which hath often bin cast down and the throte thereof cut let it hereafter lie buried in euerlasting forgetfulnesse neither let any take it out of the graue and call it backe againe into credite authority as it were to life Let this be sufficient that it hath alreadie deceaued many whilest it was not thoroughlie known but now the coloured lyes and deceits thereof being detected and brought to light If hereafter any be deceaued thereby he must needes bee too too blockish and witlesse This is Pererius his censure no otherwise in my iudgement then such forgerie and falsehood hath deserued whereof take this as a manifest argument Iosephus in the tenth booke of his Antiquities the 11. Chapter writeth that Megasthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the fourth book of his Indian affaires making mention of Nabugodonosor went about to prooue him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to haue passed Hercules in prowesse and greatnes of acts which place Peter Comestor in his Scholastical Historie vpon Daniel vsing to proue Nabugodonoserum fortitudine actuum magnitudine Herculem transcendisse that Nabugodonosor went beyond Hercules in valour and great acts citeth Megasthenes for it in his booke of Iudgements reading Iudiciorum by some corruption in the translation of Iosephus crept in for Indicorum Hereupon Annius transforming first Megasthenes into Metasthenes and then Indica that is Indian affaires into Iudicia which signifieth iudgements made this the title of his forged stuffe Metasthenes his booke of the iudgement of times This I hope is enough if any thing can bee enough to keepe men which haue eyes from taking hurt at this blocke An other much like vnto it hath bin the conceited fancie of Mathew Beroald in the thirde booke of his Chronologie the eight Chapter setting downe the Persian Kinges in this order The first Cyrus the next Assuerus Artaxerxes the third Darius Assirius the fourth Artaxerxes Pius the fift Xerxes And then after him the other sixe in order as they haue beene declared and named by other Of these eleuen Kinges how many yeares particularlie euerie one raigned it is vncertaine saith Beroaldus but generally the whole time of all was 130. yeares beginning with Cyrus in the 3. yeare of the 80. Olympiad the 295 of Rome This is Beroaldus his opinion for the kings and time of that Empire much like that of Annius In maner it is more honest beeing not fathered on other in matter as absurde and ridiculous if not more making more kinges and fewer yeares thrusting in such as neuer were knowne and fayning names which neuer were heard of For where was Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius Assirius and Artaxerxes Pius euer spoken of by any Author of credit diuine or prophane Who euer besides himself once dreamed of an Artaxerxes Pius to be Father to Xerxes Or that Xerxes made warre against Greece before his Fathers death Aeschilus a learned Poet who florished euen in those verie times in his Tragedie called Persa might soone haue taught him a better lesson raysing his father Darius long before dead out of his graue to tell newes Doeth not such stuffe as this deserue the tearmes of monsters dregs dreames lyes toyes as well as that opinion of Annius which euen Beroaldus himselfe reprooueth Is it not worthy of such a farewel as that wherewith Pererius biddeth Annius his Chronologie adew These be the opinions which in the course of Chronologie haue to diuers learned men been occasions of error The vanity whereof shall yet better appeare by that which followeth beeing layde vnto them For as diuers sorts of cloath compared together and held to the light are quickly by the eye discerned the course from the fine So the approoued true historie of ancient time beeing laied to these latter conceits will leaue an easie view for reason and the eye-sight as it were of the minde to iudge which is best First for the kinges of Persia who they were that raigned therein The name of the first to be Cyrus is agreed of all The second was Cambyses heire thereunto as wel by birth as his fathers will The next lawfull king after him was Darius whose father Histaspis as Seuerus Sulpitius in his second booke of the holy Historie writeth was cosen German to Cyrus The fourth king succeeding to the imperiall Crowne of Persia was Xerxes the sonne of the same Darius Then the other sixe in order of whom amongst writers that I know of there is no controuersie at all The first foure kinges here named in that order succeeding one another haue beene so recorded by those names vnto vs of most ancient Poets and noble Historiographers which eyther liued in the dayes of the said kinges or els came very neare vnto them and so haue bin deliuered from hand to hand and from age to age to this day continued by a long successiō of the most skilfull men for learning that euer haue beene whether rightly or no let reason scan First the dominion of the Persians was large and wide and contained manie countries A great part of India all Medea Parthia Babilonia Chaldea Hyrcania Armenia Arabia Mesopotamia Phaenicia all the land of Israell and Iuda all Egypt and much of Lybia all Syria and the lesse Asia wherein also they had their imperiall seate at Sardes a Cittie of Lydia the kinges of Persia oftentimes making their abode therein And continuallie theyr deputies in their absence most of the Kinges blood or alliance Besides Cyprus and manie other Ilands To be short it reached from Persia all a long so neare Greece and Europe that there was no land left to part them but the Sea called Aegeum And that in some place so narrow as a bridge hath beene made ouer it from brinke to brinke not a mile long with continual recourse and traffique betweene them These were the places of this Monarchie of all other for wisedome and prowesse most famous The times therof by the singuler knowledge vertues of excellent mē were no lesse noble The seauen wise men of Greece so renowmed Thales of Miletus Solon the Athenian Chilon the Lacedaemonian Pittacus of Mytilene Bias
Moone yeres to cut short the time of Daniels prophesie by 13. yeares that is two whole weekes of the 70. within a yeare Seeing that they can neither serue to fill vp the distance from Artaxerxes his 20. yeare to the suffering of Christ for which they are brought nor yet the custome of the Hebrewes reckoning in holie Scripture will beare them The other shift is as bad and sillie as that if not more For some who could not abide that forced wresting of Moone yeares where there is no likelihood of such to be ment went another way to worke making two beginnings and thence two twentieth yeres of Artaxerxes his raigne One beginning was immediatly after the death of his father Xerxes in the 4. yeare of the 78. Olympiad The other nine yeares before in the 4. of the 76. Olympiad wherein he was appoynted king by his father yet liuing nine yeares before his death from which the 20. is the 3. of the 81. Olympiad for the beginning of Daniels weekes sayth Gerardus Mercator Wherein notwithstāding he was greatly deceiued by what error I know not For reckoning from the third of the 81. Olympiad to the last of the 202. wherein Christ dyed wee shall finde no more but 486. yeares at the most And therefore I see not by what reason he sayth that the 70. weekes contayning 490. yeares beginning at that twentieth of Artaxerxes expired in the death of Christ Temporarius therefore making two beginnings and two 20. yeares of Artaxerxes as he doth accounteth from the first twentieth 483. yeares to Christ his baptisme which was aboue three yeares before his passion and so endeth the death of Christ three yeares and more before the end of Daniels weekes But what reason had Mercator and Temporarius to thinke that Artaxerxes begun to raigne whilest his father was yet aliue so long before his death This is a matter worth the examination being the ground of a great errour The reason which they bring is in this manner Themistocles the Athenian in the second yere of the 77. Olympiad being expelled out of Athens by his vnthankfull countrie men and citizens notwithstanding the great and wonderfull deliuerance of all Greece from the power of Xerxes king of Persia by his wisedome and prowesse especially wrought fled to the same Xerxes as Ephorus Deino Cleitarchus Heraclides Diodorus Siculus and other storie writers declare Againe that Artaxerxes the sonne of Xerxes raigned in Persia at such time as Themistocles fled to the king thereof for succour it is testified by an ancient author of credit euen Thucidides himselfe in his first booke of the Pelopōnesian warre writing that Themistocles flying by sea to Ephesus after going higher into Asia with a certain Persian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sent letters to king Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes who a little before begun to raigne If Themistocles flying came to Xerxes king of Persia and sent letters to Artaxerxes his sonne then raigning also in Persia it must needes be that Artaxerxes had been made king a good while before his fathers death for that happened about sixe or seuen yeares after the banishment of Themistocles This is the force of their argument I haue heard it reported of one Doctor Medcalfe who sometime was master of Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge a man of no great learning himselfe but for care and earnest endeuour euery way to aduance learning giuing place to none Whereby it maye bee thought that that famous Colledge hath by his meanes the better prospered and flourished euer since with so great a companie of excellent Diuines and skilfull men in other knowledge I haue I say heard it reported of him that hauing on a certain day at supper with him some of the chiefe Seniors of the Colledge hee sent for two Sophisters to dispute before them The one tooke vpon him to proue that his fellowes blacke gowne was greene requiring this only first to be granted vnto him that if there were any greene gowne in that chamber it was on his backe Which was not thought vnreasonable because it was euident that there was none else had any This then being once granted he framed the rest of his proofe in this maner That saith he poynting to a greene carpet on the table there is a greene in this chamber all our eyes witnesse and that there is gowne in it your owne vpper garment on your backes proueth whereof it followeth that here amōgst vs in this chamber there is a greene gowne Doctor Medcalfe hearing this was greatly delighted and affirmed in good sadnesse that it was a good reason withall asked the iudgement of the Seniors there present who smiling commended the schollers wit Such a sophistication is here brought by ioyning things together which ought to bee sundred For neither they which tell of Themistocles flying to Xerxes once euer dreamed of Artaxerxes raigning at the same time nor Thucidides speaking of his cōming to Artaxerxes had this in his mind to think that Xerxes should bee then aliue which I will prooue by good witnesse For Plutarch in the life of Themistocles writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucidides saith Plutarch and Charon Lampsacenus tell that after Xerxes was dead Themistocles came to his sonne Aemilius Probus confirmeth it in these wordes Scio plaerósque ita scripsisse Themistoclem Xerxe regnante in Asiam transiisse sed ego potissimū Thucididi credo quòd aetate proximus crat I know saith Probus that many writers report Themistocles to haue passed into Asia whilest Xerxes was yet aliue but I rather beleeue Thucidides who was neere those times Lastly Lawrence Codoman in the second booke of his Chronologie is as plaine for it as may be That sayth he which Thucidides testifieth in his first booke that Themistocles fled to Artaxerxes of late hauing begun to raigne must bee vnderstoode of the Monarchie of Artaxerxes begun after his fathers death There was some difference betweene them I grant in regard of the persons to whom and the time when Themistocles came some thinking it to bee done when Xerxes was king before the raigne of his sonne Other when Artaxerxes raigned after the death of his father But all agreed in this that at such time as Themistocles fled out of Greece there was not two but only one king of Persia which is most certainly true Let the record of all histories bee sought for the whole time of the Persian Monarchie from the beginning to the ende it shall neuer bee found that the father and his sonne raigned together Herodotus indeed in Polymnia not far from the beginning telleth of a custome and lawe of the Persians that their king going to warre first appoynted an heire who was to succeede him in the Empire And that Xerxes was so appoynted by his father Darius hauing prepared all things readie for his voyage agaynst Aegypt to be next king after him Yet he neuer raigned till his father was dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when
A TRVE CHRONOLOGIE OF THE TIMES OF THE PERSIAN Monarchie and after to the destruction of Ierusalem by the Romanes WHEREIN BY THE WAY briefly is handled the day of Christ his birth with a declaration of the Angel Gabriels message to Daniel in the end of his 9. chap. against the friuolous conceits of Matthew Beroald Written by EDVVARD LIVELIE Reader of the holie tongue in Cambridge AT LONDON Printed by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man John Porter and Rafe Iacson 1597. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD MY VERY HOnorable good Lord my Lord the Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace THE knowledge of former times most reuerend by prophane authors recorded for the great profit and delight thereof hath not without cause beene alwaies highlie esteemed of the best wisest men in Heathen common wealths guided only by natures law the word of life not knowne amongst them This keepeth the memorie of thinges done of old and in spite of death preserueth still in some sort as it were the life of Noble ancestors who by their prowesse and wisedome for guiding the course of mans life aright haue left most worthie examples and notable patternes of vertue behind them To Christians it hath this more to commend it selfe that it bringeth much light to the vnderstanding of God his worde and greatlie auaileth to the aduancement of that trueth wherby soules are wonne to the Lorde wherefore I cannot but meruaile at the shall I terme it follie or rather madnes of those men which for the continuance of the Persian Monarchie and the raigne of the seueral kings therin are bold to reiect the true histories of ancient writers who liuing in the times thereof haue set forth the same for the ages to come The cause and maine ground whereof is nothing else but their owne error in misunderstanding holie Scripture by wrested interpretation making flat contradiction betweene the spirite of God and prophane truth So not onelie wrong is done to those excellent men who by their paines haue deserued well but also euen the certaintie of Gods worde it selfe by this meanes is weakned made doubtfull and called into question For it is not possible that one truth should be repugnant to another Now because truth as Augustine writeth in his second booke de doctrina Christiana is the Lordes wheresoeuer it is found therefore euerie Christian in dutie bound to stand for the maintaining thereof against all aduersaries so farre forth as his strength will serue I haue according to my pore talent vndertaken the defence of the true Historie Chronologie of the Persian times against the aduersaries thereof and withall an exposition of the Angell Gabriels message to Daniel agreeable thereunto The one that is my account of the times in fast perswasion I hold so sure as that I stedfastlie beleeue scarse 2. yeres vnder or ouer if any at all will be easily disprooued which in so great a number were a small matter in regard of those mens conceipt who are bold at one dash to chop off no lesse then a hundred yeares For the other I meane my exposition by reasō of interpreters disagreement among themselues hauing not like euidence I referre my selfe to learnings skill the iudgement of cunning Linguists and sound Diuines In English rather then in Latine I haue chosen to set foorth this treatise for no other cause in the world but one That as my owne Countriemen in their natiue language by reason of Mathew Beroald the first brocher of the new Chronologicall History of the Persian Empire translated into English and some other bookes doe read the wrong in danger thereby to bee seduced So likewise in the same their mother tongue by this my paines they may see the right so hold themselues therein from going astray This my labour I am bolde to present vnto your Grace sundrie reasons moouing me thereunto For hauing in intent sought herein the vpholding of truth to the good of my Countrie and the benefitte of Christ his Church amongst vs the chiefe care wherof for these matters appertaineth vnto your Grace I feared not the checke of vnseemely boldnes if by the honour of your Graces name I should seeke to commend the same Your great loue of learning and kind good will to Students hartned me on But aboue all my especiall motiue hereunto was the earnest desire of my heart to shew some token of my dutifull remembrance of your great kindnes heretofore so many waies shewed vnto mee That I was first scholler and after fellow of Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge it proceeded of your louing minde and fauorable good wil vnto me besides other benefits many some greater then the forme which were too long to recite In regard whereof if it may please your Grace to accept of this acknowledgement of my dutie I shall account the same my duty doubled Thus with my hartie desire of your Graces happy estate long to cōtinue to the glory of God the good of his Church and the wealth of this land your own sounde comfort I most humbly take my leaue of your Grace this 24. day of Nouember in the 1597. yere of Christ our Lord. Your Graces most bounden EDVVARD LIVELIE A TRVE CHRONOLOGIE OF THE TIMES OF THE PERSIAN MONARCHIE CIcero if euer any other was one which verified that doctrine of the blessed Apostle Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that the wisedome of God of the wisest of the world was accounted foolishnes The learning of the Grecians all artes pertaining to humanitie beeing held together to vse his owne tearme in a certaine kindred betweene themselues hee had in great price The knowledge thereof he admired the professors he honoured and by quicke conceit and sharp wit together with earnest trauaile and diligent study therein he grew to that ripenes of deepe knowledge and sweet speech wise counsell whereby he became the rare ornament of his countrie the precious iewell of his age and the great glorie of the world far beyond al before him neuer ouertooke of any after him But touching true diuinity the people of God with the word of life amongst them they were no better esteemed of him then Paul and his preaching was of the learned Philosophers of Athens being mocked for his labour and acounted a babling toole Let his owne mouth make proofe hereof in an Oration which he made for Lucius Flaccus beeing at that time accused amongst other matters for detayning great summes of gold sent yearely vpon deuotion by an vsuall custome out of Italie and some other prouinces of Rome to Ierusalem This action of his client withstanding the Iewes herein he greatly commendeth Ierusalem the holie and glorious seate of God his seruice hee calleth a suspitious and backebyting Citie The deuout worship of God and the holy religion of the Iewes he termeth barbarous superstition by great contempt in regard of the glorie and ancient customes of the Roman Empire in the end he concludeth
who of all the rest had the hardest hap in his imperiall state receiued by wrong continued in toyle ended in woe after sixe yeares which by Eusebius Isidorus Hierom and others was the time of his raigne The whole number and generall summe of all from first to last is two hundred and thirtie yeares so by this reckoning of euerye seuerall kings raigne is found nine or ten monethes in the whole aboue the Olympick account from the end of the first yeare of the 55. Olympiad These months must bee taken partly from the one and twentieth of Xerxes beeing not fullie expired as appeareth by Diodorus Siculus giuing him not ful one twentie yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more than twentie And partlye from Arses whome Bagous a faithles Eunuche poysoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is nowe raigning the third yeare saith Diodorus about the beginning of his seuenteenth book thereby signifying that it was not fully compleat and partly also from the sixt of the last Darius which was not whollie perfectly finished For Artaxerxes Mnemon begun his raigne in the end of the Peloponnesian warre or a little after in the month of Aprill as may bee gathered by Diodorus Siculus in the end of his thirteenth booke compared with Thucidides Thucidides saith it begun in the beginning of the spring two months before the yeares end which time by Codoman and others skill fell to the first of Aprill It lasted saith Thucidides seuen and twentie yeares and some few dayes more Darius died after the peace made betweene the Athenians and the Lacedemonians saith Diodorus Siculus meaning that peace which made an end of the warre Giuing therefore him three and fortie and Ochus three and twentie and Arses three all perfect they must end about that season in the first yeare of the hundred and eleuenth Olympiad Arses I graunt reached to that yeare yet not to that moneth of Aprill by a good while For Philip king of Macedonia was slaine by Pausanias in that hundred and eleuenth Olympiad the first yeare thereof witnesses Arrhiames and Diodorus and that in winter about the foure and twentie of Ianuarie as Chitraeus affirmeth in his Chronologie But Arses was poysoned and Darius had succeeded him while Philip was yet a liue and had purposed to haue made warre against him as Diodorus writeth Hereby it is euident that neither Arses his three yeares nor Codomans sixe yeares could be fully ended seeing that he was slaine in summer about the beginning of the third yeare of the hundred and twelfth Olympiad as appeareth by Arrhiames Thus are found from the beginning of the fiue and fiftieth Olympiad to the death of the last Monarch of Persia two hundred and thirtie yeares And from Cyrus thither two hundred and nine and twentie yeares and more by gesse about two or three moneths And lastly from Cyrus to Darius now the second time by Alexander vanquished in which conquest many make an ende of the Persian Empire two hundred and eyght and twentie yeares and a halfe These times of the Persian Monarchie being I know not by what mishap brought into question and great controuersie among the learned and withall of great importance for the vnderstanding of God his word haue neede to bee strengthened with all force that may bee And therefore I will yet make further search for stayes and props as it were to vpholde them Eusebius in his tenth booke de Preparatione Euangelica saith that the second yeare of Darius Hystaspis was the first of the threescore and fift Olympiad so found iust by the former reckoning The warre of Xerxes that Darius his sonne and Nephew to Cyrus of all other was the most famous Who led against Greece the greatest armie that euer was heard of before or after of twentie hundred thousand fighting souldiers for the huge multitude thereof drinking running riuers drie and as Cicero saith walking vpon the Seas and sayling on the land because that hee digged through great mountaines to make the seas meete for his nauie to passe And in other places of the sea made bridges to goe ouer a foote Leonides a valiant king of Sparta to the wonder of all ages following onely with foure thousand men encountred resisted and fought with that powerfull hoste at the straights of Thermopylae Xerxes at the first sent fifteene thousand then twentie thousand and last of all fiftie thousand against them At euery time making choyce of better men then before First begun the Medes bearing hatefull mindes against the Grecians with desire of reuenge for the slaughter of their kinsemen a little before at Marathon Next after them fought the Persian souldiers themselues in whom the Persian king of all other nations vnder him reposed most confidence Yea of these Persians were chosen the most valiant men amongst them all called the immortals because their number neuer decayed Last of all was a choyce companie of the chiefest men of all the whole hoast for stoutenes valour and courage picked out from the rest And they also stirred vp by great promises of rich rewards All these fighting against that handfull of the Grecians had like successe a great number was slaine many wounded the rest put to flight Xerxes maugred thus stayed by a few from passing further into Greece was at his wits ende till such time as one of that countrey had informed him of another way by which some of the armie came vpon the backe of Leonides and so inclosed him on both sides which Leonides hauing intelligence of by a secret friend a little before sent all the rest of his companie home sauing fiue hundred These he encouraged and the more to enable them for battell exhorted them to dine before with resolued mindes to take their supper among the dead Which done and night come they inuaded the Persian campe came to the kings Pauilion slew all that were in it wandred to and fro seeking the king who a little before had got himselfe away and killing on both sides as they went The Persians in the darke not discerning the matter were greatly amazed ran out of their tents they wist not whether fearing nothing so much as this that the whole power of Greece had set vpon them In this hurlie burlie they slew one another till the day light bewrayed the trueth when Leonides with his souldiers fought still At the length wearied with ouercomming and oppressed on euery side with mayne force of that powerfull number they dyed in the middest of their enemies with glorie hauing slaine to the number of twentie thousand The battailes wherein Xerxes had this welcome into Greece many olde writers with great agreement refer to the beginning of the seuentie and fiue Olympiad Diodorus in his eleuenth booke writeth that Xerxes warred against Greece in the first yeare of the seuentie and fiue Olympiad Callias then being Maior of Athens Dyonisius Halicarnassaeus in the beginning of his ninth booke agreeth hereunto naming that very yeare of the same Olympiad and the
Bikeathauen him that holdeth the Scepter out of Betheden and the people of Aram shall goe into captiuitie vnto Kir saith the Lord. And hee shall haue no beeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there shall not bee vnto him that is hee shall not be He shall haue no beeing he shall be extinct and gone Much like hereunto is that in the 42. of Genesis the 36. verse Simeon is not Ioseph is not where the meaning is that neither of them was remaining aliue or had any being Ieremie 31. Rachel mourned for her children because they were not Genesis 5.24 Enoch was not because the Lord tooke him away That is hee had no longer being among the liuing a speach vsed in prophane authours Homer 2. Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is For the sons of valiant Oeneus were not any lōger neither was he himself yet And more plainly in the Tragedie of Euripides called Hecuba where she bewailing the death of her son Polydorus I vnderstand now saith she the dreame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I saw touching thee my child not being anie longer in the light of heauen Therefore the Hebrew scholiast Solomon Iarchi thinking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to be alone with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of all other interpreters iudged best and the same which my selfe approoued before euer I read it in him or any other As likewise master Fox in a sermon of his entituled De Oliua Euangelica vnderstandeth it so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith hee is an Hebrew phrase whereby is signified mans life taken away and therefore he giueth this interpretation thereof Et vita priuabitur Hee shall be depriued of life His iudgement touching the force of the worde to bee all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall not be is all one with mine and that of Rabbi Solomon yet as I vnderstand the word of cutting off somewhat more largelie of thinges abolished otherwise then by death So this not beeing may bee referred to the gouernment ceasing and extinguished of the gouernour taken away though not dead Of the come Gouernour A come gouernour I call Presidem aduenam a deputie stranger called here in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ruler which is come for in the times before the destruction of Ierusalem by the Romans there were two rulers of the Citie one of their owne people a Iew by profession or birth after their manner annointed to the gouernment of the common wealth amongst them here named in the verse afore going 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the annointed Prince the other a stranger appointed Deputy by the Roman Emperour called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ruler not borne in the country or one of the same Nation but a stranger come from another place In which sence the same worde seemeth sometime otherwhere to be vsed In the 42. of Genesis the fift verse The sonnes of Israell came to buy foode 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the commers meaning other strangers which were come to Egypt In the second booke of Chronicles the 30. chapter and 25. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangers which were come frō the Isralites are opposed to the inhabitants of Iudea Also in the fift of Nehemias the 17. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commers of the gentiles are set against such as were Iewes borne With a floud Vespasians hoste the mightie power of the Roman enemies with great force inuaded and went through the whole land of Israell and Iuda and as it were ouerflowing waters ouerwhelmed all A metaphor taken from flouds as in the 11. of this prophesie the 40 verse The king of the north shall come against him with Chariots and Horsemen ouerflow and passe through Vnto the end of the warre shall bee a precise iudgement of desolations In the time and continuance of that warre partly by the forraine enemies partly by the ciuill dissentions within the citie a great desolation of Ierusalem Iuda was made many of the Iewes for the intollerable miserie of those times leauing their Citie and flying as far as their legges could beare them from their owne natiue countrie into strange landes which likewise happened in the former destruction of that land and Citie by Nabugodonosor and the Chaldeans Ierem. 42.14 We will goe into Egypt that wee may see no more war nor heare the sound of the Trumpet nor haue hunger of bread and there wil we dwell This is it which the same Prophet bewaileth in his Lamentations the first chapter and third verse Iudah went away because of affliction and great seruitude Besides these which fled many were slaine a great number perished by famine All the places about the Temple were burnt vp and the Citie was made a Wildernesse and a solitarie floore as Iosephus writeth who knew it so well as no man liuing better The same Author testifieth that the land which before had beene beautified with goodlie trees and pleasant gardens and orchards became so desolate that none which had seene Iudea before with the faire buildings therein at the sight of such a wofull change thereof could haue contained himselfe from weeping and lamenting For all the beautifull ornaments had beene destroyed by warre so that if any which had knowne the place before comming then againe vnto it on a suddaine could not haue knowne it but would haue asked where Ierusalem was though present in it This wee read in Iosephus his seuenth booke of the Iewes war the first chapter and the sixt book the first chapter some other places therfore the speaking of desolations in the plurall number here wanteth not his force to note the multitude thereof They were manifold comming fast one vpon an other first in one place then in another till all was wasted The 27. verse One weeke This seemeth to pertaine not only to the couenant confirming next before in this verse mentioned but also to all the thinges spoken of in the former verse touching Messias to be cut off and the enemies wasting of the Citie by continuall war to the vtter desolation and ruine thereof All these thinges came to passe in the last weeke of the 70. Halfe of that weeke That is of that last weeke mentioned in the next wordes afore going and not a new halfe of an other weeke besides the 70. For this cause the demonstratiue Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ha is set before the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie no other but the same weeke spoken of before according to the Hebrewes custome and manner of speaking obserued also and retained in the Greeke tongue as the learned knowe A like example wee had in the beginning of the next verse afore going in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing the same Article and referring vs to those same 62. weekes before spoken of and no other Touching this couenant sacrifices abolished I will by God