more expedite and compendious expression you may call Geniconaea the latter Idiconaea which signifie the general and more particular meaning of such a part of the Prophecy As in this present Instancâ—â— Geniconaea the whole succession of the Kingdom of the Seleucidae may be understood but by an Idiconaea such passages as are understood of others in the succession at large may be again particularly applied to Antiochus Epiphanes for whose sake chiefly the affairs of the Seleucidae are predicted And to give instances of these Figures in other Propehcies Apoc. 17. By a Geniconaea the whole succession of the Heads of the Beast that was is not and yet is namely of the Roman Empire become Pagano-Christian whether Emperours of Popes are understood by the seventh Head of that Beast but by an Idiconaea the Popes particularly as Antiochus Epiphanes particularly in the succession of the Seleucidae So Apoc. 13. The Beast healed of its deadly wound healed I say by the diligence of the Two-horned Beast and recovered again into a kind of Paganism by a Genicoâ—…aea may be understood of the whole Laick Roman Empire so debauched by the Sacerdotal Polity but by an Idiconaea the making of the Image of the Beast may be referred particularly to the German Empire as the Object or Opus and to the Pope as the particular Artifex thereof And lastly in Daniel Chap. 11. ver 36. the King that does according to his will and shall exalt himself c. by a Geniconaea may be understood of the Roman Power at least from the first Epocha of Christianity to the expiration of the said Power which will expire with the Pope but by an Idiconaea it is particularly understood of the Papal Polity or Hierarchy Which Four examples I hope are sufficient to illustrate these Prophetical Figures which are worth the notice of the judicious and considerate and will serve to reconcile serious Interpreters of the Prophecies some hitting upon the Idiconaea of the Prophecy others upon the Geniconaea Which is no clashing one with another if they understand themselves But that sense which the Geniconaea exhibits is necessary sometimes and demonstrably true by Virtue of the Synchronisms Ver. 14. Which is the sense that Calvin himself seems to aim at c. And Theodoret and Isidore are of the same opinion as they are cited by Gasper Sanctius Neque desunt says he qui Christum esse dicunt illum qui in flumine apparuit quique Gabrieli jussit ut Prophetae obscurm illud aenigma manifestaret quasi jam praeluderet ad sumendam posteà humanam naturam in qua suas deinde inter homines delicias haberet ita Theodoretus Isidorus So Gasper Sanctius upon the place VISION IV. The Vision or Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks communicated to Daniel by the Angel Gabriel Chap. 9. 1. IN the first year of Darius the Son of Ahasuerus that is the Son of Cyaxares King of Media as the Greeks call him And Ctesias in Diodorus Siculus Biblioth Histor. lib. 2. p. 85. seems to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * which is very near to Assâ—…baras and consequently to Asuerus Which Cyaxares the Mede gave his daughter Nicrotis to Nebuchadnezzar the Son of Nabopolassar to Wife who therefore was the Sister of Darius the Mede as well as Mandane who was the Mother of Cyrus the Persian Of the séed of the Medes For he was Son to Cyaxares King of Media whom being an Infant in a manner his Father committed to the tutelage of Nebuchadnezzar his son in Law when he died together with his Kingdom over which Nebuchadnezzar set Astyages of near a kin to Nicrotis his Wife haply her Uncle but upon Nebuchadnezzar's death Cyrus rebell'd against Astyages by some intimation from his Uncle Darius and overcame him after he had reigned some Thirty five years in the Kingdom of Media and Persia and Darius had been kept out of it the time But Astyages being vanquished the Kingdom of Media was restored to Darius and Cyrus had the Kingdom of Persia for his pains See Tho. Lydiat his Emendatio Temporum Which was made King over the Realm of the Chaldeans succeeding immediately Belshazzar after Cyrus Nephew to Darius had taken Babylon and Belshazzar was slain Wherefore Darius was invested in the Kingdom of Babylon Cyrus his Nephew delivering it to him being then about Sixty two years of Age. And forasmuch as he lived from his infancy in Nebuchadnezzar's Court and Nicrotis Nebuchadnezzar's Wife was his Sister and was brought up as Nebuchadnezzar's Son and so haply called out of Courtship the Babylonian Empire seems still to have been continued in his Reign and he fitly to be called the King of the Chaldeans as Daniel the Prophet here styles him And yet notwithstanding Daniel comparing the Babylonish Captivity and the extirpation of Nebuchadnezzar's race by the Medes and Persians and that Cyrus being Commander in the war by name so predicted by the Prophet Isaiah he comparing these things I say with the commencement and duration of the Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and his Sons predefined by Ieremy the Prophet and with the time himself was first made captive which was in the Fourth year of Iehojakim King of Iudah and the first of Nebuchadnezzar when he was sent by his Father Nabopolassar with Regal power against Aegypt it came then into his mind that the expiration of the Seventy years Captivity of the Iews in Babylon was near at hand as it appears in the following Verse 2. In the first year of his Reign I Daniel understood by the Books For there was in the hands of the Iews then the Books of Moses and the Prophets that they might know their transgression punishment and time of appointed mercy The number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Ieremiah the Prophet Ierâ—…m 25. 11. 12. And this whole Land shall be a desolation and astonishment and it shall come to pass when Seventy years are accomplished I will punish the King of Babylon c. And the whole race of his Sons was exstinct in Belshazzar killed at the taking of Babylon by Cyrus And Ch. 27. ver 7. And all Nations says he shall serve him and his Son and his Son's Son until the very time of his land come And there was but Three successions Nebuchadnezzar himself Evil-Merodac his Son and Belshazzar his Son's Son according to the words of the Prophet slain at Cyrus his taking of Babylon Of whom Isaiah foretold by name what a Friend he would be to the Iews Isa. 44. 28. That saith of Cyrus He is my Shepherd c. That also of Jeremy Ch. 29. v. 10. is very express Thus saith the Lord of Hosts That after Seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place Wherefore Daniel seeing so plainly from these places of the Prophet sent to the Iews by God That he would accomplish Seventy years in the desolations
the exceeding numerous Army of Darius was put to flight from whence the City by Alexander was after called Nicopolis But he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him For all Darius brought out a far more numerous Army against him this last time than before yet Alexander quite vanquished him and the whole strength of his Kingdom at Arbela a City of Assyria And there was none that could deliver the Ram out of his hands Nay the terrour of Alexander was such that it caused Darius his own nearest friends to betray him And so Alexander was made Master of the whole Medo-Persian Empire 8. Therefore the He-goat waxed very great that is The Kingdom of the Greeks was exceedingly inlarged by this accession of the Medo-Persian Empire added thereunto by Alexander the Great deservedly so called for thus inlarging his Empire And when he was strong as having all this power of the Medes and Persians added to his own The great Horn was broken This Alexander the Great for all his greatness died and that an immature and violent death in the very Flower of his Age at about the Thirty second or Thirty third year thereof and that by Poyson as Historians record And after this great Horn of the Goat was broken for it came up four notable ones Not in comparison of the first great one that was broken but in comparison of the rest of Alexander's Captains amongst whom the Empire was divided after his death But in that there is not the least mention or intimation of any more than one Goat it is gross delirancy for any one to imagine the Horns here mentioned to belong to any other but to him Whence it is as clear as Noon-day that all the Horns here mentioned signifying particular Sovereignties there being in the mean time but one Beast mentioned which necessarily implies but one Empire State or Kingdom that all these particular Sovereignties must be the Sovereignties of one and the same State or Empire which the Goat signified which is the Greek Empire The Four notable Horns whereof here aimed at I conceive are * Ptolemaeus the Son of Lagus Sovereign of Aegypt Lysimachus of Thracia Antigonus of Asia and Cassander the Son of Antipater Sovereign of Macedonia Toward the Four Winds of Heaven that is East West North and South Aegypt lying in the South Thracia in the North Macedonia in the West and Asia in the East if we compare the situation of these Four Principalities one with another 9. And out of one of them came forth a little Horn which waxed excéeding great This cannot be understood restrainedly of the particular Person of Antiochus Epiphanes * but of the Kingdom of the Seleucidae commencing from Seleucus Satrapa or Prefect of Babylon who was none of the Four notable Horns but himself being less notable grew up by the favour of one especially of the most notable ones namely King Ptolemy to whom he made his address when Antigonus would have turned him out of his Prefecture as you may see in Diodorus Siculus But this little Horn the Kingdom of the Seleucidae which rose from such small beginnings later than the rest grew afterwards very great First Antigonus King of Asia being vanquished and slain Seleucus and Ptolemy divided the greatest part of the spoils betwixt them And Seleucus afterwards Demetrius Poliorcetes the Son of Antigonus being taken by him he got to himself the Empire of Syria and Asia So exceeding great did this little Horn grow in Seleucus his time but nothing comparable to this in Antiochus Epiphanes his Toward the South and toward the East This little Horn so called from its small beginnings as the little Horn Chap. 7. is is to be understood of the whole continuation of the Kingdom of the Seleucidae or the succession of the Kings of Syria or Assyria as Helvicus styles them and so the Vision is to be applied to such parts of the succession as it fits with And therefore this part may point more particularly to Antiochus Epiphanes who toward the East overcame Artaxias King of Armenia and had over-run Aegypt also in the South but that at his Siege of Alexandria the Roman Legat Popilius interceded in the name of the Senate and circumscribed him so that he durst proceed no further but retroceded from his enterprise on Aegypt as you may see in Iustin. And toward the pleasant Land The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies what is beautifull fair and pleasant All Interpreters understand it of the Land of Iudea this being the character of that Land in Holy Scripture as Psal. 38. The City of Ierusalem is said to be beautifull for situation and the joy of the whole Earth and Ezec. 20. 6. the Land of Iudea is described as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and as the glory of all Lands Not but that Iudea belonged to the Kingdom of Syria or of the Seleucidae before but that there is here a peculiar occasion of mentioning it because Antiochus Epiphanes being disappointed of his purpose on Aegypt and Alexandria made presently after towards Iudea to vent his choler upon them Nor do I deny though the little Horn in its more general sense takes in the whole succession of the Kings of Syria but that yet it may more peculiarly aim at Antiochus Epiphanes * Which is the Genius of the Prophetick Style to give as it were Two strokes at once and under one figure to represent both the general state of the thing and also some more special part thereof alone And here that may luckily come in of Grotius who understands the Horn out of which the little Horn comes to be Antiochus Magnus the Father of Epiphanes and Epiphanes to be called little because he was modicae primùm fortunae privatus Romae obses of a mean fortune at first in a private condition and an hostage at Rome 10. And it waxed great even to the Host of Heaven that is So far that it fought against the People of God the Israel of God whose God is called the Lord of Hosts of which his own people are peculiarly a part and may be said to have kept garrison as it were in Ierusalem the Temple being as it were the main fortress thereof And Grotius understands it peculiarly of the Levites there watching And it cast down some of the Host that is Antiochus perverted some of the Priests and Levites and of the Iews in general to forsake the Law and to observe the Customs of the Heathens as you may see in the Books of Maccabees at large And of the Stars to the ground Even some of those that were or should have been great Lights to the people by reason of their Learnedness in the Law were perverted and precipitated into a compliance with the Heathenish Rites and Customes And stamped upon them trode them into the very dirt and mire at last of abominable prophanations 11. Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the
day of Pentecost when he sent down the Holy Ghost and was with them in that assistance nor of so long a time as his coming to the Final Judgment And besides there were several things so peculiar in his chief Commander over the Army as if he were pickt out on purpose or so qualified on purpose that the Iews and Christians too might easily believe that he was Jesus Christ his General and that he by him and his Army came to take vengeance on the Iews As that he healed the Blind and the Lame with Spittle and touch That he was one of the most humble and mild men then breathing which is the very character of Christ That he shut the Gate of Ianus his Temple and erected a Temple of Peace like a Lieutenant of that Prince of Peace the Blessed Jesus That after the taking Ierusalem and vanquishing the Iews neither he nor his Son would be named Iudaicus as other Conquerours usually were styled from the Nation they conquered but ascribed the whole work to God These and several other considerations which that learned Authour produces are more than enough to make good the fitness of Mr. Medes Interpretation who understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Destroyer of Christ who then made good that Parable of the injured King Matth. 22. who in his wrath sent forth his Armies and destroyed those Murtherers and burnt up their City And the Chronological part Thomas Lydiat in my judgment c. A general account of Thomas Lydiat his performance in this point I have given in my Latin Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness lib. 7. cap. 4. sect 5. which I will translate hither with some emendation The summ of his Method is this Forasmuch as he makes the beginning of the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus Six years sooner than Funccius does who places it in the Fourth year of the 78 Olympiad but Lydiat in the Second year of the Olympiad 77 it is plain that Daniel's Seventy Weeks from the Thirteenth year of Artaxerxes according to Lydiat's Epocha will have the same ending as before from Funccius his viz. in the Third year of the 202 Olympiad So that if the Passion of Christ as Funccius would have it fell out upon the expiration of the last year of the last week according to his own Epocha which Helvicus also intimates namely that Christ suffered Anno quarto Olympiad 202. We computing from Thomas Lydiat's Epocha viz. from the Twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus the Passion will fall on the First year of his last week which is immediatly next to the last of Funccius his if the Passion fell out no later than they would have it Wherefore the rest of the Artifice of Lydiat's Method is spent in proving the Passion of Christ to have fallen out about Three or Four years later than vulgarly they reckon viz. in the Twenty second year of Tiberius whenas others reckon it to have fallen out in the Nineteenth of his Reign and consequently to have happened in the midst of the last Week according to Daniel's Prophecy This is that general account I give for the main in the abovesaid place of my Mystery of Godliness But here for the better satisfaction of the Reader I shall briefly intimate the main reasons whereby Thomas Lydiat proves First That Artaxerxes Longimanus began his Reign Six years sooner than others account and Secondly That the Birth Baptism and Passion of Christ fell out several years later That Artaxerxes his Reign began Six years sooner than others reckon he makes out thus Artaxerxes began his Reign about Six months before the Flight of Themistocles into Asia according to the testimony of Thucydides the chief of the Heathen Historians For Themistocles in his flight according to him being tossed upon the Sea a day and night at anchor that he might not be driven into the Army of the Athenians then besieging the people of Naxos whom they subdued as the same Thucydides writes before that twofold famous Victory against the Persians by Sea and Land in the same day on the Coast of Pamphilia and near the shores of Cyprus under Cimon the Athenian General Which Victory they obtained according to Diodorus his own testimony on the Third year of the 77. Olympiad himself referring the flight of Themistocles to the former year viz. to the second of the 77. Olympiad I say it is plain from hence that the beginning of this Artaxerxes his Reign was Six years sooner than Funccius and others do place it the Argument being founded upon the unexceptionable Authority of Thucydides of whom Plutarch in the life of Themistocles writes thus That Thucydides and Charon Lamplacenus record that Xerxes being dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Themistocles had the communication with his Son viz. Artaxerxes And Plutarch adds that though others write that the said conference was with his Father Xerxes yet he prefers Thucydides his account as being more agreeing with the Chronology of those times And so Cornelius Nepos prefers his Authority in this matter before all others Quòd aetate proxiâ—â—s erat qui illorum temporum Historiam reliquerunt ejusdem Civitatis fuit Who therefore could not but know the time of the Athenians subduing the Naxii and of their famous twofold Victory by Sea and Land over the Persians under Ciâ—â—n their General So well is this first point established But see further in Thomas Lydiat himself Aâ—â—o Mundi 3534. Now for the Birth Baptism and Passion of Christ Daniel's Weeks reaching from Lydiat's Epocha which is the Twentieth of Artaxerxes which is Seven years later than the Seventh in their Epocha or the Thirteenth of his own reaching I say Seven years beyond Funccius his Expiration of them so that the year next after the last Week with Funccius is the first of the last with Lydiat it was requisite for Lydiat to set the Birth Baptism and Passion of our Saviour several years later than others account them that his Death may fall out in the midst of the last Week Wherefore whereas Funccius and Helvicus also placed the Birth of Christ in the year when C. Lent Getulicus and M. Messalinus were Consuls and others sooner as well as other-some later Thomas Lydiat places his Birth in the latest date of all viz. in the year when L. Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus were Consuls Which is Four years later than that Date of Funcâ—…ius which is in the Third year of the 194 Olympiad that in the Third of the 195. The first ground of his Evidence is That the Birth of our Saviour happened in that Oecumenical Tax appointed by Augustus and mentioned Luke 2. and executed by Cyrenius then Governour of Syria Now we are to understand that Augustus in his Reign appointed three universal Taxes of the Citizens and People of the Roman Empire which Suetonius intimates in his Life Cap. 27. Ceâ—…sum populi ter egit primum ac tertium cum collega medium solus The first was
presently upon the defeat and death of Antonius cum collega M. Agrippa The third a little before his own death cum Tiâ—…erio Collega The middle Tax was that which was begun by his appointment in the year of P. Vinitius and P. Alfinius Varus but finished Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus being Consuls as Thomas Lydiat makes good out of History And that it is that middle Tax of Augustus that the Evangelist Luke points at is plain in that the first and last are too far removed to pretend to be the Tax at what time Christ was born And besides the year before the beginning of this Tax Caius Caesar and Aemylius Paulus being Consuls the Gates of Ianus Quirinius were the third time shut up by Augustus and it is a tradition of the antient Fathers that Christ was born in such a time of Peace Moreover in the beginning of the Consulship of Vinitius and Alfinius was the twenty eighth of Augustus his obtaining that Title together with that supream and Sacrosanct Tribunitial power and Clemens Alexandrinus expresly says that Augustus his Tax and our Saviour's Birth was in the Twenty eighth year of Augustus his Reign And lastly Epiphanius farther to confirm the other says our Saviour was born in the twenty ninth year after the Iews were perfectly joyned with the Romans and Iudaea fully reduced under Tribute so that they had paid Tribute to the Romans these nine and twenty years commencing after the fourth year of Herod his being constituted King by Augustus Forasmuch as so many entire years says Thomas Lydiat intervene from the first Tax of Augustus peracted himself the sixth time and Agrippa the second time being Consuls to his second Tax instituted Vinitius and Alfinius being Consuls To this purpose does Thomas Lydiat argue to prove that our Saviour was born in the time of the second Tax of Augustus which was begun Vinitius and Alfinius and ended Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus being Consuls But not content with this he further proves that Christ was born in the very middle year of this Tax L. Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus being Consuls and P. Sulpitius Quirinius or Cyrenius being then Governour of Syria and that the first Tax that he medled in as the Greek Luke 2. v. 2. will very well bear it expunging the Comma betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the year of these Consuls Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus is the 41 year of the Reign of Augustus to be computed from the Consulship of Pulcher and Flaccus which is the Aera Hispanica in Tomis Conciliorum as Helvicus notes but in this 41 year of Augustus was Christ born according to the testimony of Irenaeus and Tertullian and others which is no mean argument in a matter of this nature Again P. Quirinius was sent Rectour or Tutour by Augustus to Caius Caesar after he had gotten Armenia For M. Lollius the former Tutor of Caius being dead a little before Tiberius his return out of Rhodes which was when Vinitius and Alfinius were Consuls and Caius after his renewing his confederacy with the Parthians and gone again into Armenia being in an heedless conference treacherously wounded and thereby disinabled as well in mind as body to attend publick affairs from hence there can be no doubt since Luke affirms this Tax to be carried on Quirinius or Cyrenius being Governour of Syria or guiding the affairs there and that Caius was thus unhinged who indeed died within a year after that disaster there can be no doubt I say but that Augustus by this same P. Quirinius at this time Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus being Consuls carried on the Tax at what time Christ was born in Bethlehem his Parents coming up thither to be taxed And that it is not for nothing called the first Tax of Quirinius to distinguish it from that other which he afterwards was imployed in when the Kingdom was taken from Archelaus Thirdly Whereas Suslyga and Kepler make that Tax under which Christ our Lord was born depending or interrupted Suslyga for four years from the Consulate of Censorinus and Asinius and Kepler six whole years from the year after the Consulate of Quirinius to the twelfth Consulate of Augustus with Sylla as reaching to Saturninus President of Syria under whom Tertullian with all confidence affirms the said Tax to be finished I appeal says Thomas Lydiat to Kepler's Conscience and Ingenuity whether my account which reducing the Tax within the space of three years divides it by years and half years betwixt Quirinius and Sentius allotting a year and an half to each so that Quirinius together with his prefecture of Syria began to carry it on in Iudaea in the beginning of the Consulate of Alfinius and Vinitius but Sentius succeeding him and Caius in the midst of the summer the usual time of changing the Presidents of Provinces next following the Nativity of Christ Servilius and Lamia being Consuls that Sentius I say finished it in the Consulship of Aelius Catus and Sentius Saturninus his Son in all probability I appeal saith he to Kepler whether this account be not far more rational and congruous than that of Suslyga or his own Fourthly and lastly for it were too prolix to take in all It appears out of Velleius Suetonius and Dion that Augustus adopted Tiberius and Agrippas Pâ—…sthumus in the midst of the Consulate of Aelius Catus and Sentius Satâ—…rninâ—…s the junior But Eusebius in his Chronicon places the Nativity of Christ in the year immediatly preceeding that adoption which therefore is the year of Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus Consuls These reasons with others which for brevities sake I have omitted being considered and how stoutly and dextrously T. L. has removed all blocks and rubbish which either Scaliger Kepler or Suslyga have cast in his way it may convince any unprejudiced man that reads him that he is in the truth touching the time of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour Now for his Baptism whereas they usually refer it to the fifteenth year of Tiberius he places it in the beginning of the nineteenth which makes about four years difference again And indeed considering that Iohn the Baptist began but his Function which was to prepare the way to the Messias on the fifteenth of Tiberius as it appears Luke 3. and that Province being of so great moment and consequence to wit Iohn his approving of himself so to all the People that he might be an idoneous Witness to our Saviour that was to come after him it was requisite that he should exercise his proper Ministry some competent time before our Saviour appeared upon the Stage And who can say that the space of about four years is more than competent or superfluous But let us hear Thomas Lydiat's own Reasons And the first is to that purpose we have already intimated only he adds that Iohn doing no Miracles and yet having by the exemplarity of his Life and the Efficacy of
his Doctrine drawn the eyes of all so upon him and got such an authority with the Iews and esteem that they began to think with themselves that he might be the very Messias so great an opinion could not be raised in them from one years experience but from many and that it is rashly gathered from Christ's Baptism being named so soon in the same Chapter that it should be in the very first year of Iohn's Ministry viz. in the fifteenth of Tiberius things of far greater distance of time being spoken of within less compass of lines and no intimation given of the times distance a thing frequent in Scripture So that the time of Christ's Baptism by Iohn is to be defined from other considerations And therefore The second Reason is That this nineteenth year of Tiberius exactly complies with the age of Christ at the time of his Baptism Luke Ch. 3. ver 2. And Iesus began to be about thirty years of age c. The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is And Iesus himself was about thirty years of age namely the age in which the Levites began their service Numb Ch. 4. beginning his Function which he was initiated into by this Baptism of Iohn the Holy Ghost also then descending upon him Now from the year of Aelius Lamia and Servilius Geminus Consuls to the nineteenth of Tiberius are thirty years as you may see in Chronologers So plain an Argument is this for Christ's being Baptized in the nineteenth year of Tiberius as Lydiat would have it Thirdly From the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus to this time of the manifestation of Christ in his Baptism and Ministry are precisely 483 years or Sixty nine Weeks according as it said in the very Prophecy That from the abovesaid Decree to Messiah the Prince viz. to his manifestation should be seven Weeks and threescore and two Weeks that is sixty nine Weeks And thus is there left one intire Week to confirm aâ—… covenant with many first by his own Preaching the first half of the Week and after by his Apostles after he had sent down the Holy Ghost upon them And let these three first reasons serve for a tast but there are more than thrice as many congruencies with historical passages that Lydiat notes in several succeeding years that do notably confirm this Hypothesis of his touching our Saviour's Baptism falling on the nineteenth year of Tiberius which I must omit that the Notes upon this Vision run not out too far Now the time of Christ's Baptism is setled the time of his Suffering will be determined with ease and fall in right whether we will or no taking but what the generality of Expositors have concluded on whom Funccius declares to have been of opinion that Christ was between thirty three and thirty four years old when he suffered whence of necessity his Death falls upon the fourth year of the last Week and about the middle of that year And that he did not exceed that age is further confirmed by Thomas Lydiat in his Canones Chronici p. 93. out of Theodoret who expresly says When our Lord for about three years and an half had preached and had confirmed his Disciples by his Doctrine and Miracles he suffered To all which you may add that there being from Christ's Baptism to his suffering but four Passovers as is apparent out of S. Iohn's Gospel who writing to make a supply to the omissions of the other Evangelists who scarce take notice of any Passover but that wherein Christ suffered would be sure to omit none from the time of his Baptism to his Suffering and Christ being Baptized in the beginning of the eighth natural month that is of the Jewish Marchesvan or Roman November as Thomas â—…ydiat notes out of Epiphanius Christ's Passion will necessarily run into the middle year of the last Week and near upon into the middle of that year there being nigh six months space betwixt the beginning of Marchesvan and the middle of Abib or Nisan when the Passover was kept So handsomely do all things fall in and agree together And though I have been very brief in opening the grounds of Thomas Lydiat's Chronological account of this Prophecy yet I hope it is so plain at least so considerable that it may excite the Reader to seek further satisfaction if he need it from Thomas Lydiat himself and admire with all true Christians the stupendious providence of God who has left such clear and wonderfull testimonies thereof unto his Church in these Books of Daniel and the Apocalypse for our certain assurance who is the Christ and who is the Antichrist And those certain Revelations touching Antichrist are also as effectual Corroboratives of our Faith in Christ to as many as are unprejudiâ—…ed and set themselves seriously to understand them VISION V. Which is the Vision of an Angel in human shape clothed in Linen with his Loins girt with the fine gold of Uphaz Ch. 10. and is a Prooeme or Introduction to the Vision of the Scripture of Truth which takes up the other two whole Chapters in Daniel THat the same times are run over again as in the Apocalypse so in this Book of Daniel and things more fully explained in the repetition of the same times I have noted above But what is most remarkable in this present introductory Vision is this That the vision of the Scripture of Truth which follows and is a description of Affairs from the times of the Persian Monarchy to the end of the world being of such great importance the Affairs of the Church not only Jewish but Christian being so lively described therein that which is most remarkable I say is that as in the Apocalypse to Visions of like great comprehension and compass so here to this Vision of so vast extent of time is there prefâ—…xt a very pompous introductory Vision as there is before the Prophecy of the Seals which reaches from the beginning of the Christian Church to the end of the World the representation of the throne of God prefixed and of the Four Beasts and the Four and twenty Elders Before the Prophecy of the opened Boâ—…k which reaches also from the beginning of the Church to the Conflagration there is a Vision of a mighty strong Angel clothed with a Cloud and a Rain-bow about his Head his face as the Sun and his Feet as pillars of Fire c. And lastly before the Prophecy of the Seven Churches which is of the same extent with the forenamed Prophecies there is seen in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks One like unto the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle His Head and his Hair was white like Wool as white as Snow and his Eyes were as a flame of Fire and his Feet like unto fine Brass and his Voice as the sound of many Waters Which is a representation of Christ
them Wisd. 3. 1. And stand in thy lot at the end of the days that is At the Resurrection of the just and because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thy lot it may intimate some peculiar lot Proper to him and such as he that is Martyrs for he was as good as actually Martyred he exposing himself fully to the fury of the Lions rather than he would obey that wicked and impious Decree that his enemies had got to entrap him with from the mouth of Darius His lot therefore seems to be with those that partake of the first Resurrection which happens under the last Trumpet as well as the last Resurrection does and therefore may well enough be said to be at the End of the days that is of Times namely to be in the last share of them under the seventh Trumpet beyond which the Angel swears there shall be no more Time upon Earth Apoc. 10. NOTES Upon VISION VI. Contin Ver. II. This Prophecy of the Time of the Revelation of Antichrist is so remarkable that it is worth our pains briefly here to consider the certainty thereof First then these Numbers 1290 days and 1335 days cannot be understood of days so as to be applied the former of them to the time from the pollution of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes unto the Grant to the Iews of living according to their own laws 2 Macc. 11. 27. the latter to the time from the same Epocha to Antiochus his death as Mr Mede has unanswerably demonstrated in his De Numeris Danielis against Broughton and Iunius Whence it will necessarily follow that these 1290 and 1335 days are indeed so many Prophetical days that is years as they are in this Book of Daniel naturally to signify unless some intimation be given to the contrary as I have noted above in due place and that this obvious Prophetical signification of days suits very well with this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth and takes nothing from its clearness and plainness nay indeed there being here given no intimation to the contrary as there is in other places of Daniel where days do not signify Prophetical days it is no slight but rather demonstrative argument that they do signify Prophetical days here that is that they are so many years Whence it will follow that if we can but light upon a fit Epocha to fix them to the Time of the strange wonders or the time of the Time and Times and half a Time which the Antients universally understood of the Reign of Antichrist will be discovered and consequently that Antichrist is already come according to the very suffrage of the Fathers And truly unless we will wilfully wink against it the Epocha to which these numbers are to be fixt is evidently declared by the Angel namely the Time that the daily Sacrifice shall be taken away and the Abomination that maketh desolate be set up which is spoke of in this very Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth Ch. 11. 31. Where touching Antiochus and his Ministers it is said They shall take away the daily Sacrifice and shall place the Abomination that maketh desolate What can be more assured and more handsome than that the Epocha of the Number that points to the Times of Antichrist should be fixt to the foulest Times of his Type Antiochus Epiphanes But it is further to be noted that this Epocha this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Transgression that maketh desolate as it is called Dan. 8. 13. is of some latitude above six years space The bounds of which space Grotius seems with judgment to define thus upon Dan. 8. 13. This Time says he of about six years begins from the first coming of Antiochus into Iudaea when the Priesthood was prophaned and it comprehends his second coming the forbidding of the Jewish Rites the placing of the Idol in the Temple and the whole Time of the intermission of the daily Sacrifice And upon Ch. 11. 28. This is the first coming says he of Antiochus into Iudaea when he disposed as he pleased of the High Priesthood Whence I think we may safely set those bounds of Prophanation or the Transgression that maketh desolate so as to place their beginning in the 141. year of the Seleucidae and their ending in the 148. For in the former year Menelaus by large bribes and much flattery obtained the High Priestood of Antiochus and thrust out Iason Quod erat proximum initium miseriarum Iudaeae sub Antiocho Epiphane says Thomas Lydiat And in the latter Antiochus Epiphanes died and Antiochus Eupator his successour granted an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Iews â—… liberty of living acording to their own laws viz. according to the Holy Covenant or Law of Moses And therefore this Epocha being so large as comprehending the space of above six years it is the less likely that the ending pointed precisely to a year when this discovery of the times of Antichrist should be But both the Numbers consisting absolutely and compleatly of Quindenaries or Indictions that this was not onely an intimation that the Numbers reached into the Times of the Roman Empire since the beginning of their computation by Indictions but that we may also compute this distance of Time by Quindenaries or Indictions As if he should say After 86 Quindenaries or 89 Quindenaries or before the 87th or the 90th be expired such things touching Antichrist will be clearly understood and it will be manifest and plain that those be the Times of Antichrist and that we are not then to expect an Antichrist to come but may be sure he is come already And if it were but thus it were sufficient But Mr. Mede taking the middle of the Time of the Transgression that maketh desolate which is the year before Christ 167. the Time of the first Number will expire says he A. D. 1123 the Time of the latter A. D. 1168. But forasmuch as there is a latitude in the Epocha we may begin the reckoning from every year thereof and therefore beginning at the first of the six the first Number will expire A. D. 1120. in which very year was there a Book published which did plainly declare the Apostasy of the Church of Rome and that the Pope was Antichrist And the very Date thereof is set in the Title page A. D. 1120. as you may see in Paul Perrin's History of the Waldenses This is very accurate though I confess I think it sufficient that this happened in the last Quindenarie of the first Number For neither were the 2300 Evening-mornings intended to predict to a day but to be collected into years as these Numbers into Indictions or Qâ—…indenaries This Book with this date of A. D. 1120. by Paul Perrin is reckoned among the Books of the Waldenses of whose holiness and sincere Christianity I cannot but recite that Testimony which Mr. Mede has noted out of Bernâ—…ardus who in the midst of his inveighing against t hem for being enemies to the
by an Henopaeia the succession of these two sorts of men thus kept out of power are turned into two single persons called two Witnesses Then they are clothed in sack-cloth as well as made to Prophesie to shew their low condition in the World Thirdly it being incredible that two single persons should each of them live 1260 years they are said by an Antichronismus to Prophesie onely 1260 Days namely the days of their deprivation of all power in Church or State wherein they lay like dead carcases as to any Political Power or Influence upon the World though they were yet in Being then as being the woman in the Wilderness as it is expressed by another Symbol But this dead condition of theirs representable by an unburied carcase that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Cortex might be observed is not to expatiate unto 1260 days much less to so many years but by another Antichrenismus though the same time is signified is to be contracted into three days and an half For who could endure that two carcases should lye stinking in the streets of the City suppose 1260 days or three years and an half Besides the incredibility of their being raised to life after so long a time And though these three days and an half be set at the end of the 1260 days yet by a Lemmatosynechia a figure usual in the Apocalypse they are easily understood to belong to the antecedent time and to Synchronize with it See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 1. Ch. 4. in Antichronismus Therefore this is the external Decorum observed in the outward Cortex of the Vision that their Political Death which is exactly Synchronal to the time of their mourning in sackcloth which is said to be 1260 days is contracted into three days and an half signifying there Daniels three times and an half as Day and Time sometimes signify the same thing This Parabolical Prophecy of the two Witnesses thus understood has a most enravishing festivity and elegancy in it and is one of the choicest examples of that Divine wit and Artifice of Concealment as well as Revealment that occurr in the whole Apocalypse Nor does that expression ver 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put a bar to the supposed Lemmatosynechia and hinder their Political Death from running back into the same time with their mournfull Witnessing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is a word which the Spirit of Prophecy has made choice of to serve as well the sense of the Pith of the Parable as of the Cortex thereof But our English Translation has pitched upon that sense which onely comports with the Cortex of the Parable while it renders it And when they shall have finished their Testimony as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Futurum exactum which it is not and besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well agere or peragere as finire And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will easily and naturally signify While they shall be performing or declaring their Testimony the Beast shall make war against them and kill them that is the successive body of them kill them all successively in that Political sense or keep them successively dead from the first suppression of them and kill some of this successive body according to a natural death even many Myriads of them as History can witness So easily is the difficulty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 removed Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has two senses the one serving the Pith the other the Cortex of the Parable as Day has two senses vers 9. and relating to the Cortex signifies a natural day but to the Pith it signifies Time in such a sense as Time is taken in Daniel Ch. 7. vers 25. And now I hope I have made it abundantly plain that there is no Incongruity in this Opinion of Peganius and mine in making the three days and an half the same with Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time or 1260 days Prophetically understood Nothing hinders but this may be the sense But now I shall produce reasons to prove that it really is so As first It being a Number consisting of three Integrums and an Half as Daniels three Times and an half is and the 42 Months and 1260 Days being but the varying of the phrase for the Three Times and an Half if a man have but any competency of Apocalyptick Nasuteness or Sagacity in him he will easily smell out the high probability of these three days and an half being the same with the three Times and an half in Daniel and consequently the same with the 1260 Days of the mournfull Prophecy of the Witnesses Secondly There being no example in all the Apocalypse at least and I think no where else of the affectation of predicting things to the curiosity of half a year it is plainly incredible that there should be any such affectation here Thirdly If the condition of the Apostolick Church be ever brought to so sad a condition again as is represented by the carcases of the two Witnesses lying dead in the streets of the great City it is incredible that they should recover again within the space of three years and an half The conceit looks almost as Romantickly or fabulously and out of the same ignorance of the Apocalyptick Antichronisme as that of the Romanists who tell us what strange feats Antichrist shall do in the same space of Time namely within the space of three years and an half when an age would scarce be sufficient to compass such Atchievements Fourthly If we restrain the lying dead of the Witnesses to the three years and an half at the end of their Prophesying there is nothing in the Vision to represent their Political Death to which their Resurrection relates before that time though they have been dead in that sense at least 1260 years already Which is exceeding absurd Fifthly Being that the witnesses have lyen slain in a Political sense and have been so often slain many hundred thousands of them in a Natural sense before the end of their mournfull witnessing it is unconceivable what persecution or oppression in these last three years and an half different from what they had endured before should â—…efall them or more worthy of taking notice that the former should be omitted and these by the carcases lying three days and an half in the street be represented Sixthly and lastly Whereas it is said v. 7. And when they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them unless my sense be admitted Till the end of their Prophesying there is neither any war nor any overcoming nor any killing of the Witnesses which is point-blank against the Truth of History This which I have produced as it does fully satisfy my self that the three days and an half are the same with Daniel's three Times and an half so I hope that other will also
be satisfied if not of the Truth of the thing yet at least that I have not rashly dissented from Mr. Mede therein We having thus solidly stated the sense of this Vision of the Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses which was the true sense thereof many hundred years ago and ever will be we may now the more seasonably enquire whether the Prophecy be yet fulfilled or no. Which if it be not and the Witnesses be not risen it is evident from what we have proved above viz. That the Vials follow the Rising of the Witnesses that there is not yet one Vial poured out But there is no Protestant Interpreter that I know but will allow that some of the Vials are already poured out Wherefore unless they will shamefully recoil they must of necessity acknowledg that the Witnesses are already risen But I shall use but one Argument for all to prove that this Vision or Prophecy of the Rising of the Witnesses is already fulfilled What a remarkable Providence as touching the Church of God and what a vast change of affairs there was in the Papacy at the late Reformation is notorious and what an innumerable company of people were delivered out of that worse than Aegyptian Bondage of the Pope and multitudes who because of their supposed Hereticalness lay dead useless and unactive to all Political Power whether in Church or State being excluded therefrom for their falsly suspected Heresy got into the most honourable employments at the Reformation both in Church and State Nay that the highest honours were in the hands of the Protestants in many intire Kingdomes and Principalities which had been under the Papacy before What a marvellous nay stupendious change this was no man can but be sensible of and therefore that it must be and that in no slight manner predicted in the Apocalypse Now it cannot be predicted in any of those Visions that in order of time follow the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses as the Vials do because this notable and stupendious mutation of things has happened already and as those of the adverse party would have it before the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore I demand of them in what Vision which is antecedent to the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is this so remarkable and marvellous a piece of Providence predicted or prefigured I am confident they cannot find any before this of the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore it must be this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses which prefigured this stupendious piece of Providence in the Reformation or else none at all Which were an absurdity intolerable and utterly incredible Wherefore it is even Mathe matically evident that the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is a Prophecy of the late Reformation and that it is fulfilled therein And this it would be though it were less significative of that marvellous passage of Providence than it is But that it is most fitly and fully significative thereof as if made on purpose for it my Exposition of it in my Apocalypsis Apocalypseos and elsewhere will I hope abundantly make good which is needless here to repeat as also how naturally the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb follows the Rising of the Witnesses which contains a deliverance of the Servants of God from that worse than Aegyptian Bondage of that Mystical Pharaoh the Pope and how the Sardian Interval of the Church which signifies a Song of Ioy commences at the same time Which things fall in with that Congruity and Harmony that he must be something more than ordinary stupid that is not enravished therewith But in the mean time having observed that neither the Messias who is called the Christ when he was come though predicted plainly enough by the Prophecies was taken notice of as such by them that were concerned to take notice of him nor yet Antichrist as fully nay more fully and repeatedly predicted and prefigured was taken notice of by them who were sufficiently concerned so to do I less wonder that the Prophecy of the Rising of the Witnesses so punctually predicted and manifestly fulfilled in the Reformation should be so little taken notice of as it is but that several men as the Iews expect a Messias to come and the Romanists an Antichrist so they a Rising of the Witnesses to come when the impletion of that Prophecy is so evidently already past Wherefore it was the duty of some or other to remind them of it The Authours twenty Arguments whereby he does prove that the seven Epistles to the seven Churches are a Prophecy of the state of the Church cast into seven Intervals from the beginning thereof to the last Iudgment out of his Exposition of the seven Churches Chapter X. 1. AS in Natural Hypotheses those are accounted truest that solve the Phaenomena of Nature the most naturally and easily and especially if such as are no otherwise solvible than upon the proposed Hypothesis so that meaning of Scripture I mean especially of any considerable portion thereof ought to be esteemed truest that can solve the most Difficulties that may be raised concerning the same or the Contexts precedent or subsequent thereto and if all still the more certain and if unsolvible otherwise there is still the more assurance of undeniable Demonstration Now how near this Mystical or Propheticall Exposition of these Epistles approaches to the clearness of this case I will leave to the Reader to judge after he has considered the Solutions of the questions easily raised out of the Epistles themselves or the precedent Chapter and not easily answered nor at all satisfactorily at least most of them but upon the Hypothesis we have gone 2. As first If a man enquire why the Spirit of Prophecy after he has so expresly given notice that this Book of the Apocalypse is to shew unto his servants things that are to come and called it plainly a Book of Prophecies should start so unexpectedly from the Title and intended Subject as to write no less than seven Epistles to certain Churches that have nothing considerable of Prophecy in them before he deliver any Prophecies properly so called but onely Promises and Comminations and that he should do this * with as great Pomp and as high a Preamble as he does when he begins so famous Prophecies as those of the seven Seals and the opened Book But according to our Hypothesis the Answer is easie viz. That though these seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia have a Literal sense yet they are also a Parable or Prophecy and of as high concern for both matter and extent of Time they reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as the Prophecy of the Seals and Opened Book and that they are ushered in with this great Pomp on purpose to give us notice thereof Secondly A man would be prone to enquire why the Spirit dictates Letters unto the Churches in Asia and not rather