did bend their eyes and expectation and a time from which all the Christians that have lived since have dated their Chronicall accounts and computation And yet how unfixed is this time and age of the world in which so great a mysâ—ery came to passe and upon which so generall accounting doth depend in the various reckonings of learned and industrious men It is not onely to bee seen in their writings wondered at in regard of the great difference at which they count but the fixed time is the more to bee studied for upon this very reason because such men do so greatly differ among themselves The onely way to settle in such variety is to take the plain and cleere account and reckoning of the Scripture which hath taken a peculiar care to give an exact and most certain Chronicle to this time and not to rely upon the computation of Olympiadeâ— Consuls or any other humane calculation which it cannot bee doubted must of necessity leave the deepest student of them in doubting and uncertainty Now the Scripture carrying on a most faithfull reckoning of the times from the beginning of time to this fulnesse of it hath laid this great wondrous and happy occurrence of the birth of the Redeemer in the yeere of the world three thousand nine hundred twenty and eight Which that wee may make good and fixed among so much variety and difference may the Reader gently have the patience to see and to examine the particular summes by which the Scripture accounteth to make up this totall and to study upon those scruples in the severall parcells where they come that make the account intricate and doubtfull and to judge upon those resolutions and satisfactions that shall bee tendered for the cleering and untying of those scruples And surely though the businesse may bee something long and difficult which wee shall propose and lay before him yet doubt I not but the profit will fully countervaile his labour when hee shall not onely bee resolved of the certainty of the time which wee now have occasion and every Christian hath cause to looke after but when hee shall also see and that I suppose not without admiration the wondrous and mysterious and yet alwayes instructive stile and manner of accounting used by the Holy Ghost in most sacred Majesticknesse and challenging all serious study and reverence And though also this businesse may seem to bee something too Parergon and excentrick to the main work that wee have before us the Harmonizing of the Evangelists yet since a prime thing that wee are to inquire after in the very entrance of this story of our Saviours life is the fixed and certain time of his birth the Reader will bee pleased to excuse a fault on the right hand rather then on the left and to dispense with too much desire to give satisfaction rather then too little or with none at all Sect. I. From the Creation to the Flood were 1656. yeeres as appeareth Gen. 5. 6. 7. by these parcels Adam at 130 yeeres old hath Seth ver 3. Seth at 105 yeeres old hath Enosh ver 6. Enosh at 90 yeeres old hath Cainan ver 9. Cainan at 70 yeeres old hath Mahalaleel ver 12. Mahalaleel at 65 yeeres old hath Jared ver 15. Jared at 162 yeeres old hath Enoch ver 18. Enoch at 65 yeeres old hath Methuselah ver 21. Methuselah at 187 yeeres old hath Lamech ver 25. Lamech at 182 yeeres old hath Noah ver 28. 29. Noah at 600 yeeres old seeth the Flood Gen. 7. 11. Totall 1656. which whole yeere of the world was taken up with the Flood viz. from the 17 day of the second Moneth or Marheshvan Gen. 7. 11 to the 27 day of the same moneth come twelve-moneth Gen. 8 14. Sect. II. From the Flood to Terahs death and the Promise then given to Abram were 427 yeeres as appeareth Gen. 11. by these particulars Sem at 2 yeeres after the Flood begat Arphaxad ver 10. Arphaxad at 35 yeeres old begat Salah ver 12. Salah at 30 yeeres old begat Eber ver 14. Eber at 34 yeeres old begat Peleg ver 16. Peleg at 30 yeeres old begat Reu ver 18. Reu at 32 yeeres old begat Serug ver 20. Serug at 30 yeeres old begat Nachor ver 22. Nachor at 29 yeeres old begat Terah ver 24. Terah at 130 yeeres old begat Abram Abram at 75 yeeres old hath the Promise Gen. 12. 4. Totall 427. Which summe being added to 1656 which was the age of the world at the Flood amounteth to 2083. and it resulteth that the promise was given to Abram in the yeere of the world two thousand eighty three But here is the great question moved Whether Abram were the eldest son of Terah yea or no If hee were then was hee born when Terah was 70 yeeres of age Gen. 11. 26. and not as this Table layeth it at his 130. And if hee were not his eldest son why hath Moses named him first of all his sonnes Answer First Hee was not his eldest Sonne for 1. Hee marryed his brother Harans daughter for so all men hold Sarah to have been and shee was but ten yeeres younger then himself Gen. 17. 17. which was impossible if her Father were younger then hee 2. Hee is said to bee but 75 yeeres old when hee departed out of Hanan Gen. 12. 4. And this was after his Fathers death Act. 7. â— Now had hee been born at Terahs 70 he had been 135 yeeres old when his Father dyed Wee must therefore compute and reckon backward thus that since hee was but 75 yeeres old when his Father dyed it must needs bee concluded that hee was born when Terah was 130. as is laid down in the Table Answer Secondly Hee is reckoned first of Terahs sonnes as Sem is of Noahs not because hee was the first in time but the first in dignity For that Sem was not the eldest sonne of Noah is cleere by comparing these places Gen. 5. 32. Noah was 500 yeeres old when hee begat his first sonne and Gen. 7. 11. when Noah was fix hundred yeeres old was the Flood of waters upon the earth and then was one of his sonnes an hundred yeeres old But Sem was not so till two yeeres after Gen. 11. 10. And yet is hee ever named the fiâ—â—t of his sonnes Gen. 5. 32. 6. 10. 7. 13. 9. 18. 10. There are some that not content with this plain necessary and undenyable explication of the difficulty do hold that Abram took two journeys into Canaan one before his Fathers death and another after whereas Moses and Steven well compared together do plainly shew the contrary and fully and sufficiently cleere the matter under scruple That which hath made men to fall into the mistake of his two journies into Canaan hath been this that they have taken the words of God in Act. 7. 3. Get thee out of thy Countrey c. and his words in Gen. 12. 1. Get thee
And this sheweth the zeale of Hezekiah in the work of Reformation the more in that hee assayed and perfected it so much in the very time of his wicked Father 14. But yet there ariseth another doubt in the computation of the times of Hezekiah parallel with the times of Hoshea For whereas hee beganne to reigne in the third yeere of Hoshea as is cleere before then the seventh yeere of Hoshea should bee counted his fifth yeere and yet it is called but his fourth 2 King 18. 9. Answer The beginning of Hezekiahs reigne is of a double date Hee beganne indeed to bee Viceroy and to beare the rule in the third of Hoshea which was the fourteenth yeere of his Father Ahaz but the time of that yeere was but short that hee was in the royalty and hee did but little or nothing of note that yeere but the next yeere which was the fifteenth of Ahaz and the fourth of Hoshea on the very first day of the yeere or the first of Nisan hee beganne the Reformation and stirred bravely in the restoring of Religion 2 Chron. 29. 3. and therefore that is owned as the most remarkable and renowned beginning of his dominion And so the seventh of Hoshea and his fourth yeere fall in together In his sixth yeer the ten Tribes are captived 2 King 18. 10. And so the parallelling of the two Kingdomes of Judah and Israel in their Chronicall Annals is at an end and now the times of the kingdome of Judah lye in an easie and continued Chronicle to the captivity in Babel without any great scruple Onely about those turbulent times of Jehoachaz and Jehoiakim there is a little difficulty For there passed some yeeres between the death of Josiah and the Reign of Jehoiakim in troubles and distempers though the Text hath mentioned the three moneths onely of Jehoachaz The grosse summe of 390. between the division and the burning of the Temple keepeth all right and sheweth how much space this was when all the other particulars are taken up as the 480 between the delivery out of Aegypt and building of Solomons Temple do by the time of the rule of Joshua though the Text expressely hath not determined it So that now adde these 390 yeeres mentioned by Ezekiel which was the exact space between the falling away of the ten Tribes and the destruction of Jerusalem to the 3030 yeeres of which age the world was when the ten Tribes fell away and wee finde that Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in the yeere of the world 3420. Sect. VII From the burning of the Temple by Nebuzaradan 2 King 25. Jer. 52. to the return from Babel 2 Chro. 36. 22. Ezra 1. 1. were fifty yeeres It hath been no small controversie among the learned that have handled the current of these times that wee are about where to begin the seventy yeeres of the captivity in Babel so renowned in Scripture Jer. 25. 11 12. and 29. 10. 2 Chron. 36. 21. Zech. 1. 12. For since there were three captivities of Hierusalem by the Babylonian namely in the third yeere of Jehoiakim 2 Chron. 36. 6. Dan. 1. 1. In the yeere of Jehoiachin 2 Chron. 36. 9 10. and in the eleventh of Zedekiah 2 King 25. 2 3. Jer. 52. 4 5. it may very well bee questioned where those seventy yeeres of captivity did beginne and where those 390 yeeres from the falling away of the ten Tribes should terminate To omit varieties of opinions and reasons that fix these periods some here some there these reasons do plainly and sufficiently demonstrate that the seventy yeeres of Judahs captivity in Babel did begin from the third yeere of Jehoiakim First Because Daniel that measured out the whole space of that captivity and that giveth account of the state of the people that time beginneth from thence Dan. 1. Secondly Because it is most proper to beginne the seventy yeeres captivity by Babel from the very first time that any captivity by Babel began Thirdly It is prophecyed by Jeremy chap. 25. 11. that not onl the Jews but also all Nations round about them should serve the King of Babel 70 yeeres So that those seventy yeeres are to bee counted the time and space of the absolute Monarchy of Babel and they are to beginne from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar the first Monarch Now the beginning of his Monarchy is easie to settle viz. in the third of Jehoiakim from these Texts Jer. 32. 1. and 52. 12. It is true indeed that in Jer. 25. 1. the fourth of Jehoiakim is called his first and so it might bee very well for the first of Nebuchadnezzar might take up part of two yeeres of his Reigne as any one yeere of the King takes up much time of two Lord Majors hee entring his yeere in the Spring and they in Autumne Thus doe the seventy yeeres beginne from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar but the 390 that wee have been so long upon doe not there end but they end at his nineteenth or at the eleventh of Zedekiah when the City and Temple was utterly ruined and the captivity entirely consummate as the chaine of the yeere drawn out to the length doe really fix it and as the very intent and stile of the Prophet doth the like who in that summe doth comprehend the whole time of the peoples being in their own Land after the râ—volt under Jeroboam So that nineteen yeeres compleat out of the seventy must wee take into that sum and so there are but fifty yeeres of that captivity to the time of their delivery under Cyrus remaining which summe being added to the age of the world at the burning of the Temple 3420. doth make the world to bee 3470 yeeres old at the first of Cyrus when the captivity did return Sect. VIII From the return of the Jewes out of Babel to the death of Christ 490 yeeres This is so plain in Dan. 9. in the seventy weekes or seventy time seven yeeres there mentioned from the Commandement going forth from Cyrus to restore and build Hierusalem to the cutting off of the Messias that it needeth as little to confirme it as to tell that seventy times seven is foure hundred and ninety For if the Angel speak not of a fixed and certaine time in this summe hee nameth this summe to no purpose in the world but hee doth so cleerely fix the time the two termini of its extent and some particular linkes of it as it passed that nothing can bee more cleere evident and perspicuous Now adde these 490 yeeres which reach to the death of Christ to the age of the world 3470. at the time when they began and it resulteth that our Saviour dyed in the yeere of the world 3960. Out of which subduct the two and thirty yeeres of our Saviours life and it appeareth that hee was borne in the yeere of the world 3928. that yeere being then but newly begunne stilo veteri or according to the account used from
Frankiniense and Myrrhe The mysterious application of these presents as Myrrham homini uncto aurum c. be left to them that delight and content themselves in such things the plaine and easie interpretation of the matter is that they tendered to Christ the chiefest and choicest commodities that their Countrey could afford which they carried in their treasures as the text calleth it that is in and among those commodities that the men of those Nations used to carry with them when they travailed especially when they meant to present any one to whom they went as Gen. 24. 53. 1 Kings 10. 2. Vers. 15. Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne The two allegations produced here out of the Old Testament this and that out of Jeremy in Rama was a voice heard are of that fulnesse that they speake of two things a piece and may very â—itly be applyed unto them both and shew that the one did resemble or prefigure the other as this text of Hosea aimeth both at the bringing of the Church of Israel in old time and of the head of that Church at this time out of Egypt Then a Joseph nourished his father now a Joseph doth so to his redeemer then was Egypt deadly to every male child that was borne now is it a place of refuge and preservation to this child Ver. 18. In Rama was there a voice heard c. Ramah stood not farre from Bethlehem though they were in two Tribes and the cry that the poor Parents and children made in Bethlehem when this matchlesse 〈◊〉 was in hand reach't to Ramah and was plainly heard thither Now observe the fulnesse of this Scripture as it is uttered by the Prophet as it is applied by the Evangelist It was fulfilled in one kind in the time of Jeremy him self and then was the lamentation and weeping in Ramah it selfe for hither did Nebuzaradan bring his Prisoners after hee had destroyed Jerusalem and there did he dispose of them to the Sword or to Captivity as seemed good unto himself Jer. 40. 1. And imagine what lamentation and crying was then in that City when so many were doomed there either to bee slaine in that place or to goe to Babel never to see their owne Land againe Then was the cry in Ramah and it was heard no doubt to Bethlehem But now the Prophecy is fulfilled in another kind when Harod destroyeth so many Children in Bethlehem and in the Suburbs and Borders belonging to it And now the cry is in Bethlehem and it is heard to Ramah SS Rachel weeping for her children c. Rachels grave was betwixt Bethlehem and Ramah or at least not farre distant from either of them Gen. 35. 16. 20. 1 Sam. 10. 2. The holy Ghost therefore doth elegantly set forth this lamentation by personating Rachel who dyed in the birth of her 〈◊〉 the Sonne of her Sorrow sorrowing for her Sonnes and Children that were thus massacred And this sheweth that the text in the Prophet aimeth in the first place and intention at the matter of Nebuzaradan for in Bethlehem Rachel properly had no children at all that City being inhabited by the children of Judah which deseended of Leah but in Ramah dwelt Rachels children that being a towne of Ephramites descended from Joseph Howsoever Rachel may bee said to weepe for the Babes of Bethlehem as her owne children though they were not strictly and properly her seed in regard of the interest that shee had in all the tribes of Israel as being wife unto their Father as Joseph is often called the Father of Christ being onely husband to his mother And see such another phrase Gen. 37. 10. Shall I and thy mother come to bow downe before thee whereas Josâ—phs mother was dead already Vers. 19. But when Herod was dead c. The end of Herod was not long after the massacre of these infants and his bloodinesse which he had used all his life long and topped up in the murder of these innocents and in desire to have done as much to the Lord of life the Lord doth now bring upon his owne head This matter with the children of Bethlehem wee conceive to have been some three moneths more or lesse before his end in which space this was his behaviour as may be collected out of Josephus Hee had slaine long before this his two Sonnes Alexander and Aristobulus and now was he about to doe as much by his Sonne Antipater a child too like the Father and one whom hee left by will the Successor in his Kingdome Him suspected by him for some man chination against himselfe hee had now shut up in prison and intended him presently for the execution but that his sicknesse whereof he died seizing on him gave some more space to the imprisoned and some hopes and possibilities of escaping His disease was all these mixed together an inward burning and exulceration an insatiable greedinesse and devouring the collicke the goute and dropsie his loines and secrets crawling with lice and a stinke about him not to bee indured These wringings and tortures of his body meeting with the peevishnesse of old age for hee was now seventy and with the naturall cruelty which alwayes had been in him made him murderously minded above all measure insomuch that hee put to death divers that had taken downe a golden Eagle which hee had set up about the Temple And when he grew neer to his end and saw himselfe ready to die hee slew his Sonne Antipater and caused great multitudes of the Nobility and People to bee closed up in a sure place giving command to slay them assoone as hee was dead for by that meanes hee said hee should have the Jewes truely and really to sorrow at his death Vid. Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 8 9 10. and de Bel. lib. 1. câ—p 21. Vers. 20. For they are dead that sought the young childs life The like saying is to Moses Exod. 4. 19. where the word they may be understood of Pharaoh and his servants which jointly sought his life for the Egyptians sake whom hee had slaine and were now all dead and worne out in the fourty yeeres of his being in Midian But here it is true indeed that the seeking of the childs life may well bee applied to Herods Servants as well as himselfe but that all they died with him or about the time of his death who in flattery or favour or obedience to him had promoted the slaughter at Bethlehem and had sought the childs life I know not upon what ground it should be conceived I should therefore by the they in this place understand Herod and his Sonne Antipater jointly together For if it bee well considered how mischievous this Antipater was against his own Brethren and how hee wrought their ruine and misery for feare they should get betwixt him and the throne yea how hee sought the destruction of his owne Father because hee thought hee kept him out of the Throne too long it may