The Period of the Persian Monarchy, Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII.
Dan. c. 1.8.WHy defile himselfe?
Dan. cap. 1. v. 8. But Daniel had determined in his heart, that he would not defile himselfe with the Kings meat: nor with the wine which he dranke.Because,Deut. 14.3. Dan. 5.4. 1. It was often such as was against the Law of God.
Rom. 14.21.2 Vsed so, as would defile them, being against the word of God.
1. Cor. 10.20. Dan. 1.7, 8.3. Daniel saw, that the Kings love and provisions were not single and …incere; but that he meant his owne profit: which his fellowes also Ananias, Mishael and Azari…s saw.
Dan. 1.12.The Kings drift in training them up, that they might stand before him, was, that they should attend him as Courtiers in his Palace: And (they being of the bloud royall, and seed of the Nobility) that hee might thereby better assure the Land of Iudah.Vers. 4.19. Vers. 3.
But did not Daniel afterwards eate?
He did, when he was in his greatnes, and could command what sort of dyet he himselfe pleased; such as neither in nature nor use was against the Leviticall Law of God. The Iewes were not bound to the Iudiciall Law indeed; but onelyonly within the Kingdomes of Israel: For Daniel and Mordecay were great Officers and Magistrates in forraine parts; and no question, they did minister justice according to the nationall lawes and customes of those Countries, and not according to the Leviticall and Iudiciall Lawes of Moses: But yet the Iewes were most strictly tyed all the world over to an exact observation of the Ceremoniall and Leviticall Lawes of God: and therefore Daniel, though out of his Countrey, durst not eate, lest he should defile himselfe by transgressing the Ceremoniall Law.
*Cap. 2.46, 47. Then the King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and bowed hims…lfe unto Daniel, and commanded that they should offer meat offerings and sweet …dours unto him. Also the King answered Daniel, and said; Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of Gods and a Lord of Kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal… this secret.Nebuchadnezzar being amazed with the worke of Daniel, went about, in his person and by his command to make a god of him. Had he onelyonly bowed to him in reverence, in that affection which may well bee towards a Prophet of the Lord, (as Alexander did to the high kIoseph. antiq. l. 11. cap. 8. Gen. 13.29.41. 2. Sam. 10.Priest, and is indeed lawfull to be done,) Daniel might have accepted it: But the King went too too far; and that act of his to command meat offerings & sweet odours to be offered to him, was flagrant Idolatry: and therefore it could not stand with the piety of Daniel, who would not so much as eat of the Kings meat, to give the least entertainment to any such Idolatry. And though it be not expressed in so many words, yet it is plaine enough; that Daniel did reprove this fact of the King, and thereupon was nothing done. And the words themselves in Nebuchadnezzars reply give us this meaning. The King answered unto Daniel (saith the text): therefore Daniel had spoken his lLyran. Peter. Sanctius ad locum Tremel. Deodat. è …ostris. Gal. 4.14. Acts. 10.25. & 14.13. & 28.6.mind to the King, though the words bee left out (Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of Gods) This shewes, that Daniel had enformed, that there was but One only God, and that Divine worship was due to that One God onelyonly. Wee may receive Prophets and Preachers as Angels: but we must not receive them as Gods.
Dan. 4.53. The same houre was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchad…ezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grasse as Oxen: and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his haires were growne like feathers, and his …ailes like birds clawes.Some have sayd that Nebuchadnezzar was metamorphosed into a very beast: but it is the truer opinion to say, that his malady was in mind not in body. God stroke him with a kind of melancholy madnesse: Insomuch that he lost all judgement, sense, and use of reason; living and doing like a beast of the field. His life was a wild kind of life, out of the communion of men. And they may as well say, he was turned into an Eagle, because it is sayd, that his haires were growne like Eagles, as to affirme that he was changed into an Oxe, because he is sayd to eate grasse like Oxen. The conclusion would as well be, that he was converted into Oxen; because as our Translation reads it according to the originall, it is not sayd [as an oxe] but [as the oxen] in the plurall number. Pride hath beene punished with the heaviest hand of God: The Angels through Pride lost their habitation, and are now in Hell. It was Pride that made of an Angell a Devill, turned them out of Heaven into Hell. Adam through Pride lost himselfe, and all his posterity, as farre as lay in him, was cast out and kept out of Paradise; and was the cause of all the sinnes and sorrowes, that have beene, are, or shall be in the world. Nebuchadnezzar a mighty Monarch, for his Pride made for seven yeares a wilde man, lost the use of reason and lived like a beast: and 'tis worse to be like a beast than to be a beast (saith the Philosopher.) And Herod another King, as proud as he, for his very pride in admitting only of the Acclamation (It is the voyce of God, and not of man) he did not procure it: behold he is, for suffering divine honour to be given to him, & affecting to be a lowzie God, eaten up of wormes. The God of glory hath ever resisted the proud afarre off: whatever hee gives to any, hee will not give his glory to another. When Satan came once to looke after divine honour,Mat. 4. Christ puts him off with a short answer; Avoide Satan.