An Advertisement of Corruption in our Handling of Religion, Part 16 – Part 18
For Olympiades this was part.
EZekiel prophecied in Olympiad 48. by Clemens, and by him, Aggei ninety yeares after in Olympiad 48 So our Eccleſiaſticall ſkill maketh Ezekiel and Aggei of one age. This wilbe ſmall commendation for right reverend Fathers that hauehave taken ſo many hundreth thouſande poundes ſterling for teaching Diuinitie: To make Ezekiel prophecying in the fift of King Sedekias kild by Nabucodonoſor & Aggei that built the Temple by his tongue, to be of one and the ſame Olympiad in ſad trueth, and trueth to examine an Angels prophecie. Reuerend Fathers ſhould hauehave dealt more reuerendlie then to check Gods word for the very houre of our redemption, ſet in Daniels time ſure for all the world: more reuerendly they ſhould hauehave dealt then to alter the borders which Prophetes and Angels had ſettled. More of this ſtuffe ſhalbe ſhewed. Xexes in of Eſthers time and Oebotas a Greeke, and Gelo King of Syracuſa were of one time: and dealers in the ſame warres.Pauſa nias in Eliac. Yet Oebotas warred then in Olympiad the ſixt: and ſo Gelo built Camarina in Olympiad the third by the commētarie vponupon Pindarus. So by our Eccleſiaſticall men King Cyrus ſhould be in Antiochus Epiphanes dayes: Or Xerxes in King Ezekias time. Thus we corrupt religion by ignorance of all groundes of ſtudy. This ground is ſure & worthy of all interteynment: which Thalmud Ieruſalemy citeth: but cōfirmed afore in the Goſpel Ein dibre Thorah zaricin chizuk: Thaaniut fol. 66. col. 1. The words of the Law need no fortification. So our Lord ſayth: I receaue no testimony from men. When Abraham ſaw Iſmael perſecute Iſaak, he knew that that time four hūdreth yeares Iſrael ſhould come from Egypt, as well as Moſes, in the end. So Ezekias knew fiftine yeres afore he died, when he ſhould die, ſo well as they that ſaw his death: So Ieremy knew ſeauenty yeares before Babel fell, when it ſhould fall: as well as Daniel that ſaw it fall: ſo Daniel knew that 490. yeares from his prayer, Chriſt our Lord ſhould confirme the covenant for Heathē: as well as the Diſciples knew that it was done. And all Iewes, of any religion in the Goſpell, looked at the ſame time for the kingdom of heaven to appeare by the plain proprietie of Gods word. Further dotage in Olympiades may be wayed.
Chilon the wiſe, the Old Lacedemonian of Solons age, was Ephorus in Sparte in the fiftie ſixt Olympiad: of Solons age: and much ancienter then Cyrus. Soſigenes in Laertius is the authour. By Pamphyla, a learned Romane woman, which wrote of Olympiades, whoſe worke Photius honoreth in his Librarie: it was the ſixt Olympiade when this Chilon was Ephorus. So by Olympiades there is a doubt of 200. yeares (that is 50 Olympiades) when Chilon one of the ſeaven ſages, floriſhed. Whoſe time without Olympiades helpe, is knowen wel enough. So for the deceaved: theſe Olympiades, if they be not farre enough out of the way by them ſelues, theſe Olympiades would prick them forward. And it muſt needes be counted a moſt grievous iniurie againſt the Maieſtie of God, to torment all the Byble by them, and to deny the gracious light of Salvation: whiche the holy Angel Gabriel left as mount Sion that can not be mooved. And as the mountaynes are about Ieruſalem, ſo are holy Scriptures about that oration of the holy Gabriel: who taught all at Babels fall, that 490. yeares after that yeare, the King of Glory ſhould be kild: but death ſhould not holde him, but his iuſtice ſhould appeare by his Reſurrection: that he was kild not for him ſelfe, but to make reconciliation for our ſinnes, and to ſeale Viſion & Prophet: and to make Heathen ſyſſoma one body with Iſrael. The Lord knew, that as plain a prefixed time as time could bee prefixed was needfull for all the world. And the holy Angel might not ſpeake deceipt as Iuppiter in Homer, by a dreame, deceaved Agamemnon, by the word NOW: ſaying: Now thou ſhalt take Troy. Agamemnon tooke it for, THAT DAY: but Iuppiter meant that yeare: and ſo cauſed for amendes to Achilles, infinite ſlaughter of Greekes. By M. Liuely the Angel deceaued all that ever read his wordes: till M. Liuely came to teach their right meaning, and he ſhould no more be an holy Angel then Iuppiters dreame was a God. Our reverend fathers might hauehave ſpared the Princes authoritie frō cōfirming ſuch Agamemnonean dreames. They that adventure their eternall ſtate on this: that they will with all hart, might, and ſtrength, that Gods grace will graciouſly afford, further the trueth and light of the Goſpell, will not reioyce to hauehave their authority vſurped to the Eternall deſtruction of their People and them ſelves. This coſinage to check the holy Angel by Olympiades, to turne the prophecy from light to darknes: from trueth to falſhood: from Chriſt his name to prophane Atheiſtes: from his covenaunt in the Lords ſupper: vntounto a covenant of Romane dogges with as dogged Iewes: from the times beginning certen and cleare to all heartes of ſage, vntounto one never knowen afore M. Liuely told: and to end not at our Lordes death: to ende Moſes there, but to ende at Ieruſalems fall: and ſacrifice to be lefull ſo farre: this matcheth Eves fall by the Serpent: and paſſeth the building of Babel. And Eſay thought and taught, that by Cyrus Decree Ieruſalem ſhould be built. And ſeeing he gaue them vnderunder letters Patentes leave, to returne to Ieruſalem to builde the Temple, the Decree for City and Temple muſt needes be at that time: and ſo Daniel would vnderſtand him: that from that yeare all the world might date their writinges thus: Dated 490. yeares afore the kingdome of Meſſias Cyri primo: Dated 460. Darij Artax. 20 when Aggei prophecieth: Dated 442. viceſimo Artax. before Meſſias kingdome: when Ieruſalem was walled. And as Men on a iourney knowen, know ſtil how fewer miles they hauehave to their Inne or reſt: ſo all the world yere by yere, ſince the Angell taught Daniel, might know, how neare they were to the opening of the kingdome of heaven by our Lord his moſt holy ſoule going through the veile of his fleſh into heaven, by Saint Paule, into Paradiſe by the Goſpell, into Hades by the Greeke, (but in Hades to the Gardens of the godly, and not Tartarus) to make reconciliation for vsus, having found Eternall redemption. Such limites are fitt markes for a Chronicle: The firſt yeare of Cyrus Empire, who had revenged Babel that oppreſſed Gods children 70. yeares: that yeare which ſaw an Angell tell Daniel of an Eternall kingdome, in hope of which 49697. leaue Babel for Ieruſalem ſure to be ſtill in affliction: and a Proclamation of the God that made the heavens over ſix ſcore nations: and a willing ſubſidie from ſo many for them that goe to Ieruſalem in this hope: Such noble ſtories ſhould be the mark of a Chronicle for Chriſt: chayned from Adam 3470. yeares thither: and thence ſeaven times the captivities length, that is 490. yeares, vntill the King of glory doth open freedom for all: when the ſun darkened three houres: when the earth trembleth: when the ſtones burſt: when the curtine of the Temple rent: as a Draper would part a peece of cloth: when the dead aroſe: when our Lord forty dayes was ſeene of the faithfull, to ſend his ſpirit and a fiery law to teach all nations. Such noble markes ſhould the Angel Gabriels Chronicle hauehave: and not obſcure dennes of Cacus to bring errours in numbre as the leaues of a foreſt.
And yet let vsus more conſider the vanity taken by the Games of Olympia: renued every fift yeare: having full foure yeares to an Olympiade: That by a fuller diſcourſe ſuch wicked toyes might be baniſhed for ever: and made a lothſomenes to all men of iudgement.
Olympiades miracles for Thales the wiſe man.
THales Mileſius was well knowen that he liued in Solons times, & Croeſus King of Lydia, whom Cyrus cōquered: and yet Croeſus was of King Ioſias times, as Greekes cōferred, will convict. This Thales is ſaid by ſome to be borne in the thirty fift Olympiade, and to floriſh in the ſeaventh: that is about 120. yeres afore he was born. And this ſtuffe is goodly to obſcure the time of Salvation, ſhining in Daniel more then doth the ſunne in his greateſt brightnes. Mast. Liuely hath drawne Olympiades into our Eccleſiaſticall authoritie: to make vsus a ſkoff to all Iewes of the world: that wee looke by them how to vnderſtand an Angel of light, ſent by the grace of God to teach all the ſimple world: into whoſe lippes if grace were not powred, to be vnderſtood as ſoone as he ſpake: heathen would ſay Daniel ſawe no Angel. And M. Lively neuer heard of any Iew that more regarded Olympiades, thē we regard Lucianes true ſtories. And if he had read ſuch Grecians as marke them, how they iarre, he would hauehave helde them as weake as Cobwebbes which a fly would breake.
Of Cyrus and Cambyſes to what Olympiad M. Lively might apply them.
Suidas in the name Anacreon, the Poët, ſayth: he liued in the dayes of Polycrates the tyrant of Samos in the fiftie two Olympiade: But others place him in the twenty fift Olympiade vnderunder Cyrus and Cambyſes. So by Suidas Cyrus & Cambyſes reigne togeather. And by Olympiades an hundreth yeares ſooner then M. Liuely would: and almoſt an hundreth yeares before Nebuchadnezar: if Ezechiel prophecieth in Olympiad 48. as Clemens of Alexandria writeth he did. And ſo the Ebrew profeſſour may ſee to what paſſe his Muſae Olympiades bring Ebrew writers, if his penne were regarded.
The recordes of his Eclipſes are leſſe regarded: of Iewes and Grekes: and of Arabians cited by Christmannus vponupon Alfragan: which euen from great Alexander (whence Greekes better agree) make leſſe yeares by much then Ptolemies recorders of Eclipſes. And they from Nabonaſſar, Mardocempad, Nabopollaſar, Cambyſes, Darius the firſt, compared with King Ezekias calling back of the ſun, & Esthers time, can hauehave no poſſibility of agreement, or likelyhood. Galen vponupon Hippocrates ſayth well: that the moſt part of the bookes in Alexandria Librarie were forged: And Laertius telleth of forging many thouſand yeres with pretenſe of marking eclipſes, & odde monethes and dayes. Chryſostome the learned regarded them not: Maximus Monachus bringeth other reckonings, Epiphanius other, and Clemens of Alexandria infinite varieties, and yet no care of thoſe calculations: and expreſſely telleth there was no Chronique obſervation in record before Eratosthenes, vnderunder the Ptolemeis times, cōpiled one. ROME alſo is brought in Chronicle, who before great Alexander had no writers. And Onuphrius Panvinius wondereth at varieties, when & by whom Rome ſhould be built. Alſo ARCHONTES or Maiors of Athenes are brought to fight with an Angel. Three writers wrote of thē: Demetrius, Steſichorus, & Apollodorus: the third auctour was late: and of Chroniclers that would ſeeme exact, folowed. But their names many together running vponupon a letter, ſhew that from ſome Alphabet table, they wee fetched: and very vnlearnedly. For many extant in Demoſthenes, Aeſchines, and Lyſias, oratours ſpeaking of their owne times, are not in Apollodorus. And beyond the times of Xerx, there is no table of them extant. As Athenes ſaw not to what purpoſe they ſhould keep any record of times. And Apollodorus hath about 40. where the life of Euripides the Tragique will confute him. That ſhalbe ſhewed in few wordes. Of Euripides thus writeth Suidas in Euripides. Euripides, &c. was borne the very ſame day that Greekes turned the Perſians vntounto flight, &c. he lived ſeaventie five yeares. This writeth Suidas in the terme, EVRIPIDES. And in the terme Timotheus thus: Timotheus the Lyrique, was in the dayes of Euripides the Tragique, when Philip Macedon reigned. So it is a ſure demonſtration that Xerxes flight, & Philip Macedones reigne are not ſundred aboue 75. yeares. So M. Liuely is convicted to bring about 40. Mayors of Athenes for Euripides life time, more then his dayes ſaw there. It is great pity that our Archepiſcopall authoritie ſhould check the Date for ſalvation to all the world, with ſuch Acherontean bables: where even Greekes fight for ſcripture.