Grounds of Divinity Study, Part 3
To the Right Reverend Fathers the Governours of Oxford.
WHEN Mr. Scaligers booke de emendatione temporum came forth, many churches were troubled: becauſe it brought an other length of time then their narrations would ſuffer. Herevpon I tooke in hande to ſhew a chaine of times from Creation to Redemption: and I ſhewed Iubilees drawen from the partition of the Lande vntounto our Lords death, to give the time a double chaine.
And to this I applyed particular Liues in common courſe that there was no iarring: but as Salomons Temple had no hammer noiſe, but all was made fit on the mountaine, ſo all ſeemed to have a conſent. And I warned of heathen lying workes and forged: which in athean blindnes ſhould trouble the holy meaning of the Bible. Such as make Nabopollaſar, Father to Nabuchodonoſor, and Emperour of all Aſia fruſtrate Ieremies prophecie for greatnes to ariſe. Mr. Ioſ. Scaliger ſhould have ſeene this. So when he thinketh that Ezekiel. 1, 1. taketh his accompt not from Ioſias Paſcha, but from Nabopollaſar, all ſhould blame his boldnes. So when hee would have Daniel captived not in the fourth of Ioakim, which he writeth of him ſelfe, but with Iechonias, the overſight is great: as in denying the Kingdome of Babell parted to Medes and Perſians, Dan. 5. and ſpecially for Olympiades: where I will lay downe his wordes.
De initio Cyrj. Quotquot temporum rationes diſputarunt, vetuſtiſsimi, & eruditiſsimi ſcriptores, nemo non corum Cyrj annum primum in primum Olympiadis 55. confert: Diodorus Siculus, Thallus, Castor, Polybius, Phlegon: vt ſcribit auctor Priſcus, & eruditus, Tatianus. Idem testatur & Africanus apud Euſebium.
What a triffling testimonie is this?
Africanus giveth the Macedonians three hundreth & ſeaventie yeares. Maiſter Scaliger but 294. from Alexanders death to Cleopatraes when Antony killed him ſelfe. Therefore this teſtimonie is nothing worth. Beſides Phlegon and Diodorus differ an hundreth yeares for beginning Olympiades. And Pamphila differeth two hundreth yeares, for Chilon the Lacedemonian of Cyrus time from Soſigenes in Laertius▪ Soſigenes maketh Chilon to be Ephoros in Olympiade 56. Pamphila in the ſixt: So there is two hundreth yeares difference. And Pamphila hath much defence. For if Menelaus came to Tyrus in Chyram and Salomons dayes, foure hundred and five y… after that, in Diodorus beginning of Olympiades, and ſix Ol…piades more will well reach to Chilon his office, to caſt it into the ſixt Olympiade. Any one would bee aweary to reckon the diverſities which be of Olympiades in Greekes. Clement hath this: That Ezekiel prophecied in the 48. Olympiad. and ſo Aggej in the 48. And there was neare 100. yeares betwixt their prophecies. Endles be the differences: and from ſundry games of old men reckoned them, not reckoning the number: but when ſuch a gameſter as Diagoras Rhodius wan the price: ſo Theucidides reckoneth them. Before Alexander Macedon no auctour in copies vnblamed numbred an Olympiad. Hippias Elaeus might ſeeme to toy: But none would regard him. And in Fastis Siculis, The Olympiad of Regifugium is not 68. as in Euſebius. But in 86. or 85. as I remember. So the goodly tables of Euſebius and Glareanus made from Dionyſius and Diodorus when they are examined, have ſmall auctoritie.
Your great learned man that wrote againſt the Apocrypha, to daſh the holy Bibles auctoritie: and to ſet vp Satans lies, ſhould not be in that argument in too high eſteeme. Galen warneth vponupon Hippocrates, that the greateſt part of Alexandria Librarie was peſtered with forged workes. And Hiſtoriques mooved every ſtone to feigne concent to time: But when they are traced in particulars, agreement falleth moſt vponupon the Angells accompt. And without mans auctoritie that ſhould bee holden ſimply. And the Iewes, who reckoned hourely their comming home from Babell: and had their ſeavens to helpe them, never diſagree in the Goſpell about the time: that Iohn was to Baptiſe, and Meſſias to appeare. And when I drove your Doctor to this exigent, to begin the time at the Angells meſſage, and to ſay 70. ſeptiments completis exciſus eſt Ch. I thought I had done enough to make any ſee that I had the victorie: and I never thought he ſhould be ſuffered to ſay that the holy Angell meant no certen time. As god wil not be mocked ſo he would not mock: to ſpeake of foure hundred and nienetie yeares, when the worlde ſhould looke for ſalvation: and not performe the worke till five hundred and ſixtie yeres. God his vnchangeable trueth cannot ſo deale with the ſonnes of Adam. If in his life time his Lectures had come foorth I had anſwered him in Latin. Now I am loth to baite the dead. Looke your ſelves to the dignitie of your owne Academic.
FINIS.
End of the text · Hugh Broughton, Grounds of Divinity Study (1611)