Daniel

The Book of Daniel

Written by himself (not by another of his name, in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, as wicked Porphyry, {a} that professed enemy of Christianity, blaterateth), like as Xenophon and Julius Caesar wrote their own acts so wisely and impartially, as none have been so upright in writing the histories of others. This divine book is, for the matter of it, partly historic and partly prophetic. The historical part we have in the first six chapters, sc., a continuation of the history of the book of Kings during the whole time of the captivity and after it. Hence Jerome {b} calleth Daniel multiscum et totius mundi polyhistorem, a general historian. The prophetic part, beginning at the seventh chapter, foretelleth future things in the several monarchies but very obscurely, according to that of the angel, {#Da 12:9,10} "Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed till the end of the time," &c; and according to that hieroglyphic of prophecy, which hangs, they say, among other pictures, in the Vatican Library at Rome, like a matron with the eyes covered, for the difficulty. Whence it was that Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, though able, would never be drawn to write commentaries; Cajetan and Calvin would set no notes upon the Revelation; and Piscator, {c} after he had commented upon the other prophets, when he came to Daniel, met with so many dark and difficult passages, ut parum obfuerit, saith he, quin in medio commentandi cursu subsisterem, et calamum e manu deponerem, that he was even ready to lay down his pen, and to lay aside the business. But this he did not, as considering that the best, while here, "know but in part, prophesy but in part," &c.; and that the promise is, though none of the wicked understand this prophecy, yet the wise shall. {#Da 12:10} Jerome {d} well saith, that a prophecy is therefore obscure, because it is said at one time and seen at another. And one thing that causeth a cloud in Daniel is the transposing of the history here often used; as the prophecies contained in the seventh and eighth chapters, which were shown unto Daniel under the reign of Belshazzar, in order should be set before the sixth chapter, &c. He seemeth indeed to have been laid aside in the days of Belshazzar, that drunken sot, till the handwriting on the wall brought him more in request again. {#Da 5:11,12} That cock on the dunghill knew not the worth of this peerless pearl, highly prized both by his predecessor and successor, to whom he was a secretis of their privy council. Famous he was grown, and worthily, for his extraordinary wisdom {#Eze 28:3} and holiness, {#Eze 14:14} so that the angel Gabriel styleth him "a man of desires," or a desirable man. {#Da 9:23} Seneca calleth Cato virtutum vivam imaginem, a lively picture of virtues. Pliny {e} saith that the same Cato Censorius was an excellent orator, an excellent senator, an excellent commander, and a master of all good arts. Paterculus {f} saith, that he was a man as like virtue as ever he could look, et per omnia virtute diis quam hominibus propior. Livy saith, he was a man of rigid innocence and invincible integrity. Cornelius Nepos, {g} that being assayed and assaulted by many, he not only never lost any part of his reputation, but as long as he lived grew still in the praise of his virtues, as being in all things of singular prudence and industry. Lastly, Cicero saith of Cato Major, that whereas he underwent the enmities of many potent persons, and suffered no little hardship all his time, yet was he one of those few who lived and died with glory. How much more truly might all this be affirmed of Daniel the prophet than of Cato the censor! all whose virtues were but glistering sins, {h} and all whose praise worthy parts and practices were but "tinkling cymbals" in comparison. Daniel’s whole life was a kind of heaven, adorned with most radiant stars of divine virtues. And although we cannot say of him as Alexander of Hales did of his scholar Bonaventure in a hyperbolic strain, that Adam seemed to him not to have sinned in Bonaventure, such was his sanctity and knowledge, {i} yet, with more colour of truth, might the like be said of Daniel, the Jews’ jewel and the world’s darling. He wrote this book, part of it in Hebrew and part in Chaldee, all in a short but grave style, evident and elegant, being a divine polychronicon {j} to the world’s end, or, as one {k} calleth it, the Apocalypse of the Old Testament.

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim.] That wicked king, who killed the prophet Uriah; {#Jer 26:23} cut Jeremiah’s prophecy with a knife, and cast it into the fire; {#Jer 36:23} was a gross idolater, {#2Ch 36:8} and therefore justly suffered.

Came Nebuchadnezzar.] Surnamed Magnus son to Nebuchadnezzar, surnamed Priscus. See #2Ki 24:1,2 2Ch 36:8. {See Trapp on "2Ki 24:1"} {See Trapp on "2Ki 24:2"} {See Trapp on "2Ch 36:8"}

{a} Lib. xii., contra Christian.

{b} Jerome, Ep. 103, ad Paulin.

{c} Piscat. Epist. Dedicat. Ante Com. in Dan.

{d} Quod alio tempore canitur, alio cernitur. -De Vir. Perfect.

{e} Lib. ii.

{f} Dec. 4, lib. ix.

{g} In Vita Catonis.

{h} Splendida peccata.

{i} Sixt. Senens. Bib. Sanct., lib. iv.

{j} A chronicle of many events or periods. ŒD

{k} Torshel.

Ver. 2. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim.] Because the affliction by Pharaoh (being but a money matter) had not a kindly effect, {#2Ki 23:35} a heavier is now sent; for as one cloud followeth at the heels of another, so doth one judgment of God upon another, till repentance, as the sun, do interpose, and cause it to clear up.

With part of the vessels.] Not all as yet, by a sweet providence, and for an instance of God’s patience.

Which he carried into the land of Shinar.] Or, Babylonia, {#Ge 11:2} a part of the garden of Eden, as most geographers think, but now "the seat of Satan." {as #Re 2:13}

To the house of his god.] Jupiter Belus. See on #Isa 46:1.

Ver. 3. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz.] Which signifieth in the Chaldee tongue the chief chider, or controller of the king’s house, as Ctesias useth Ashpamithres for chief priests. To this great officer the king commendeth the care of his school.

And of the king’s seed, and of the princes.] As having been better bred, and so more hopeful. Here Nebuchadnezzar, minding nothing but the glory of his court by these noble waiters, unwittingly maketh way for the Church’s comfort.

Ver. 4. Children in whom was no blemish.] Such as were Joseph, David, Artaxerxes Longimus, Germanicus, and others, in whom beauty proved to be the "flower of virtue," as Chrysippus called it. Of Galba the emperor one said, that his good wit dwelt in an ill house, like an excellent instrument in a bad case; whereas Vatinius the Roman was not more misshapen in body than in mind. {a} The heathens also advise us to beware of those whom nature hath set a mark upon.

And skilful in all wisdom,] i.e., Ingenious and industrious, apt and able to receive and improve instruction. Tacitus {b} telleth us that in the times of Vespasian and Domitian, the children of the British nobles were so witty and well bred that the Romans infinitely admired them for the debonnaireness of their natures, preferring the wits of the Britons before the study of the Gauls. And they are called Angli quasi Angeli, the English just as Angels, said Gregory the Great, concerning the English boys presented to him.

And such as had ability in them.] Daniel and his three friends are thought by some to have been bred under the prophet Jeremiah, and to have begun to prophesy some years before Ezekiel.

To stand in the king’s palace,] i.e., To do him service. This is that which learned men should aim at in these studies, viz., to lay forth themselves for the public good. Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus, {c}

And whom they might teach the learning.] Heb., The book—that is, the art of grammar, say some. But why not other arts also learned by books, those mute masters? Yet not so well, the mathematics especially, without a teacher. Joseph Scaliger, who was αυτοδιδακτος, self-taught, and yet proved so great a scholar, is by one called daemonium hominis, et miraculum naturae, more than a man, even a very miracle.

And the tongue of the Chaldee.] Which was not therefore the same with the Hebrew, but a different dialect, or daughter of it. The most ancient tongue was the Hebrew, preserved in Heber’s family. The Hebrews and Chaldees had one common ancestor, viz., Arphaxad; and Abraham, being born in Chaldea, could speak both languages; but so could not Daniel and his fellows till they were taught. Good letters and languages are to be taught in schools and universities, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, especially, the dignity and study whereof Christ would have to be ever kept a-foot in his Church, as appeareth by that inscription, not without a providence, set upon his cross in those three tongues. {#Joh 19:19,20}

{a} Ingenium Galbae male habitat. Deformitas corporia cum turpitudine certavit ingenii. -Paterc.

{b} In Vit. Jul. Agrico.

{c} Horat.

Ver. 5. And the king appointed them a daily provision.] A competent and comfortable subsistence and maintenance, such as whereof, in time past, those abbey lubbers had too much, and now universities and schools of learning have too little, but far less should have, might some brain-sick sectaries be heard, such as was that Weigelius, who said that in no university in the world was Christ to be found, and that Christ would not have his gospel to be preached by devils, and therefore not by academics, with a great deal more of such paltry stuff, vented by that illiterate widgeon. {a}

So nourishing them three years.] Those that stay overly long in the universities, standing there till they are sour again, and preaching only now and then, to air their great learning, shall have the rust and canker of their abilities to be a swift witness against them at that great day.

{a} Dr Arrowsmith, Orat. Anti-Weigel. ad Calc. Tact. Sacr.

Ver. 6. Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel.] Who had not his name for nought, as we say, but by a providence. It signifieth, God is my judge; and so, indeed, he was throughout his whole life, but especially when they cast him into the lions’ den. {#Da 6:16} David had also a son of the same name, and that by Abigail, {#2Sa 3:3 1Ch 3:1} in remembrance haply of the right that God had done him upon the churl Nabal. {#1Sa 25:39}

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.] Good names all, and good men all, yet wrapt up with the rest in a common calamity, but for excellent ends, as it afterwards appeared. Meanwhile, God much sweetened the affliction to these four by their mutual society.

Ver. 7. Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names.] Not without the command of the king, {#Da 5:12} as desirous to naturalise them, and by changing their right names, which had the names of God in them, El and Jah, to make them forget their religion; but that was better rooted than to be so easily razed out, though these new names were shrewd temptations to apostasy and idolatry, as being compounded by the names of the Babylonish gods, and means to make them honourable among the Chaldeans.

Ver. 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart.] The change of his name, though he utterly disliked, yet he could not help; but to show that he was still of the same religion, though he were but a child of twelve years old, or thereabouts, yet he purposeth first, and then performeth it, to keep himself pure and free from heathenish defilements. What if the vessels of the temple—by being brought into the treasure house of Nebuchadnezzar’s god {#Da 1:2} -were defiled, yet these elect vessels would not. So the primitive Christians chose rather to be thrown to lions without than left to lusts within. {a} Yea, I had rather be cast pure and innocent into hell, saith an ancient, {b} than go to heaven being polluted with the filth of sin. Daniel’s greatest care is, ne contra legem Dei et conscientiam impuretur, he may not polute his conscience nor violate law of God, the lest he should be defiled in the least. Fall back, fall edge, as they say; he is fully resolved against that. So the Prince of Condi when, at the Parisian massacre, he was put to his choice by the French king, whether to go to mass, to suffer death, or to endure perpetual imprisonment, answered, As for the first, by the grace of God, I will never do it; and for the two last, I humbly submit to his majesty. Let him do with me what he pleaseth.

That he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat.] That which Scaliger saith of Matthew Beroaldus, Vir doctus, et, quod familiam ducit, pius, that he was a learned man; but that which was his chief commendation, he was also a godly man, may be better said of the prophet Daniel. Godly he was early, and as a child, so was also his master Jeremiah, in whose works he was well read; {#Da 9:2} Samuel; Timothy; Athanasius; Beza, who, among many other things, blessed God chiefly for this in his last will and testament, that at the age of sixteen years he had called him to the knowledge of the truth. Daniel had this happiness at twelve or thirteen. Neither was he like early fruit, that are soon rotten—Hermogenes was old in his childhood, and a child in his old age—but although he lived one hundred and ten years, as Isidor {c} reckoneth, some say one hundred and thirty, yet he was best at last, and may very well pass for a martyr, though he came again safe out of the lions’ den, like as John the evangelist also did out of the cauldron of scalding oil, wherein he was cast by the command of Domitian, in contempt of Christianity. Daniel’s piety appeareth in this, that he maketh conscience of smaller evils also, such as most men in his case would never have boggled at. He would not "defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat." He scrupled the eating of it; and why? (1.) Because it was often such as was forbidden by the law of God. {#Le 11:13,29 De 14:3-8} (2.) Because it was so used as would defile him and his fellows against the word of God; for the heathens, to the shame of many Christians, had their grace before a meal, as it were, consecrating their dishes to their idols before they tasted of them {d} {#Da 5:4 1Co 8:10} (3.) They could not do it without offence to their weaker brethren, with whom they chose rather to sympathise in their adversity than to live in excess and fulness. {#Am 6:6} (4.) They well perceived that the king’s love and provisions were not single and sincere, but that he meant his own profit, to assure himself the better of the land of Judah, and that they might forget their religion. Lastly, They knew that intemperance was the mother of many mischiefs, as in Adam, Esau, the rich glutton, &c. That is a memorable story that is recorded by William Schiekard {e} concerning eleven Jewish doctors, whom the heathen king of Pirgandy having in his power, put them to this hard choice, either to eat swines’ flesh, or to drink wine that had been consecrated to idols, or to lie with certain harlots. They chose rather to drink the wine than to do either of the other two. But when they had drunk wine liberally, they were easily drawn to do the other two things also. Any one of these five reasons had been of force enough to prevail with Daniel, and the other three to forbear. They knew well that the least hair casteth its shadow. A barley corn laid on the sight of the eye will keep out the light of the sun, as well as a mountain. The eye of the soul that will "see God" must be kept very clear. {#Mt 5:8-12}

Therefore he requested.] Modestly and prudently be propounded it, non convitiando, sed supplicando, and petitioneth for liberty of conscience, confessing his religion.

{a} Ad leonem potius quam lenonem. To a lion is more prefereable than to a brothel.—Tertul.

{b} Anselm.

{c} De Vita et Obitu Sanct.

{d} Ante cibum sua habebant prothymata, et laudabant deos suos. -Jun.

{e} Schickard, Jus. Reg. Hebr., cap. 5, p. 149.

Ver. 9. Now God had brought Daniel into favour.] God is never wanting to the truly conscientious. Let them choose rather to offend all the world than to do things sinful, and they shall be sure of good success. The prince of the eunuchs dared not yield to Daniel’s request, but he connived at the steward’s yieldance.

Ver. 10. I fear my lord the king.] This made him stand off as he did, in pretence at least. Tertullian taxeth the heathens for this, quod maiore formidine Caesarem observarent quam ipsum de Olympo Iovem, that they feared Caesar more than they did their greatest god Jupiter. But he who truly feareth God, needeth not fear any else. {#Ac 4:19}

Ver. 11. Then said Daniel to Melzar.] Or, To the steward, alimentator, the purveyor for the pages of honour. The prince of the eunuchs might haply give him a hint to go to this Melzar, who might do it with less danger.

Ver. 12. Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days.] All good means must be used for the keeping of a good conscience, and then God must be trusted for the issue. But did not Daniel herein tempt God? No; for besides that he had a word, (1.) Of precept; {#De 14:3} and (2.) Of promise, {#Ex 23:25} ex arcana revelatione certior factus est, it might be revealed unto him that no inconvenience should follow upon this course.

And let them give pulse to eat, and water to drink.] Poor fare for noblemen’s sons, but such as they were well paid for. Nature is contented with a little, grace with less. The sobriety of Democritus and Demosthenes is much celebrated among the heathen. But what saith Augustine? {a} Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est, et nihil bonum sine summo bone. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, &c. Daniel’s sobriety was of another nature, of a better alloy. Papists crack much of their abstinence from certain meats and drinks at certain times; but Daniel’s and Papists’ fasts agree as harp and harrow. See my "Common Place of Abstinence."

{a} De Ver. lnnoc., cap. 56.

Ver. 13. Then let our countenances be looked upon.] {See Trapp on "Da 1:12"}

And as thou seest, deal with thy servants.] Thus humbly they bespeak the butler, or purveyor, though themselves were nobly descended. God had made them captives, and they now carry their sails accordingly.

Ver. 14. So he consented to them in this matter.] This had been well done, if done for God’s sake; but it was nothing less. He had a hawk’s eye herein to his own profit; he favoured them because he meant to finger something from them. These four made a mess.

Ver. 15. Their countenances appeared fairer.] They had both better health (for Tenuis mensa sanitatis mater, saith Chrysostom, Spare diet is very healthful), {a} and their good conscience or merry heart was a continual feast to them. They had also God’s blessing upon their coarser fare, and this was the main matter that made the difference.

{a} Gustato spiritu desipit omnis caro. -Bern.

Ver. 16. Thus Melzar took away.] See on #Da 1:14.

And gave them pulse.] This slender diet was some help to their studies; for leaden bellies make leaden wits, {a} saith the Greek Senary; and pinguis venter macra mens, saith Jerome, A fat belly maketh a lean mind. A body farced with delicious meats and drinks unfitteth a man for divine contemplation.

{a} γαστηρ παχεια λεπτον ου τικτει νοον.

Ver. 17. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning.] Both natural and supernatural. In the art of grammar, saith Symmachus; in every book, saith the Latin interpreter. There was potus ex fonte, fletus in prece, somnns in codice, as Ambrose speaketh: they drank Adam’s ale, prayed with tears, slept with a book in their hands. Whether they read the curious books of the magicians (fitter to be burnt, #Ac 19:19) is another question. Osiander thinketh that their Chaldean tutors would have obtruded upon them such kind of learning also; but as they abstained from the king’s meat, so they did, likely, from such corrupt and unlawful arts. Other commendable learning they looked into, as did also Moses, Solomon, Paul, &c. But what meant Pope Paul II to condemn all learned artists for heretics, and to tell his Romans that it was learning enough for a man to be able to read and write? {a} Nebuchadnezzar was of another mind, and Daniel and his fellows went further than so. Learning hath no enemy but ignorance.

In all visions and dreams,] i.e., In all kind of prophecy. See #Nu 12:6.

{a} Jac. Rev. De Vit. Pont., 244.

Ver. 18. Now at the end of the days,] i.e., After three years’ time of studying. See on #Da 1:5. Account is to be exacted of time and profiting. Pliny {a} said to his nephew, when he saw him walk out some hours without studying, Poteras has horas non perdere, You might have spent these hours better. Ignatius, when he heard a clock strike, would say, Here is one hour more now past that I have to answer for. Archbishop Ussher, {b} on his death bed, begged hard of God to pardon his omissions, who yet was never known to omit an hour, but ever employed in his Master’s business, reading, writing, preaching, resolving doubts, &c.

{a} Plin. Epist.

{b} His Life by Dr Bernard.

Ver. 19. And the king communed with them.] It seems he was himself a learned king, able to pose them, and put them to it. So was Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Philadelph, Julius Caesar, Constantine the Great, Charles the Great, Alphonsus of Arragon, our Henry I, surnamed Beauclerc, and King James, who was able to confer learnedly with any man in his faculty. Alphonsus was wont to say that an unlearned king was but a crowned ass, and that he would not be without that little learning he had for all that he was worth besides.

And among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.] That which Patricius saith of the son of Juba, king of Numidia, taken captive by Julius Caesar, may fitly be applied to these four noble captives: Quicquid nobilitatis fortuna eripuerat, id longe accumulatius ei restituerat bonarum artium disciplina, What lustre soever they had lost by their captivity, was abundantly made up and restored by their excellent learning.

Therefore stood they before the king.] Who had no sooner proved them, but he highly approved them. O Hortensi admodum adolescentis ingenium, ut Phidiae signum simul aspectum et probatum est. {a} So Daniel’s and the rest: neither need we wonder, since, beside all other helps, they were "taught of God."

{a} Cicero.

Ver. 20. And in all matters of wisdom.] God will honour them that honour him: his gifts and graces he giveth to pure souls, and according to their study of purity, as to Daniel chiefly.

He found them ten times better.] Masters of knowledge, skilled usque ad apices literarum, right up to the very peak of learning, {a} and therefore highly favoured by the king, who was himself a great philosopher. Daniel was a leviathan of learning, both divine and human, as one saith of Archbishop Ussher; Unicum istius cetatis miraculum et musarum delicium, as Erasmus saith of Alciat, the miracle of his age, and the muse’s darling—one that better deserved, for his learning, to be called Magnus Great than ever Albertus did. The perfection even of human arts is to be found in the Church. See my Common Place of "Arts."

{a} Mr Fuller.

Ver. 21. And Daniel continued, &c.] And afterwards also, though shrewdly lifted at under Darius; {#Da 6:4} and in the third year of Cyrus he was overborne by the counsellors hired to hinder the building of the temple, whom he could not withstand, and therefore kept an extraordinary fast. {#Ezr 4:5 Da 10:3,4}

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. And in the second year.] Of Daniel’s advancement. {#Da 1:19,20} Or, as Josephus hath it, post annum secundum Aegyptiacae vastitatis, in the second year after that Nebuchadnezzar had subdued Egypt, and other countries, and so established his monarchy, whereupon likely was begun a new computation of the years of his reign.

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams.] All was but one dream, {a} but of many and weighty matters.

Wherewith his spirit was troubled.] God can easily trouble the troublers of his Israel, and make the ringleader of their bondage the trumpeter of their trophy, even nomen illud prolixum et terrificum, Nebuchadnezzar.

{a} Quid sunt regna omnesque res et spes mortalium nisi somnia vigilantium! -Plato.

Ver. 2. Then the king commanded to call the magicians.] These had Ham for their founder, saith Pintus; but who can tell that? Daniel haply was forgotten by Nebuchadnezzar, as David had sometime been by Saul. {#1Sa 17:55,56} A sweet providence it was that he was not called among the magicians. God will not have his matched or mingled with wicked ones.

Ver. 3. I have dreamed a dream.] His thoughts had been occupied belike about the issue of his kingdoms, and thereupon he had a divine vision. He that is moderately careful about the affairs of his lawful calling shall not be destitute of divine direction.

And my spirit was troubled.] Heb., Troubled itself. Jesus also troubled himself, but without sin. {#Joh 11:33} {See Trapp on "Joh 11:33"}

Ver. 4. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac,] i.e., In Chaldee, whence there is here no Chaldee paraphrase; or else, if the Syriac were then a distinct tongue from the Chaldee, as now it is, it was belike their learned language, as now the Arabic is among the Turks.

O king, live for ever.] In this most officious salutation they flatter him, say some, or aver the immortality of the soul, as others, or wish him a long life, as also Daniel doth afterwards.

And we will show the interpretation.] Impostors are great braggers; but as the peacock in setting up his tail showeth his posteriors, so do these get to themselves shame.

Ver. 5. The thing is gone from me.] He had dreamed of monarchies, and now forgotten his dream. He might have hereby learned that kingdoms are but phantasmata, ludicra, empty bubbles, pleasant follies, children and tales of fancy, &c. "The fashion of this world passeth away"; {#1Co 7:31} "Surely every man walketh in a vain shadow." {#Ps 39:6}

Ye shall be cut in pieces.] Practisers of unjust; flatteries do often meet with unjust frowns.

Ver. 6. He shall receive of me gifts and reward.] This was what they gaped after, but missed, and therefore out of envy called not Daniel and his companions, as some think, lest they should share with them.

And great honour.] Great learning deserveth great honour. Aeneas Sylvius was wont to say that popular men should esteem it as silver, noblemen as gold, princes prize it as pearls.

Ver. 7. They answered again and said, Let the king, &c.] Thus these proud boasters vaunt of a false gift, and become like "clouds without rain," as Solomon hath it. {#Pr 25:14} See #Da 2:4.

Ver. 8. I know of certainty.] There is no halting before a cripple. Politicians can sound the depth of one another. {#Da 11:27}

That ye would gain the time.] Chald., Buy or redeem it—that is, make your advantage of it to evade the danger. And indeed if these sorcerers could have gained longer time much might have been done; for either the king might have died or been employed in war, or pacified by the mediation of friends, &c. Time often cooleth the rage of hasty men. {as #1Sa 25:33} How Hubert de Burgo, Earl of Kent, escaped the king’s wrath by a little respite, see Goodwin’s Catalogue of Bish., p. 193.

Ver. 9. There is but one decree for you.] But that was a very tyrannical and bloody one. It is dangerous to affront great men, {a} though in a just cause. {#Ec 10:4}

“ Saevum praelustri fulmen ab arce venit.’’—Ovid.

Till the time be changed.] The Latin hath it, Till there be another state of things. See on #Da 2:8.

Tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.] If you cannot tell it, surely you cannot interpret it; since they are both of a divine instinct, and nothing is hidden from God.

{a} Procul a culmine, et procul a fulmine.

Ver. 10. There is not a man upon earth.] Yes, there is. But this is the guise of worldly wisdom, fingit se scire omnia, excusat ac occulit suam ignorantiam, it would seem to know all things, and to be ignorant of nothing that is within the periphery of human possibility.

Ver. 11. And it is a rare thing.] Exceeding man’s wit.

Except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.] They cohabit not with men, that we might converse and confer with them. Here these wizards (1.) Superstitiously affirm a multitude of gods, which the wiser heathens denied, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Chrysippus, &c. (2.) They deny God’s providence, as did also the Epicures, who held that the gods did nothing out of themselves. The Peripatetics also held that they had nothing to do with things below the moon; yea, the Platonists and Stoics placed the gods in heaven only, and other spirits good and bad in the air, which conversed with men, and were as messengers between them and the gods. Thus these famous philosophers became altogether "vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." {#Ro 1:21} (3.) They seem to affirm that man can know nothing of God, unless he cohabited in the flesh with him. "But we have the mind of Christ," {#1Co 2:16} and "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him"; {#Ps 25:14} this is a paradox to the natural man. {#1Co 2:14} Lastly, they deny the incarnation of Christ, that great "mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh." {#1Ti 3:16 Joh 1:14}

Ver. 12. For this cause the king was angry and very furious.] A cutting answer may mar a good cause. {#Pr 15:1} See on #Da 2:9.

And commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.] So rash is rage, it is no better than a short madness. Sed de vita hominis nulls potest esse satis diuturna cunctatio, saith the orator. {a} In case of life and death nothing should be determined without mature deliberation; for, like as Saturn, the highest of the planets, hath the slowest motion of them all; so, saith one, {b} should princess which sit in their high thrones of majesty, be most considerate in their actions.

{a} Cicero.

{b} Willet.

Ver. 13. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain.] And the wise men were slain, saith the Vulgate; some of them likely were cut off. The end of worldly wisdom is certain destruction.

And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.] Wicked decrees are wrested to the butchery of the saints; as was that of the six articles here in Henry VIII’s days.

Ver. 14. Then Daniel answered with counsel.] Retulit consilium et causum; { a} he conferred with Arioch the chief slaughterman, giving him good reasons wherefor to defer further execution. This good turn he did for the magicians and astrologers who were his utter enemies.

{a} Tremel.

Ver. 15. Why is the decree so hasty from the king?] Daniel, though now in danger of his life, forgetteth not his old freedom of speech; and God so wrought, that the king, who was stiff to the magicians, was tractable to Daniel. {#Da 2:16}

Ver. 16. Then Daniel…desired the king to give him time.] Not to study or deliberate, but to pray with fervency and perseverance, which is the best help to find out secrets. {#Jer 33:3}

And that he would show the king the interpretation.] Beatus, ait Plato, qui etiam in senectute veritatem consequitur, He is happy who findeth out the truth, though it be long first, saith Plato.

Ver. 17. Then Daniel went to his house.] A house then he had, though he had lost house and home for God, and thither he repaireth, as to his oratory, well perfumed with prayers.

And made the thing known to Hananiah, &c.] That they also might pray, setting sides and shoulders to the work, as countrymen do to the wheel, when the cart is stalled.

Ver. 18. That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven.] All God’s children can pray. {#So 5:8} Those daughters of Jerusalem, though not so fully acquainted with Christ, yet are requested to pray for the Church. But these three were men of singular abilities, no doubt, and were themselves deeply concerned.

Concerning this secret.] In case of secrets and intricacies or riddles of providence, prayer is most seasonable; as being Tephillah, the usual Hebrew word for prayer, a repair to the Lord for inquiry, or for his sentence. {#Ge 25:22,23}

Ver. 19. Then was the secret revealed.] Oh the power of joint prayer! It seldom or never miscarrieth. While the apostles were praying together, the house where they prayed shook; {#Ac 4:31} to show that heaven itseff was shaken, and God overcome by such batteries.

In a night vision.] Vigiliae noctis; { a} as he watched in the night; for he watched as well as prayed. {#Eph 6:18}

Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.] Who had "not turned away his prayer nor his mercy from him." {#Ps 66:20} They that pray heartily shall never want matter of praise, and such shall be ever driving a holy trade between heaven and earth, till they cease to pray; but praise God throughout all eternity.

{a} Alb. Mag.

Ver. 20. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God.] They who are slight in praying are usually as slight in praising; {#Job 35:13 Da 2:10-12} but Daniel was serious and zealous in both.

For wisdom and might are his.] These and all other excellencies are in God originally, eminently, transcendently. Daniel found it in this secret thus revealed to him; how much more may we, in the mystery of the gospel now made manifest. {#Ro 16:26}

Ver. 21. He changeth the times and the seasons, &c.] And so showeth that strength is his, such as is irresistible.

He removeth kings, &c.] As by the king’s dream, Daniel was well advertised.

He giveth wisdom unto the wise.] And so showeth that wisdom is his; since all the wisdom found in the creature is but a spark of his flame, a drop of his ocean.

Ver. 22. He revealeth the deep and secret things.] Daniel hath never done, but is incessant and unsatisfiable in praising God; and although there was haste of answering the king’s expectation, yet he shall stay till God have his due.

He knoweth what is in the dark.] See #Ps 139:12.

Ver. 23. I thank thee, and praise thee.] A gracious man is a grateful man; there is the same word in Greek (χαρις) for grace and gratitude. See on #Da 2:22. A thankful man will enumerate God’s mercies, and redouble his praises.

O thou God of my fathers.] The very best inheritance that we can leave our children is the true God.

Who hast given me wisdom and might.] Wisdom to dive into deep matters, and might to manage it.

Ver. 24. Destroy not the wise men of Babylon.] Who yet wished Daniel destroyed. This was a noble kind of revenge, to "overcome evil with good."

Ver. 25. I have found a man.] Aulici aliorum sibi usurpant inventa.

Of the captives of Judah.] His worth deserved better respect.

Ver. 26. The king answered and said to Daniel, {a} whose name was Belteshazzar.] So the king and courtiers had called him; but he took no felicity in that idolatrous appellation, which signified a treasurer to Bel, or Baal.

Art thou able?] Interrogatio regis admiratoria.

{a} Daniel se Danielem nominat.

Ver. 27. The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men…show unto thee.] And therefore thou hast done amiss, first in seeking to them, next in slaying them, though God hath a holy hand in it for their just punishment.

Ver. 28. But there is a God in heaven.] The saints are ever tender of God’s glory. {#Ezr 8:22} Let these that are indued with singular gifts beware of self-admiration, apt to steal upon them.

Ver. 29. Thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed.] Kingdoms have their cares, crowns are stuffed with thorns. These thoughts in the text were preparatory to the ensuing dream, {#Ec 5:2} the chief efficient or author whereof was God.

And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee.] Yea, maketh thee a conduit of divine revelation to the Church.

Ver. 30. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me, &c.] So careful are God’s best saints to give unto him all the glory, which they look upon as God’s wife, in the enjoying whereof he is a "jealous God," admitting no co-rival in heaven or earth. "Thy talent hath gained ten talents," saith he in the Gospel; I have not done it. And, "Not I, but the grace of God that is in me," saith Paul. The glory of God and the good of his Church is the chief thing that saints aim at.

But for their sakes,] i.e., For the poor Jews’ sake, to whose prayer thou owest this revelation; toward whom, therefore, thou shouldst exercise more clemency, and alleviate their misery.

Ver. 31. Thou, O king, sawest,] sc., By the force of thy fancy; for in sleep the reasonable soul cometh into the shop of fantasy, and there doth strange works, which are vented in our dreams.

And behold a great image.] A fit representation, and in a dream especially, of worldly greatness. An image, saith Theodoret, is but the figure of a thing, and not the thing itself; and this image in the text, speciem habet gigantaeam, et prorsus Chimaericam, was a kind of chimera.

Ver. 32. The image’s head was of fine gold.] This is the first, and till now, altogether unheard of prophecy concerning the four monarchies of the world. Res plane digna quae memoriae tota commendetur, saith one; {a} a scripture worthy to be well remembered, because it briefly comprehendeth the history of all ages to the world’s end.

His breast and his arms of silver.] The elder they are the baser; so is Rome papal, of which one of her sons, {b} over two hundred years since, complained, not without good cause, that she was become of gold, silver; of silver, iron; of iron, earth; superesse ut in stercus abiret, and that she would turn next into dung.

{a} Sleid. de 4 Monarch.

{b} Theodoric Urias, A.D. 1414.

Ver. 33. Part of clay.] The best things of the world stand in an earthly foundation {a} {#Isa 40:6}

{a} Mr Huet.

Ver. 34. Which smote the image upon his feet, &c.] All the powers of the world are but a knock, soon gone. {#Ps 2:9}

Ver. 35. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, &c.] Those four mighty monarchies had their times and their turns—their ruin as well as their rise.

And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain.] The kingdom of Christ, little at first, increaseth wonderfully. Nec minor ab exordio, nec maior incrementis ulla, said Eutropius, {a} concerning Rome; may we better say concerning the Church, which shall stand when all other powers shall quite vanish and disappear for ever, seem they for present never so splendid and solid. Sic transit gloria mundi. So transitory is the glory of the world.

{a} Hist., lib. i.

Ver. 36. This is the dream.] By this time Nebuchadnezzar began much to admire Daniel, who modestly taketh in his associates, as Paul also doth Sylvanus and Timothy, when he saith, "And we will tell the interpretation thereof," sc., ουν Θεω, God assisting us.

Ver. 37. Thou, O king, art a king of kings.] And yet the whole Babylonian empire was but as a crust cast by God, the great housekeeper of the world, to his dogs, as Luther somewhere saith of the Turkish.

Ver. 38. Thou art this head of gold.] A "head" the Babylonian monarchy is called, because it was the first of the four; and "of gold," because administered with great wisdom, fortitude, justice, and other heroic virtues, because of the glory also and greatness of it in all manner of magnificence. See #Isa 13:19 14:11 Jer 27:6. Megasthenes and Strabo {a} say, that Nebuchadnezzar was the mightiest of all kings, and held of the Chaldeans to have exceeded Hercules in courage.

{a} Lib. xv., Geog.

Ver. 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom,] {a} viz., That of the Persians, fitly set forth by silver, for their exceeding great wealth mentioned by many heathen authors. The two silver arms are the Medes and Persians, meeting both in Cyrus, as the two arms do in the breast; Cyrus also, by his great strength and much bodily labour all his life long, got this other empire.

Inferior to thee,] sc., In fame and felicity. Chald., Humilius; quia durius et minus tolerabile, saith one.

And another kingdom of brass.] This is the third monarchy, which is the Grecian, not the Carthaginian, as Orosius, and, out of him, Prosper, would have it; and it is fitly set forth by brass, which, as it is a metal strong and hard, so noisy and loud sounding. The belly noteth the beginning and greatness of this kingdom, saith one, {b} under Alexander the Great; the joints between the belly and thighs note the plucking up of this kingdom after Alexander’s death, to be divided into four, whereof the principal were two—the one of the Seleucidae, the other of the Lagidae, figured here by the two thighs of brass. See #Da 11:4,5.

{a} Ex hac Danielis visione Gentiles fabulam acceperunt de quattuor saeculis, aureo, argenteo, &c.

{b} Parker in loc.

Ver. 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron,] i.e., The Roman kingdom, fitly compared to iron for hardness and hardiness. {a} The two legs do note the division of the kingdom into the empire of the east and the empire of the west, first begun by Anthony and Augustus Caesar 40 B.C., afterwards established by Constantine, A.D. 330, and again more perfectly by Theodosius, A.D. 395.

And as iron that breaketh all these.] Of the Roman greatness much is written by many authors, how they subdued and kept under other potent nations by their legions quartered among them, and by their publicans exacting tribute of them. {b}

{a} Hard and heavy to purge and perfect the Church.—Parker, ib.

{b} Orbem iam totum victor Romanus habebat. -Pet. Arb.

Ver. 41. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, &c.] These "feet and toes" are the Roman empire, yet continuing, but weaker than it was before, while it consisted of "legs of iron," being now but of "feet and toes." And this empire is divided as the feet and toes are. One part is the kingdom of the Pope in the West (he whom we call the emperor hath now little or nothing to do with the empire, which was of Rome); the other part is the Turk in the East, before whom three of the horns of the empire are rooted out. See #Da 7:8.

Ver. 42. So the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.] Or, Brittle. This we see daily fulfilled in the tottering kingdoms both of that of the Turk (which laboureth with nothing more than the weightiness of itself, and yet hath been soundly battered of late by the Venetians) and the other of the Pope, which declineth also apace, and shall do every day more and more, according to that old distitch:

“ Roma diu titubans, variis erroribus acta,

Corruet, et mundi desinet esse caput.”

Ver. 43. They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men,] i.e., Endeavour by interchangeable marriages to reunite the divisions; but that can as little be as iron can be mixed with clay: cleave they might for a while together, but not incorporate.

Ver. 44. And in the days of these kings,] i.e., Of this fourth monarchy; for the Roman emperors were kings, as Peter also calleth them, {#1Pe 2:17} though they, to avoid the hatred of the people, refused so to be styled. The Pope, by a like hypocrisy, calleth himself the servant of God’s servants, but yet stamps upon his coin, "That nation and country that will not serve thee, shall be rooted out."

Shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.] The kingdom of his Son Christ. And here we have in few words the whole sum of the gospel, and that "truth which is according to godliness," {#Tit 1:1} for the revealing whereof this whole dream was revealed to the king.

But it shall break in pieces.] Christ shall reign, and all his foes be made his footstool.

Ver. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain.] Christ is called a stone, (1.) For strength; (2.) For continuance; (3.) For refuge; (4.) For offence. He is piorum rupes, reorum scopulus, as Val. Max. saith of Lucius Cassius’s tribunal.

Without hands,] i.e., Without man’s help.

And that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.] Broughton’s {a} note here is, Wisely Daniel telleth first how the last shall be destroyed, and not how Nebuchadnezzar’s house first should fall; so #Da 7:11,12, where he showeth his care to please the cruel tyrant, and his own readiness of wit in the allusion that is in the Chaldee between chaspa and caespa, clay and silver; which they that observe not cannot know why Daniel brake the native order of speech for clay, iron, brass, silver, and gold.

{a} Broughton on Daniel.

Ver. 46. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face.] Out of admiration, and an opinion of some divinity in Daniel. See the like, #Ac 14:11 28:6. So the savages of Nova Albion stole upon the English, at their departure thence, a sacrifice, and set it on fire ere we were aware, saith Captain Drake, for they supposed us to be gods indeed.

And worshipped Daniel,] i.e., He was about to do it, but that Daniel utterly and earnestly refused it, directing him to God, the sole object of divine adoration, as appeareth by the next verse. And indeed it had been better for Daniel a thousand times to have been put to death than to have suffered an oblation and sweet odours to have been offered unto him. He had said enough before to prevent such a mischief. {#Da 2:28-30} See here how Satan tempteth the saints by extremes. Daniel, who before was destined to death, is now deified; and this was the more dangerous temptation of the two. Be not "ignorant of his wiles."

Ver. 47. The king answered unto Daniel.] Who dissuaded him, with all his might, from doing on that sort, and inculcated that God was the chief doer.

Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods.] Hoc fuit momentaneum, saith Calvin; this was but a flash, such as was found in Pharaoh, Saul, and other temporaries; for if it had been in truth, he would not have set up the golden idol, &c. {#Da 3:1} Nevertheless Nebuchadnezzar showed more ingenuity than our stiff unpersuadable refractories, and especially than the perverse Jesuits, of whom it is noted that they are so cross grained and quarrelsome that they had rather quaerere than credere, start questions than believe truth, and pertinaciously dispute than rest in the plainest interpretations.

Ver. 48. Then the king made Daniel a great man.] This was, saith Broughton, about two years before the captivity of Jeconiah, when the good figs were to be brought to Babylon; an encouragement for the faithful to go willingly, their own nobles being so advanced in that court.

And gave him many great gifts.] This Porphyry, that atheist, snarleth at, viz., that Daniel received these rewards and honours. But why might he not, since the gifts he could bestow upon the poor captives, his fellow brethren, and the honours he could also improve to their benefit, himself did neither ambitiously seek them, nor was vainly puffed up by them. A noble pair of like English spirits we have lately had among us, Dr Ussher and Dr Preston, contemporaries and intimate friends to one another. The former, {a} when he was consecrated Bishop of Meath in Ireland, had this anagram of his name given him, "JAMES MEATH, I am the same." The latter, {b} when he might have chosen his own mitre, but denied all preferment that courted his acceptance, had this anagram made of him, "JOHANNES PRESTONIUS, En stas pius in honore." Behold, you stand holy, in honour.

{a} Dr Bernard in his Life.

{b} Mr Fuller’s Church History, fol. 119.

Ver. 49. Then Daniel requested of the king.] Acquainting him likely that by their prayers also in part the secret had been brought to knowledge. {#Da 2:18,19}

But Daniel sat in the gate of the king.] As chief admissional, so the civilians call it, without whose leave and licenee none might come into the king’s presence. Himself meanwhile had an excellent opportunity of treating with the king upon all occasions of such things as concerned the Church’s good; and this privilege no question but he improved to the utmost.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold.] Having taken Tyre, which was that great service spoken of in #Eze 29:18, subdued Egypt, which was his pay for his pains at Tyre, and overthrown Nineveh, as Nahum had foretold, he was so puffed up with his great success that he set up this monstrous statue of himself, to be adored by all on pain of death. That it was his own image which he here erected for such a purpose, as did also afterwards Gaius Caligula, the Roman emperor, it is gathered, (1.) Because he did not worship it himself; (2.) Because {#Da 3:12} it is distinguished from his gods; (3.) Because this was long since foretold of him, {#Isa 14:14} that, Lucifer-like, he should take upon him as a god; which because he did, he was worthily turned agrazing among beasts. {#Da 4:33} Meanwhile, take notice here of the inconstant and mutable disposition of this proud prince as to matter of religion. Velox oblivio est veritatis, saith Jerome; The truth is soon forgotten. Nebuchadnezzar, who so lately had worshipped a servant of God as a god, and not being suffered to do so, declared for the one only true God, and advanced his servants to places of greatest preferment, is now setting up idolatry in despite of God, and cruelly casting into the fire those whom he had so exalted, because they dissented. Daniel, it is likely, withstood this ungodly enterprise so far as be might, and left the rest to God.

Whose height was threescore cubits.] The ordinary cubit is a foot and half; but the Babylonian cubit, saith Herodotus, was three fingers greater than the common cubit; so that this image might be sixty-seven ordinary cubits high. The Rhodian Colosse was larger yet than this; for it was fourscore cubits high, made of brass in the form of a man, standing with his two legs striding over a haven, under which ships with their sails and masts might pass. {a} The little finger of it was as large as an ordinary man, being the work of twelve years, made by Chares of Lindum, and worthily reckoned for one of the world’s seven wonders. It was afterwards sold to a Jew, who loaded nine hundred camels with the brass of it; for it had been thrown down by an earthquake. {b} This image of Nebuchadnezzar was thus great, to affect the people with wonderment—so they "wondered after the beast" {#Re 13:3} -and thus glorious, gilded at least, if not of solid gold, to perstringe their senses, and with exquisite music to draw their affections. The Papacy is in like sort an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion. Jerome compareth heresy to this golden image; Irenaeus worldly felicity, which the devil enticeth men to admire and adore.

He set it up in the plain of Dura.] In a pleasant plain, mentioned also by Ptolemy {c} the geographer, quo statua commendatior habeatur, that it might be the more regarded.

{a} Plin., lib. xxxiv, cap. 7.

{b} Theop. Pezel., Mell. Hist.

{c} Geog., lib. vi.

Ver. 2. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes.] Satrapas, not so called quia sat rapiant, as Lyra doateth; for it is a Persian word signifying such as were near the king’s person. Superstition first looks to wind in great ones. {#Ezr 8:11} The Vulgate are "carried away to dumb idols, like as they are led." {#1Co 12:2} They are sheepish, and will follow a leader as well into a penfold as a pasture; they also feed most greedily on the grass that will rot them.

Ver. 3. Then the princes, the governors.] These envying the new favourites, and fearing that the king, by his late confession, {#Da 2:47} had too good an opinion of the Jews’ religion, came readily to this dedication, and probably had contrived it for a mischief to those three worthies, as those in #Da 6:4,5 did to Daniel.

Ver. 4. To you it is commanded.] Chald., They command; i.e., the king and his council. {as #Es 1:13,15} But what said the heathen? Obediemus Atridis honesta mandantibus, {a} we will obey rulers if they command things honest, but not else. The Bishop of Norwich asked Roger Coo, martyr in Queen Mary’s days, whether he would not obey the queen’s laws? He answered, As far as they agree with the Word of God I will obey them. The bishop replied, Whether they agree with the Word of God or not we are bound to obey them, if the queen were an infidel. Coo answered, If Shadrach, Meshaeh, and Abednego had done so, Nebuchadnezzar had not confessed the living God. {b}

{a} Eurip. in Phaeniss.

{b} Acts and Mon., fol. 1550.

Ver. 5. That at what time ye hear.] See on #Da 3:1. The allurements of pleasure are shrewd enticements to idolatry. {#2Pe 2:18} Sir Walter Raleigh said, Were I to choose a religion to gratify the flesh, I would choose Popery. The Catholics, in their supplication to King James for a toleration, plead that their religion is, inter caetera, among others, so conformable to natural sense and reason, that it ought to be embraced! A proper argument. I have read of a lady in Paris who, when she saw the bravery of a procession to a saint, she cried out, Oh how fine is our religion beyond that of the Huguenots!

That at what time ye hear the sound.] So in the Papacy, when the Ave Mary bell rings, which is at sunrising, at noon, and at sunsetting, all men, in what place soever, house, field, street, or market, do presently kneel down and send up their united devotions by an Ave Maria. {a}

Ye fall down and worship.] This is all that is required; de certa confessionis forma imperata, ne gry. Sic.

{a} Spec. Europ.

Ver. 6. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, &c.] Fire and sword are idolaters’ best arguments. But conscience is the fountain and spring of duty; and if that be not directed and awed by the Word of God, in vain are Acts of Parliament and proclamations, though backed with menaces; as if the spring of a clock be broken, in vain are all the wheels kept clean and put in order.

Ver. 7. All the people, nations, and languages fell down.] They that come of the yielding willow, and not of the sturdy oak, will yield with the time, and ever be of the king’s religion. In Queen Mary’s days here, and so in the Palatinate lately, scarce one in five hundred stood out, but fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall in autumn. See on #Da 3:5.

Ver. 8. Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.] All the Jews are accused, because some refused to worship. So still all the generation of the righteous must be charged with the pretended miscarriages of some few among them. The world, we see, is no changeling; antiquum obtinet. The Jews indeed, ever since the captivity, have abhorred idolatry; and the Papist worshipping of images, for which both Jews and Turks call them idolatrous Christians, {a} is a main scandal to them, and a let to their conversion.

{a} Spec. Europ.

Ver. 9. They spake and said,…O king, live for ever.] Thus they insinuate themselves by flattery. So #Ac 24:2,3.

Ver. 10. Thou, O king, hast made a decree.] Kings’ decrees are much urged by such as are resolved to be of King Harry’s religion, whether he stand for the old mumpsimus {a} or the new sumpsimus. {b}

{a} One who obstinately adheres to old ways, in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong; an ignorant and bigoted opponent of reform ŒD

{b} A correct expression taking the place of an incorrect but popular one (mumpsimus). ŒD

Ver. 11. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast, &c.] This with a graceless man is a swaying argument; he will rather turn than burn; as he came not frying into the world, as one said in Queen Mary’s days, so he cannot go frying out of it. Epicurus in word confessed a God, but in deed denied him, because Anaxagoras was put to death for denying God at Athens, where Epicurus flourished. {a}

{a} Aug., De Civ. Dei, lib. xviii, cap. 41.

Ver. 12. There are certain Jews.] Everywhere spoken against, as were afterwards Christians, odio humani generis, saith Tacitus, {a} hated for their religion.

Whom thou hast set over the affairs.] This was it that irked these spiteful accusers: "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?" {#Pr 27:4}

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.] Whom, though thou hast highly preferred, and by calling them by the names of thy gods, engaged them to thy religion, yet will they not yield to it, but be singular and refractory.

These men, O king, have not regarded thee.] Chald., Have set no regard upon thee. This was ever unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant.

{a} Lib. xv.

Ver. 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury.] His blood boiling at his heart, as brimstone doth at the match; for preventing whereof nature hath placed the heart near to the lungs, ut cum ira ascenditur, pulmonis humore temperetur, for an allay to the heat of it, lest perturbations should boil it into brine.

Commanded to bring Shradrach.] Who, it seems, were present at first, with a holy boldness, confronting their idolatries in the very teeth of the king and nobles. Daniel is excused by his absence and ignorance. But perhaps Nebuchadnezzar might show him the like favour as our Henry VIII did Cranmer, who disputing zealously against the six articles, was willed by the king to depart out of the Parliament House into the council chamber for a time, till the Act should pass, and be granted; which he notwithstanding with humble protestation refused to do. {a} And so it is likely would Daniel, who must therefore be excused as before.

{a} Acts and Mon., 1037.

Ver. 14. Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, &c., ] q.d., I can very hardly believe it. Certe tu non occidisti patrem; Sure thou didst not kill thy father! saith Augustus Caesar once to a parricide, whom he had in examination; and Suetonins saith that it was usual with him to examine malefactors in that way, as if he could not believe any such thing of them. Some {a} render the text Num de industria aut certo consilio? Do ye this on set purpose to cross and provoke me? Others, as Montanus, Nunquid desolatio? q.d., What! you to oppose the command of a king? If this be suffered, what disorder, yea, desolation, must needs follow! Pride ever aggravateth anything done against its own mind.

{a} Tremel., Buxtorf.

Ver. 15. Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear.] Many can no sooner hear flattering promises of preferment, as it were Nebuchadnezzar’s instruments, but they presently fall down and worship the Babylonish idol; but these three worthies were none such.

And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?] What God is he? Sure a mean God he were, thou poor thimbleful of dust, could he not stay thy hand, and stop thy blasphemous mouth with a spadeful of mould, and that in a trice.

Ver. 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered.] With a heroic faith and well knit resolution. A sound faith and a clear conscience, saith one, are able by their native puissance to pull the very heart, as it were, out of hell, and with confidence and conquest to look even death and the devil in the face.

We are not careful to answer thee.] The saint hath a quietus est rest that supersedeth all his cares. {#Php 4:7} Some render it non necesse habemus. As the king would admit no discussing his decree, but would have it absolutely obeyed, so they were at a point never to do it, nor to be removed from their religion. The heavens shall sooner fall, said that martyr, than I will start or stir an inch from what I have professed. With the like undaunted courage answered Cyprian the proconsul; Basil, the Arian emperor Valens; Dr Taylor, Stephen Gardiner; Mr Hawkes, bloody Bonner. A fagot will make you believe the sacrament of the altar, said Bonner. No, no, answered Hawkes, a point for your fagot. What God thinks meet to be done, that shall ye do, and no more. {a}

“ Paenae sunt pennae queis super astra vehor.”

{a} Acts and Mon., 1445.

Ver. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us.] And deliver us he will, either from death or through it; and we are by his grace in utrumque parati, wholly at his disposal. Never ask, then, O king, Who is that God that shall deliver you? Our God is in heaven, and doeth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth. He well knoweth how to deliver his out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust, be he king or captive, unto the day of judgment to be punished. {#2Pe 2:9}

From the burning fiery furnace.] Sic fortissimum martyrem, saith Ambrose of Laurentius, may we as well say of these, saevissima persecutoris flarama superare non potuit; quod longe ardentius veritatis radiis accensa mens eius fervebat. The fiery zeal of these men’s spirits overcame and put out the most scorching heat of the burning fiery furnace.

And he will deliver us out of thine hand.] Hereof they were well assured, because it would further set forth the cause of God, and work a greater conviction in the king and his nobles.

Ver. 18. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, &c.] We should not condition with God, but commit ourselves unto him in well doing, as unto a faithful creator, being unchangeably resolved rather to embrace fire than to resist light. Thus did all the noble army of martyrs, besides many worthy confessors, such as were the Prince of Conde at the same massacre of Paris, who would not redeem his life or liberty by going once to mass; John Frederick, prince elector of Saxony, to whom, when Charles V, whose prisoner he then was, offered to enlarge him, and to restore him to his former dignity, if he would but only assent to the "Interim mystical" doctrine, as they then called it, he absolutely refused; {a} George, Marquis of Brandenburg, likewise about the same time, professed openly at an imperial diet held at Augsburg, Malle se, flexis ibi coram Caesarea maiestate genibus, spiculatori cervicem feriendam statim praebere, quam Deum et evangelium ipsius abnegare, i.e., That he had rather hold out his neck to be cut off by the headsman before the emperor than deny Christ and his gospel. {b} At ego Chrysostomum secutus, said Calvin, when he was pressed to administer the Lord’s Supper to some notorious offenders, after the example of Chrysostom; I will die rather than do it. {c} Louis the French king being taken prisoner by Melechsala the sultan, conditions of peace being concluded between them, for more assurance thereof the sultan offered to swear that if he failed in performance, to renounce his Mohammed; requiring likewise the king to swear that if he failed, to deny his Christ to be God. {d} Which profane oath the king detesting, and wishing rather to die than to give the same, the sultan, wondering at his constance, took his word without any oath at all, and so published the league.

{a} Bucholc., Chron.

{b} Scultet., Annal.

{c} Melch. Adam.

{d} Turkish History.

Ver. 19. And the form of his visage was changed.] Chal., The countenance of his face. Passionate persons vex and distemper their own hearts and bodies, {#Pr 25:28} and are exceedingly disfigured with furiousness of the looks, extraordinary panting of the heart, beating of the pulse, swelling of the veins, stammering of the tongue, gnashing of the teeth, as those in #Ac 7:54. So the tyrant that martyred Laurence stamped and stared, ramped and fared as out of his wits, swelling like a toad, looking like a devil, &c. See on #Da 3:17.

That they should heat the furnace one seven times more.] Whereas a lingering torment had been heavier, as Bishop Ridley also felt it, and other martyrs: but he spoke as his passion prompted him, which often overshoots. {#Pr 11:29}

Ver. 20. And he commanded the most mighty men.] That they might be the more strongly bound, and no resistance made.

Ver. 21. So these men were bound in their coats, &c.] Which, for haste of the execution, were never taken off, as is usually done. But these executioners were swift to shed blood, and had blood again to drink, for they were worthy.

Ver. 22. The flame of the fire slew those men.] Who were too forward in the execution, and perhaps had been chief persuaders of the king to this whole action. God useth his creatures, as he did also at the Red Sea, for the safety of his saints and destruction of his enemies.

Ver. 23. And these three men…fell down bound.] Their binders were burnt, but not their bonds so soon, lest the glory of the miracle should have been thereby defaced.

Into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.] Where yet these holy salamanders took no hurt. In the creatures there is an essence and a faculty whereby the work, as in fire is the substance and the quality of heat: between these God can separate, and so hinder their working, as here he did. Quisque sollicitus sit non tam de vita quam de vocatione, &c.

Ver. 24. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied.] God can soon astonish the stoutest; as he did Dioclesian the tyrant, who laid down the empire in a discontent because he could not, as he desired, root out Christian religion, such was the constance and courage of the professors thereof. Antoninus the emperor set forth an edict in Asia that no Christian should be persecuted; for, said he, it is their joy to die: they are victors, and do vanquish you.

Ver. 25. Walking in the midst of the fire.] As in some pleasant place. Tua praesentia, Domine, Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit, saith an ancient, i.e., Thy presence, Lord, sweetened the furnace to these three worthies, the gridiron to Laurence, those exquisite tortures to Theodorus in Julian’s time, {a} the Leonine prison to Algerius the Italian martyr (who calleth it in the date of his letter a delectable orchard), the fire wherein he was burnt to Bainham, the English martyr, who, in the midst of the flames, which had half consumed his arms and legs, uttered these words: O ye Papists, behold ye look for miracles; here now you may see a miracle; for in this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down; but it is to me as a bed of roses. {b}

And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God,] i.e., Venustissima et quasi divina, very beautiful and angelic. The heathens reputed those to be heroes or demi-gods in whom they beheld and admired anything above the ordinary nature of men and their expectation. Truly this was the Son of God, said that heathen centurion concerning our suffering Saviour; {#Mt 27:54} that is, a divine man, such as Homer calleth αντιθεους, Θεοεικελους. This fourth person here in the fiery furnace is by many held to be Christ the Son of God, who appeared at this time in human shape.

{a} Socrates, Theodoret.

{b} Acts and Mon., 940.

Ver. 26. Ye servants of the most high God.] This was a high title, such as David and other great princes have gloried in; {#Ps 36:1 title} {See Trapp on "Ps 36:1"} The devil gave it to Paul and his fellow labourers; {#Ac 16:17} and they who deny it to Christ’s faithful ministers, loading them with names of scorn and obloquy, show therein less ingenuity than the devil himself.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth.] Not till they were called had they any mind to come forth; for where could they possibly mend themselves? Any place is a paradise where God is present. Ubi imperator, ibi Roma. Where the emperor is, there is Rome. Noah was well content to lie buried, as it were, in the ark, which was made in the form of a coffin, so long as God was there with him. Nos quoque non abhorremus a sepulchris ipsis, saith an expositor, {a} We also fear not to go down to the grave so long as we may hear God saying unto us, as once he did to old Jacob thinking of his journey to Egypt, "Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will go with thee, and I will also bring thee up again." {#Ge 46:3,4} Further, note how these three martyrs carry themselves toward the tyrant: they do simply obey his command, and come forth; they are not puffed up by the strangeness of the miracle wrought upon them, neither do they tattle, but suffer the matter itself and experience to speak, showing themselves to all sorts to be looked upon with greatest humility and modesty.

{a} Rollock.

Ver. 27. And the princes, governors, and captains.] Who were more obstinate than the king, and willing to have shut the windows lest the light should shine in upon them; but that there was no withstanding it.

Upon whose bodies the fire had no power.] See on #Da 3:23. The creatures are at a league with the saints. {#Job 5:22}

Ver. 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake.] Being convinced, but not converted, as appeareth by the next chapter, whatever Augustine and others charitably thought to the contrary. A wicked man may pray and praise God extemporally. {#Job 27:10}

And have changed the king’s word.] Chald., Secundo loco habuerunt. They have preferred God’s word before it.

Ver. 29. Therefore I make a decree.] Magistrates then have to do with men in matters of religion. {#De 13:6 Ro 13:4}

Which speak anything amiss.] But was this all he would do for God after so clear convictions? It was very poor. A professor of the Turks’ law proclaimeth, before they attempt anything, that nothing be done against religion.

Ver. 30. Then the king promoted.] Restored them to their dignities, and strictly forbade others to malign or molest them.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. Nebuchadnezzar the king.] This bare title seemed sufficient to him who came now newly out of the furnace of sharp affliction, whereby he was tamed and taken a link lower, as we say.

Unto all people, nations, and languages.] This epistolary narrative or proclamation was sent abroad a year or two before his death. And here observe, saith one, {a} an omission of twenty-seven years’ history, wherein the Church in Babylon had her halcyons; the emperor being exercised in foreign wars, and the nobles disheartened from attempting anything against those four worthies, as having had formerly such ill success.

That dwell in all the earth.] Thus this great king is made a catholic preacher of humility and moderation of mind.

Peace be multiplied unto you.] Courtesy and kind language in great ones draweth all hearts unto them, as fair flowers do the eyes of beholders in the springtide.

{a} Mr Huet.

Ver. 2. I thought it good.] Chald., It was meet (or seemly) before me; It was my duty, so Junius.

To show the signs and wonders.] "Signs" they were, because evident testimonies of God’s wisdom, justice, power; "wonders," because worthy to be wondered at.

Ver. 3. How great are his sons!] Mark how he is enlarged here; so should we. If David had had the thing in hand, he would have cried out also, "For his mercy endureth for ever." But Nebuchadnezzar celebrateth his kingdom only; and that also he had learned of Daniel. {#Da 2:46,47}

Ver. 4. I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my house.] Having subdued all mine enemies round about. But in the year of my triumph, behold a vision of my downfall. Suspecta nobis debet esse tranquillitas.

And flourishing in my palace.] But flourishing estates free not the mind of burdensome cares. {#Ec 5:12}

Ver. 5. I saw a dream, which made me afraid.] It is seldom seen that God alloweth unto the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment; something they must complain of that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels, and make their very felicity miserable.

Ver. 6. Therefore I made a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon.] Whom yet he had formerly found to be no better than braggarts and impostors. Was this man truly converted?

Ver. 7. Then came in the magicians.] As if they would do the deed. Seducers make up with boldness what they want of true worth. {#2Pe 2:19}

Ver. 8. But at last Daniel came in before me.] And why "at last?" Why was he not sooner sent for? If the soothsayers and sorcerers could have served the turn, Daniel had never been sought to. This is the guise of graceless men; they run not to God till all other refuges fail them.

According to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.] Is this the language of a true convert? Should not former sinful practices be looked upon with a lively hatred, and mentioned with utter distaste?

Ver. 9. Because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.] The spirit of divination and prophecy.

And no secret troubleth thee.] Chald., Puts thee to business. Now he who had slighted Daniel before, to get what he desired, abaseth himself below the dignity of a king to him.

Ver. 10. Thus were the visions of my head in my bed.] He readily remembereth this dream of his, and roundly relateth it; the more to befool the wise men, since the Scripture, whereof they were ignorant, but Daniel well versed in, revealeth sufficient direction for the interpretation thereof—sc., #Eze 31:1-12. The wisdom of this world is not unlike the pains taken by moles, which dig dexterously under ground, but are blind against the sunlight.

Ver. 11. The tree grew, and was strong.] See #Eze 17:12,24. Plato compareth a man to a tree inverted, with the root above and the branches below. He also calleth him φυτον ουρανιον, a heavenly plant. Homer calleth great men γεγενημενα εχ Διος ερνη.

Ver. 12. The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit.] But because pride harboured under these leaves and poisoned these fair fruits, they were broken down and trod under foot.

The beasts of the field had shadow under it.] Great is the benefit of civil government, and far extending. But most men content themselves with a natural use of it, as beasts of the field do of their food, without improvement of any higher good.

Ver. 13. And, behold, a watcher and an holy one,] i.e., A holy angel, active and watchful to know and do the will and commands of God for the good of the Church. Hence angels are said to be full of eyes, {#Eze 1:18} and to stand always beholding the face of God, {#Mt 18:10} as waiting an employment. How ready was that angel here {#Da 4:31} to interrupt the proud king from heaven, and to tell him his doom! So in the next words.

Ver. 14. Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches.] One angel seems to call to another to expedite the execution, so earnest they are in the Church’s revenge. {#Re 18:21}

Let the beasts get away.] Let this great conqueror be stripped at once of his train and dignity. The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great tree with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off, with this posy, Uno avulso non deficit alter; but here it was otherwise.

Ver. 15. Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots.] Which, having life still in it, may shoot out again. {a}

Even with a band of iron and brass.] Hic ab arbore desilit angelus ad personam. This band intimateth Nebuchadnezzar’s madness; for mad folk use to be bound.

Let his portion be with the beasts.] Turn him agrazing among beasts, for his beastly conditions.

{a} Pintus in loc.

Ver. 16. Let his heart be changed,] i.e., Obbrutescat, nihil humanum sapiat; a fearful judgment, and yet such as reprobates are usually delivered up to. {#Ro 1:24}

And let a beast’s heart be given him.] Let his fantasy and appetite be so changed, that, upon a strong imagination that he is a beast, he may have affections carrying him in all things to do accordingly. Little is said of this in human history. The Chaldee chronicles are lost. Alpheus (as he is cited by Eusebius) {a} briefly saith that Nebuchadnezzar, rapt with madness, presently vanished out of the company of men, after that he had first foretold the overthrow of the Chaldean monarchy. The Chaldeans in Abidenus’ fragments record that he was blasted by some god, and spake of Babel’s fall by the Persians. {b}

And let seven times to pass over him,] i.e., Seven years; like as Solomon’s temple, that seven years’ work of many thousands, was by him destroyed.

{a} Lib. ix. de Praepar. Ev.

{b} Brought., Conc. of Script.

Ver. 17. This matter is by the decree of the watchers,] i.e., Of God surrounded with his holy angels as his assessors and approvers of the divine decree.

And the demand by the word of the holy ones.] Petitio haec -scil., that the tree may be cut down. It is hereby intimated, saith Piscator, that the angels, in the consultation held for the punishing of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride, petitioned God that it might be so.

Ver. 18. This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen.] Such as would have resolution, must fully relate their doubts. {#Ge 41:17}

Ver. 19. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar.] Which name he took no felicity at all in, but the contrary. Nevertheless, for the Chaldeans’ sake, in whose tongue he wrote these things, and at whose good he therein aimed, he here addeth it.

Was astonished for an hour.] So was not Nebuchadnezzar, who was the man concerned. Ea fere est improbarum securitas; the godly, who have less cause, are frightened often, when the wicked are hardened. See #Hab 3:16. {See Trapp on "Hab 3:16"} But they who tremble not in time of threatening, shall be crushed to pieces in time of punishing. {a}

My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee.] Daniel, after a certain pause makes this mannerly preamble to the interpretation of the dream, which could not be very pleasing. But truth must be spoken, however it be taken. So Philo brings in Joseph prefacing to the interpretation of Pharaoh’s baker’s dream, Utinam tale somnium non vidisses, &c., I would, sir, you had not so dreamed; but since you have, I mast deal plainly with you.

{a} Bradford.

Ver. 20. The tree that thou sawest.] See on #Da 4:11.

Ver. 21. Whose leaves were fair.] See on #Da 4:12.

Under which the beasts of the field dwelt, &c.] A king should to all his subjects, high and low, extend his favour according to every one’s quality and degree.

Ver. 22. It is thou, O king,] i.e., It is that great empire which thou boldest and rulest.

Ver. 23. And whereas the king, &c.] See #Da 4:13.

Hew the tree down.] Sin ever endeth tragically.

Yet leave the stump.] Reserve him for a kingly state again, like as he had left a stump in Judah, spared the kingly seed, showed pity to the remnant of the Lord. The least favour that is shown to the godly shall be repaid double. {#Jer 34:17}

Ver. 24. This is the interpretation.] See #Da 4:19.

Ver. 25. That they shall drive thee.] He saith not who, whether angels or men, nor whither, for avoiding of envy and displeasure. This was a high point of heavenly wisdom, which adviseth to observe,

“ Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando.”

Nebuchadnezzar, who had driven so many before him out of their countries, is now, by a just judgment of God, himself driven out from company, lest, being mad, he should do much mischief: for his brutish conditions, he had now the brutes for his companions. He was wont to be fed with dainty fare; he now eateth grass as an ox. For his purple robe, horrido pilo totus obtegitur, he is all covered with hair; and for his precious ointments he is wet with the dew of heaven, ferinae vitae damnatus. {a} His disease, say some, was the lycanthropy; not a frenzy only, as that of Ericus, King of Sweden, who, being expelled his kingdom, for grief fell mad; {b} for, besides the brutish change of his mind, his body was much changed in feeding and living among wild beasts. Deformed he was, not transformed, so that the beasts took him for a beast, as going upon all four, and feeding as they did, although in shape differing from them, as a monster among them. But when all is said that can be said, sure it is that this change was supernatural, as appeareth by the occasion, manner, degree, time, &c., every circumstance seeming a new creation. {c}

And seven times shall pass over thee.] For the glory of God’s justice in his expulsion, and of his mercy in his restoration. See #Da 4:16.

Till thou know.] God will be sure to tame his rebels, for is it fit that he should lay down the bucklers first?

{a} Oecolampadius; Diod.

{b} Willet.

{c} Mr Huet.

Ver. 26. And whereas they commanded.] See #Da 4:15; and further observe how God tempereth his judgments with mercy, and that out of his mere philanthropy.

That the heavens,] i.e., The God of heaven. {#Lu 15:21 Mt 21:25}

Ver. 27. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee.] Happy was Nebuchadnezzar in such a faithful counsellor at hand to advise him; more happy than his successors Cyrus and Cambyses were in Croesus, King of Lydia, who yet more enriched them by his counsel than by all the wealth they had from him. But Nebuchadnezzar was as yet uncounsellable, till God had tamed and humbled him.

Break off thy sins by righteousness.] Be abrupt in the work, for delays are dangerous; {#Heb 3:7,13} cut the cart ropes of vanity as soon as may be, lest they pull down upon us heaviest judgments. For the diversion of God’s anger, get sin removed: {a} take the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs.

And thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.] Nebuchadnezzar had been an open oppressor, Daniel therefore preacheth unto him of righteousness and mercy. So Paul discoursed of "righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment to come" {#Ac 24:25} before Felix (who was inexplebilis gurges, saith Tacitus, a covetous wretch) and Drusilla, a filthy adulteress. Let this be a mirror for ministers.

If it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.] An futura sit prorogatio. Et sane fuit aliqua prorogatio, nempe per annum. Repentance ever findeth favour, yea, the very shadow of it, as in Ahab. {#1Ki 21:29} Jerome thinks it probable that Nebuchadnezzar did for a time as Daniel had advised him, and had therefore for a temporary repentance a temporary tranquillity. Chrysostom’s note upon this text is, Prolata est sententia ut non fiat. God is iudex liber, non iuratus, as Zanchy saith well, he punisheth as he pleaseth.

{a} Anticipa iudicium eius vera rescipiscentia. -Jun.

Ver. 28. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.] Because he repented not, or not thoroughly, as he had been advised, being left of God to his own heart. There is an infallibility in the curses as well as in the promises; they will surely light. {#Isa 14:23,24}

Ver. 29. At the end of twelve months he walked,] scil., A year after the dream, the interpretation thereof, and the good counsel given him thereupon. It is some wonder how he could so soon forget all; but the world, with the lusts thereof, had hardened his heart.

In the palace of the kingdom.] His idle walk, and his stately palace, were some occasion of his pride and fall. He walketh and stalketh, musing of nothing but his own greatness only.

Ver. 30. The king spake and said.] No man asking him any question, but himself trumpeting out his own praises. Ordinarily the greatest wealth is tumoured up with the greatest swelth against the Lord. Great means make great minds; yet what hath this proud prince in him of a man more than his voice and shape?

Is not this great Babylon {a} that I have built?] Why, no; it was built over a thousand years before you were born: {b} you have only beautified and fortified it. It is God that buildeth the city. {#Ps 127:1} And they were your ancestors, Nimrod and Ninus, whom he made use of for that purpose. Why, then, should you rob him of his glory, and them of their right, by your arrogance? The proud man, Sejanus-like, sacrificeth only to himself, and, Polyphemus-like, setteth up himself for the sole doer. God is not in all his thoughts. {#Ps 10:4} And for his words, hear Nebuchadnezzar here, or Mezentius in Virgil,

“ Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.”

- Aeneid.

Or that of Grevinchovius, the Arminian, Ego meipsum discerno, atque in eo cur non mihi liceat ut de meo gloriarer? I do by my freewill make myself to differ from others, and why may not I boast of such a thing as of mine own, in answer to that of the apostle, "Who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou which thou hast not received?" Wittily doth Luther call those braggers faeces or dregs, who have much in their mouths, haec ego feci, This was my doing; and worthily is that speech of Charles V emperor commended, Veni, vidi, sed vicit Christus, {c} beyond that of Julius Caesar, Veni, vidi, vici, because he ascribeth to Christ the honour of his conquest.

For the house of the kingdom.] The palace indeed he had built, though not the city, and therein he now prideth himself. The bramble thinks it a goodly thing to reign, and hath great thoughts and words too of his shadow, and yet all is but a shadow. The Turks build no stately edifices, besides their mosques or churches, because their abode upon earth is to be but short, they say, and therefore any dwelling may serve turn. That was a memorable speech of the forementioned Charles V, to whom, when the Duke of Venice had shown his princely palace, like a paradise upon earth, and now expected that the emperor should have exceedingly praised it, all that he said to it was this, Haec sunt quae nos invitos faciunt mori. These are the things that make us loath to depart out of the world. And no less memorable was that saying of another to a great lord who had showed him his stately house and pleasant garden, You had need, my lord, make sure of heaven; or else, when you die, you will be a very great loser.

By the might of my power.] See #Hab 1:16. {See Trapp on "Hab 1:16"}

{a} Urbem suam opponit coelo, eamque pro coelo habet.

{b} Joseph. Antiq., lib. xvi. cap. 1l.

{c} A Lap. in #2Sa 17:1.

Ver. 31. While the word was in the king’s mouth.] So quick is God usually in his executions, when men are once come to the height of pride, and do invade his glory, affront his majesty. {#Jer 44:22 Ac 12:23}

There fell a voice from heaven.] By the ministry of the angels, who do extremely hate proud persons, and are ready to speak and act aught against them.

O king Nebuehadnezzar.] Not now Nebuchadnezzar my servant, as once, but mine opposite, and therefore the object of my wrath. Alexander the Great rewarded his soldier that fetched his crown out of the water, but then hanged him for putting it on his own head. God will punish those eternally that rob him of his due glory.

Ver. 32. And they shall drive thee.] See on #Da 4:25, {See Trapp on "Da 4:25"} that new impieties work out old threatened curses, which seldom rot in the air, as we use to say of winter.

Ver. 33. The same hour was the thing fulfilled.] When least expected. The like befell the old world, Sodom, Pharaoh, Julian, &c. See #1Th 5:2,3. As they say of the metal they make glass of, it is nearest melting when it shineth brightest; so are the wicked nearest destruction when at greatest lustre.

And he was driven from men.] By his own courtiers and subjects. In him it well appeared that mortality was but the stage of mutability. The like was to be seen in Nero, and many other Roman and Greek emperors; in Belisarius, Bajazet, our Richard II, and Henry VI, who, having been the most potent monarch for dominions that ever England had, was at last not the master of a mole hill, nor owner of his own liberty. Of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, grandchild to John of Gaunt, mention hath been made before. Within our remembrance, in the reign of King James, the Lord Cobham, having been a man of seven thousand pounds a year, and of a personal estate of thirty thousand pounds, came nevertheless to a miserable end; for before his death he was lousey for want of apparel and linen, and had starved, had not a trencher scraper, some time his servant at court, relieved him with scraps, in whose house he died, being so poor a place that he was forced to creep up a ladder through a little hole into his chamber. {a} The like strange change befell Sir Edward Greenill, of Milcot, in Warwickshire, whom I very well knew.

And did eat grass as oxen.] By a singular judgment of Almighty God, who came down from heaven, as it were, to fight a duel with this most proud man, inspectante toto mundo, in the view of all the world. {b}

And his body was wet with the dew of heaven.] Beside the brutish change of his mind, his body was much changed by the inclemency of the air, and by his feeding and living among wild beasts. Yet was he not in truth changed into a beast, as Bodin thinketh, so as that upward he was like an ox, and in his hinder parts like a lion, as others have fabled. The substance of his body was not changed, but only the quality of his substance and of his shape. Rupertus well concludeth that this was the greatest change that is mentioned in Scripture, excepting only that of Lot’s wife, who was changed into a pillar of salt.

Till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers.] Thick and black.

And his nails like bird’s claws.] Long and sharp; so that in his shape he came nearer to a wild beast than to a man.

{a} Court of King James, p. 37.

{b} Rollock.

Ver. 34. And at the end of the days.] When my pride was now subdued, but hardly to sound conversion.

I Nebuehadnezzar lift up mine eyes.] Happy he if with Simeon his eyes had seen God’s salvation. Many are humbled but not humble, low but not lowly.

And mine understanding returned.] The use of his reason, whereof he had been bereft, and an opinion put into him that he was a beast. Mad men are apt to think themselves kings, horses, or other creatures than they are.

Whose dominion is everlasting.] A natural man will sooner confess God to be true, just, powerful, wise, &c., than merciful, and all because the love of God is not shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. {#Ro 5:5}

Ver. 35. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.] He who hath seen any part of God’s greatness will soon see his own vileness and the world’s nothingness. Disce hominis ουδενειαν, et ut ira dicam nihilitatem.

Ver. 36. At the same time.] When God had hid pride from me, which could not be soon nor easily done; as when some vital part is corrupted, the cure is difficult and long in doing.

And my counsellors and my lords.] Who had ruled the kingdom in the interim, among whom Daniel haply was chief.

Ver. 37. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise.] God, as he is the first author of all, so to him as to the utmost end, quasi circulo quodam confecto, all honour ought to return.

All whose works are truth,] i.e., Right and righteous.

And those that walk in pride he is able to abase.] See #Da 4:33.

“ Ingentes quercus, annosas fulminat ornos.”

- Claudian

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Belshazzar the king.] Son to Evilmerodach, grandson to Nebuchadnezzar, whose line failed in this king, according to #Jer 27:7. Of Evilmerodach, Daniel saith nothing, because nothing remarkable happen in his time but what was before related. {#2Ki 25:27}

Made a great feast.] Of this feast, see #Jer 25:26; Herodot., lib. i.; Xenoph., lib. vii. It was made, say some, upon occasion of a yearly solemnity, which continued five days together, wherein the servants bare sway in every family, having a master of misrule over them. Cyrus took this opportunity, saith Xenophon, and made himself master of the city. Nota hic Baltasaris miram vecordiam, saith one; that is, take notice of Belshazzar’s strange stupidity and security, that having such a formidable enemy before the city, he should thus revel and bezzle: but he did it perhaps to show his valour, and how little he cared for the Persians, who showed themselves soon after to be no contemptible persons. Certain it is that he minded nothing less at his feast than the deliverance of God’s poor people, which now he was in working. Now were the seventy years exactly ended; now therefore was Israel to be dismissed, and it was done. The Rabbis have a tradition, that Belshazzar, seeing the seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah expired, and the Jews, by the coming on of another monarch, not delivered, kept this feast in contempt of that prophecy and people. {a}

To a thousand of his lords.] Who, it is like, were all drunk for company; what wonder, then, that a land so sick of drink spued them all out? Lords and lowlies were grown desperate drunkards, ripe for ruin. Here were a thousand princes, but not one faithful counsellor to better advise this festival king, as he is called, wholly given over to dissolute lusts. Who can tell whether it were not now with him as afterwards with Vitellius the Emperor, when his enemy was at hand, Vitellius trepidus, dein temulentus, {b} to put away the fear of death, he made himself drunk?

{a} Lyra.

{b} Tacitus.

Ver. 2. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine.] {a} And was mastered by it; being now in his cups, as they say, and well whittled, "swallowed up of wine," as the prophet expresseth it. {#Isa 28:7} Aben Ezra rendereth it, in consilio vini, doing as the wine advised him.

Commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels.] Being intoxicated, he casteth off all care of God and man, and falleth into the sins of sacrilege and blasphemy.

Which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple.] And should have restored them hither again. We read that when Gensericus had spoiled and plundered Rome, he took the vessels of gold and silver which Titus had brought from the temple in Jerusalem, and carried them with him to Carthage; these vessels, among other spoils, Belisarius met with when he took Carthage, and carried them to Constantinople. But the good Emperor Justinian would not receive them into his treasury, but sent them again to Jerusalem to be disposed of for the good of the Church, according to the discretion of the Christian bishops who lived there. {b}

{a} Iam temulentus .— Vulgate

{b} The Life of Justin, by Mr Clark, 79.

Ver. 3. Then they brought the golden vessels.] Made and appointed for a better use; as were likewise much of our Church lands, vessels, and utensils, concerning which a learned man complaineth, Possidebant Papistae, possident iam rapistae. Luther cried out earnestly against this abuse in Germany, Knox in Scotland, Calvin at Geneva: I see, said he to the senate there in a sermon, that we have taken the purse from Judas and given it to the devil; neither can I endure such sacrilege, which I know God in the end will punish most severely. Belshazzar paid dear for his boosing in the bowls of the sanctuary.

And the king and his princes…drank in them.] As if they had been swine troughs. This was to outsin his father and grandfather, who yet were none of the best.

Ver. 4. They drank wine.] To the honour of their goddess Shac; for so these feast days were called σακεαι ημεραι, being like the Roman saturnalia.

And praised the gods of silver and of gold.] As if these their dung hill deities had mastered and spoiled the God of Israel, who either would not, or could not defend his temple and people from falling into the power of their invincible conqueror. This was blasphemy in a high degree, and therefore presently punished by God.

Ver. 5. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand.] Taken off from the arm. This strange sight marred all the mirth immediately, making good the proverb, Ubi uber, ibi tuber; ubi mel, ibi fel. Lege Dei aeterna sancitum est ut illicita voluptas pariat ultricis conscientiae furias et supplicia, iuxta illud, Where the breast is, there is the friut, where the honey is, there is the venom. Eternity is confirmed by the law of God that forbidden pleasures give birth to vengeful and enraged conscience and that just punishment is near. #Re 18:7. Carnal mirth goeth out in a snuff.

Upon the plaster of the wall.] When the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against unrighteousness, he would have it to be well noted and noticed by all.

Ver. 6. Then the king’s countenance was changed.] How soon is carnal joy extinct, the gallantry of it checked with troubles and terrors! how suddenly is it put out as the fire of thorns! {#Ps 118:12 Ec 7:6} Surely as lightning is followed with rending and roaring; and as comets, when their exhaled matter is wasted, vanish and fill the air with pestilent vapours; so is it here.

So that the joints of his loins were loosed.] If a bare citation to judgment were so terrible to this jolly prince, what shall the judgment itself be "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord," &c.

And his knees smote one against another.] The writing on the wall he could neither read nor understand; but his conscience had written bitter things against him, which being now held to the fire of God’s wrath become legible, as things written with the juice of an onion are visible when brought to the fire. The wounds also of an accusing conscience pierce the members of the body. {#Pr 17:22} The mark that God set upon Cain was, in likelihood the perpetual trembling of his hands and whole body. Tullus Hostilius, who profanely derided the devotions of his predecessor Numa, had deservedly for his gods Pavorem fear, and Pallorem. wanness, {a} Caracalla, after the murder of his brother Geta, was so haunted with the furies of his own evil conscience, that he forbade any so much as to name him on pain of death, and was well nigh mad; so was Theodoricus the tyrant upon the sight of the fish’s head set before him, wherein he thought he saw the face of Symmachus whom he had wrongfully slain. The like befell our Richard III after the murder of his two innocent nephews; and Charles IX of France after the massacre at Paris.

{a} Lactant

Ver. 7. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers.] Daniel seemeth not to have been in any request in the days of this dissolute prince, Neither was there any courtier that would mention him, or mind the king of him till the old queen came in. Such combibones drinking buddies are unfit comforters; many of them likely were by this time bucked with wine, and then laid out to be sunned and scorned.

Shall be clothed with scarlet, &c.] A troubled heart will give anything for release, as Cain, Spira, &c.

And shall be the third ruler in the kingdom,] i.e., Next to myself and the queen-mother. Thus he promiseth to another a third place, who could not promise to himself any place. Spirat superbiam miser.

Ver. 8. But they could not read the writing.] Utpote caecitate et stupore pervulsi; they could not so read it as to make any good sense of it. It may be the initial letters only were set down, or else without pricks, or in a strange character, the Samaritan, or some other. The honour of the work was reserved for a better man.

Ver. 9. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled.] In the midst of his feast he was thus damped and cast into his dumps; according to that of Amos, {#Am 8:10} "I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation." Yet find we not in him any sign of true remorse. "Whoredom and wine and new wine had even taken away his heart," {#Ho 4:11} robbed him of himself, and laid a beast in the room.

Ver. 10. Now the queen.] The queen mother, whom Herodotus calleth Nicochris, and greatly commendeth for her wisdom and ability of speech, which in a woman is a comely ornament: {#Pr 31:26} (1.) She was not at this riotous feast, which is an argument of her temperance; (2.) She prudently insinuateth into the king by the ordinary salutation, "O king, live for ever"; (3.) She adviseth him to bear up, and not to be too troubled; (4.) She maketh honourable mention of Daniel, cuius virtutum sola est admiratrix, and persuaded the king to make use of him by her own experience, We use to say thus women’s wits are best at a pinch. Most sure it is that women have proven sometimes more prompt for counsel than men; {#Jud 13:23} and some we may find who, beside their sex, have little of a woman in them. See #2Sa 20:16. Herodotus maketh this Nicochris as famous as Semiramis.

Ver. 11. There is a man in thy kingdom.] Once famous for his oracles, and highly promoted by thy grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. Thus this old queen speaketh of ancient things. She was not therefore Belshazzar’s wife, as Porphyry scoffingly objected, but his mother at least, if not his grandmother.

In whom is the spirits.] See on #Da 5:10.

The king, I say, thy father.] This was a check to Belshazzar for neglecting so worthy a person as Daniel, whom his grandfather had so highly honoured.

Ver. 12. Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, &c.] Very excellent is the grace of the Spirit in godly hearts, {#Col 1:29} neither can natural conscience do less than stoop and strike sail to the image of God in whomsoever.

And dissolving of doubts.] Chald., Knots; that is, perplexed and obscure speeches and sentences.

Now let Daniel be called.] Who will not obtrude himself, nor, like the marigold, open and shut with the sun; but, as the violet, which grows low and hangs the head downward, hiding itself also with its own leaves, so Daniel, were it not that the fragrant smell of his many virtues betrayed him to the world, would choose to live and die in his self-contenting secrecy.

Ver. 13. Then was Daniel brought in.] Wise men are never found to be unnecessarily forthputting, or overly forward to express themselves. They know qui bene latuit bene vixit; et qui bene tacuit, bene dixit; and when they must speak, use as few words as may be, and as direct to the point.

Art thou that Daniel.] Daniel had deserved of the Babylonian state to have been better known of Belshazzar, and better respected; but this is the world’s wages.

Which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, &c.] What needed all this? he never learned it surely of his queen mother. She had spoken all good of Daniel, and inminded the king of another both office and name. He only takes notice of Daniel’s captive condition, and vaunts of his grandfather’s victory, moving this insolent and unseasonable question in tanta necessitate et consilii inopia, "Art thou Daniel?" &c

Ver. 14. I have even heard of thee that the spirit, &c.] This silly and shallow prince hath nothing to say but what was put into his month by his wiser grandmother; only what she discreetly concealed, viz., that Daniel was one of the captives, &c., hoc unum commemorat gloriosus rex, that he blurts out, in a way of upbraiding. {a}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 15. But they could not show the interpretation of the thing.] They could not read nor interpret it. Such as seek to sorcerers are worthy to lose their labour, as a punishment of their folly. Suidas testifieth that the citizens of Alexandria in Egypt devised and decreed that astrologers should pay a certain tribute to the State out of their gettings, and that it should be called the fool’s tribute, because none but fools and light fellows would resort to such for direction.

Ver. 16. And I have heard of thee.] As far off as he maketh it, Belshazzar could not be so ignorant of Daniel, as he would seem to be, since he understood punctually the dreams, honours, and troubles of his grandfather. {#Da 5:22} But this he took for a piece of his silly glory, to make it very strange, as if he had never heard of Daniel till now.

Ver. 17. Let thy gifts be to thyself.] Honours, pleasures, riches,

“ Haec tria pro trino numine mmadus habet.”

But as Moses, by the force of his faith, overcame them all, {#Heb 11:24-27} so did Daniel here, throwing off the offers of them, and answering the king’s proud speech with a grave invective, which he beginneth somewhat abruptly, not without indignation, as having to deal with a wicked and desperate man, rejected of God. Ministers must carry in them a retired majesty, saith one, toward the persons of wicked men. {#2Ki 3:14}

Ver. 18. O thou king, the most high God gave Nebachadnezzar.] See here the necessary and profitable use of history, which hath its name, saith Plato, παρα το ισταναι τον ρουν, from stopping the flux and overflow of impiety in others;

“ Exemplo alterius qui sapit, ille sapit.”

Domestic examples are most prevalent; as not to profit by them is a great provocation, and yet all too common. {#Ps 49:14} Lamech was nothing bettered by Cain’s punishment, but the contrary. Jude inveigheth against such as made no use of Sodom’s ruin; this was a just presage and desert of their own.

And kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour.] His offences were much increased by these many obligations.

Ver. 19. Whom he would he slew.] De facto loquitur, non de iure. See the like #1Sa 8:10-17. {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:10"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:11"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:12"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:13"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:14"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:15"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:16"} {See Trapp on "1Sa 8:17"} Lactantius {a} telleth of a certain tyrant, qui lucem vivis, terram mortuis denegabat, who would never let his subjects rest alive or dead.

{a} Lib. v. cap. 11.

Ver. 20. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride.] Pride is of a hardening property, causeth men to commit sin with a high hand, as Pharaoh. The increase of the spleen is the decrease of the body; so is pride of the soul, and overturneth the whole man. Evagrius noteth it for a special commendation of Mauritius the Emperor, that he was not puffed up with his preferments.

Ver. 21. And he was driven.] See on #Da 4:22. Lege historiam, ne fias historia.

Ver. 22. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart.] It was no small aggravation of his sins not to be warned, and now he shall hear of it on both ears. The putting out of the French king’s eyes, which promised before with his eyes to see one of God’s true servants burned, who seeth not to be the stroke of God’s hand? Then his son Francis, not regarding his father’s stripe, would needs yet proceed in burning the same man. And did not the same God give him such a blow on the ear that it cost him his life? {a}

{a} Acts and Mon., fol. 1914.

Ver. 23. But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven.] As did also Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, {#Ac 12:21-23} whose acts were set forth with false and flattering praises by Nicholas Damascenus, as Josephus {a} complaineth; but so are not Belshazzar’s by holy Daniel, who yet is almost his only historiographer.

And whose are all thy ways.] Chald., Thy whole journey.

{a} Antiq., lib. xvi. cap. 11.

Ver. 24. Then was the part of the hand.] Completa peccati mensura, non differtur poena, when sin is once ripe, punishment is ready. The bottle of wickedness, when once full with those bitter waters, will soon sink to the bottom.

Ver. 25. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.] These words signify, He hath perfectly numbered, he hath weighed, and it falleth in pieces. They were the Samaritan characters, saith one, {a} therefore the Babylonians could not read them, nor could the Jews understand them, though they knew the characters, because they understood not the Chaldee tongue as Daniel did. See on #Da 5:8.

{a} Weemse.

Ver. 26. MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom.] He hath cast up thy reckonings, taken account of thy maladministration, and calleth for satisfaction. So he dealt with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Cum duplicarentur lateres, venit Moses, when the tale of bricks was doubled, then came Moses; and when the four hundred, or the four hundred and thirty, years of their captivity in Egypt were exactly expired, the same night were the firstborn slain. So the tyranny of the Roman emperors was numbered at the end of three hundred years after Christ, when they, sounding the triumph before the victory, had foolishly engraven upon pillars of marble these bubbles of words, Nomine Christianorum deleto qui Remp, evertebant, we have utterly rooted out the name of Christians, those traitors to the commonwealth. So, lastly, God hath numbered the Pope’s kingdom, and well-nigh finished it. Let him look to the year 1666. It is plain Satan shall be tied up a thousand years; 666 is the number of the beast; Antichrist shaft so long reign; these two together make the just number. {a}

{a} Time has made a fool of Trapp as it has of many others. Ed.

Ver. 27. TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, {a} and art found wanting.] As the former was a term taken from creditors, so this from light coin; deprehensus es minus habere, thou art not current. Others may think thee weighty enough and worthy, but God pondereth the hearts, {#Pr 22:2} and thinketh thee fit to be refused, ut nummus reprobus so money rejected.

{a} Iupiter ipse duas aequato examine lances Sustinet. -Virg.

Ver. 28. PERES; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes.] This had been long before prophesied, #Isa 13:17; yea, #Ge 9:25; and now Ham’s posterity felt his father’s curse. Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, came of Ham, Madai or the Medes were of Japhet, and Elam or the Persians of Shem. God’s forbearances are no acquittances. Let all wicked ones look to it. What is Mene but death? Tekel but judgment? Peres but hell or utter separation from God? and all to be passed through by their poor souls if timely course be not taken. Hear this, all ye drunkards, who glory in drinking the three outs &c.

Ver. 29. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel.] No nay, but they would do it; and he at length admitted it, partly that he might not seem to slight the king’s courtesy and to be disaffected, and partly that thereby he might be the better known to the Persians for the comfort of God’s poor people.

And put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation, &c.] All this the king commanded to be done, out of an admiration of Daniel’s divine wisdom, and that he might be dicti sui dominus, as good as his word; but not a word hear we of his repentance, such was his stupidity; nor doth Daniel exhort him to it, because he saw him to be past feeling, and knew that the decree was gone forth.

Ver. 30. In that night was Belshazzar…slain.] By Gaddatha and Gobrya, two of Cyrus’s commanders, who had been wronged by Belshazzar (as Xenophon {a} also testifieth), and now took revenge on him, after that they had betrayed the city, and brought in Cyrus’s army. So fell that famous Babylon: fuit Ilium et inyen, gloria Teucrorum.

{a} Xenoph. Cyrop., lib. vii.

Ver. 31. And Darius.] Called by Ctesias, Δαριαιος, which comes near to Dariaves, as the Chaldee here calleth him. He is thought to be the same with Cyaxares, son of Astyages, and uncle to Cyrus.

Being about threescore and two years old.] Born the same year, say the Rabbis, {a} wherein Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and destroyed it. So Augustine was born the same day in Africa that Pelagius was in Wales, say chronologers, by a wise and watchful providence of God for the good of his Church.

{a} Sedar Olam.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. It pleased Darius.] Chald., Pulchrum fuit coram Dario. Order, he knew, must be observed, or the kingdom could not continue; himself also was old, and needed assistants. It was honour and work enough for him illos iudicare quos constituit iudices aliorum to appoint others to judge also—as Petr. Blesensis saith that our Henry II did—to judge those whom he had made judges of others. The great Turk doth so to this day, whence few of his grandees, his viziers especially, or chief officers, die in their beds.

An hundred and twenty princes.] For his one hundred and twenty provinces, which afterward came to be one hundred and twenty-seven. {#Es 1:1} Monarchs will ever be adding.

Ver. 2. And over these three presidents.] Triumviros sive tres rationales. Three to whom the rest should audit and be accountable.

And the king should have no damage.] In his rights and in his revenues, which were, saith Herodotus, yearly fourteen thousand five hundred and threescore Euboian talents, raised out of the several satrapies.

Ver. 3. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents.] Chald., He became a conqueror over those exarchs; so that he might have been called, as Charles the Great once was, Pater orbis, the world’s father; or as Titus, Orbis deliciae, the world’s darling; or as Otho III, Mirabilia mundi, the world’s wonder. He was indeed no less, and that Darius well found by him. Whether he took him with him into Medea, as Jerome, out of Josephus, relateth, I have not to say; if he did, it seemeth that after the death of Darius he returned again to Babylon, and there served King Cyrus. {#Da 6:28}

Because an excellent spirit was in him.] Not only of prophecy, but of prudence, justice, zeal, and other virtues, which, if a governor lack, he is as a sun without light, a bird without wings, a master of a ship without a helm, &c.

And the king thought to set him over the whole realm.] Thus dignity waiteth upon desert, and envy upon dignity, which made David love his hook the better after he had seen the court; and Daniel was never fond of this great preferment, whereby, for his own particular, he got nothing, nisi ut turbatior viveret, occupatior interiret, as he said, but vanity and vexation of spirit. High seats are never but uneasy; neither want there those who are lifting at them, and labouring to overturn them. Feriunt summos fulmina montes.

Ver. 4. Then the presidents and princes sought.] Chald., Were seeking; they made it their business so to do. Envious men are always in excubiis, set in their watch, to observe where they may fasten their fangs, and do most mischief. See #Pr 27:4. {See Trapp on "Pr 27:4"}

But they could find none occasion.] His innocence thrattled their envy, and made them, since they could not come at his heart, to feed upon their own.

Nor fault.] Neque in facto, nec in signo; and yet they waited for his halting, {as #Ps 38:16,17} and watched as eagerly for it as a dog doth for a bone. A blameless behaviour disappointeth malice, and maketh it drink up the most part of its own venom.

Forasmuch as he was faithful.] Homo quadratus; a square-dealing man, and such as against whom lay no just exception. Homo virtuti simillimus, as Paterculus saith of Cato Major, A man as like Virtue herself as could be possible.

Ver. 5. Then said these men.] But whatsoever they said, Daniel said, Ego sic vivam ut nemo eis credat, My life shall be a real refutation of their lies.

Against this Daniel.] This was the best language they could afford him. So, "Behold this dreamer," said Joseph’s brethren, and "This fellow," said the Pharisees of Christ, and "This pest," said they of Paul, that most precious man upon earth. In envy is steeped the venom of all other vices.

Except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.] Whereof Daniel was both a strict observer in himself, and a zealous preserver in others. Religion, then, was the quarrel, and all the fault they could find with him— Novum crimen Gaius Caesar, &c -and yet no new accusation either. The first man that ever died, died for religion, and still, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus" (if they will needs do it, and be set upon it), "shall suffer persecution."

“ Omnia eum liceant, nen licet esse pium”

Ver. 6. Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king.] Or, Thronged tumultuously, as resolved to have that they came for. James and John, from the word here used, are called, Filii fremitus sive fragoris, Sons of thunder. {#Mr 3:17} It seemeth these men came to the king with a bustle and a rattle, to frighten him into a consent to their motion.

King Darius, live for ever.] This was to sprinkle him with court holy water, as they say.

Ver. 7. All the presidents of the kingdom.] Not all either, for Daniel would sooner have died a thousand deaths than have voted such a gross impiety; but he was one of the most, that knew least of the council, and it was he against whom, haec cudebatur faba, this plot was laid, though it proved at last to be against themselves.

The governors, and the princes, the counsellors and the captains.] A rabble of rebels, conspiring against heaven. Non numeranda aunt suffragia, sed expendenda.

To establish a royal statute.] But a very irreligious and injurious one, the like whereunto was that prohibition in France of Henry III, that it should not be lawful for householders to pray with their families; {a} and that of the Jesuits at Dolce, forbidding the common people to say anything at all of God, either in good sort or in bad. {b}

That whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man.] What, not of their own gods? nor yet of Cyrus, who was co-partner with Darius in the kingdom? But, like enough, these conspiritors might think hereby the rather to ingratiate with the old dotard Darius, who feared the virtue and valour of his nephew and colleague, Cyrus, and would say with tears, as Xenophon reporteth, that Cyrus was more glorious than he, and had more applause of the people.

{a} Polan. in locum.

{b} Heyl. Geog.

Ver. 8. Now, O king, establish the decree.] Confirm it, that it may receive the force of law.

According to the law of the Medes and Persians, that altereth not.] This was too much to be given to any law made by man, so mutable a creature. I have read of a people whose laws lasted in force but for three days at utmost; this was a fault in the other extreme. The Persians’ laws were therefore irrepealable, because they worshipped truth for a goddess, to whom inconstancy and change must needs be opposite and odious. But this was no good reason either, unless the law makers shall be supposed such as cannot err, nor will anything unjust, which can be truly attributed to none but God only.

Ver. 9. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing.] As well enough content to be so dignified, yea, deified. So was Alexander, the Great; Antiochus, Θεος; Herod; Domitian; Dominus Deus noster, Papa: Vah scelus! our Lord God, the pope, Ah wickedness.

Ver. 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed.] Which he knew not, belike, till it was proclaimed and published; and then, it may be, he did as much against it as Latimer did here in like case, by writing his mind unto King Henry VIII, after the proclamation for abolishing English books. See his letter in the Book of Martyrs, and marvel at his heroic boldness and stoutness; who as yet being no bishop, so freely and fearlessly adventuring his life to discharge his conscience, dared so boldly to so mighty a prince, in such a dangerous case, against the king’s law and proclamation, set out in such a terrible time, take upon him to write and to admonish that which no counsellor dared once speak unto him in defence of Christ’s gospel. {a}

He went into his house.] He left the court, as no fit air for piety to breathe in, and got home, where he might more freely and comfortably converse with his God. Exeat aula qui velit esse pius. Tutissimus est qui rarissime cum hominibus, plurimum cum Deo colloquitur, saith a good divine—that is, he is safest who speaketh seldom with men, but oft with God.

And his windows being open in his chamber.] This was his wont, belike, at other times; and now he would not break it, to the scandal of the weak, and the scorn of the wicked, who watched him, and would have charged him with dissimulation, should he have done otherwise. Say not therefore, what needed he thus to have thrust himself into observation? could he not have kept his conscience to himself, and used his devotions in more secrecy? Our political professors and neuter passives indeed could and would have done so. But as Basil answered once to him that blamed him for venturing too far for his friend, Non aliter amare didici, I never learned to love any otherwise; so might good Daniel here have done, his zeal for God would not suffer him to temporise, or play on both hands. It shall well appear to his greatest enemies that he is true to his principles, and no flincher from his religion. His three companions were alike resolved, {#Da 3:16-18} and Paul, {#Ac 21:13} and Luther, when to appear at Worms, and many more that might here be mentioned.

Toward Jerusalem.] For the which he was now a petitioner, since "the time to favour her, yea, the set time was come." {#Ps 102:13} There also some time had stood the temple, not without a promise of audience to prayers made in or toward that holy place, {#1Ki 8:43} which also was a type of Christ, &c.

He kneeled upon his knees.] Constantine the Great, as Eusebius telleth us, would have this as his portraiture—a man on his knees praying; to show that that was his usual practice and posture.

Three times a day.] At morning, noon, and night: thus constantly, beside other times also upon emergent occasions. All the power and policy of Persia could not keep God and Daniel asunder, no, not for a few days: {#Php 3:20 Eph 2:19} it is a part of our πολιτευμα, our city employment or spiritual trading with God, to pray; and if prayer stand still, the whole trade of godliness standeth still too. Clean Christians, therefore, typed by those clean beasts in the law, {#Le 11:3} must rightly part the hoof, rightly divide their time, giving a due share thereof to either of their callings as Daniel did; sanctifying both by prayer, and at hours of best leisure. {#Ps 55:17}

And prayed, and gave thanks before his God.] Chald., Confessed; either his sins, that he might get pardon thereof; or else God’s benefits, the glory whereof he thankfully returned unto him. Prayers and praises are like the double motion of the lungs. "Let every breath praise the Lord."

As he did aforetime.] An excellent custom doubtless and most worthy to be kept up:

“Παλλας δη φιλιας απροσηγορια διελυσε” {b}

{a} Acts and Mon., 1591.

{b} Arist. Ethic., lib. viii. cap. 5.

Ver. 11. Then these men assembled.] But for ill purpose: as did also our Saviour’s enemies, {#Lu 22:6} and Stephen’s, {#Ac 6:9-15} the Popish counsels. At Rome they have a meeting weekly de propaganda fide, for the propagating of the Romish religion, and abolishing of heresy, as they call it.

And found Daniel praying.] The sun shall sooner stand still in heaven, than Daniel give over to pray to his Father in heaven.

Ver. 12. Hast thou not signed a decree?] But should "wickedness be established by a law?" {#Ps 94:20} See on #Da 6:7. So in France there was published an edict whereby the people were forbidden on pain of death to have in their houses any French book wherein the least mention was made of Jesus Christ. {a}

{a} Dr Arrowsmith’s Tact. Sacr., p. 89.

Ver. 13. That Daniel.] He was principal president, and deserved a better attribution than that Daniel. But ill-will never speaketh well of any.

Which is of the captivity.] This also is terminus diminuent -q.d., This royal slave, whom thou hast preferred above us all, and hast moreover some thoughts to set him over the whole realm. {#Da 6:3} New men shall be much spited. It was therefore no ill counsel,

“ Fortunam reverenter habe quicunque repente

Dives ab exili progrediere loco.’’—Auson.

Regardeth not thee, O king.] Chald., Putteth no respect on thee. This is common, falsely to accuse God’s most faithful servants as antimagistratical, because they refuse to obey unlawful and impious decrees.

But maketh his petition three times a day.] They say not to whom he made it, which might have helped him greatly; for the king might conceive that he made it to some other man. It is an evil office to omit such circumstances as may help the accused. {#2Sa 16:3}

Ver. 14. Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself.] As good reason he had; but Sero inquit Nero. Now he found himself circumvented by his wily flatterers; but why was he such an Epimetheus or after wise?

And set his heart on Daniel.] But all too late. Leo casibus irretitus dixit, Si praescivissem. The fool’s ‘Had-I-wist’ should be carefully prevented. To disavow the willing of Daniel’s death, and to lay the blame upon his counsellors, is a poor shift of a weak prince.

And laboured till the going down of the sun.] Alleging reasons for Daniel’s deliverance; as that he was a loyal subject, an excellent ruler; that the decree was fraudulently wrung from the king, upon pretence of finding out false hearted subjects; that it was maliciously wrested to the ruin of a fight patriot, &c. But no reason will rule unreasonable and absurd men (Ατοποι), as they are called, #2Th 3:2, men that have no topics, nor will hear of any, as the word there signifieth.

Ver. 15. Then thase men assembled unto the king.] Or, Kept a stir with the king, from #Ps 2:1. Congregaverunt se supra regem. Doubtless, saith Broughton, Daniel’s spirit thought of David his father’s terms. {a} So #Da 6:6. They came cluttering about the king.

Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians, &c.] This he knew as well as they; but they press him to do accordingly. So did those Ignatian Boutefeans in Germany, who, in the year 1582, cast abroad this bloody distich:

“ Utere iure tuo, Cesar, sectamque Lutheri

Ense, rota, ponto, funibus, igne neca.”

{a} i.e., Thought of his father David’s expressions in Ps. ii.; "Why do the heathen tumultuously assemble": see marginal reading.

Ver. 16. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel.] Besides and against his conscience, Rex regendum se praebet impiis nebulonibus, the king yieldeth to the importunity of these wretched malignants, and condemneth an innocent. See #Mt 27:24. This maketh Calvin conclude ne micam quidem pietatis fuisse in hoc rege, that there was no goodness at all in this king.

And cast him into the den of lions.] So little assurance of a continued felicity is there to any prince’s favourite; witness Joab, Abner, Haman, Callisthenes, Sejanus, Ruffinus, Eutropius, Stilico, Alvarez de Luna, who told those that admired his fortune and favour with the king of Castile, You do wrong to commend the building before it be finished.

Now the king spake and said unto Danial.] Many oppressing landlords, saith one, are like Darius, that prayed God to help Daniel, but yet sent him to the lions’ den. How many friends at a sneeze have we today? saith another. The most you can get from them is, God bless you, Christ help you.

Ver. 17. And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den.] To make all sure, as they thought, and that there might be no privite dealings with the keepers for Daniel’s deliverance. But God had a holy hand in it, for the greater manifestation of the miracle.

And the king sealed it.] Ne, videlicet, alia perimeretur morte ab insidiatoribus, saith one, lest the conspirators, understanding that the lions did not meddle with him, should some way else despatch him, as the persecutors dealt by some of the martyrs,

That the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.] The Latin interpreter hath it, Lest anything should be done against Daniel. He feared not the lions so much as the men, saith the ordinary gloss there.

Ver. 18. Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting.] As good reason he had, for the love and loss of such a counsellor, whom he had unwittingly betrayed, but wittingly condemned, and now he is self-condemned for so doing. His conscience was perplexed for his injustice, so that he careth neither for food nor music.

Ver. 19. Then the king arose very early in the morning.] He had lain all night on a bed of thorns, through trouble of mind, and was glad to get up, especially since sleep (the parenthesis of men’s griefs and cares) was quite gone from him.

And went in haste.] Chald., With perturbation.

Unto the den of lions.] Quo venit Leo, et liberavit leonem de ore leonis {a} (say the Jewish doctors by a kind of riddle), whither came God, and delivered this Coeur-de-lion out of the mouth of the lions.

{a} Galatin., lib. v. cap. 8.

Ver. 20. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice.] With a piteous distressed voice: far otherwise than did Daniel, {#Da 6:21} who chose rather to be cast into the den of lions than to carry about a lion in his bosom, an enraged conscience, as did Darius here, and afterwards Theodoricus, king of Italy, who had caused Boetius and Symmachus to be unjustly beheaded, but carried the horror of it to his grave. How good is it, therefore, to keep the bird in the bosom always singing as Daniel did, and as those primitive Christians, who chose rather ad leonem proieci quam ad lenonem, {a} to be thrown to lions without than to be left to lusts within, such fleshly lusts as war against the soul, {#1Pe 2:11} against the peace of it principally.

Is thy God, whom thou servest continually.] A far deal better than did Cardinal Wolsey, who yet, when he came in a morning out of his privy chamber, most commonly heard two masses; and whatever business he had in the daytime (when he was Lord Chancellor), he would not go to bed with any part of his service unsaid, no, not so much as one collect. {b} Nevertheless, when he was sent for up by Henry VIII to be put into the Tower, he bewailed himself, and said that if he had been as careful to serve God as he ever was to please the king, it would have been much better with him. To be a "servant of the living God" {c} is an argument of safety. {#Da 3:17 Ps 143:12}

{a} Tertul.

{b} The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p. 18.

{c} Semetipsam detestatus est quod Regi potius quam Deo placere studuisset. -Scult.

Ver. 21. O king, live for ever.] Daniel doth not curse the king (as some impatient spirits would have done, and as some think the damned in hell do God), but wisheth him a long and happy life, voto amabili. He useth the ordinary form, but with a better mind. His wish of the king’s welfare was non in labris nature sed in fibris, it was from the heart, it was a holy prayer.

Ver. 22. My God hath sent his angel.] Glad to be employed for the safety and service of the saints, {#Heb 1:14} whence it is that these heavenly courtiers delight more in their names of ministry (as angels, watchers, &c.), than of dignity, as principalities, thrones, &c.

And hath shut the lions’ mouths.] Though they were savage and hunger starved, yet Daniel was kept from the paws and jaws of these many fierce and fell lions by the power of God through faith. {#Heb 11:33} How the angel stopped the lions’ mouths, whether by the brightness of his presence, or threatening them with his finger, {#Nu 22:27,33} or by making a rumble among them like that of an empty cart upon the stones, or by presenting unto them a light fire (which things lions are said to be terrified with), {a} or by causing in them a satiety, or by working upon their fantasy, &c., we need not inquire. The Lord well knoweth how to deliver his, {#2Pe 2:9} and, one way or other, will not fail to do it. {#Ps 34:19} Archimedes, the great mathematician, was slain by a common soldier who was sent for him, notwithstanding that Marcellus, the Roman general, had given charge that he should be spared. The temple at Jerusalem was burnt, though Titus the emperor had commanded the contrary. When one told the Duke of Parma that he had shot Sir Philip Sidney, instead of a reward, he cursed him for killing so incomparable a man, of whom, though an enemy, he heartily wished that he had been preserved. All that are dear to God are sure to be protected; he will rather work miracles than they shall be forsaken. {#Jon 2:10}

And also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.] Though I have not obeyed thine edict, to the wounding of my conscience. It was therefore an unadvised speech of Philip, king of Spain, who said that he had rather have no subjects than Protestant subjects; and out of a blind bloody zeal he suffered his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition, because he seemed to favour the Lutherans. How well might this young prince have said, as here, "Against thee, O king, have I done no hurt."

{a} Aristot.; Plin.

Ver. 23. And commanded that they should take Daniel up ant of the den.] Pull him up with cords, as they did Jeremiah in like case. {#Jer 38:11-13}

So Daniel was taken up out of the den.] A lively type of Christ’s resurrection from the pit. {a} So was Joseph taken from prison, and made lord of Egypt; Samson breaking the bars, and carrying away the gates of Gaza; David, so oft oppressed by Saul, and yet exalted to the kingdom; Jonah, his being drawn out of many waters. {#Mt 12:39}

Because he believed in his God.] Of such force is faith, of such power is prayer; for it may well be thought that he prayed hard (with David, #Ps 22:21), "Save me from the lion’s mouth, so will I declare thy name unto my brethren." The prayer of faith shall save the afflicted; and questionless justifying faith is not beneath miraculous in the sphere of its own activity, and where it hath the warrant of God’s Word. Let such as desire a special providence believe, wait, and walk uprightly. {#2Ch 16:9}

{a} Mos priscus Christianorum fuit ut in suis sepulchris inter alia resurrectonis symbola Danielem in lacu inter leones stantem sculperent. -A Lapide in loc.

Ver. 24. And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel.] Chald., Which had accused accusations against Daniel. Now they shall lick of the same whip, and find, to their small comfort, the truth of that divine proverb, "Whoso diggeth a pit, shall fall therein," {a} &c. {#Pr 26:27} See #Ec 10:8 Ps 7:16. {See Trapp on "Ec 10:8"} {See Trapp on "Ps 7:16"}

They cast them into the den of lions.] A just and proper punishment, yet not executed without too much severity, as some think, because their wives and children were cast in with them. But for that, others say that as these were part of their goods, so, by consent at least, they were partakers of their crimes, and therefore justly perished with them.

And the lions had the mastery, &c.] It is a much more "fearful thing to fall into the" punishing "hands of the living God" {#Heb 10:31} Such shall have the cauls of their hearts torn in sunder, &c. Oh "consider this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces," &c. {#Ps 50:22}

{a} η δε κακη βουλη τω βουλευσαντι κακιστη.—Hesiod.

Ver. 25. Then king Darius wrote.] See on #Da 4:1.

Ver. 26. I make a decree.] It is the honour of princes to make laws for the maintenance of religion. {#2Ch 30:4,5}

And his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.] Daniel’s dialect touching Christ and his kingdom. {#Da 2:44 7:14,27} By conversing with that good man, Darius had learned something, as those that walk much in the sun are apt to be tanned and discoloured.

Ver. 27. He delivereth and rescueth.] By this and the foregoing verse it may be evidently seen that Darius was acquainted with Nebuchadnezzar’s two dreams, and affected with them.

Ver. 28. So this Daniel prospered.] And still solicited the Church’s cause.

And in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.] Under whom he affronted the counsellors hired against the returned Jews. {#Ezr 4:5 cf. 10:1,3} He lived also under Cambyses, but was out of credit with that rakeshame. {a}

{a} One who covers himself with shame; an ill-behaved, disorderly, or dissolute fellow. ŒD

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. In the first year of Belshazzar.] Here beginneth, to speak properly, the prophecy of Daniel, or rather the second part of Daniel’s works, which is concerning visions exhibited of God by divine revelations, not to others, but to himself. This vision is the subject and groundwork of the rest that follow to the end of the prophecy. One not unfitly compareth it to a general map of the whole world; the rest to particular tables of various countries.

Daniel had a dream and visions of his head.] God renewed unto him the same thing by vision which he had exhibited before by dream, in recompense of his religious care to know the matter and to record it for the Church’s comfort. {a}

Then he wrote the dream.] It was God’s will the visions of the prophets should be written {#Isa 30:10} and published to the Church. {#Isa 30:30}

{a} Jun.

Ver. 2. Daniel spake and said.] His writing is called his speaking, to teach us to receive the writings of the prophets and apostles with no less reverence than if we had heard them speak with their own mouths. {a}

I saw in my vision by night.] The night doth in Scripture frequently signify trouble. This "vision by night" was of troublesome businesses—viz., hurlyburlies in the world, and persecutions in the Church.

And behold the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea,] i.e., There was a huge bustle upon the earth, by means of the four successive monarchies. See #Re 13:1,11. The world is fitly called the "great sea," ever unquiet and full of commotions; which are also called "winds" for their boisterousness, contrariety of nature, and inconstance.

{a} Willet.

Ver. 3. And four great beasts.] Regnorum feritas bestiarum nomine demonstratur, saith Jerome. The fierceness of the four kingdoms is set forth by the name of beasts. Bellum a belluis. Monarchies are mostly gotten, kept, and governed with violence and tyranny. {#Ps 76:4 So 4:8} Regna mundana parantur et retinentur bellis. Commune vitium monarchiis et tyrannis.

Ver. 4. The first was like a lion.] Which is the king of beasts (as the eagle is of birds), generous, strong, fierce, fair-conditioned; so were the Assyrian monarchs in comparison of those that followed them.

And had eagle’s wings.] Whereby is noted their victorious celerity and alacrity in seizing upon kingdoms. {as #Ob 4 2Sa 1:23 Jer 4:13 48:40 Eze 17:3}

I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked,] scil., By the Medes and Persians, taming Babel’s insolence, and making her inhabitants tributaries and slaves, to till their ground and to maintain their garrisons, saluting them as their masters wherever they met them. {a}

And made stand upon the feet as a man,] i.e., Brought down to the common rank of men, and no longer lift up as an eagle.

And a man’s heart {b} was given to it.] Which before thought itseff as good as God, now had low and common spirits; not as once, imperious and impetuous.

{a} Xenophon.

{b} Cor humanum, id est, molle ac timidum. -Piscat.

Ver. 5. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear.] Which is nothing so generous and ingenuous as a lion; but slow, dull, cruel, ravenous. Such were the Persians; a mountainous, rough, uncivil people, of barbarous and beastly cruelty.

And it raised up itself on one side,] scil., By joining with the Medes, by whose help Cyrus subdued the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, and many more nations act easily reckoned, who, to gratify him, desired to be ruled according to his pleasure. {a}

And it had three ribs in the mouth of it.] While they conquered three parts of the known world, pushing westward, northward, and southward. {#Da 8:4} Westward by Cyrus, southward by Cambyses, and northward by Darius Hystaspis.

And they said (or, it was said) thus unto it, Arise, devour.] Intimating that it was God who turned this bear loose upon the nations, and gave them to him for a prey. Tyrants prosper by God’s permission. {#Joh 19:11}

{a} Xenoph.

Ver. 6. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard.] Which is a creature cruel, desirous of man’s blood, crafty, spotted, and very swift of foot. So were the Grecians; Alexander especially (the founder of that third monarchy), active, bold, and headlong, but directed much by those who had been counsellors to his father Philip, a subtle prince; leopard-like, he was spotted by a mixture of virtues and vices; he was very quick of despatch, Μηδεν αναβαλλομενος, never deferring any enterprise; he much delighted in wine, and so took his death; like as the leopard is no way else to be taken but by such a bait laid for him.

Which had upon the back of it four wings.] Denoting the rapidity and celerity of Alexander and some other of the Grecian monarchs, in overrunning countries, as if they had flown.

The beast had also four heads,] i.e., This monarchy was, after Alexander’s death, divided into four satrapies, or rather kingdoms. Cassander had Macedonia; Antigonus, Asia; Seleucus, Syria; and Ptolemy, Egypt.

Ver. 7. Behold a fourth beast.] Not likened to any certain beast, because none can be named so cruel which can express the cruelty of this fourth monarchy—viz., that of the Romans, no, although it were

"Προσθε λεων, μετοπισθε δρακων, μεσσηδε χιμαιρα."—Hom.

It is a nameless monster, made up of all the properties of the former beasts. {#Re 13:1,2} The Rabbis, with their "wild boar out of the wood," {#Ps 80:13} fall far short of it. Luther {a} not unfitly compareth the Church of God to a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, and beset with hungry lions, wolves, boars, bears, and with all manner of hurtful and cruel creatures.

Dreadful and terrible.] Because able and ready to annoy others with great evils.

And strong exceedingly.] So that it passed for a proverb, Irasci populo Romano nemo impune potest. It is not safe for any nation to fall out with the Romans; for they are sure to be tamed and tawed with their iron teeth.

And it had great iron teeth,] i.e., Conquering captains, such as Scipio—of whom Ennius sang thus:

“ Si fas caedendo coelestia scaudere cuiquam,

Mi soli coeli maxima porta patet.”

Pompey, who by his great acts and achievements merited the name of Magnus; and Julius Caesar, who before the Pharsalian wars had taken a thousand towns, conquered three hundred nations, took prisoner one million men, and slain as many. {b}

And stamped the residue with the feet of it,] i.e., With their provincial magistrates, such as were Verres, Pilate, Felix, &c., said to have nails of brass, {#Da 7:19} and fitly compared to petulant wild beasts, which, when they can feed no longer, trample with their feet on the residue of the prey. The poor Jews had hard measure from them always.

And it was diverse from all the beasts.] In respect of diversity and strange multiplicity of forms of government.

And it had ten horns.] Which the angel afterwards interpreted as kings or kingdoms. {#Da 7:24} This occured not long after Constantine the Great, when the Roman empire began to moulder and fall in pieces. About the year 456, it appeared broken into ten parts, which by a learned interpreter are thus reckoned. The kingdom of the Britons, of the Saxons, both in Brittany; of the Franks, of the Burgundians, in France; of the West Goths in the southern part of France and part of Spain; of the Sueves and Alanes in part of Spain; of the Vandals in Africa, a little before in Spain; of the Allmanns in Rhetia and Noricum, provinces of Germany; of the East Goths in Pannonia, a little after in Italy; of the Greeks in the remnant of the empire.

{a} Loc. Com.

{b} Heyl., Geog.

Ver. 8. And I considered the horns.] For without a serious and sedulous consideration I could not have kenned it. So slyly and secretly worketh the mystery of iniquity.

And behold there came up among them another little horn.] This is Antiochus Epiphanes, say some, the Great Turk, say others, the Pope, say a third sort, and with them I concur, whose kingdom is here called a "little horn," because the Pope was at first a mean minister of the Roman Church, viz., till Constantine’s time. Afterwards he was only primate and metropolitan of the churches of Italy. No man took him for a prince, no, not when he began to write Volumns et iubemus, We will and command you, A.D. 606; but he grew up by degrees, and cunningly got among the ten horns, till at length he overtopped them.

Before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.] These were, according to some, Chilperick the French king, Frederick the emperor, and King John of England, whom he made his vassal. Others reckon them to be Chilperick, the exarch of Italy in the time of Gregory II, and Desiderius, king of Lombards, slain by Charles the Great at the instigation of the Pope. For three kingdoms coming under him, let it be considered whether they be not Spain, Germany, and France; or whether this prefigured not, saith one, his triple crown.

And, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man.] In respect to his feigned courtesy and profound policy. To be sharp-sighted is commendable; but to be wittily wicked is to do the devil doubty service.

And a mouth speaking great things.] Big swollen with blasphemies, both against God and his viceregents upon earth. Pope Boniface wrote to Philip the Fair, king of France, Volumus te scire te in temporali et spirituali nobis subiacere. {a} We would you should know, sir, that you are to subject yourselves to us, both in temporals and spirituals, &c. Accordingly he took upon him to overtop and command at pleasure all Christian kings and emperors. The application that the malicious Jewish doctors blasphemously make of this little horn to our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of all execration.

{a} Alsted., Chron.

Ver. 9. I beheld till the thrones were cast down.] All these tyrannous dominions overturned. Some read it, "till the thrones were set up"; for till the last judgment Antichrist is to continue. {#Da 7:21,22,25,26}

And the Ancient of days did sit,] i.e., God Almighty, whom Thales, also a heathen philosopher, called πρεσβυτατον των οντων, the most ancient of all that are. {a} The poets say also that Saturn, the father of their gods, had his name from his fulness of years, {b} God’s eternity and wisdom is set forth; by this title here, like as also is, by his "white garments," his majesty and authority; by his "hair as pure wool," his innocence and integrity in judgment; by his "throne like the fiery flame," his just anger and severity, against the man of sin especially; by his "wheels"—or the wheels thereof, viz., of his throne; for princes’ thrones used in those days to be set upon wheels—"as burning fire" is set forth his facility and dexterity in executing his judgments, his efficacy also, since all things are fiery.

{a} Laert. in Vit. Thalet.

{b} Saturnus est appellatus quod saturetur annis. -Cic, de Nat. Deor., lib. ii.

Ver. 10. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.] The last and great judgment must needs be very dreadful, where, beside that wicked men shall give account with all the world flaming about their ears, the law they shall be judged by is a fiery law, {#De 33:2} the tribunal of fire, {#Eze 1:27} the judge a consuming fire; {#Heb 12:29} his attendants flaming seraphims; his pleading with sinners shall be in flames of fire; {#2Th 1:8} the trial of their works shall be by fire; {#1Co 3:13} the place of punishment a lake of fire, fed with tormenting temper, and kindled by the breath of the Lord. {#Isa 30:33} Well may the "sinners in Zion be afraid, and fearfulness surprise hypocrites"; well may they run away, if they can at least tell whither, with these words in their mouths, "Who among us shall dwell with this devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" {#Isa 33:14}

Thousand thousands ministered unto him.] There is an innumerable company of angels, {#Heb 12:22} and when Christ cometh to judge the world, he shall bring them all with him, not one being left behind him in heaven, {#Mt 16:27} that he may have their assistance in the sentence and execution of judgment. {#1Co 6:2,3}

The judgment was set, {a} and the books were opened.] Terms taken from judgments among men, wherein indictments are read, proofs are produced, laws also are considered. The books that shall here be opened are God’s records and conscience’s register. Quae scripta sunt non atramento sed flagitiorum inquinamento, saith Ambrose, which are written, not with ink, but with sin’s filth.

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words.] As Antichrist shall be judged for his blasphemies, so shall all ungodly men for their hard speeches, {#Jude 15} yea, for their waste words. {#Mt 12:36}

{a} Sedendo et quiescendo anima fit prudens. -Aristot. Physic., lib. vi.

Ver. 11. I beheld even till the beast was slain.] Till the whole body of the monster, and with it the Papal kingdom, came to ruin. This Bellarmine confesseth, and lamenteth that ever since we began to call the Pope Antichrist, the Church of Rome hath suffered loss. Cotton, the Jesuit, confesseth that the authority of the Pope is incomparably less than it was, and that now the Christian Church is but a diminutive.

And his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.] The Revelation, which is a heavenly commentary upon this prophecy, hath it thus, "The beast and the false prophet were cast alive," for more torment, "into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." {#Re 19:20}

Ver. 12. As concerning the rest of the beasts.] The four great monarchies, as was before noted, had their times and their turns—their rise and their ruin.

Yet their lives were prolonged for a season.] Such is the Lord’s lenity, respiting his enemies for a time. {#1Ki 21:29} The Persian and Turk are yet puissant princes. The success that the Antichristian rout yet hath in some places maketh good that which was sometimes said of dying Carthage, Morientium nempe bestiarum violentiores esse morsus, i.e., The bites of dying beasts are more violent than ordinary.

Ver. 13. I saw in the night visions, &c.] Here comes in the fifth monarchy, properly so called, the kingdom being wrested from the fourth tyrant. Well might Jerome call Daniel Polyhistora, the general historian.

And, behold, one like the Son of man.] So Christ showed himseff often to the fathers, before his incarnation, for their confirmation in that article which, being the ground of his passion, was to be especially believed, for the foundation of Christian faith. Christ’s Godhead also, another main article, is here not obscurely deciphered, while he is said to be like the Son of man; therefore he is more than a mere man. Again, he came with the clouds. Compare #Mt 24:30, "Then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds," as in his chariot of state. Add hereunto his solemn, glorious access unto the Father, that Ancient of days, that is, the eternal God, as being his co-equal, of the same nature, power, glory, &c., with his Father, and coeternal unto him. So the Lamb is said to approach to him that sat upon the throne to receive the book. {#Re 5:7}

And they brought him near before him.] {a} The angels did, as great men’s attendants are said to bring their masters to the courts.

{a} " Et qui asaistebant ei abtulerant eum:"—sic Cyprian. legit.

Ver. 14. And there was given him dominion.] Christ hath a manifold right to the kingdom; it is his by inheritance, conquest, donation, &c. This is comfortable to consider, forasmuch as he will not reign without his members, who all hold all in capite; and have all already, (1.) In precio; in prayer (2.) In promisso; in promise (3.) In primitiis. in starting.

That all people, nations, and languages, &c.] Christ’s kingdom is first universal, secondly perpetual; so was none of the former, though the Roman was very large, reaching from Euphrates to Great Britain, and the Assyrian very lasting, of a thousand and four hundred years’ duration.

Ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit.] Chald., My spirit was scabbed through, so that my body became as an empty sheath or scabbard. Oh, the terror of that last judgment, when such a man as Daniel was so frightened to see the manner of it in vision only! "If the righteous scarcely be saved," &c.

In the midst of my body.] Chald., Of my sheath: the body is but the soul’s sheath (Pliny, {a} in the history of Hermotinus Clazomenius, maketh use of the same metaphor), and compared to the soul it is but as a clay wall that encompasseth a treasure, as a wooden box of a jeweller, as a coarse case to a rich instrument, or as a mask to a beautiful face.

{a} Lib. vii. cap. 52.

Ver. 16. I came near unto one of them that stood by,] i.e., To one of the holy angels. {as #Da 7:10} Let us have recourse in like case to Christ’s ministers, who are called "angels of the churches"; like as angels, by a like change of name, are called "ministering spirits." {#Heb 1:14} The preaching of the gospel is taken from the angels, {#Lu 2:10} and given to the ministers: hence Paul was sent to Ananias for further direction, {#Ac 9:10,11} and Cornelius to Peter. {#Ac 10:3-5}

And asked him the truth,] i.e., The thing hereby signified. See #Joh 1:17 14:7; holy minds are industrious after knowledge.

Ver. 17. These great beasts…are four kings,] i.e., A succession of kings, all of them truculent and savage towards the saints.

Which shall arise out of the earth.] And as toads, strive who shall die with most earth in their mouths.

Ver. 18. But the saints of the Most High.] Or, The most high saints, highly exalted in Christ, and preferred far above those earth sprung mushroom monarchs, {#Da 7:17} who are of the earth earthy, and partake not of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now this is a very true definition of a Church, saith Junius here, viz., Coetus sanctorum ad excelsa, a company of saints partaking of a high and heavenly calling. {#Heb 3:1}

Shall take the kingdom.] Take it "by force," {#Mt 11:12} lay hold on the promised inheritance; yet not till it is given them, and the time is come. {#Da 7:22}

Ver. 19. Then I would know the truth.] See #Da 7:16. And take notice that godly minds are not content with the knowledge of things in gross, but covet a particular and distinct knowledge. {#Php 3:10}

Ver. 20. And of the ten horns.] See #Da 7:7.

And of the other that came up.] See #Da 7:8.

Whose look was more stout than his fellows,] i.e., Than the ten horns. Antichrist exalteth himself above kings, and above all that is august. {#2Th 2:4} {See Trapp on "2Th 2:4"}

Ver. 21. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints.] With the Waldenses, against whom the Pope turned his croisados, those armies of the Cross which had been first appointed against the Saracens. {a} This war began in the year 1160, and yet continueth, and must till the end of the reign of Antichrist. {#Da 7:9,10,26}

And prevailed against them.] As they did against the ancient Waldenses or Leonists, and against their posterity lately in Piedmont. Yea, it is the opinion and fear of some great divines that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the West, and suppress the whole Protestant Churches.

{a} Thuan.

Ver. 22. Until the Ancient of days came.] Not by change of place, but change of providence. {#Zec 14:3,4}

And judgment was given to the saints.] As upprovers of Christ’s righteous judgment.

That the saints possessed the kingdom,] sc., In Christ their head. {#Da 7:10}

Ver. 23. Thus he said.] So ready are the holy angels to further good desires. {#Mt 28:1,2}

Ver. 24. And the ten horns out of this kingdom.] He saith not kingdoms: this maketh against those that make the Seleucidae and Legidae, the fourth monarchy.

And he shall be diverse from the first.] For the first were secular kings, but he styleth himself chief bishop and head of the Church, having both Peter’s keys and Paul’s sword, &c.

And he shall subdue three kings.] See on #Da 7:8.

Ver. 25. And he shall speak great words.] As Pope Julius III did, when he called for his pork flesh, forbidden him by his physician as naught for his gout, al despito di Dio, in despite of God; and missing a cold peacock which he commanded to be set up for his supper, he raged extremely at his steward; and being desired to be more patient, he replied, If God were so angry with our first parents for an apple, may not I, who am his vicar, be so much more for my peacock? {a} See on #Re 13:5.

And shall think to change times and laws,] i.e., He shall usurp a power over religion and men’s consciences, set up holidays, canonise saints, appoint fasts, order times, &c.

Until a time and times and half a time,] i.e., Until that time which God alone knoweth, and hath in his power.

{a} Acts and Mon., 1417.

Ver. 26. But the judgment shall sit.] And then an end of him howsoever.

Ver. 27. And the kingdom and dominion.] When once Christ’s foes shall be in that place which is fittest for them, viz., "under his feet."

Ver. 28. Hitherto is the end of the matter.] This seemeth added, to stop all curious inquiries after things not revealed.

My cogitations much troubled me.] For the ensuing troubles of God’s people under those godless tyrants.

And my countenance changed.] Chald., My brightnesses. I looked wan and pale; much study will cause it; {#Ec 12:12} as it did in Mr Fox, the martyrologue, so that his friends knew him not.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar.] Which was his last year, when Babylon was closely besieged: therefore Daniel was not now really at Shushan, but in vision only. {#Da 8:2}

A vision appeared unto me.] While waking likely: and for further explication of the former vision, {#Da 7:1,2} whereof because Daniel made so good use, ampliorem gratiam accipit, saith Oecolampadius, he now receiveth further grace.

Ver. 2. I saw in a vision.] God revealed himself to men waking in vision, as well as in dreams, {#Heb 1:1} wherein the prophets saw things actually done, which hereby they knew were to be done. {#1Ki 22:17}

I was at Shushan.] Which signifieth a lily, {a} so it was called for the pleasantness of the place: now it is called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. Here it was that Alexander found fifty thousand talents of gold, besides silver great store. It was once the royal seat of the kings of Persia, and gave name to the whole province Susiane. See #Ne 1:1 Es 1:1.

And I was by the river of Ulai.] Called by heathen authors Eulaeus, but better ολυαιος. It compassed the temple of Diana at Shushan round, and, as some say, the whole city. Pliny {b} saith that the waters of this river were highly esteemed, so that the Persian kings drank thereof.

{a} Athenaeus.

{b} Pliny, lib. vi. cap. 27.

Ver. 3. There stood before the river a ram.] With a golden fleece and full of flesh. This was the Persian monarch; who is also said to stand, because of his slow motion and sluggish disposition; and "before the river," because the Persians ruled over many nations, signified by waters. {#Re 17:1} A ram stalketh stately before the flock as a captain; but they are only sheep which he leadeth. Let a dog but lay his nose over the hedge, and away they run all: so did the sheepish cowardly Persians before Alexander.

Which had two horns.] These were the states of Medea and Persia.

But one was higher than the other,] i.e., The Persians at length became higher than the Medes, and overtopped them.

And the higher came up last.] Cyrus after Darius, uniting both nations into one monarchy.

Ver. 4. And I saw the ram pushing westward, &c.] Hereby are set forth the Persian wars, and especially those waged by Cyrus, who subdued many nations and grew very great, as did also his successors, but especially Darius Hystaspes.

Neither was there any.] None could resist his rage, nor escape his reach.

Ver. 5. And as I was considering.] Such as are studious shall see more of God’s mind. {#Re 1:12}

Behold, an he-goat came from the west,] i.e., From Greece and Macedon, west from Persia. This goat, more nimble, swift, and potent than a ram, was the Grecian monarch Alexander, who came capering and prancing over the whole earth—that is, over the whole Persian monarchy, and more—setting fire on all Asia, as the magicians foretold he would do, as being born the same day that Diana’s temple at Ephesus was set on fire. This Alexander the Great was Dux gregis ipse caper, of all whose victories we have here a notable abridgement, more like a history than a prophecy. The high-priest Jaddus is said {a} to have shown it to Alexander in his march against Darius Codomannus, the last king of Persia, who thereby, much encouraged in his enterprise, bestowed upon the Jews many favours and freedoms.

And touched not the ground.] Alexander was notably nimble, thinking nothing too hard for him to achieve, and slipping no opportunity. When he was to encounter with Darius’s army at Granicum, Parmenion persuaded him to stay till the next day, but he would not, neither was success wanting. With wonderful celerity, in six years’ time, he overrun so great a part of the habitable world, that he might rather seem to fly than to march. Apelles pictured Alexander with a thunderbolt, signifying his great swiftness in his exploits.

And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.] This notable horn is Alexander, founder of the Grecian monarchy. The Macedonians were at that time called Aegeades -i.e., goatish; the, occasion whereof see in Justin, lib. vii. Alexander is here fitly called Hircus caprarum, a he-goat, {b} or the horn of sight, between the eyes of that goat—a fit emblem of a good prince, whose virtues are conspicuous as a horn is, who defendeth his people and offendeth their enemies; who, like this horn rising up between the eyes, is circumspect and well advised, doing all with counsel. {#Pr 24:6} Alexander had his father Philip’s counsellors about him, who were excellent in wisdom beyond any that came after them in the same empire.

{a} Josephus.

{b} Sic Darius dicitur Aiil -i.e., Aries Persiae, Hebraice et Chaldaice, Elam.

Ver. 6. And he came to the ram that had two horns.] He came. This may betoken the slower preparations of Philip, king of Macedonia.

And ran unto him.] Alexander did, by quick and furious marches.

“ Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agendam

Fertur atrox.’’—De Cas. Lucan,

Ver. 7. And I saw him come close unto the ram.] Who stood for a while in his stoutness, and brought several huge armies into the field—not less than fifteen hundred thousand—but all would not do; the fairest states are subject to change in their greatest flourish. {#Eze 31:18}

“ In se magna ruunt.; laetis hunc numina rebus

Crescendi posuere modum.’’—Lucan.

And he was moved with choler against him.] Neither would he be pacified with promise of great gifts, and of part of the kingdom, and the marriage of his daughter.

And smote the ram.] By overthrowing the Persian armies in three main battles—at Granicum, at Issus, and at Arbela, not far from which is the mountain Nicatorium, {a} so called by Alexander, as a constant trophy of that famous victory.

And there was no power in the ram to stand before him.] In that last battle at Arbela, the whole power of Persia was overturned, and Darius Codomannus was slain by Bessus, one of his own captains. It is observed that great kingdoms often fall and are destroyed under such kings as are of the same name with the founders thereof. Darius here, for instance; so Philip of Macedon, and Philip the father of Perseus, the last king of that country; so Constantine the Great, and Constantine Palaeologus; Augustus and Augustulus, &c.

And stamped upon him,] i.e., After full conquest, he crowed, insulted, triumphed; at the instance of his concubine Thais, he caused the most goodly palace in the world at Persepolis to be set on fire.

{a} Νικατοριον ορος.—Strabo.

Ver. 8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great.] The Greeks became lords of all; their emperor was Et re et nomine magnus, not called great for nought; he began to take upon him as a god, and would be counted son to Jupiter Hammon; he called for divine honours, and slew Callisthenes, his tutor, because he would not yield thereto. This intolerable pride was a sure forerunner of his fall; his heart swelled so fast that the case could no longer hold it, but cracked. The world was a cage or little ease to him, therefore is he soon turned out of it, and of heaven’s darling made the disdain of all. {a}

And when he was strong, the great horn was broken.] Surfeiting and drunkenness cast him into a fever, whereof he died in the flower of his youth and height of his enjoyments—such is the instability of earthly monarchs’ worldly glory:

“ Magna repente raunt, summa cadunt subito.”

Being not unlike those flores horae, flowers of the hour, very pleasant for the time, but dead and withdrawn in a trice. The vanities of this life, saith one, {b} at our most need, and when we least think, quite forsake us, leaving even them that most sought after them, and most abounded in them, shrouded often times in the sheet of dishonour and shame. Great Alexander lay unburied thirty days together; his conquests above ground purchased him no title for habitation under ground. The like befell Pompey the Great, our William the Conqueror, and others of the like reputation.

And for it came up four notable horns,] i.e., Four potent princes, out of the shipwreck of his empire; which four, in process of time, came to two. {#Da 11:5,6}

{a} Alexander orbi magnus, Alexandro orbis angustus est. -Seneca, Athenaeus.

{b} Turkish History, 331.

Ver. 9. And out of one of them.] Out of the posterity of Seleucus, king of Syria.

Came forth a little horn.] This was Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, illustrious; Polybius called him Epimanes, the madman. He is here called a "little horn," because he was vile and base from the very first to the last of him; indeed, he was born a prince, but without a kingdom, a mere nullatenensis, till he became a usurper. He was sent for a hostage to Rome by his father, Antiochus the Great, whom the Romans had cudgelled into a treaty, taking away from him the best part of his kingdom. After his father’s death, he stole away from Rome and seized upon the kingdom of Syria, casting out of it his nephew Demetrius, who was the rightful heir. Afterwards he got into his hands also the kingdom of Egypt, under colour of protector to his young nephew, Ptolemy Philometor; and being therehence discharged by the Romans, and made to answer Parebo, I will be gone, he went thence in a rage, and like a madman wreaked his teem, as we say, upon the poor Jews, playing the devil among them.

Toward the south,] i.e., Egypt,

And toward the east.] Persia, which he also conquered.

And toward the pleasant land,] i.e., Judea, called here Decus Capreolus, the delectable and desirable country, by reason of its great prerogatives. So #Eze 20:6 Ps 48:2.

Ver. 10. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven.] Or, Against the host of heaven, so the Church militant is called. The saints are the world’s great luminaries, yea, the only earthly angels, although wicked people count and call them the "filth and offscouring of all things."

And of the stars.] Such as shone in the light of holy doctrine; {#Re 1:10} persecutors’ spite is specially against such. {#Zec 13:7}

Ver. 11. Yea, he magnified himself.] He extolled or extended himself, such was his insolence.

Even to (or against) the prince of the host.] Christ, the captain of his people’s sufferings, and of their salvation. {#Heb 2:10} He bare a hostile spirit against the God of the Jews—such a hell hound hardly ever was born—casting him out of his place, and setting up in his room Jupiter Olympus—that is, the devil; he defaced also and burned up the books of the law, all he could light on. {#/RAPC 1Ma 1:54-59}

Ver. 12. And an host was given him.] Or, The host was given over, for the transgression against the daily sacrifice. The Jews were grown to a great height of profaneness, even in Malachi’s days, as is to be seen #Mal 1:1-3:15, and by this time, doubtless, they were become much worse; God therefore, for punishment, turned this tiger loose upon them.

And it cast down the truth to the ground.] The doctrine of truth, together with the professors thereof. The like whereunto is still done by the Romish antichrist, to whom some apply all this part of the chapter as the proper and genuine sense of the text. See the visions and prophecies of Daniel expounded by Mr Thomas Parker of Newbery, in New England, pp. 43, 44, &c.

And it practised, and prospered.] Wicked practices against religion may prosper for the time. {#Ac 12:1-3} It was therefore no good argument that the Earl of Derby used to George Marsh, martyr, telling him that the Dukes of Northumberland and of Suffolk, and other of the new persuasion, had ill luck, and were either put to death, or in danger so to be. And again, he rehearsed unto him the good hap of the queen’s highness, and of those that held with her, and said that the Duke of Northumberland confessed so plainly. {a}

{a} Acts and Mon., 1421.

Ver. 13. And I heard one saint speaking,] i.e., One holy angel; for they are solicitous of God’s glory, and sensitive to the saints’ sufferings, whereof they would have a speedy end. And should not we be so too, weeping with those that weep, and rejoicing with those that rejoice?

And another saint said unto that certain saint which spake.] Anonymo illi qui loquebatur, so Piscator rendereth it; others, To the wonderful numberer who spake—i.e., who commanded Gabriel to declare the vision to Daniel. {#Da 8:16} This was Jesus Christ, the Wisdom and Word of God. He who knoweth all the secrets of his Father as perfectly as if they were numbered before him.

How long shall be the vision.] It appeareth, then, that angels know not all secrets, but that their knowledge is limited; they know not so much, but they would know more. {#Eph 3:10 1Pe 1:12}

Concerning the daily sacrifice.] The loss whereof was a just matter of lamentation to godly minds. See #Zep 3:18.

And the transgression of desolation.] Transgression is a land desolating evil. {#La 1:9}

And the host to be trodden under foot,] i.e., The professors of the truth were overturned; some by persuasion, others by persecution.

Ver. 14. And he said unto me.] Not to the angel, but to me, who should have proposed the question; the holy angel did it for me.

Unto two thousand and three hundred days.] Heb., To the evening and morning two thousand and three hundred—i.e., to so many natural days consisting of twenty-four hours, which in all do make up six years, three months, and twenty days. This point of skill Daniel here learneth of the wonderful numberer Christ, who hath all secrets in numerato, and will put a timely period to his people’s afflictions. Not full seven years did they suffer here, much less seventy, as once in Babylon. How he moderateth the matter., see on #Re 2:10; how this prophecy was fulfilled, see #/RAPC 1Ma 1:12-14 2Ma 4:12-16 cf. 1Ma 4:52-45.

Ver. 15. And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel.] Not another, as that black-mouthed Porphyry {a} slanderously affirmed, that not the prophet Daniel saw and uttered these prophecies so long before they happened, but another who lived after the reign of Antiochus wrote a history of things past, and entitled it falsely to Daniel, as a prophecy of things to come. Os durum! Harsh mouth.

Then, behold, there stood before me.] They who seriously and sedulously seek after divine knowledge, shall find means to attain unto it. {#Re 13:1}

{a} Porphyry, Cont. Christian, lib. xii.; Jerome.

Ver. 16. And I heard a man’s voice.] This was the man Christ Jesus, the great doctor of his Church, and commander of angels, viro similis, quia incarnandus.

Make this man to understand.] Angels and ministers make men to understand secrets, "give the knowledge of salvation to God’s people," {#Lu 1:77} not by infusion, but by instruction.

Ver. 17. So he came near where I stood.] Let our obedience be like that of the angels, prompt and present.

I was afraid.] Through human frailty and conscience of sin.

Understand, O son of man.] Ezekiel and Daniel only of all the prophets are so called; haply lest they should be "exalted above measure with the abundance of the revelations."

For at the time of the end shall be the vision,] i.e., That this vision of the daily sacrifice intermitted for so many years, and the abomination of desolation, the picture of Jupiter Olympus, set up in the sanctuary, shall be toward the end of the Greek monarchy.

Ver. 18. I was in a deep sleep.] In a prophetic ecstasy or trance, wherein I was laid up fast, losing for the time all manner of action and motion, that my soul might be more free to receive divine revelations.

But he touched me, and set me upright.] Heb., Made me stand upon my standing, who was yet all the while in a deep sleep. The touch of the angel kept him from reeling to and fro, and made him stand firmly.

Ver. 19. In the last end of the indignation.] In the final end of the Greek persecution, which shall not pass the Lord’s appointed time.

Ver. 20. The ram which thou sawest.] See #Da 8:3.

Ver. 21. And the rough goat.] Hirtus hircus. See on #Da 8:5.

Ver. 22. Now that being broken.] See #Da 8:8.

Ver. 23. And in the latter time of their kingdom.] In the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Greek monarchy.

When the transgressors are come to the full.] Heb., Are accomplished; when the Jews are grown stark naught. This was the reason why God set over them such a breathing devil, as was Antiochus, for a punishment of their open impiety and formal apostasy. When Phocas the traitor had slain Mauritius the emperor, there was an honest poor man, saith Cedrenus, who was earnest with God in prayer to know why that wicked man so prospered in his design; to whom answer was returned by a voice, that there could not be a worse man found and that the sins of Christians and of Constantinople did require it.

A king of fierce countenanoe.] Heb., Hard of face—that is, brazen faced, impudent, and withal acute, subtle ( acutus et astutus), and of a deep reach. Antiochus, Julian, the Duke of Alva, were such.

Ver. 24. Not by his own power.] But by his policy rather, and by the perfidy of others. {#Da 11:23}

And he shall destroy wonderfully.] Mirificentissime. In three days he slew fourscore thousand in Jerusalem; forty thousand were put in bands, and as many sold.

And shall prosper, and practice.] Shall do whatsoever he wishes; as if he were some petty god within himself.

And shall destroy the mighty.] So the Jews are called, because stout and undaunted, and while they kept close to God, insuperable; as when otherwise, weak as water. See #Ho 13:1. {See Trapp on "Ho 13:1"}

And the holy people.] Federally holy at least.

Ver. 25. And through his policy also.] Incumbens intelligentiae suae, leaning on his own wit, Versutulus et versatilis, and that great elixir called reason of state, which can make, for a need,

“ Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra.”

And by peace shall destroy many.] Undo them by promises of prosperity and preferment, which are dangerous baits; {#Mr 4:9} "they were sawn asunder, they were tempted." {#Heb 11:37} Julian the apostate went this way to work, and prevailed to make many apostates.

He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.] God Almighty, by destroying the daily sacrifices, and by setting up idolatry in the temple.

But he shall be broken without hand,] i.e., By the visible vengeance of God, {#/RAPC 1Ma 6:8-13 2Ma 9:5-11} who laid upon him a loathsome disease ( Tetro morbo), and wrapped him up in the sheet of shame.

Ver. 26. And the vision of the evening.] See #Da 8:14. Lyra by the "morning" would have understood the time of Antiochus; by the "evening" the time of antichrist, who was prefigured by Antiochus.

Is true.] Heb., Truth, and so plain that I need say no more of it.

Wherefore shut thou up the vision.] Keep it to thyself in sacred silence, and reserve it in writing for posterity. See #Da 12:4-9 Isa 8:16.

For it shall be for many days,] i.e., For about three hundred years hence. The Lord would have visions concealed till toward the accomplishment.

Ver. 27. And I Daniel fainted, and was sick.] So deeply affected was he with the vision, and should we be with the word preached; it should work upon our very bowels, and go to the hearts of us. {#Jer 4:19 Ac 2:37}

Afterwards I rose up, and did the king’s business.] viz., King Belshazzar’s, with whom, though he was out of grace, yet not out of office under him, and will not therefore be indiligent. Malo mihi male esse, quam molliter, {a} Let us not neglect the work of the Lord, though less able to perform it. A sick child’s service is doubly accepted.

But none understood it.] Daniel disguised his sorrow for Zion before scorners. {#Es 5:1} Taciturnity is no contemptible virtue.

{a} Seneca.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. In the first year of Darius,] i.e., Of Darius Priseus, who, together with Cyrus the Persian, took Babylon, and with it the kingdom or monarchy of the Chaldeans, {#Da 5:31} by the consent of Cyrus, who married his daughter, and had the kingdom of Media with her for a dowry, after Darius’ death, as Xenophon {a} testifieth.

The son of Ahasuerus.] Called Cyaxares by the Greek historians. Both these names signify a great prince, an emperor; like as now we say the Great Turk, the Great Cham of Cacaia, &c.

{a} Cyrop., lib. viii.

Ver. 2. I Daniel understood by books.] Consideravi in libris. Daniel was a great student in the Scriptures, and well knew that there was no readier way to speed in heaven than by putting the promises in suit. The like also was done by Jacob; {#Ge 32:9,12} {See Trapp on "Ge 32:9"} {See Trapp on "Ge 32:12"} {#2Sa 7:19,25} by Eliah, {#1Ki 18:42-44} and others. If we speak in our prayers no otherwise than the Lord doth in his promises, there shall be a sweet concert of voice, begun by the Spirit in the promises, seconded in the spirit of faith by the saints’ prayers, and answered by God in his gracious providences. Daniel here took this course; and had not only what he begged, but a revelation concerning the Lord Christ beyond expectation.

Ver. 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God,] i.e., Toward the habitation of his holiness at Jerusalem, but especially in heaven. I looked up unto the hills from whence I looked for help. This Daniel did daily, {#Da 6:10} but now with more than ordinary intention and devotion he presenteth δεησις ενεργουμενη, an inwrought prayer (as St James calleth it, #Jas 5:16), edged with fasting and downright humiliation. He doubteth not thereby to set God to work, as David did {#Ps 119:126} He knew that a long look toward God speedeth, {#Ps 34:4,5 Jon 2:4 7} how much more an extraordinary prayer!

Ver. 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession.] The saints themselves, when they sin against God, are suspended from the covenant; hence it is their custom when they seek the Lord for any special mercy, to begin with humble confessions, as doth David, Ezra, Daniel.

O Lord, the great and dreadful God.] It is good in the beginnings of our prayers to propound God to ourselves under such attributes and spiritual notions as wherein we may see the very thing we pray for. Haec est ars orandi et mendicandi.

Ver. 5. We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled.] Mark how full in the mouth the good prophet is, and how he exaggerateth, confessing against himself and his people, laying on load. Good men extenuate not their offences; every sin swelleth as a toad in their eyes.

Ver. 6. Neither have we hearkened.] Sins of omission are in a special manner to be lamented in prayer; {#Jer 9:1,10,13} for as omission of diet breedeth diseases, so of duties.

Ver. 7. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.] Let God be justified in all his judgments; say of him as in #De 32:4; -"A God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he."

But unto us confusion of faces] {a} While we look upon flagitia aeque ac flagella nostra, our sins and miseries, we cannot but blush and bleed before thee.

{a} Deo da claritatem, tibi humilitatem. -Aug.

Ver. 8. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face.] The same again is acknowledged, not without a special emphasis, q.d., We are extremely abashed and abased to the utmost.

Ver. 9. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses.] Matchless mercies, pardons ready prepared for poor penitents, not for proud Pharisees, such as Bellarmine was, if at least it be true that is reported of him, that when the priest came to absolve him, he could not remember any particular sin to confess, till he went back in his thoughts as far as his youth. Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili, saith an ancient: Woe to the best, unless they may find mercy with the Lord. And Fuligat telleth us that Bellarmine, when he came to die indeed, begged of God to reckon him among his saints, non aestimator meriti, sed veniae largitor, not weighing his merits, but pardoning his offences.

Ver. 10. Neither have we obeyed.] See on #Da 9:6.

The voice of the Lord our God] It is the Lord who speaketh in and by his ministers. This because men either know not or weigh not, they run another way when God calleth to them, as young Samuel did. {#1Sa 3:5}

Ver. 11. Yea, all Israel.] There is a general defection; the whole body of Israel hath deeply revolted, a rabble of rebels have taken up arms against heaven, even a giant-like generation.

Therefore the curse.] Confirmed by oath, by adjuration, and execration.

Is poured upon us.] As by whole pailfuls. The Vulgate hath it, Stillavit super nos maledictio, The curse hath dropped upon us. There may be much poison in little drops howsoever.

Because we have sinned against him.] This he hath never done with, but still holdeth his finger on this sore, as his greatest grievance.

Ver. 12. And he hath confirmed his words.] What he had spoken with his mouth he hath fulfilled with his hand. There is an infallibility, as in God’s promises, so in his menaces.

And against our judges.] By whose remissness all was out of order; hence they smarted before and above others.

For under the whole heaven.] This verse is an abridgment of Jeremiah’s Lamentations.

Ver. 13. All this evil is come upon us.] But unless God set in and sanctify, his hammers (afflictions) do but beat upon cold iron. {#Jer 2:30}

Yet made we not our prayer.] Little or no right prayer was made by the captives all those seventy years (and yet they had their set yearly fasts, #Zec 7:1-5), because they failed therein both quoad fontem et quoad finem. {See Trapp on "Zec 7:5"}

That we might turn from our iniquities.] This they had no mind to, therefore they lost those prayers they made; they fasted to themselves and not to God (#Zec 7:5. See on #Joh 3:10).

And understand thy truth.] Those that turn from their iniquities shall know more of God’s truth. The pure in heart shall see God. {#Mt 5:8}

Ver. 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil.] To bring it at the just time, and when it might do us most mischief, but all in a way of justice, {#Isa 31:2} as Daniel acknowledgeth in the next words.

For the Lord our God is righteous.] See #Da 9:7.

For we obeyed not his voice.] Neither that of his word nor that of his rod. {#Jer 31:19 Mic 6:9 Isa 9:13,14}

Ver. 15. And now, O Lord God, that hast brought thy people.] Thanksgiving is an artificial begging; and every former mercy is a pledge of a future. {#2Ch 20:10 7:12}

And hast gotten thee renown.] Heb., Made thee a name, and yet a greater name hast promised to make thee by bringing us back from Babylon. {#Jer 16:15}

We have sinned, we have done wickedly.] Such as desire mercies, must first deny their worthiness of them, {#2Sa 5:18} confessing their sins with utmost aggravation.

Ver. 16. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness.] Not that of equity, but the other of fidelity. {#1Jo 1:9}

Thy holy mountain.] So Jerusalem is called, because dedicated to the Holy One; who also chose it for the seat of his royal resiance, the place of his holy oracle.

Thy people are a reproach.] And this reflecteth upon thee, as needs it must, since they do quarter arms with thee.

Ver. 17. Now therefore, O our God.] Since thou hast shown us our sins, and seen our reproach, whereof we are sure thou art very sensible. {#Ps 79:4}

Hear the prayer of thy servant.] Who assumeth the boldness to plead his interest in thee, and his relation to thee.

And his supplications.] Which are nothing else but prayers redoubled and reinforced, {as #Ge 32:11 Isa 63:16}

And cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary.] Do it, oh do it now; for "the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time is come." And this I can tell, because "thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof." {#Ps 102:13,14; see the notes there} That whole psalm, being "A prayer for the afflicted," may seem ta have been made by this prophet Daniel.

For the Lord’s sake,] i.e., For thine own sake, or for thy Son Christ’s sake, the mediator and advocate of his people: for so he was in the Old Testament also, {#Heb 9:15} like as still he is the high priest of the New. And while the people were praying outside, the priest was offering incense within the temple, {#Lu 1:9,10} so is Christ interceding for us while we are praying. "Whatsoever therefore ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." {#Col 3:17}

Ver. 18. O my God, incline thine ear and hear; open thine eyes, and behold, &c.] Thus growing to a conclusion of his prayer he prays more earnestly: he stretcheth out his petitions, as it were, εκτενης, upon the tenters, with those good souls in #Ac 12:5; he stirreth up himself and taketh better hold, as resolved not to let him go without the blessing. The like, before him, did good Hezekiah, with whom he concurreth in the very letter of his request. {#Isa 37:17} {See Trapp on "Isa 37:17"}

For our own righteousnesses.] Which are nothing better than a rotten rag, a menstruous clout, such as a man would not deign to take up or touch.

But for thy great mercies.] Through the merits of the promised Messiah.

Ver. 19. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive.] This was to pray, yea, this was to strive in prayer; {#Lu 13:12} to strive, as those of old did, in the Grecian exercises, some whereof were with fists and bats; to strive and struggle, even to an agony, as the Greek word signifieth, and as the Lord Christ did, who, "being in an agony, prayed yet the more earnestly"; {εκτενεστερον, #Lu 22:44} he sweat and sweltered out, as it were, his soul, through his body in prayer. Be we now "followers herein of Christ as dear children," and of Daniel here, who is a worthy pattern to pray by. Cold suitors, who want the aspiration of the spirit to pronounce Shibboleth, do but beg a denial.

O Lord, hearken and do; defer not.] This is coelum tundere, preces fundere, misericordiam extorquere, {a} as those primitive Christians did; to bounce at heaven gates, to tug hard with God, to wring the blessing out of his hands, who looks to be importuned, and counts it for a kindness to be asked forgiveness, as Ambrose {b} saith of Theodosius the emperor.

{a} Tertul.

{b} Beneficium se putabit accepisse, cum rogaretur ignoscere. -Ambr., Orat. de Exit. Theod.

Ver. 20. And whilst I was speaking and praying.] When, haply, I had now new done; and yet not so done but that my heart was yet lifting and lifting, as a bell rope is oft hoising up after men have done ringing the bell.

And confessing my sins.] So precious a saint was not without his sins. These therefore he confesseth, that he might be the fitter to beg mercy for the Church; having first made his own peace with God, and so in case to lift up "pure hands" in prayer. The like doth David. {#Ps 26:6 51:7}

For the holy mountain of my God.] This was his main request, and to God marvellously acceptable. Surely if the Lord saw us, Daniel-like studying his share more than our own, we might have what we would, and God even think himself beholden to us, as one phraseth it.

Ver. 21. Yea; whilst I was speaking in prayer.] This he recogniseth and celebrateth as a sweet and singular mercy. God sometimes heareth his people before they pray; {#Isa 65:24 Ps 21:3} David was sure up early when he anticipated the Lord with his prayer; {#Ps 88:13 119:147} sometimes while they are praying, as he did those in #Ac 4:31 12:5,17, and Luther, who came leaping oat of his study, where he had been praying, with Vicimus, Vicimus, in his mouth that is, we have gained the day, got the conquest; but if not so, yet certainly when they have now prayed. {#Isa 30:12 Jon 2:1 Jer 33:3 Mt 6:7} Luther {a} affirmeth that he often got more spiritual light by some one ardent prayer than ever he could do by the reading of many books, or by most accurate meditation thereupon.

Even the man Gabriel,] i.e., The angel Gabriel in man’s shape.

Whom I had seen in the vision.] And whom I had good cause to remember the longest day of my life for the good offices he had done me formerly.

Being caused to fly swiftly.] Heb., With weariness of flight. Not that the angels flee as fowls—though a certain friar, a liar certainly, undertook to show to the people a feather of the angel Gabriel’s wings—or that they are ever wearied with speeding God’s commissions and commands for the Church’s good; Sed datur hoc assumptae speciei, but these things are spoken to our apprehension. According to the account of astronomers, it must be above a hundred and sixty millions of miles from heaven to earth. All this space the angel came flying to Daniel in a little time.

Touched me.] With a familiar touch, in token of encouragement; prensando mimirum, ut solent qui contactu familiari promptam benevolamque mentem indicant.

About the time of the evening oblation.] When the joint prayers of God’s people were wont to come up before him, quasi manu facta; and Daniel hopeth they may do so again. Qui nihil sperat, nihil orat. He who hopes for nothing, asks for nothing.

{a} Ipse ego in una aliqua ardenti oratione mea plura saepe didici quam ex multorum librorum lectione aut accuratissima meditatione consequi potuissem. -Tom. i.

Ver. 22. And he informed me, and talked with me.] Rather than the saints shall want information and comfort, God will spare one out of his own train to do them any good office; {#Lu 1:19 Ga 3:19} neither will the greatest angel in heaven grudge to serve them.

I am now come forth to give thee skill.] Not by infusion, for so the Holy Ghost only, but by instruction, as was before noted. It is well observed by one, that this following oration of the angel containeth an abridgment of the New Testament, and a light to the Old; for confirming Daniel, as touching the ensuing deliverance out of Babylon’s captivity, he further advertiseth and assureth him of the spiritual deliverance which Christ shall effect by his gospel at his coming; and therefore, describing the times most accurately, he plainly setteth forth the salvation of the Church Christian, and the destruction of the stubborn and rebellious Jews, who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life.

Ver. 23. At the beginning of thy supplications.] Thy prayer was scarce in thy mouth ere it was in God’s ear. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. {#Ps 34:15} {See Trapp on "Ps 34:15"} He heard at the very first, but answered not till Daniel had tugged with him. See #Jas 5:16,17.

For thou art greatly beloved.] {a} Kimchi readeth it, A man of measures, a man every inch of thee. But the word is not Hamiddoth, but Chamudoth, ‘a man of desires,’ a favourite in heaven, because desirous of things truly desirable. {b} Christ is said to be totus totas desiderabilis, lovely all over. {#So 5:16} The saints are also so in their measure, as on the contrary the wicked are not desired, {#Zep 2:1} but loathed and abhorred. {#Pr 13:5}

Therefore understand the matter.] Good men shall know God’s secrets. {#Ge 18:17,19 Ps 25:14}

{a} Desideratissimus es. -Trem.

{b} Rerum expetendarum cupidus. -Vatab.

Ver. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people,] i.e., Seventy weeks of years; ten jubilees, which make up four hundred and ninety years. Thus the very time is here particularly foretold when the Messiah should be revealed and put to death. The like hereunto is not to be found in any other of the prophets, as Jerome well observeth. This, therefore, is a noble prophecy, and many great wits have been exercised about it. Cornelius a Lapide speaketh of one learned gentleman who ran out of his wits, after many years’ study upon it. The doctors are much divided about the beginning and ending of these seventy weeks. "From the outgoing of the word," {#Da 9:25} seemeth to me to fix the beginning of these weeks on Cyrus’s decree concerning the holy city and the temple to be rebuilding. The end and period of them must he at the death of Christ, though some will have it at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. I choose rather thus to compute than to dispute. It is well observed by the learned that the Jews, after their seventy years’ captivity, have seven seventies of years granted for the enjoying of their own country (God’s mercies bear the same proportion to his punishments which seven—a complete number—have to n unit), besides the mercy of mercies, the grace of the Messiah.

Upon thy people.] Of whose welfare thou art so solicitous and inquisitive.

To finish the transgression.] Transgressionem illam; that great transgression of our first parents in paradise; that whereby sin entered into the world, and death by sin. {#Ro 5:12} Now Christ, by his death, took away the power, and destroyed the dominion of all sin. {#Ro 6:11,12}

And to make an end of sins.] Heb., To seal up sins, that they come not into God’s sight against us, ever to be charged upon us. A metaphor, say some, from the Jews’ manner of writing in rolls, which, being wrapped up, and sealed on the backside, all the writing was covered.

And to make reconciliation for iniqulty,] viz., By the expiatory and propitiatory sacrifice of himself for his elect, whereby the divine justice is fully satisfied.

And to bring in everlasting righteousness.] Those "righteousnesses of the saints," {#Re 19:8} both imputed and imparted righteousness, called here "everlasting," as that which shall make the saints accepted of God for ever, never can be lost as Adam’s was.

And to seal up the vision and prophecy,] i.e., To fulfil all the prophetic predictions concerning the life and death of the Lord Christ.

And to anoint the most holy.] This was done when Christ was baptized, say some; but others better, when he ascended into heaven, consecrating it to the service of God therein to be performed by the elect throughout all eternity; like as Moses once consecrated the most holy place to the ceremonial service there to be performed by the high priest.

Ver. 25. Know, therefore, and understand.] See on #Da 9:24. Here the angel brancheth the whole seventy sevens into three heads, or into three distinct periods of time.

Shall be seven weeks.] Which make forty-nine years. These the angel purposely speaketh of apart, because they chiefly concerned the reparation of the city made under the Persian monarchy. Within this first seven weeks, or forty-nine years, the street of Jerusalem was rebuilt, and the wall with trench, though the times proved troublous, and full of straits.

And threescore and two weeks.] Which make four hundred thirty-four years, the events of which are mentioned {#Da 9:26} as those of the seven years following, {#Da 9:27} out of which it might easily be supplied, and is therefore here omitted by the angel.

Ver. 26. And after threescore and two weeks.] See on #Da 9:25. Within these threescore and two weeks befell the Jews many memorable things, as may be seen in #Da 8 Da 11.

Shall Messiah be cut off.] Excindetur, not abscindetur, cut off—that is, by wicked hands crucified and slain; {#Ac 2:23} not only cast out of the synagogue, and excommunicated, as that malicious Rabbi read and sensed this text. Others of the Jewish doctors, by the evidence of these words, have been compelled to confess that Messiah is already come, and that he was that Jesus whom their forefathers crucified. See for this R. Samuel’s Epistle to R. Isaak, set down at large by Dionys. Carthus. in his commentary on this text. See also R. Osea’s lamentation for this inexpiable guilt of the Jewish nation, recorded by Galatinus, lib. iv. cap. 18. Polanus reporteth that he, living some time in Moravia, where he used the help of some Rabbis for the understanding of the Hebrew tongue, heard them say, that for this ninth chapter’s sake, they acknowledged not Daniel to be authentic, and therefore read it not among the people, lest hereby they should be turned to Christ, finding out how they had been by them deceived.

But not for himself,] i.e., Not for any fault of his, nor yet for any good to himself, but to mankind; whence some render these words, Et non sibi vel nihil ei, There being nothing therein for him: others, When he shall have nothing, i.e., nothing more to do at Jerusalem, but shall utterly relinquish it, and call his people out of it to Pella, &c.

And the people of the prince that shall come,] i.e., Titus’s soldiers, whose rage he himself could not repress, but they would needs burn down the temple, which he would fain have preserved, as one of the world’s wonders. {a} Messiah the prince had a hand in it doubtless, whence also those Roman forces are called his armies. {#Mt 22:7}

Shall destroy the city.] That slaughter house of the saints.

And the sanctuary.] That den of thieves.

And the end thereof shall be with a flood,] i.e., Their extirpation shall be sudden, universal, irresistible, as was Noah’s flood. How this was fulfilled, see Josephus, Hegesippus, Eusebius, &c.

And unto the end of the war, &c.] The Romans shall have somewhat to do; but after tedious wars, they shall effect it.

{a} Joseph.

Ver. 27. And he (Messiah) shall confirm the covenant {see #Da 9:24} with many.] Heb., With his Rabbis, that is, with his elect. Compare #Isa 53:11 Job 32:9 Jer 41:2.

For one week,] i.e., In the last seven years of the seventy.

And in the midst of the week,] i.e., In three years and a half he shall, by his passion, disannul the Jewish sacrifices and services.

And for the overspreading (or wing) of abominations,] i.e., For the abominable outrages committed by the seditious Jews, those zealots, as they called themselves, who filled the temple with dead bodies. Others, from #Mt 24:15,16 cf. Lu 20:20,21, think the Romans to be meant, who set up their eagles (their ensigns) in the temple, together with the images, first of Caligula, and then of Titus, their emperors.

Even until the consummation.] Until the end, and to the utmost. The Jews have often attempted, but could never yet recover their country, nor are like to do. Perpetua et consummatissima consumptione urgentur.

Shall be poured.] As if the windows of heaven were opened, as once they were at the flood. See #Da 9:26.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia.]. This whole chapter is but a preface to the ensuing prophecy, or visional prediction, recorded in the two following chapters. It beginneth at the third year of Cyrus’s empire, and reacheth till the time of the Jews rising from the dust of their dispersion, say some; to the end of the world, say others, with whom I concur.

A thing was revealed unto Daniel.] Who now must needs be very old, yet at those years (a hundred or more) gave himself to understand and search into divine secrets. The more any one knoweth of God, the more he would still know. Moses, newly come from the mount, crieth to God to show him his glory. David, that gulf of holy learning, is often at his, Teach me thy statutes, &c.

And the thing was true,] i.e., Plain and proper; not, as former visions, figurative and obscure.

But the time appointed was long,] scil., Till all be fulfilled, which will not be till the last judgment.

And he understood the thing.] And so was the better able to propound it to the Church; for what a man doth not himself understand, he cannot well and fitly deliver to others.

And had understood the vision,] scil., Given unto him; for unless God give us both sight and light, we perceive not heavenly doctrine, neither indeed can do.

Ver. 2. In those days I Daniel was mourning.] Though a great man still, and in great account, yet not now so great at court as to hinder and defeat the malicious designs of Cambyses’s counsellors; who, being bribed by the Jews’ adversaries, put a stop to the temple work at Jerusalem. {#Ezr 4:1-4} This disaster cast good Daniel into his dumps, so that he fasted three full weeks, a tanto et tali, sed non a toto, and longer might, had not the angel taken him off by an answer of peace. {#Da 10:12} Abstinet ab omni cura cultuque corporis, sua sponte. See the like, #1Sa 31:13.

Three full weeks.] Heb., Weeks of days, to distinguish them from those seventy weeks of years. {#Da 9:24}

Ver. 3. I ate no pleasant bread.] Bread he ate, for animantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, life will fail if not maintained by food, but coarse bread panem cibarium, atrum, et siligineum, and no more of that either than needs must. He voluntarily abridged himself of lawful delights, macerating and mortifying his flesh, that he might communicate with his poor afflicted brethren, and pray the harder for them. Fasting inflameth prayer, and prayer sanctifieth fasting.

Neither did I anoint myself at all.] All delights of sense must be laid aside in a time of solemn humiliation, but yet without annoyance and uncomeliness, as music, mirth, perfumes, brave apparel; {#2Sa 12:20 Joh 3:8 Ex 33:4-6 1Ki 21:27} cheerfulness, outward joy, and pleasure (#Mr 2:20 Lu 5:35 cf. Mt 9:15 Jud 20:26 1Sa 7:6). It is spoken of as a foul sin; #Isa 58:3, "Behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure."

Ver. 4. And on the four and twentieth of the first month.] The day is thus noted, because the matters here revealed were most memorable.

As I was by the side of the great river.] Meditating likely, because the city was full of noise and tumult, and praying. {as #Ac 16:13} Broughton giveth this reason, because Seleucus Nicator, founder of the Seleucidae, much spoken of in the ensuing vision, built his chief city upon this river.

Which is Hiddekel,] i.e., Sharp swift; called also Tigris, from the swiftest of all beasts, the tiger; but Curtius and Pliny {a} say, that Tigris in the Median language signifieth an arrow. Here Daniel was personally present, and not visionally only. See #Da 10:7.

{a} Plin, lib. vi. cap. 7.

Ver. 5. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked,] viz., After my long fasting, praying, and meditating. So Moses and Elias, those great fasters, met together with our Saviour gloriously in the mount at his transfiguration. It is abstinence, not fulness, that makes a man capable of heavenly visions of divine glory.

Behold a certain man.] Heb., One man; a singular man, a glorious person; Messias the prince, described here by his habit and parts as a judge, say some, or as a priest, say others. See #Da 12:6,7 Re 1:13-15 10:5.

Clothed in linen.] To show his innocence and purity, as also his righteousnesses, imputed and imparted, wherewith he clotheth his saints, {#Re 19:8} that fine white linen and shining.

Whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz.] Or, Of Ophir; Peru, haply, or Malaca, or Sopbala. This golden girdle about his loins denoteth Christ’s strength and alacrity. {#Ps 93:1 Lu 17:8}

Ver. 6. His body also was like the beryl.] Of an azure colour, like the heavens. The "second Adam is the Lord from heaven." {#1Co 15:47} Some render it the chrysolite, which is of the colour of the sea; to note, say they, his power to purge the Church by his Word, Spirit, and judgments, as by the water of the sea.

And his face as the appearance of lightning.] Which both shineth and terrifieth, and soon appeareth from the one end of the heaven to the other; {#Mt 24:27} Christ suddenly discovereth all things though never so remote. {#Ps 90:8 Eze 1:13}

And his eyes as lamps of fire.] To note his omniscience, his wrath also and readiness to revenge. {#Jer 32:19}

And his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass.] Scintillantes purissime. To note his omnipotence in the execution of his wrath while he trampleth on his enemies, as he that hath brazen arms and feet cart easily break in pieces a potter’s vessel.

And the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.] Strepitus -i.e., Maris. Or, As the noise of many waters, {#Re 1:15} noting the efficacy of Christ’s doctrine. See #Ac 2:4.

Ver. 7. And I Daniel alone saw the vision.] Holy prophets alone are capable of holy visions. {#2Pe 1:19}

For the men that were with me saw not.] Sensible they were of some alteration upon the waters, and somewhat wrought upon; not for their information, but separation from Daniel, that he might more freely undergo the heavenly rapture. See the like, #Ac 9:7.

But a great quaking fell upon them.] Through sense of sin and fear of wrath. This served to show the truth of the vision.

Ver. 8. Therefore I was left alone.] Daniel, though much frightened, keepeth his station, when the rest fled and hid themselves. Good is the counsel of the apostle, #Heb 12:13, "Make straight steps unto your feet, lest that which is halting be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."

For my comeliness, &c.] See #Da 7:15,28 8:27.

Ver. 9. Yet heard I the voice of his words.] What these words were is not here expressed; but by comparing, they may be gathered to be the same with those, #Da 8:18, bidding Gabriel to draw near and speak unto the prophet.

Then was I in a deep sleep.] See #Da 8:18. The more the outward man is bound, the fitter he is for holy communion with God. {#2Co 12:2,3}

Ver. 10. And, behold, an hand touched me,] i.e., The hand of the angel Gabriel, who was sent by Christ to dictate unto Daniel the prophecy following. It is Christ’s use to signify prophecies by his angel, {#Re 1:1,2} and this angel is accordingly strengthened by Michael {#Da 10:21} -that is, by Christ.

Which set me upon my knees.] In a praying posture; but yet he continued trembling, {#Da 10:11} and was not raised and restored but by certain degrees, the better to frame and fit him to a religious attention and docility.

Ver. 11. O Daniel, a man greatly beloved.] Such shall know God’s secrets. {#Pr 3:32} See #Da 9:23.

Stand upright.] Heb., Stand upon thy standing. God by his grace and Word will raise up those that humble themselves in his presence.

“ Deiecit ut relevet.”

Ver. 12. Fear not, Daniel.] Disquieting and expectorating fears should be laid aside. {#1Jo 4:18}

For from the first day.] See on #Da 9:23. Let us but find a praying heart, and God will presently find a pitying heart, though he may delay for a season to send in an answer. Though Daniel heard nothing of his prayers for three weeks’ time, yet was the angel at work all that while for the removal of impediments. Daniel in the meanwhile wrought hard with God, as it is elsewhere said of Jonathan. {#1Sa 14:45}

And I am come for thy word.] Brought hither by thy prayers. God will come, but he will have his people’s prayers lead him into the field as it were.

Ver. 13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me.] By this prince of Persia some understand wicked Cambyses. Others, {a} an evil angel, that by his suggestions swayed Cambyses to oppose and retard the rebuilding of the temple. There is a principal devil, prince of this world; and there are, as some hold, princes or principal spirits in countries and nations under him. {#Eph 6:12}

But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes,] i.e., Christ the Lord of angels, head of the Church. {#Da 12:1 Re 12:7} By these chief princes may be understood the three persons in trinity, or the created angels. The Septuagint translate the word ευσθυμουντων, the cheerful ones, who serve the Lord readily, freely, and joyfully in his wars; making Zion as dreadful to all her enemies, {#Ps 68:17} as those angels once made Sinai, at the delivery of the law.

And I remained there with the kings of Persia.] With Cambyses and his counsellors, to repress their rage, and to blast their designs against the Church; which, when it is opposed, the holy angels interpose. {#Ps 34:7}

{a} Melanchthon, Osiander, Pappus.

Ver. 14. Now I am come.] As it were with weariness of flight. {as #Da 9:21} Comfort will come at length. {#Heb 10:37}

In the latter days.] Toward the end of their state, and not long before the coming of the Messiah, who shall begin another age, and as it were a new world. {#Eze 38:8 Heb 2:3}

Ver. 15. I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.] Coharrui totus, et vex faucibus haesit. See how deeply God’s darlings are again affected at the hearing of his holy Word. {#Hab 3:16}

Ver. 16. And, behold, one like the similitude,] i.e., The angel in human shape. {as #Da 10:10}

Touched my lips.] Restored unto me my speech. Good affections wanting expression shall have God’s furtherance.

And said unto him that stood before me,] i.e., To Christ, whom he had seen. {#Da 10:5,6}

My sorrows are turned upon me.] Heb., My bowels, which are even strained and straitened.

And I have retained no strength.] It is ordinary with God’s people in their prayers to complain much of their own weakness. {#Jer 31:18}

Ver. 17. For how can the servant of this my lord.]. Qui tantulus sum, et tam imbecillis. God’s praying servants use to speak as broken men. They well understand, (1.) Their distance; (2.) Dependence.

Talk with this my lord.] Prayer is a holy interparlance with the divine Majesty: εντευξις. {#1Ti 2:1}

Neither is there breath in me.] I am hardly able to bear up or breathe. Human frailty cannot endure God’s presence without fainting. {#Re 1:17}

Ver. 18. Then there came again and touched me.] Not all at once, but by four degrees, was Daniel raised: (1.) He is set upon his knees and palms of his hands, {#Da 10:10} an emblem of prayer; (2.) He is caused to stand upon his feet, though trembling and silent; {#Da 10:11,15} (3.) His mouth is opened to speak, though not without much weakness, fears, and sorrows; {#Da 10:17} (4.) He is fully strengthened here. God loves to hold his praying people long in request. He is also "a God of judgment"—one that well understandeth when and how to bestow his favours; "Blessed are all they that wait for him." {#Isa 30:18}

Ver. 19. Be strong, yea, be strong.] Holy angels are ready to strengthen such as are ready to faint in holy duties.

Ver. 20. Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee?] q.d., I told thee that before, {#Da 10:14} and I look thou shouldst remember it.

I will return to fight with the prince of Persia.] To defeat and prevent his tyranny and cruel intents against thy people, {see #Da 10:13} not without the devil’s hand and help.

And when I am gone forth,] sc., Out of Persia.

Lo, the prince of Grecia.] Great Alexander, whom I will fetch in, so that the Persians shall have henceforth little leisure or mind to meddle with the Jews. There were other Grecian captains also before Alexander, who found the Persians somewhat to do, as Leonidas, Miltiades, Themistocles; but he overturned their monarchy.

Ver. 21. In the scripture of truth,] i.e., In God’s infallible and unchangeable decree, which, for our apprehension, are here compared to court rolls and records, ex usu forensi. And God’s providence, which is nothing else but the carrying on of his decree, is that helm which turneth about the whole ship of the universe.

And there is none…but Michael your prince.] But how many reckon we him at? as that king once said of himself to his fearful soldiers. He alone is a whole army of men, van and rear both. {#Isa 52:12}

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. Also I,] i.e., I, Gabriel the angel, glad of such an office, for the good of God’s people, whereunto also I was sent by Christ. {#Da 10:9,10}

In the first year of Darius the Mede.] Who now began to think of sending home the captive Jews, but had some hesitations and fluctuations of mind about it.

I stood to confirm and to strengthen him.] Angels cannot enlighten the mind, or powerfully incline the will of man, for so the Holy Ghost only doth; but, as instruments of the Holy Ghost, they can stir up phantasms of the Word read or heard. They can also propose truth and right to the mind, advise and persuade to it as counsellors, and inwardly instigate as it were by speaking and doing after a spiritual manner, suggesting good thoughts, as devils do evil; yea, they can strangely wind themselves into men’s imaginations, so as to appear to them in their dreams. {#Mt 1:20}

Ver. 2. And now I will show thee the truth.] The plain, naked truth, in proper and downright terms, dealing with thee more like a historian than a prophet. Truth is, like our first parents, most beautiful when naked.

Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia.] Three besides Darius, viz., Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis; for as for Smerdis or the Magus, who took upon him to be the son of Cyrus, and usurped the throne after Cambyses for six months, the holy angel holds him not worth naming. {a}

And the fourth shall be far richer than they all.] This was Xerxes, who was called the hoarder of his kingdom, like as his father Darius had been called the huckster, regni caupo, the huckster of the kingdom, for his unmeasurable riches gathered out of all the East, and prepared for the war against Greece.

And when he shall be strengthened by his riches.] Which were never true to those that trusted them.

He shall stir up all.] He shall bring into the field a million of men, and cover the seas with his ships, thinking to bear down all before him; but was shamefully defeated by the Grecians, and forced in a small fishing boat to get back into Asia, where, falling into inordinate lust and cruelty, he was killed by Artabanus, and left this war hereditary to his successors, until the ruin of the Persian kingdom by great Alexander, of whom in the next verse.

{a} Herodot, in Thalia.

Ver. 3. But a mighty king shall stand up.] Alexander the Great, the founder of the Greek monarchy; who, with thirty thousand footmen, and five thousand horsemen, overran and subdued a great part of the habitable world. See #Da 8. The devil, by his oracles, foretold him of his victories, having stolen his skill out of this prophecy of Daniel.

Ver. 4. And when he shall stand up.] And seemeth to be best underlaid, set to live, as we say, when he standeth on his best bottom, expecting ambassadors at Babylon from all the world, requiring divine honours from his Grecians, and enjoining the Jews that their dates should be taken from his reign, and that all the priests’ sons born that year should be called Alexanders.

His kingdom shall be broken.] As brittle ware is apt to be.

And shall be divided toward the four winds.] Sic transit gloria mundi. So fleeting is the fame of the world. Fitly compared to the wind, {as #Da 2:35} to a dream, to a shadow, to a dream of a shadow. Great Alexander’s kingdom was first broken into many pieces by twelve of his princes, until, eleven years after his death, it became quadripartite, &c. Here is foretold being divided among four of his chieftains, Cassander, Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy, till at length these two last got all into their hands, and yet were ever jarring and warring, as appeareth by what here followeth.

And not to his posterity.] For all his kindred were killed by Cassander, with whom it happened accordingly.

Nor according to his dominion.] For although they were all sovereign princes, yet they fell far short of Alexander in command and warlike fame. {#Da 8:22}

Ver. 5. And the king of the south shall be strong.] Ptolemy, king of Egypt, together with his whole family, line, and race, the Lagidae, shall be eminently strong; and a great enemy he was to the poor Jews, as Josephus {a} explains.

And one of his princes,] i.e., Of Alexander’s princes, meaning Seleucus Nisanor, king of Syria, together with his house and line, called the Seleucidae.

And he shall be strong above him,] i.e., Stronger than Ptolemy, and that the poor Church shall feel; for Judea lay between these two potent princes, and was therefore beaten on both sides. Perinde ac isthmus inter duo maria interiacens, or as bread grain ground between two millstones. This was here foretold, and much more, three hundred years before it happened, that we may know that there is an omnipotent and omniscient majesty, who decreeth and doeth whatsoever himself pleaseth.

His dominion shall be a great dominion,] viz., As long as it will hold. Besides Syria and Babylon, Seleucus had more of Asia than ever any had but only Alexander. So our Henry VI, till deposed, had been the most potent monarch for dominions that ever England had; yet afterwards he was not the master of a mole hill, nor owner of his own liberty, as hath been said before.

{a} Antiq., lib. xii. cap. 1.

Ver. 6. And in the end of years.] In process of time, after that these two kings had sufficiently worried and wearied out one another in bloody wars.

They shall join themselves together.] Heb., Shall associate themselves, viz., in a friendly amity, and shall make interchangeable marriages, but to little purpose, as it proved. So Calo Joannes, the Christian emperor of Trebizond, gave his daughter Despina in marriage to Usuncassanes, king of Persia, but with ill success; for he soon after lost his empire. {a}

For the king’s daughter of the south.] Bernice, or, as others call her, Berenice or Beronice, i.e., the daughter of innocence or purity, the daughter Ptolemy Philadelph so called for that he married his own sister, and therefore his daughter Beronice was not rightly named. {b}

Shall come to the king of the north.] To Antiochus Theos, king of Syria, so the Milesians first surnamed him, because he had driven out their tyrant Timarch, and he took it upon him, to his utter undoing; for this god was afterwards poisoned by his wife, Laodice. {c}

To make an agreement.] Marriages made in policy, to serve dishonest ends, are ever of ill success. {#1Sa 18:21,28}

But she shall not retain the power of the arm.] Her interest in her husband, her queendom, and her life were soon after lost. She was not sent home again, as Anne of Cleves was here, but sent out of the world, together with her son and all her retinue, by Laodice, whom Appian maketh to be her own sister; but that is not likely.

Neither shall he stand,] i.e., Antiochus Theus, who was poisoned by his jealous wife—a just punishment from a "jealous God."

Nor his arm.] His young son by Bernice.

And he that begat her.] Her father, Ptolemy Philadelph, who died soon after.

{a} Turkish History, 464.

{b} Junius.

{c} Pausan., Appian.

Ver. 7. But out of the branch of her roots.] One of her stock; her own brother both by father and mother.

Shall one stand up in his estate.] Ptolemy Euergetes shall succeed his father Philadelph; and making war against Seleucus Callinicus, son of Antiochus Theos by Laodice, in revenge of his sister Bernice’s death, shall prevail on and overrun the greatest part of Callinicus’s kingdom.

Ver. 8. And shall also carry captive their gods.] Goodly gods they were the while, and likely to defend their worshippers! He brought back also the Egyptian idols, carried away by Cambyses, rather in scorn of all religion than hatred of idolatry, and was thereupon called by that superstitious people, Euergetes, that is, Benefactor. See #Lu 22:25.

Ver. 9. So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom.] Called out of Syria by a commotion at home, the Parthians invading Egypt; but he soon quelled them, and quieted his own country. Josephus {a} writeth that this Ptolemy Euergetes, in his return out of Syria, went to Jerusalem, and in thankfulness to the God of the Jews, offered his oblations at the temple there. Of his father Philadelphus also he reporteth, that he redeemed one hundred and twenty thousand Jews that were slaves in Egypt, and sent them home, and bestowed many rich gifts upon the temple at Jerusalem. {b}

{a} Lib. ii. cont. Appian.

{b} Antiq., lib. ii. cap. 2.

Ver. 10. But his sons.] Callinicus’s sons—viz., Seleucus, Ceraunus, and Antiochus Magnus, quasi duo fulmina belli.

Shall be stirred up.] As not enduring that Ptolemy Philopator, son of Euergetes, should possess any part of Syria under their noses.

Shall assemble a multitude of great forces.] Seventy thousand footmen, and fifty thousand horsemen, saith Polybius. {a}

And one shall certainly come.] One, not both; because Ceraunus, who seemed to be as swift and as irresistible as lightning, and therehence had his name, {b} was slain by Nicanor, so that Antiochus the Great was king alone.

And shall overflow and pass through.] To wit, against the captains of Ptolemy in Syria, Attalus, and Theodatus.

And he shall be stirred up, even to his fortress.] To Ptolemy’s fortress, or fortified city, Raphia, which lieth in the entrances of Egypt, saith Jerome.

{a} Lib. v.

{b} Ceraunias id est fulmineus: quod audaci et veloci ingenio praeditus. -Justin.

Ver. 11. And the king of the south.] Ptolemaeus Philopator, so called, say some, per antiphrasin, because he killed his father. He slew also his both sister and wife Eurydice, and was otherwise very vicious, and yet victorious.

Even with the king of the north,] i.e., With Antiochus the Great, who was so called perhaps, saith one, {a} for undertaking much, and performing little.

And he shall set forth a great multitude.] Sixty-two thousand footmen and six thousand horsemen.

And the multitude.] Antiochus’s army, himself hardly escaping with life through the deserts. {b}

{a} Pausan., lib. v.

{b} Spoliavisset regno Antiochum, si fortunam virtute iuvisset. -Justin.

Ver. 12. His heart shall be lifted up.] So that he shall slight his enemy, and not pursue his victory, but give himself up to a luxurious life. Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis, said that Roman general.

Ver. 13. For the king of the north.] Antiochus the Great.

Shall return,.] After Philopator’s death, to fight against his young son and successor Epiphanes.

And shall set forth a multitude greater than the former.] Gathered out of the upper parts of Babylon. He called in the help also of Philip, king of Macedon, and other princes. His army is said to have consisted of three hundred thousand footmen, besides horses and elephants. {a}

And shall certainly come.] Heb., By coming he shall come, i.e., surely, swiftly, suddenly; but to small purpose.

And with much riches.] Gold, silver, purple, silks, ivory, as Florus {b} and Gellius {c} testify.

{a} Jerome.

{b} Lib. ii. cap. 8.

{c} Lib. v. cap. 5.

Ver. 14. And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south.] Many of the Jews who supplied Antiochus in this expedition of his against Egypt, both with men and other warlike provision. Howbeit various Jews, called here "robbers" {a} or refractories, fierce, furious, and desperate fellows, adhered to Ptolemy Epiphanes, who gave them permission to build a temple in Egypt, which was accordingly also done by Onias, not far from Memphis, upon pretence of fulfilling that prophecy, {#Isa 19:19} called here establishing the vision.

But they shall fall.] As they did afterwards by the Romans, who destroyed the Jews there in great multitudes, and burnt their mock temple.

{a} Effractores, praevaricatores.

Ver. 15. So the king of the north shall come,] i.e., Not the Romans, as some would have it, but Antiochus Great still. He had been foiled at Raphia, now he greatly prevaileth against the Egyptians. If we princes, said our Henry VII, shall take every occasion that is offered, the world shall never be quiet, but wearied with continual wars.

And the armies of the south shall not withstand.] Scopas, the Egyptian general, though very skilful and valiant, shall be beaten by Antiochus into Sidon, besieged there, and forced to yield, all the power of Egypt being not able to raise the siege and relieve Scopas. The battle is not always to the strong. {#Ec 9:11}

Ver. 16. And he shall stand in the glorious land.] Heb., The land of ornaments—that is, Judea, which, lying between these two potent princes, was perpetually afflicted, as grain is ground asunder lying between two heavy millstones. Now Judea is called the "glorious" or beautiful land, {a} not so much for the fertility thereof (Babylon was much more fertile), nor for the miracles done therein (many great works had been likewise done in Egypt), as for the sincere service of God there set up; this is the beauty and bulwark of any nation. Foreign writers have termed England, the fortunate island, the terra florida, the kingdom of God, the paradise of pleasure, &c. Plato commendeth the Attic country for this, that the inhabitants were αυτοχθονες—the right natives that grew out of it at first {b} -but especially for this, that it was θεοφιλης, a place that loved God, and was interchangeably beloved of God. {c} May that be evermore England’s commendation!

Which by his hand shall be consumed.] God’s Church goes to wreck, both by south and north; all the comfort is, that whether north or south wind blow on God’s garden, they shall blow good to it at length. {#So 4:16}

{a} In #Eze 20:6,15, it is called the comeliness of all countries.

{b} ανθρωποι ωκουν οι αυτοι αει.—Thucyd.

{c} τυγχανει ουσα θεοφιλης.—Plato.

Ver. 17. He shall also set his face.] Antiochus longed sore to be lord of Egypt, and therefore undertook a third expedition against Epiphanes; but that not succeeding to his mind, he seweth the fox’s skin to the lion’s hide, and seeketh to get that by treachery which by open hostility he could not.

And upright ones with him.] Or, Equal conditions with him. He shall palliate his treachery with very fair pretences; he shall seem to do righteous things, drawing a fair glove over a foul hand; thus shall he do.

And he shall give him the daughter of women.] The fair Cleopatra, his beautiful daughter, filiam e mulieribus selectam; like as Saul gave Michal to David, to be a snare to him.

“ Munera pulchra quidem mittis, sed mittis in hamo.”

- Martial.

Corrupting her.] Suborning her to make away her husband, Ptolemaeus Epiphanes. This was devilish policy, simulata necessitudo duplex simultas, but it took not.

But she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.] As became a good wife, she clave to her husband; so did the before mentioned Michal, in whom, though we find no great store of religion—for both she had an image in the house, and afterwards mocked David for his devotion—yet nature had taught her to prefer a husband to a father.

Ver. 18. After this he shall turn his face unto the isles.] Missing of his design for Egypt, and losing also much in Asia Minor, which Epiphanes got of him by means of his Queen Cleopatra, Antiochus, as an enraged lion, falleth upon foreign countries, as Hellespont, Chersonesus, Euboea, Rhodes, Cyprus, Samos, Colophon, &c. He marcheth also with his army into Greece, being stirred up thereunto by Hannibal, who, being vanquished in Africa by Scipio, had fled to Antiochus into Asia, and there hatched what mischief he could against the Romans.

But a prince for his own behalf,] i.e., Scipio, the Roman consul; or, as some will, Marcus Acilius, their general.

Shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease,] i.e., Shall recover the countries that he had taken from the Roman State, and shall also drive back again, down his throat, those contumelies and opprobious speeches that he had thrown out against the Romans; who afterwards overcame him thrice by sea and land, forced him to accept very hard conditions, shred him of a great part of his kingdom, and called him, in contempt, Antiochus, sometime the Great. {a}

{a} Liv., dec. 4, lib. xviii., Appian. in Syriac.

Ver. 19. Then he shall turn his face.] Not accepting the aforesaid hard conditions; till, beaten again by the Romans, he was forced so to do. He fled into the utmost parts of his kingdom of Syria, and there kept him in forts, not daring to wage war any more.

But he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.] He and his army shall be hewn in pieces by the rude rabble in the Elymeans’ country, while he went about to rob the temple of their Jupiter Bolus. {a}

{a} Strabo, lib. xvi.

Ver. 20. Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes.] Heb., One that causeth an exactor to pass over, who shall gather no less sums of curses than of coin. This was Seleucus Philopator, son to Antiochus the Great, and his father’s darling—whence also he had his surname—but not the people’s darling, as Scipio was at Rome, whom they called Corculum, or sweet heart; for this Seleucus, king of Syria, being the Romans’ tribute gatherer—to whom he was to pay, according to his father’s agreement, a thousand talents by the year—he was hated of the people, and poisoned by Heliodorus, a great man about him, in favour of Antiochus Epiphanes, his brother and successor in the kingdom.

Ver. 21. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person.] This was his true title—as "wicked" was Haman’s {#Es 7:6} -though he affected to be called Epiphanes, Illustrious or famous; and Josephus reports that the Samaritans, to curry favour with him when he tormented the Jews, styled him Antiochus, the mighty God. Oh, detestable!—surely that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God; {#Lu 16:15} but the bramble thinketh it a goodly thing to reign, so doth not the vine and fig tree. {#Jud 9:8-15} A good man honoureth them that fear the Lord, but contemneth a vile person. {#Ps 15:4} Mr Foxe, when one asked him, saying, Do ye not remember such an honest, poor man, for whom you did something? Yes, said he, I forget lords and ladies to remember such. And again, when a great lord and wicked met him in the streets, and asked him, How do you, Mr Foxe? he said little. Do you not know me? said the great lord. No, not I, said Mr Foxe. I am such a one, said he. Sir, I desire, said Mr Foxe, to know none but Christ and him crucified.

To whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom.] But he shall take it, whether the nobles will or not; and so might well have been called, as his father sometimes was, Antiochus Hierax, the hawk or puttock, for his swooping and ravaging.

But he shall come in peaceably.] Under pretence of a protector to his nephew Demetrius, as did our Richard III.

And shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.] Winning men’s hearts by presents, courtesies, and secret practices.

Ver. 22. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown.] The Egyptians shall, by the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the minority of his sister Cleopatra’s son, Ptolemy Philometor, invaded Egypt, and overthrew his two captains, Euleus and Leneus, as with a storm or flood.

Yea, also the prince of the covenant.] Tryphon, the chief contriver of a covenant between the two kings, after the former overthrow. He was removed by Antiochus, that himself might do what he wished in Egypt, when his nephew Philometor was yet a minor.

Ver. 23. He shall work deceitfully.] Outwitting the wisest among the Egyptians, who yet were held great politicians. See #Isa 19:11,13.

And shall become strong with a small people.] He shall come in, as protector and co-adjutor to his nephew Philometor, with a small number, lest the Egyptians should be frightened; but being thus gotten in, he shall play his pranks to some purpose.

Ver. 24. He shall enter peaceably, even upon the fattest places of the province,] i.e., Upon Memphis, in the very heart of the country.

And he shall do that which his fathers have not done,] i.e., Rob and spoil, as never any of his ancestors did before in Egypt.

And he shall scatter among them the prey.] Throwing handfuls of money among the Vulgate as he went along the streets; and all to ingratiate, and to steal away their hearts. {a} Absalom did the like at Jerusalem. {#2Sa 15:6}

And he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds.] By sowing dissension between Philometor and Physcon, his younger brother. The devil was as great a monster then as since, with his divide et impera, make division and get dominion.

{a} Ptole. Hypom., lib. i. and v.

Ver. 25. And he shall stir up his power and his courage.] Antiochus shall, himself being stirred up by the devil, that restless spirit, who continually maketh ado in the world. Fuit etiam Antiochus ingenio inquieto, versatili, turbido, vago et vario: unde multa machinatus est, pauca ad felicem exitum perduxit. Howbeit, in this second expedition against Egypt, he prospered.

Ver. 26. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat.] His own courtiers, captains, and pensioners, corrupted by Antiochus, betrayed Philometor. See #/Apc 1Ma 1:16-20. In trust I have oft found treason, said Queen Elizabeth.

Ver. 27. And both these kings’ hearts shall be to do mischief.] Philometor being beaten, shall seek agreement, give great gifts to Antiochus, and feast him, sed reconciliatione vulpina, but with a fox-like and feigned amity, each of them still retaining their ancient hatreds. "Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross." {#Pr 26:23}

And they shall speak lies.] This is ordinary with the wicked; {#Ps 62:9} but it is the property of the godly man to "speak the truth from his heart." {#Ps 15:2}

For yet the end shall be at the time appointed,] i.e., The end of those wars shall be at the time when God seeth good, and hath pre-determined it.

Ver. 28. Then shall he return into his land with great riches.] But little content. Gain, when it is either the "Mammon of unrighteousness," or "wages of wickedness," is true loss.

And his heart shall be against the holy covenant,] i.e., Against the Jews, God’s covenanters, and against the true religion. The Church is haeres crucis, saith Luther: the truth goes seldom without a scratched face.

Ver. 29. At the time appointed.] After two years.

And come toward the south.] Toward Egypt. {#/RAPC 1Ma 1:29}

But it shall not be as the former.] Expedition, #Da 11:25.

Or as the latter.] Mentioned #Da 11:40. God oft crosseth the wicked in the height of their hopes. {#Job 20:6}

Ver. 30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him,] i.e., Publius Popilius, the Roman envoy, shall come in Italian or Grecian ships, and shall, in the name of the senate and people of Rome, command Antiochus to depart with his army out of Egypt, and that forthwith. {a} So true found Antiochus that of the poet,

“ Omne, sub regno graviore, regnum est.”

Therefore he shall be grieved, and return.] And reck his wrath upon the poor Church of God, turning his rage against the Jews.

And have intelligence with them that forsake the covenant.] None are so dangerous and desperate enemies to the truth as apostates and renegades, such as were here, Jason, Menelaus, &c., {#/RAPC 2Ma 4:7-10,23-28} who privily packed with Antiochus against the city and people.

{a} Joseph., lib. xii. cap. 6; Liv., dec. 5, lib. v.; Appian. in Syr.; Justin.

Ver. 31. And arms shall stand on his part,] i.e., Antiochus’s princes and commanders, whom he sent to spoil Jerusalem; such as were Philip the Phrygian, Andronicus, Apollonius, Bacchides, &c., who made havoc of God’s people, and revelled in their ruins.

And they shall place the abomination of desolation.] The abominable idol of Jupiter Olympius. The like whereunto was done here in England in those Marian times, of abhorred memory, which yet lasted no longer than those of Antiochus, scil., five or six years.

Ver. 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant.] Apostates sin not common sins, as Korah and his complices died not common deaths. Forsakers of the covenant {#Da 11:30} will soon become wicked doers against the covenant, as here, till they become altogether filthy. {#Ps 53:3 1Pe 2:20,22 Mt 12:43,45 Lu 9:62}

“— non debet aratro,

Dignum opus exercens, vultum in sua terga referre.”

- Sedulius.

But the people that do know their God.] The faithful Hassideans and zealots, who know and worship their God aright, these shall persevere, and overcome all allurements and fears of the world; Irritamenta et terriculamenta.

Ver. 33. And they that underaand, &c.] God shall provide, in the worst of times, that his people shall have teachers and faithful monitors. I find in the registers (and wonder at it, saith Mr Foxe) {a} that, in Queen Mary’s days, one neighbour resorting to, and conferring with another, eftsoons, with a few words of their first or second talk, did win and turn their minds to that wherein they desired to persuade them touching the truth of God’s Word and sacraments.

Yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame.] The instructors especially shall. Of this persecution the apostle seemeth to speak. {#Heb 11:35,37}

{a} Acts and Mon.

Ver. 34. They shall be holpen with a little help.] With the valiant Asmonians or Maccabees, who were but a handful, and yet did great exploits against the Antiochians; so did the Hussites in Bohemia against the Pontificians. But why were they helped with a little help? That, through weaker means, they might see God’s greater strength.

But many shall cleave to them with flatteries.] So did the false Samaritans. See on #Da 11:21. And so the Donatists went to the Goths, when the Arians prevailed. Hypocrites will not sail in a storm; something they will do for God, but little or nothing it is they will suffer.

Ver. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall.] Depth of divine knowledge, and height of holiness, is no target against persecution; the best fall under it soonest. None out of hell have ever suffered more than saints.

To try them.] As hard weather tries what health: hang heavy weights on rotten boughs, and they suddenly break. Withered leaves fall off in a strong wind; not so the green, that have sap.

And to purge, and to make them white.] As foul and stained clothes are whitened by lying abroad in cold frosty nights. Black soap maketh white clothes; so, said that martyr, doth the black cross help us to more whiteness, if God strike with his battledores. {a} {b} You know the vessel, before it be made bright, said John Charles the martyr, in a letter to Mr Philpot, another martyr, is soiled with oil and other things, that it may scour the better. Oh happy be you, that you be now in this scouring house, for shortly you shall be set upon the celestial shelf as bright as angels, {c} &c. Refiners of sugar, saith another author, {d} taking sugar out of the same chest, some thereof they melt but once, other again and again; not that it hath more dross in it, but because they would have it more refined: so dealeth the Lord with his best children, &c.

{a} Acts and Mon.

{b} A beetle or wooden ‘bat’ used in washing, also (when made cylindrical) for smoothing out or ‘mangling’ linen clothes; hence also applied to similarly shaped instruments, e.g. the paddle of a canoe, a utensil for inserting loaves into an oven, or glassware into the kiln, etc. ŒD

{c} Acts and Mon., 1743.

{d} Dr Goodwin.

Ver. 36. And the king shall do according to his will.] In Judea he shall, though in Egypt he could not, because the Romans trumped in his way, {#Da 11:30} put a stop to his rage there. But the Jews were looked upon by the proud Romans as a despicable people; and of the God of the Jews Cicero {a} speaketh basely, not holding him worthy to be compared with Bacchus or Venus, &c.

And he shall exalt himself, &c.] A type and picture of the Pope of Rome. {#2Th 2:4}

Till the indignation be accomplished.] Till God have avenged the quarrel of his covenant, and the set time of deliverance be come.

{a} Orat. Pro. Flacce.

Ver. 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers.] He shall disannul his own ancient religion, caring neither for the old mumpsimus, {a} nor the new sumpsimus, {b} as they say, but showing himself to be a rank atheist. See #/RAPC 1Ma 1:43.

Nor the desire of women,] scil., In an honest lawful way of matrimony; but be addicted to vagrant lust, yea, and to the sin against nature with women, as some sense it, a Deo prohibito et perdito, in which case the Turkish women, when so abused by their husbands (those filthy beasts), may sue a divorce; which they do by taking off their shoes before the judge, and holding them the soles upward, but speaking nothing, for the unnameableness of the fact. {c}

Nor regard any god.] See my Commonplace of Atheism.

{a} One who obstinately adheres to old ways, in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong; an ignorant and bigoted opponent of reform. ŒD

{b} A correct expression taking the place of an incorrect but popular one (mumpsimus). ŒD

{c} Sir Henry Blount’s Voyage into the Levant.

Ver. 38. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces.] Or, As for the Almighty God, in his seat he shall honour, yea, he shall honour a god whom his fathers knew not, &c.; that is, in God’s holy temple at Jerusalem Antiochus shall set up Jupiter Olympius, who was none of the dii Syri; for the Syrians worshipped Apollo, Diana, Atargatis, as Strabo {a} testifieth. See #/RAPC 2Ma 6:2.

Shall he honour.] This doubling of the word seemeth to show the angel’s indignation at the indignity of the fact. See the like #Ge 49:4.

{a} Geog., lib. xvi.

Ver. 39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds.] Heb., In the fortresses of munitions, i.e., both in the temple (called elsewhere, #Da 11:31, a stronghold), and in the places of defence near unto the temple, where he set a garrison, to force the people to worship his idols.

Whom he shall ackowledge and increase with glory.] Or, Those whom he shall acknowledge (to be favourers and furtherers of his abominable idolatry), those he "shall increase with glory"; he shall raise and prefer them, as he did Jason, Menelaus, &c.

And, he shall cause them to rule over many.] In praestantes illos, so Piscator rendereth it; over the godly Jews, God’s Rabbis.

And he shall divide the land,] scil., Of Judea.

For gain.] Heb., For a price. Sic omnia Romae venalia. All things are saleable and soluble at Rome.

Ver. 40. And at the time of the end.] The year before his death.

Shall the king af the south.] Ptolemy Philometer.

And the king of the north.] Antiochus’s third expedition into Egypt, {see #Da 11:39} in favour of Physcon.

And shall overflow,] i.e., Victoriously overturn Egypt.

Ver. 41. He shall enter also into the glorious land.] Judea, {as #Da 11:16} but for no good. In Greece they say, Where the Grand Seignior once setteth his foot, there groweth no more grass.

But they shall escape.] Because they shall side with him.

Ver. 42. He shall stretch forth his hand also.] He shall be very victorious toward his latter end, that he may be the riper for ruin; fatted ware are but fitted for destruction.

Ver. 43. Shall be at his steps,] i.e., Obey him as their captain.

Ver. 44. But tidings out of the east, &c.] It is seldom seen that God alloweth to the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment; but something or other they must have to trouble them still.

Ver. 45. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace,] i.e., He shall pitch his tent-royal (in token of full power given to his captains Lysias and the rest) in Emmaus, near to Jerusalem, to keep the Jews in subjection. {#/RAPC 1Ma 3:40 4:3}

Between the seas.] The Dead Sea and the Medditerranean Sea, which are the bounds of Judea, called here the glorious holy mountain. {a}

Yet he shall come to his end.] A loathsome and lamentable one. See #/RAPC 1Ma 6:8 2Ma 9:5-12 not so much because he would have spoiled the temple of Diana, but because he did spoil the temple at Jerusalem.

{a} Polyb.; Joseph., lib. xii. cap. 12.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. And at that time,] i.e., In the last days, and toward the end of the world; for in this chapter seemeth to he set forth the state of the Church in the last times, that it shall be most afflicted; yet she shall be fully delivered by Christ’s second coming to judgment. Cyprian was in like sort wont to comfort his friends thus: Venit Antichristus, sed superveniet Christus; Antichrist cometh; but then Christ will come after him, and overcome him.

Shall Michael stand up,] i.e., The Lord Christ (that Prince of angels, and protector of his people), not a created angel, much less Michael Servetus, that blasphemous heretic, burned at Geneva, who was not afraid to say, as Calvin reporteth it, se esse Michaelem illum, Ecclesae custodem, that he was that Michael, the Church’s guardian. David George, also another black-mouthed heretic, said that he was the one David foretold by the prophets, {#Jer 30:9 Eze 34:23 Ho 3:5} and that he was confident that the whole world would in time submit to him.

Which standeth for the children of thy people.] For all the Israel of God, to whom Christ is a fast friend, and will be while "the government is upon his shoulder." {#Isa 9:6}

And there shall be a time of trouble.] To the Jews by the Romans (after Christ’s ascension, #Mt 24:21), to the Christians by the Romists.

And at that time thy people shall be delivered.] The elect, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be secured and saved.

Every one that shall be found written in the book.] Called the "writing or catalogue of the house of Israel," {#Eze 13:9} and the "Lamb’s book of life," {#Re 21:27} which is nothing else but conscriptio electorum in mente divina, saith Lyra, the writing of the elect in the divine mind or knowledge; such are said to be written among the living in Jerusalem. {#Isa 4:3}

Ver. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust.] "Many" for all; {as #Ro 5:18,19} these are said to sleep, which denoteth the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. (The soul liveth in the sleep of death, as it doth in the sleep of the body in this life). And this the poor Jews, when to lose land and life for the truth, are here seasonably and plainly told of (amidst other things that are but darkly delivered) to bear up their sinking spirits. Awake they shall as out of of a sweet sleep, those that are good, and then be full of God’s image. {#Ps 17:15} The wicked also shall "come forth," but by another principle, and for another purpose; they shall come out of their graves like filthy toads against this terrible storm, &c.

Some to everlasting life.] Which is here first mentioned in the Old Testament. See #Mt 25:45 Joh 5:29.

And some to shame and everlasting contempt.] Christ shall shame them in that ample amphitheatre, and doom them to eternal destruction. Gravissima poenarum pudor est, saith Chrysostom. Oh, when Christ shall upbraid reprobates, and say, Ego vos pavi, lavi, vestivi, &c., which way will they look? or who shall say for them? They shall look then upon him whom they have pierced and lament, but all too late, οψονται, κοψονται; they shall be sore ashamed of their sinful practices, which shall all be written in their foreheads; and this shall be as a bodkin at their hearts, that ever they turned their backs upon Christ’s bleeding embracements, while they refused to be reformed, hated to be healed.

Ver. 3. And they that be wise.] And in addition do what they can do to wisen others to salvation, as all wise ones will; for goodness is diffusive of itself, and would have others to share with it. Charity is no churl.

Shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.] A good amends for their present sufferings. {#Da 11:33 Ro 8:18} Solomon allowed little or no considerable reward to his workmen, {#So 8:12} but Christ doth. For they shall shine as the firmament; yea, as the stars; yea, as the sun in his strength; {#Mt 13:43} yea, as Christ himself shineth, they shall appear with him in glory. {#Col 3:4} Their souls shall shine through their bodies as the candle doth through the lantern; their bodies shall also be so lightsome and transparent, saith Aquinas, that all the veins, humours, nerves, and bowels shall be seen as in a glass; for so the light pierceth the firmament and stars. Let us therefore keep these bodies of ours clean and free of filth, that they may be fit vessels and receptacles of such a transcendent glory.

And they that turn many to righteousness.] Heb., That justify many; scil., Ministerially, as instmments in Christ’s hand; for "we preach Christ," yea, we give what we preach; "we give the knowledge of salvation for the remission of sins"; {#Lu 1:17} we deliver men from hell; {#Job 33:24} we save the souls of them that hear us. {#1Ti 4:16}

As the stars for ever and ever.] What a glorious place is heaven then! Festinemus ad clarissimam patriam: corrigamus mores et moras, &c. What though Christ’s ministers be here slighted and slurred? they shall one day shine as stars, yea, the meanest of them, velut inter stellas luna minores. What then the Doctores seraphici?

Ver. 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words.] Since the full understanding of them is reserved to later times, and event will prove the best interpreter, as it doth in all prophecies, which are as riddles till accomplished; {a} and men must meanwhile be content with a learned ignorance. But what meant Jachiddes the Jew to give us this gloss upon the text, God sealed up the time of the coming of the Messiah, revealing it only to Daniel; and that his coming might be accelerated by their deserts, like as for their sins, which are many, it is retarded? He concludeth well, howsoever: God will one day give us a clear vision—viz., when he shall bring back our captivity, then shall we understand things as they are.

Even to the time of the end.] The time appointed. {#Da 12:9}

Many shall run to and fro.] For increase of divine knowledge they shall spare for no pains, care, or cost, as the Queen of Sheba, the Ethiopian eunuch, &c. See #Pr 18:1 Ac 17:11,12. Increase of knowledge is promised only upon our industry, and it is especially promised to these later times, {#Joe 2:28} wherein we find to be (as in our climate) much light, little heat; our heads are so big (like children that have the rickets) that the whole body fareth the worse for it. Bullinger thus interpreteth the text, that toward the end of the world men shall run to and fro, being certain of nothing, but distracted in opinion, variis se adiungent sectis, {b} they shall join themselves to divers sects. They shall run to and fro, saith another expositor, velut canes famelici, as hungry dogs, and there shall be much knowledge in the world; that is, there shall be innumerable opinions and sects abroad, wherewith many being infected shall be at no certainty in the matters of salvation. For the confirmation, therefore, and comfort of the last ages of the world, wherein these things shall befall, "shut up the words," and "seal the book."

{a} Omnis prophetia priusquam compleatur, aenigma est. -Irenaeus.

{b} Zegedin.

Ver. 5. Then I Daniel looked.] As being as yet unsatisfied.

And, behold, there stood other two.] Angels, on each bank of the river Tigris, by whose interrogation Daniel is further resolved about the vision.

Ver. 6. And one said,] i.e., An angel inquisitive about the affairs of the Church, for Daniel’s further information.

To the man clothed in linen.] Of whom see #Da 10:5.

Which was upon the waters.] See #Da 8:16.

How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?] i.e., The forementioned mysteries, viz., concerning the saints’ sufferings, the end of the world, the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, life and death everlasting.

Ver. 7. And I heard the man.] The man Christ Jesus.

When he held up his right hand and his left hand.] Assuring and assevering the matter with both hands earnestly.

That it shall be for a time, and times and a half,] i.e., For a time most certain with God, and by him determined, but to us uncertain and unknown. Broughton thinketh that this term of "three years and a half" showeth the term of Christ’s persecution in the days of his flesh, which was just so many years, But there is more in it than so. See #Re 6:11, a parallel text, and such, like glasses set one against another, do cast a mutual light.

When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power.] When the Church shall be at the greatest under, when the number of the elect shall be consummated, and they sorely afflicted by the devil and his agents, then shall Christ appear to their relief, as it were, out of an engine. See #2Th 2:7-12 1Ti 4:1-3 Re 6:12-17

Ver. 8. And I heard, but I understood not.] This he ingenuously confesseth, for the best know but in part. {#1Co 13:12} And if any man thinketh that he knoweth ought, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. {#1Co 8:2} Let this be noted by such as profess to know, beyond the periphery of human knowledge, all that is knowable. Any created understanding is but, as Aeschylus saith of fire stolen by Prometheus, παντεχνου πυρος σελας, a spark of the all-wise God’s fire. The prophets themselves understood not some things that were shown unto them without a further light from the Father of lights, whose alone it is to enlighten both organ and object, as Plato {a} also could say.

What shall be the end of these things?] An end he much desired, and the angel for him. {#Da 12:6} But men must have patience, and wait God’s end. "Ye have need of patience or tarryance," saith the apostle, {#Heb 10:36} "that after ye have done the will of God (and suffered it too, grievous though it be for the present) ye may receive the promise." Good men find it often more easy to bear evil than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed.

{a} οψιν τε ποιει οραν και τα ορωμενα πρασθαι.—Lib. vi. De Rep.

Ver. 9. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel.] Quiesce, tibi satis esto -q.d., Though dearly beloved, yet of some things thou must be content to be ignorant. It should suffice thee to be of God’s court, though not altogether of his council. See #Da 12:13. There is a laudable and learned ignorance, as of unnecessaries, of impossibles, or of unprofitables; such as are the term of our lives, the end of the world, the reprobation of others, &c.

For the words are closed up,] viz., Till future ages, which are more concerned in them, and till which these things shall be concealed.

Ver. 10. Many shall be purified, and made white, &c., ] q.d., It is enough for thee to know, and that I should now tell thee, quales sint futuri homines postremi saeculi, what kind of folk there shall be towards the end of the world. Some shall be good people, and they shall meet with hard measure, but all shall be for the best unto them in the end. See #Da 11:35. Others shall be as bad, and so desperately set upon sinning that they shall mind nothing else—no, not when these prophecies are fulfilled—but be "destroyed for lack of knowledge." {#Ho 4:6} Infatuati seducentur, et seducti iudabuntur; being infatuated they shall be seduced, and being seduced they shall be judged, as Augustine’s note is on #2Th 2:10.

Ver. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away,] sc., By Antiochus, as hath been before said; and with the knowledge whereof I would have thee to rest satisfied.

There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.] Which are the three years and a half mentioned before, saith Diodate, with thirteen days over, for some unknown reason. The wonderful numberer hath all in numerato. The Russians use to say in a difficult question, God, and our great duke, know all this. The Jews in like case say, Messiah, when he comes, will tell us all things we desire to be informed of.

Ver. 12. But blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.] Here are forty-five days more than in the former number; and probably they were, from the restoration of God’s service until the death of Antiochus—a blessed time to God’s poor persecuted people, as was here the death of Queen Mary—or else until some other signal mercy, as the victory that Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren had about that time over the Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, who thought to root Israel quite out.

Ver. 13. But go thou thy way.] Here Daniel to his great comfort hath a fair and favourable dismission out of this life before those great clashings and confusions should come which had been foreshown to him. So Augustine and Pareus died a little before Hippo and Heidelberg were taken.

Till the end be.] Whenever it shall be, sooner or later, thou shalt be sure to awake out of the dust of death unto everlasting life. {as #Da 12:2} Yea, thou shalt "shine as the stars for ever and ever." {#Da 12:3} All that thou hast to do now is, to prepare for such an end, and to wait till thy change shall come, comforting thyself against death with the hope of a blessed resurrection.

For thou shalt rest.] Thy soul shall rest in Abraham’s bosom, thy body in the grave as in a bed of down, until the resurrection of the just. Mors aerumnarum requies rest from death of afliction, was Chaucer’s motto.

And stand in the lot,] i.e., In thine own order, {#1Co 15:23} and in that degree of heavenly glory which shall be given thee as thy lot—in allusion to the promised land, divided among the Israelites by lot—and as the reward of a faithful prophet, instrumental to the good of many, who shall bless God for thee throughout all eternity.

“ Ipse quidem studui bene de pietate mereri:

Sed quicquid potui, gratia, Christe, tun est.

Quid sum? Nil: Quis sum? Nullus: Sed gratia Christi

Quod sum, quod vivo, quodque laboro, facit.”

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12