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they had filled themselves, he gave farther order that Daniel's enemies should be cast into the den; that he might learn whether the lions, now they were full, would touch them or not.* And it appeared plainly to Darius, after the princes had been cast to the wild beasts, that it was God who preserved Daniel. +For the lions spared none of them; but tore them all to pieces, as if they had been very hungry and wanted food. I suppose therefore it was not their hunger, which had been a little before satisfied with abundance of flesh, but the wickedness of these men that provoked them to destroy the princes. For if it so please God, that wickedness might by even those irrational creatures, be esteemed a plain foundation for their punishment.

When therefore those that had intended thus to destroy Daniel by treachery, were themselves destroyed, king Darius sent letters over all his country, and praised that God whom Daniel worshipped; and said, that he was the only true God, and had power. He also held Daniel in very great esteem; and made him the principal of his friends. Now when Daniel was become so illustrious and famous, on account of the opinion men had that he was beloved of God, he built a tower at Ecbatana in Media. It was a most elegant building, and wonderfully made, and it is still remaining, and preserved to this day. And to such as see it, it appears to have been lately built, and to have been no older than that very day when any one looks upon it; it is so fresh and beautiful, and no way grown old in so long a time. For buildings suffer the same as men do, they grow old, as

*The lex talionis condemned all calumniators to the same sort of punishment which they intended to have brought upon others; and in this case, among the Persians, it was a frequent thing to include all the family in the penalty inflicted on the father; but, abominandæ leges (says Ammianus Marcellinus) per quas, ob novam unius, omnis propinquitas perit. Calmet's Commentary. B.

It is no way improbable that Daniel's enemies might suggest this reason to the king, why the lions did not neddle with him; and that they might suspect the king's kindness to Daniel had procured these lions to be so filled beforehand; and that thence it was that he encouraged Daniel to submit to this experiment, in hope of coming off safe! and that this was the true reason of making so terrible an experiment upon those his enemies and all their families. Daniel vi. 24. Though our other copies do not directly take notice of it.

Of this Baris or tower, built by Daniel, whether it

well as they, and by numbers of years their strength is dissolved, and their beauty withered. Now they bury the kings of Media, of Persia, and Parthia in this tower, to this day, and he who was intrusted with the care of it, was a Jewish priest; which thing is also observed to this day. But it is proper to give an account of what this man did; for he was so happy, as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to one of the greatest of the prophets; insomuch that while he was alive, he had the esteem and applause both of kings and of the multitude; and now he is dead he retains a remembrance that will never fail. For the several books that he wrote and left behind him, are still read by us, till this time; and from them we believe that he conversed with God; for he not only prophesied of future events, as did the other prophets; but he also determined the time of their accomplishment. And while prophets used to foretell misfortunes, and on that account were disagreeable both to the kings and the multitude; Daniel was to them a prophet of good things, and this to such a degree, that, by the agreeable nature of his predictions, he procured the good will of all men; and by the accomplishment of them he procured the belief of their truth, and the opinion of a sort of divinity for himself among the multitude. He also wrote and left behind him what evinced the accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions. For he saith, that when he was in Susa the metropolis of Persia, and went out into the field with his companions, there was on the sudden a motion and concussion of the earth; and that he was left alone by himself, his friends were at Ecbatana in Media, as Josephus's present copies have it; or at Susa in Persia, as Jerome quotes it from his copies of Josephus, is hard to determine. Dean Prideaux thinks Jerome's to be the true reading; and that this tower was at Susa. Connex. part 1. at the year 534.

What Josephus here says, that the stones of the sepulchres of the kings of Persia at this Baris, or those perhaps of the same sort that are now commonly called the ruins of Persepolis, continued so entire and unaltered in his days, as if they were lately put there, " "I," says Reland, here can shew to be true, as to those stones of the Persian king's mausoleum which Corn. Brunius brake off and gave me." He ascribed this to the hardness of the stones; which scarcely yields to iron tools; and proves frequently too hard for cutting by the chisel, but oftentimes breaks the chisel to pieces. See the like as to the Armenian buildings of Semiramis, in Moses Chorenensis page 46.

fleeing away from him; that he was disturbed, || and fell on his face, and on his two hands, and that a certain person touched him, and at the same time bid him to rise, and see what would befall his countrymen after many generations. He also related, that when he stood up, he was shewn a great ram with many horns growing out of his head; and that the last was higher than the rest; that after this he looked to the west, and saw a he-goat carried through the air from that quarter; that he rushed upon the ram with violence, and smote him twice with his horns, and overthrew him to the ground, and trampled upon him; that afterward he saw a very great horn growing out of the forehead of the he-goat; and that when it was broken off, four horns grew up that were exposed to each of the four winds; and he wrote that out of them arose another lesser horn, which, as he said, waxed great; and that God shewed to him, that it should fight against his nation, and take their city by force, and bring the temple worship to confusion, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered, for one thousand two hundred and ninety-six days.* Daniel wrote that he saw these visions in the plain of Susa, and he hath informed us that God interpreted the appearance of this vision after the following manner:-He said, that the ram signified the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, and the horns those kings that were to reign in them; and that the last horn signified the last king; and that he should exceed all the kings in riches and glory; that the he-goat signified that one should come and reign from the Greeks, who should twice fight with the Persians, and overcome him in battle, and should receive his entire dominion; that by the great horn, which sprang out of the forehead of the he-goat was meant the first king; and that the springing up of four horns upon its falling off, and the conversion of every one of them to the four quarters of the earth, signified the succours that should arise after the death of the first king; and the partition of the kingdom among them; and that

* See Daniel viii. 1-14.

they should be neither his children, nor of his kindred that should reign over the habitable earth for many years; and that from among them there should arise a certain king that should overcome our nation and laws, and should take away the political government, and should spoil the temple, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered, for three years. Accordingly it happened that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision; and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the same manner Daniel wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had shewed them to him. Insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, may justly wonder at the honour wherewith God honoured Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an error, who cast Providence out of human life; and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world; nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature; but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator, which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see destroyed by the winds; or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned: so would the world be dashed to pieces by being carried without a Providence, and so perish and come to nought. So that by the aforementioned predictions of Daniel those men seem to err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no Providence over human affairs. For if that were the case, that the world went on by mechanical necessity, we should not see that all things would come to pass according to his prophecy. Now as to myself I have so described these matters as I have found them and read them: but if any one be inclined to another opinion about them, let him enjoy his sentiments without any blame from me.

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