Whether _Daniel_ used the _Chaldaick_ or _Jewish_ year, is not very
material; the difference being but six hours in a year, and 4 months in 480
years. But I take his months to be _Jewish_: first, because _Daniel_ was a
_Jew_, and the _Jews_ even by the names of the _Chaldean_ months understood
the months of their own year: secondly, because this Prophecy is grounded
on _Jeremiah_'s concerning the 70 years captivity, and therefore must be
understood of the same sort of years with the seventy; and those are
_Jewish_, since that Prophecy was given in _Judea_ before the captivity:
and lastly, because _Daniel_ reckons by weeks of years, which is a way of
reckoning peculiar to the _Jewish_ years. For as their days ran by sevens,
and the last day of every seven was a sabbath; so their years ran by
sevens, and the last year of every seven was a sabbatical year, and seven
such weeks of years made a _Jubilee_.
* * * * *
CHAP. XI.
_Of the Times of the Birth and Passion of _Christ__.
The times of the Birth and Passion of _Christ_, with such like niceties,
being not material to religion, were little regarded by the _Christians_ of
the first age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the
cardinal periods of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin _Mary_, on
the 25th of _March_, which when _Julius Caesar_ corrected the Calendar was
the vernal Equinox; the feast of _John_ Baptist on the 24th of _June_,
which was the summer Solstice; the feast of St.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136