sun is at that time vertical. Unto the latitude of Capricorn, or the winter solstice, it had been spring; for unto that position it had been in a middle point, and that of ascent, or approximation; but unto the latitude of Cancer, or the summer solstice, it had been autumn; for then had it been placed in a middle point, and that of descent, or elongation. po And if we shall take literally what Moses describeth pularly, this was also the constitution of the first day. For when it was evening unto one longitude, it was morning unto another; when night unto one, day unto another. And therefore that question, whether our Saviour shall come again in the twilight (as is conceived he arose) or whether he shall come upon us in the night, according to the comparison of a thief, or the Jewish tradition, that he will come about the time of their departure out of Egypt, when they ate the passover, and the angel passed by the doors of their houses; this query, I say, needeth not further dispute. For if the earth be almost every where inhabited, and his coming (as divinity affirmeth) must needs be unto all; then must the time of his appearance be both in the day and night. For if unto Jerusalem, or what part of the world soever he shall appear in the night, at the same time unto the antipodes it must be day; if twilight unto them, broad day unto the Indians; if noon unto them, yet night unto the Americans and so with variety according unto various habitations, or different positions of the sphere, as will be easily conceived by those who understand the affections of different habitations, and the conditions of Antoci, Perioci, and Antipodes. And so, although he appear in the night, yet may the day of judgment, or doomsday, well retain that name; for that implieth one revolution of the sun, which maketh the day and night, and that one natural day. And yet, to speak strictly, if (as the apostle affirmeth) we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye,5 and (as the schools determine) the * Νυχθήμρον. 5 twinkling, &c.] Taking this for granted [which noe man dare denye] yet it is most truly sayde, that doomes day is the last daye, i. e. the last daye of the sons circling this lower world by his daylye course which as itt hath [in itt selfe] noe rising or settinge, but caryeth the daye and midnoone always directly under him round the world perpetuallye: soe in what parte of the world that course shall ; destruction of the world shall not be successive but in an instant, we cannot properly apply thereto the usual distinctions of time; calling that twelve hours, which admits not the parts thereof, or use at all the name of time, when the nature thereof shall perish. 6 But if the enquiry be made unto a particular place, and the question determined unto some certain meridian; as, namely, unto Mesopotamia, wherein the seat of Paradise is presumed, the query becomes more reasonable, and is indeed in nature also determinable. Yet positively to define that season, there is no slender difficulty; for some contend that it began in the spring; as (beside Eusebius, Ambrose, Bede, and Theodoret), some few years past, Henrico Philippi in his chronology of the Scripture. Others are altogether for autumn; and from hence do our chronologers commence their compute, as may be observed in Helvicus, Jo. Scaliger, Calvisius, and Petavius.7 bee determind [and the day therewith] is noe waye considerable, and much lesse in what parte of the daye of 24 houres, that sodaine instant] of change shall bee; which of necessity must bee to some inhabitants of the world at the time of his risinge, to others at midnoone, to others at his sittinge, and to others at midnight: for all these are all at once, and in the very same instant, every day, in several partes of the worlde: as for example: in April when tis midday at London; 'tis just sonrise at Virginia; and just sonset at the hithermost partes of Nova Guinea, and yet itt is the same daye to all these three parcels of the world at once. But when that greate doome shall come, the course of the son shall instantly cease, and consequently the natural and usual course of day and night with itt: yet there shall bee noe want of lighte in that parte of the aire, or that parte of the earthe under the place, where the sonn of man shall call the world before his judgment-seate; unless any man bee soe simple to thinke that in the presence of God there shall be lesse light then in the presence of the son.-Wr. 6 Mesopotamia.] Most thinke the valley of Jehosaphat.-Wr. The valley of Jehoshaphat was situated eastward of Jerusalem, between that city and the Mount of Olives; and through which ran the brook Kedron:-Mesopotamia was a province between the Euphrates and Tigris. 7 Petavius.] And yet itt must bee confest, that the spring, or sonns entrance into Aries is verum caput et naturale Principium Anni, renewing and reviving all things, as of old in Paradise, æqualling dayes and nights in all places, within the pole circles especially: and as to this all astronomers agree, soe, consonant thereto, all geographers consent, that Paradise was neere under the Equinoctiall, or on this side of itt, under rise of the spring with the sonn.— -Wr. CHAPTER III. Of the Divisions of the Seasons and Four Quarters of the Year, according unto Astronomers and Physicians; that the common compute of the Ancients, and which is still retained by some, is very questionable. As for the divisions of the year, and the quartering out this remarkable standard of time, there have passed especially two distinctions. The first in frequent use with astronomers according to the cardinal intersections of the zodiack, that is, the two equinoctials and both the solstitial points, defining that time to be the spring of the year, wherein the sun doth pass from the equinox of Aries unto the solstice of Cancer; the time between the solstice and the equinox of Libra, summer; from thence unto the solstice of Capricornus, autumn; and from thence unto the equinox of Aries again, winter. Now this division, although it be regular and equal, is not universal; for it includeth not those latitudes which have the seasons of the year double; as have the inhabitants under the equator, or else between the tropicks. For unto them the sun is vertical twice a year, making two distinct summers in the different points of verticality. So unto those which live under the equator, when the sun is in the equinox, it is summer, in which points it maketh spring or autumn unto us; and unto them it is also winter when the sun is in either tropick, whereas unto us it maketh always summer in the one. And the like will happen unto those habitations, which are between the tropicks and the equator. A second and more sensible division there is observed by Hippocrates, and most of the ancient Greeks, according to the rising and setting of divers stars; dividing the year, and establishing the account of seasons from usual alterations, and sensible mutations in the air, discovered upon the rising and setting of those stars: accounting the spring from the equinoctial point of Aries; from the rising of the Pleiades, or the several stars on the back of Taurus, summer; from the rising of Arcturus, a star between the thighs of Boëtes, autumn; and from the setting of the Pleiades, winter. Of these divisions, because they were unequal, they were fain to subdivide the two larger portions, that is, of the summer and CHAP. III.] THE DIVISIONS OF THE SEASONS. 123 winter quarters; the first part of the summer they named Jépoc, the second unto the rising of the dog-star, &pa, from thence unto the setting of Arcturus, orúpa. The winter they divide also into three parts; the first part, or that of seed-time, they named oroperov, the middle or proper winter, Xequor, the last, which was their planting or grafting time, puraxiáv. This way of division was in former ages received, is very often mentioned in poets, translated from one nation to another; from the Greeks unto the Latins, as is received by good authors; and delivered by physicians, even unto our times. Now of these two, although the first in some latitude may be retained, yet is not the other in any way to be admitted. For in regard of time (as we elsewhere declare) the stars do vary their longitudes, and consequently the times of their ascension and descension. That star which is the term of numeration, or point from whence we commence the account, altering his site and longitude in process of time, and removing from west to east, almost one degree in the space of seventy-two years, so that the same star, since the age of Hippocrates, who used this account, is removed in consequentia about twenty-seven degrees. Which difference of their longitudes doth much diversify the times of their ascents, and rendereth the account unstable which shall proceed thereby. Again, in regard of different latitudes, this cannot be a settled rule, or reasonably applied unto many nations. For, whereas the setting of the Pleiades, or seven stars, is designed the term of autumn, and the beginning of winter, unto some latitudes these stars do never set, as unto all, beyond 67 degrees. And if in several and far distant latitudes we observe the same star as a common term of account unto both, we shall fall upon an unexpected, but an unsufferable absurdity; and by the same account it will be summer unto us in the north, before it be so unto those, which unto us are southward, and many degrees approaching nearer the sun. For if we consult the doctrine of the sphere, and observe the ascension of the Pleiades, which maketh the beginning of summer, we shall discover that in the latitude of 40 these stars arise in the 16th degree of Taurus, but in the latitude of 50, they ascend in the eleventh degree of the same sign, that is, five days sooner; so shall it be summer unto London, before it be unto Toledo, and begin to scorch in England, before it grow hot in Spain. This is therefore no general way of compute, nor reasonable to be derived from one nation unto another; the defect of which consideration hath caused divers errors in Latin poets, translating these expressions from the Greeks; and many difficulties even in the Greeks themselves, which, living in divers latitudes, yet observed the same compute. So that, to make them out, we are fain to use distinctions; sometimes computing cosmically what they intended heliacally, and sometimes in the same expression accounting the rising heliacally, the setting cosmically. Otherwise it will be hardly made out, what is delivered by approved authors; and is an observation very considerable unto those which meet with such expressions, as they are very frequent in the poets of elder times, especially Hesiod, Aratus, Virgil, Ovid, Manilius, and authors geoponical, or which have treated de re rustica, as Constantine, Marcus Cato, Columella, Palladius, and Varro. Lastly, the absurdity in making common unto many nations those considerations whose verity is but particular unto some, will more evidently appear, if we examine the rules and precepts of some one climate, and fall upon consideration with what incongruity they are transferable unto others. Thus it is advised by Hesiod: Pleiadibus Atlante natis orientibus Incipe Messem, Arationem vero occidentibus, implying hereby the heliacal ascent and cosmical descent of those stars. Now herein he setteth down a rule to begin harvest at the arise of the Pleiades; which in his time was in the beginning of May. This indeed was consonant unto the clime wherein he lived, and their harvest began about that season; but is not appliable unto our own, for therein we are so far from expecting an harvest, that our barleyseed is not ended. Again, correspondent unto the rule of Hesiod, Virgil affordeth another :— Ante tibi Eoæ Atlantides abscondantur, |
