Selected quad for the lemma: day_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
day_n	eclipse_n	hour_n	minute_n	17,598	5	14.3206	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A22627	Saint Augustines confessions translated: and with some marginall notes illustrated. Wherein, diuers antiquities are explayned; and the marginall notes of a former Popish translation, answered. By William Watts, rector of St. Albanes, Woodstreete; Confessiones. English	Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.; Watts, William, 1590?-1649.	1631 (1631)	STC 912; ESTC S100303	327,312	1,035

when 't is from thee then is it strength but when 't is of our selves then is it weaknes indeed Our good still lives with thee from which because wee are averse therefore are we perverse Let us now at last O Lord returne that wee doe not overturne because with thee our Good lives without any defect which Good thou art We shall not need to feare finding a place to returne unto because we fell headlong from it for how●ever wee have beene long absent from thence yet that house of ours shall not fall downe and that 's thy Eternity * ⁎ * SAINT AVGVSTINES Confessions THE FIFTH BOOKE CHAP. 1. Hee stirres up his owne soule to praise God REceive heere the Sacrifice of my Confessions from the hand of my Tongue which thou hast formed and stirred up to confesse unto thy Name Heale thou all my bones and let them say O Lord who is like unto thee For neither does a man teach thee what is done within himselfe when he confesses to thee seeing a closed heart shuts not out thy eye nor can mans hard-heartednesse thrust backe thy hand for thou openest it when thou pleasest either out of pitty or justice to us and there is nothing can hide it selfe from thy heate But let my soule praise thee that it may love thee and let it confesse thine owne mercies to thee that it may praise thee No creature of thine is slacke or silent in thy praises nor the spirit of any man by the praises of his mouth converted to thee no nor yet any animall or corporeall creature by the mouthes of those that well consider of them that so our soule may towards thee rowze it selfe up from wearines leaning it selfe on those things which thou hast created and passing over to thy selfe who hast made them so wonderfully where refreshment and true fortitude is CHAP. 2. Gods presence can no man avoid seeing he is every where 1. LEt unquiet and naughty people now run and flee from thee as fast as they will yet thou seest them well enough and canst distinguish of shaddowes And behold all seemes gay to them meane while themselves be deformed And what wrong have they done thee by it or how have they disparaged thy government which from the highest heaven to this lowest earth is most just and perfect But whither are they fled when they fled from thy presence Or in what corner shalt not thou finde them out But runne away that they might not see thee who well sawest them that being thus blindfolded they might stumble upon thee because thou forsakest nothing that thou hast made that the unjust I say might stumble upon thee and be justly vexed by it withdrawing themselves from thy lenity and stumbling at thy justice fall foule upon thy severity Little know they in truth that thou art every where whom no place incompasses and that thou alone art ever neere even to those that set themselves furthest from thee 2. Let them therefore be turned backe and seeke thee because as they have forsaken thee their Creator thou hast not so given over thy Creature Let them bee converted that they may seeke thee and behold thou art there in their heart in the heart of those that confesse to thee and that cast themselves upon thee and that powre forth their teares in thy bosome after all their tedious wandrings Then shalt thou most gently wipe away their teares that they may weepe the more yea and delight in their weeping even for that thou Lord and not any man of flesh and blood but thou Lord who madest them canst refresh and comfort them But whereabouts was I when I sought after thee Thou wert directly before mee but I had gone backe from thee nor did I then finde my selfe much lesse thee CHAP. 3. Of Faustus the Manichee and of Astrologie 1. LEt mee lay open before my GOD that nine and twentieth yeere of mine Age. There came in those dayes unto Carthage a certaine Bishop of the Manichees Faustus by name a great snare of the Divell he was and many were intangled by him in that ginne of his smooth Language which though my selfe did much commend in him yet was I able to discerne betwixt it and the truth of those things which I then was earnest to learne nor had I an eye so much to the curious Dish of Oratory as what substance of Science their so famous Faustus set before me to feed upon Report had before-hand highly spoken him to me as that hee was a most knowing man in all honest points of Learning and exquisitely skilled in all the liberall Sciences 2. And for that I had sometimes read many bookes of the Philosophers and had fresh in memory much of theirs I presently fell to compare some points of theirs to those soule fables of the Manichees and those things verily which the Philosophers had taught who could onely prevaile so far as to make judgement of this lower world though the Lord of it they could by no meanes finde out seem'd farre more probable unto mee For great art thou O Lord and hast respect unto the humble but the proud thou beholdest afarre off Nor doest thou draw neere but to the contrite in heart nor art thou found by those that bee proud no not though they had the curious skill to number the Starres and the sand and to quarter out the houses of the heavenly Constellations and to find out the courses of the Planets For with their Vnderstanding and Wit which thou bestowedst on them doe they search out these things yea they have found out and foretold many a yeere before the Eclipses of the lights of the Sunne and Moone what day and what howre and how many Digits they should bee so nor hath their calculation faild them and just thus came all to passe as they foretold and they committed to writing the Rules found out by them which are read this day and out of them doe others foretell in what yeere and moneth of the yeere and what day of the moneth and what howre of the day and what part of it's light the Moone or Sunne is to be Eclipsed and so it shall come to passe as it is foreshewed 3. At these things men wonder and are astonished that know not this Art and they that doe know it triumph and are extolled and our of a wicked pride turning backe from thee failing thereby of thy light they foresee an Eclipse of the Sunne so long beforehand but perceive not their owne which they suffer in the present For they enquire not religiously enough from whence they are enabled with the wit to seeke all this withall and finding that 't is thou that made them they resigne not themselves up unto thee that thou mayst preserve what thou hast made and that they may kill in sacrifice unto thee what they have made themselves to be and slay their owne exalted imaginations like as the fowles of the ayre and their owne

the leaves of trees thou tookest order for that stiffe opinion of mine by which I struggled with Vindicianus that sharp-sighted old man and with Nebridius that admirable-spirited ●ong man the first vehemently affirming and the latter often though with some doubtfulnesse saying That there was no Art whereby things to come might be foreseene but that ●ens conjectures had oftentimes the helpe of Fortune and that ●● talking many things something to come was oft-times per●hance for spoken of the parties that spake little knowing of it but stumbling now and then upon the right by their not saying nothing 2. Thou therfore providedst a friendly man for me and hee 〈…〉 consulter with the Astrologers yet not throughly called in those Arts but as I ●● a curious consulter with ●●● and one that knew something which hee had heard of his Father as hee said which how farre it might prevaile to overthrow the opinion of that Art hee knew not This man therefore Firminus by name having beene finely bred and well taught asking my advice as a deare friend of his concerning divers affaires of his owne which his worldly hopes were big swolne withall and what I conjectured of him by his Constellations as they call them and I who now beganne to incline in this particular towards Nebridius opinion did not to say troth refuse to make conjecture upon it and to tell him as much as came in my unresolved minde but told him withall that I was even almost perswaded in my heart that these were but vaine and ridiculous follies 3. He thereupon up and told me how his Father had beene yet curious after such Bookes and how he had a friend as earnest as himselfe at them who with joyne study and conference were hot upon these toyes by the fire of their hearty affections insomuch that they would observe even the very minutes of the bringing forth of yong of those dumbe creatures which they kept about their Houses and made observations withall of the position of the heavens at those minutes to the intent to gather experiments of this Art as it were Hee said moreover how he had heard of his Father that what time as his Mother was big with him the said Firminus a certaine maid-servant of that friend of his Fathers was big with child also which her Master could not bee ignorant of who tooke care with most diligent examination to get knowledge even of the ●ittering of his very Bitches And how it so fell out that when one for his Wife and the other for his servant with the carefullest observation reckoned the daies yea the houres nay the very least particles of the houres that both of them were brought to bed at the same instant insomuch that both of them were constrained to allow the very selfe-same constellations even to the very same minutes he for his sonnes birth and the other for his little servant For so soone as the women began to fall in labour they both gave notice to one another of what was falue out in either of their houses and had messengers ready to send to one another so soone as they had notice of what was borne which they could easily procure to have instant notice of as being in their owne kingdome and that the messengers sent from one another met with one another by the way in such equall distance from either houses that neither of the Calculators could observe no other position of the Starres or seconds of instances than the other had done and yet Firminus borne to a faire fortune in his parents house ranne his course through the faire wayes of the world throve well in riches raised himselfe to honour whereas that little servant not able any way to free himselfe of the yoke of slavery he was borne unto continued to serve his Masters as himselfe told the story who well enough knew him 4. Vpon the hearing and beleeving of these things for that such a man of credite had told them all that former resolute reluctancy of mine fell quite to the ground And first of all I endevoured to reclaime Firminus from that curiosity by telling him that for me upon the inspection of his constellations to foretell what shall truely happen to him I ought verily first to have seene in them how his parents had beene eminent persons among their neighbors and that be had beene descended of a noble Family in his owne Citie that hee was free borne educated like a Gentleman and very well studied And if that servant upon the same constellations which were common to him too had askt me to tell him his true Fortune I ought on the other side to have seeue in them the basenesse of his liuage the slavishnesse of his condition and those other particulars so much different and so farre distant from the other Gentlemans From whence therefore it now came to passe that looking upon the same constellations I should reade so diverse fortunes if I should speake the truth and if I should pronounce the same fortunes I should lye falsely thence did I also collect most certainely That what-ever upon consideration of these constellations was foretold truely was not spoke out of Art but chāce and what-ever was delivered falsely was not out of the unskilfulnesse of the Art but out of the uncertainety of the chance 5. Being thus entred into the businesse and thinking with my selfe more seriously upon such like arguments that no one of those dotards who lived by such shifts whom I had an itch even out of hand to cope withall and with derision to confute might not hereafter confront me so as if either Firminus had informed me falsely or his Father him I bent my consideration upon those that are borne Twinnes who for the most part come out of the wombe so neere one to another as that small distance of time betweene them how much force soever in the nature of things these fellowes avow it to have yet is it not posible to make distinct collection of the difference by any observation of man or to have it at all charactered out in those figures which the Mathematician is to looke into and pronounce the truth by them Nor shall they ever tell truth for then hee that had lookt upon the same figures must have told the same Fortunes both of Esau and of Iacob whereas the same things no wayes happened to them both Needes therefore must he have conjectured false or if he had conjectured truely hee must not have said the same things whereas he looked upon the same figures Had he therfore pronounced truely it should have been by chance and not by Art For thou O Lord most just the Ruler of this Vniverse even while they that aske the advice and those that give it too know not what they doe workest by so hidden an instinct as that whoever asked the Mathematicians advice should heare such an answer as out of the un●●●●chable bottome of thy just Iudgement

earth there were no time why is it then demaunded what thou Then didst For there was no THEN when as there was no time Nor doest thou in Time precede Time for so thou shouldest not precede all Times 2. But thou goest before all time passed by the high aduantage of an euer-present Eterniti● and thou goest beyond all times to come euen because they are to come seeing that they shall no sooner come but they shall be past whereas thou art still the same and thy yeeres fayle not Thy yeeres neyther goe nor come whereas these yeeres of ours doe both goe and come that in their order they may all come Thy yeeres are in standing all at once because they are still at a stay nor are those that goe thrust out by those that come for that they passe not away at all but these of ours shall all bee euen when they shall not all be Thy yeeres are one day and thy day is not euery day But to day seeing thy To day giues not place vnto To morrowe nor comes in place of yesterday Thy Today is Eternity therefore didst thou beget Him coeternall to thy selfe vnto whome thou saydst This day haue I begotten thee Thou hast made all times and before all times thou art neyther in any time was there not a time CHAP. 14. Of the nature and three differences of time 1. IN no time therefore didst thou not make any thing because very time it selfe is of thy making there bee no times coeternall with thee for that thou still remainest the same But should they still be so verily they should not bee times For what is time who is able easily and briefely to explayne that who is able so much as in a conceit to comprehend any one terme drawn from the nature of time aptly to expresse time by What now in our vsuall discourse doe we more familiarly and knowingly make mention of then Time And surely wee vnderstand it well enough when wee speake of it and wee vnderstand it so when in speaking with another wee heare it named 2. What is time then If nobody askes me I can tell but if I were desirous to explayne it to one that should aske me plainely I cannot tell him Boldly for all this dare I affirme my selfe to know thus much that if nothing were already passed there should bee no past time and if there were nothing to come there should bee no time to come and if there were nothing in present being there should now bee no present time Those two times therfore passed and to come in what sort are they seeing the passed is now no longer and that to come is not yet As for the present should it alwayes bee present and neuer passe into time past verily it should not bee Time but Eternity If the present now bee euen therefore made Time because it passeth into time past how then can wee say that to bee whose Cause of beeing is to make it not to bee that wee cannot forsooth affirme Time to haue any being but for this reason onely that it goes onward to a not-being CHAP. 15. No time can bee sayd to bee long 1. AND yet wee say Time is long and time is short though neyther doe we speake this but of the time passed or to come A long time past for example wee call an hundred yeeres since and a long time to come an hundred yeeres hence But a short time passed wee call suppose ten dayes since and a short time to come ten daies hence But in what sence is that eyther long or short which at all is not For the passed is not now and the future is not yet Let vs not therefore say It is long but of the past time let vs say It hath beene long and of the time to come It will bee long O Lord my God my light shall not thy truth laugh at man for this For what passed time hath beene long when it was already passed hath it beene long or when it was yet present For then was it in best possibility to be long when that was in present being which should bee long As for the passed time it was now no longer wherefore had that no possibility to bee long which had at all no being Let vs not therefore say Time passed hath beene long for wee shall neuer finde what hath beene long seeing that euer since it was past it is no more But let vs say That present time hath beene long because when it was present then was it long For hauing not hitherto passed away that so it could not bee euen therefore had it such a present beeing as was in possibility to haue beene long whereas after it was once past that terme at once ceased to be long which ceased to be at all 2. Let vs see therfore O thou soule of man whether yet the present time may be long For to thee it is giuen to be sensible of the distances of time and to measure them What now wilt thou answer me Are an hundred yeeres in present a long time See first whether an hundred yeeres may bee present or no. For if the first of these yeeres bee now a running that one is present indeede but the other ninety and nine bee to come and therefore are not yet But if the second yeere be now current then is one past already another in present being and all the rest to come And if we suppose any middle yeere of this hundred to bee now present all before it are past all after it to come Wherefore an hundred yeeres cannot possibly bee present See againe whether that one which is now a running bee now present seeing that euen of that if the first moneth bee now a running then are all the rest to come If the second then is the first past and the rest not yet come on Therefore neyther is the yeere now a spending all present together and if it be not all present then is not the yeere present For twelue months are a yeere of which that one now a running is present all the rest eyther past or to come Although neither is that moneth now a running present but one day of it onely if the first the rest are to come if the last the rest are past if any of the middle then is that betweene the past and the future 2. See how the present time which onely we found meete to bee called long is now abridged to the length scarce of one day But let vs examine that also because not so much as one day is wholy present For foure and twenty houres of night and day doe fully make it vp of which the first hath the rest to come the last hath them passed and any of the middle ones hath those before it already past those behinde it yet to come yea that one houre is wasted out in still-vanishing minutes How much soeuer of it is flowne away is past whatsoeuer remaynes