yens, he* gathered. together into one place, and let': the dry
land appear, and it wasfb§. and the evenirigandthe morning
were thefirfl day. Which .brings fne to’ a finall Digrefc
fibnYfi* enquiring;’ £what in thofe Antediluvian Ages was
meant by ja Day, an Hour, or aYear.
T heL atin wotdtHiora has been judg’d by fome- to be de-
riyrcf from the Greek, :word^aetfe*i, .which fignifies to limit
ottbound, becaufeit is the meafure of Time,- fo iirMathe-
thematies comes 'the word Horizon beGaufe that terminates
the fight; but Macrobius and Taufanias both alledge
that its original is owing to the ^Egyptians, becaufe the Sun
in .their. Language was ftiled Horum; the Septhagint Interpreters
would have it indifferently to expr&fs a lhort
fpafce o f time, hence in St. Luke ietifai 'is died ’for Supper
time; . fome are o f Opinion that Hours, anciently fige
nify ’d the four Sea tons o f the Year, hence the Greek Annals
call’d them their Hori, and their Writers Horogrdphici'}
fome there are that think the Greeks call’d that part of
Time an Hour wherein the Dog-ftar arifes> henee- Galen in
his Book De Hlimentis, calls thofe Hbrean Fruits which
fpring up at that time wherein the Dog-ftar drefe; - In gel
neral by an Hour the Ancients have ftgnify’d an Age, and
by the twelfth Hour Old Age, as fome would have it, hence
in that Dialogue of MaFcus Graffus and the K. hiGalatia^
comes that Expreffion, What Man, *la^s he* a rt not thou
now arrived a t the twelfth Hour, and y e t talheftof building
a new City ? but I am apt to think this might rather
be Metaphorically fpoken, becaufe in the computation of
Time for the greateft part, fb many Hbhri terminate1 the
artificial Day ; it might therefore not unaptly be compar’d
to the Period o f Old Age. Herodotus relates that the Gre*
dans from the ^Egyptians receiv’d the ufe of the Pole, the
Gnomon, and the twelve parts of the Day, and the original
of that Ufe among the ^Egyptians was becaufe their
Priefts in thofe Days were accuftomed twelve times a Day
to make a noife to their Cynocephalus ; and Cicero takes
notice
notice of fuch a Ceremony to Ser.apis, from whfehitfeems
dfear that an Hour in thofe Days was.the fame as. now in the
computation of Time; and that Dial ofÆ a z , where the
Miracle, was: wrought o f thè-Sun’fgoifig back ten Degrees,
feems to confirm that th e > 7^rin thofe days computed Time
in the like manner, for all Interpreters agree thofe Decrees'
were the Indices of fuch parts of the Day ; and thedefcri-
ption. that FanciroUus gives us: of an Infiniment amongft
the ancient Romans, farther evinces the truth bf this H\P
pothefis : c They took (fays he) a Veffel made of Glafs in
Ythefobttom o f which wàs a n a ^ H ^ d t o à b o u t with
I ^ 4 eft theWater fhould wear it away; on the other part
- of the Veffel was drawn-a right Line, having the Hafirs
f §jg after, which they filled the Veffel with W*
' ter, which.iffued drop by drop out o f t^ h t iU Mle^'
I th*Tthruft a Cork $ P I the Waterfafthed little Wand *
f the end o f which pointed at the firft Hour, and âvthe
^ Water decreafed at the fécond and third H fiftf 1M d l
this .the Greeks calld\C lep fyd ra^ ¥mm both
from. the Pradhce o f the Jews, 'Egyptians^Greeks àn dM
13 mo* Probàble'that the Antediluvraitëëdmphfed
T u n b ^ :d o n o w , and that JSbah very Mk^tranfmitted
t^Sie Inftruetidm down to fois Pofterity.
K^Me next thing therefore to be^onfiderH isHo' illufW é
what is meant Ly Days : Days-by^uNations i& 'dM e d ,
into two kifids^ the one natural, the hfehér artfifelil, t fe
onecpnfiftingiof twelve; the other Sfotwen tKohrHoufk*'
having therefore fully, explain’d what the Ancients meant
by Hours, I need not farther to infill upon this Point.' I
fhall then proceed to explain what is meant by a Year- The
woidHnnus, or Year, in the three ancient Languages is
denvd from a thing that turns round, or a Circle, for fo
much the Hebrew word does figmfy ||§ ; hence the ^Æoyp-
■ians ieprefented the Year by a Snake biting its Tail, but
whether a Lunar or Solar Year is meant by the Patriarchs 1
is next to be confider’d. The Turks and A ra b ia n s ufe
1A * . the