Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley.

  • Stukeley, William, 1687-1765.
Date:
1763
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [.40 ] ean their courfes; whether vernal, or autumnal equi¬ nox, has been disputed ; but I cannot think with any true efte<ft. To come at a folution of this queftion ; in my judg¬ ment, we mu ft chiefly apply to the vegetable world, which is, to the nature and reafon of things, for we may be aflured, the fupreme artificer adted with the greateft reafon and judgment, we are to confider the fituation of paradife, where our firft parents were made, where they firfl: lived, as to the time of the year, neither the Jewifh practice, nor the facred memoirs do further us much, the Jews had two commencements of the year, the vernal equinox, which they called facred: as by it, all their religious feftivals were regulated. that of the autumnal equinox, was the civil head of the year, for bargains and agriculture. If religion be the primary intent of our living, to provide for a more permanent ftate future ; if the fab- batical duty be the firfl: and moft important bufinefs of life here, the facred year is infinitely preferable : in the fame degree, as things eternal, excel the finite, this would anfwer our queftion at once, but let us confult nature, the law of creation. Survey the field, the garden, the woods, at autumn, take along with us, this preliminary confideration. that the facred hiftory was wrote in a fouthern country; our firfl: parents lived about the influx of the Euphrates into the Perfian gulf; which is many degrees of lati¬ tude warmer than us. We muft neceflarily conclude the prime, and the middle of the year is there far fpent; even the harvefts are