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

CHAP. 27. Hee beginnes to resolue the former question, How wee measure time.

1. COurage my minde, and bend thy intentions strongly vpon thine owne selfe. Tis God that is our hel∣per, * 1.1 he that hath made vs, and not wee ourselues. Looke out, see where Truth beginnes to cleare vp: Come on, let vs put the case: The voyce of a body beginnes to sound, and it does now found, yea it sounds still; but list, now it leaues sounding: tis silence therefore now; and that voyce is quite ouer, and is now no more. This voyce, before it sounded, was to come, and so could not then bee measured, because as yet it was not, ney∣ther iust now can it, because

it is no longer. Then there∣fore, whilest it sounded, it might; because there was something that might bee measured. But yet euen then made it no stay; for onward still it went, and past at length quite away. Might it then be measured the rather, for that? By this passing on therefore, was it stretched out into some space of time, by which it might bee mea∣sured; because the present hath no space. If there∣fore then, it might; then, loe, let vs put the case, that another voyce hath begunne to sound, and still does, with the same con∣tinued tenor without any distinction: let vs now while it sounds, measure it: seeing when it hath left sounding, it will then bee past, and nothing left to bee measured.

2. Let vs measure it ve∣rily, and tell how much it is. But it sounds still; nor can it be measured but from the instant it beganne in, vnto the end it left in. For the very space betweene, is the thing wee measure, name∣ly, from some beginning, vnto some end. For which reason, a voyce that is not yet ended, cannot be measu∣red, as that it may bee sayd how long, or short it is; nor can it bee called equall to a∣nother, or double to a sin∣gle, or the like: and so soone (againe) as it is en¦ded, it shall bee no more. How may it then bee mea∣sured? Wee measure times, for all this; and yet neyther those, which are not yet come; nor yet those which are now no longer; nor yet those, w^ch are not lengthened out by some pawse; nor yet

those which haue no bounds. So that wee neyther measure the times to come, nor the past, nor the present, nor the passing times; and yet doe wee measure times.

3. O God All creator! this verse of eyght syllables, interchangeably varies it selfe between short and long syllables. Foure therefore be short, namely the first, third, fifth, and seuenth: which bee but single, in respect of the foure long, namely the se∣cond, fourth, sixth, and eighth. Euery one of these, to euery one of those, hath a double time: I pronounce them ouer and ouer; and euen so I finde it, as playnely as sence can shew it. So farre as Sence can manifest it, I measure a long syllable by a short, and I sencibly finde it to haue twice so much: but now when one sounds after

another, if the former bee short, and the latter long, how shall I then hold fast the short one; and how in mea∣suring the long, shall I so lay them together, as that I may find this to haue twice so much as that; seeing the long cannot begin to sound, vnlesse the short leaues sounding? yea, that long one it selfe do I measure as not present, seeing I measure it not till it be en∣ded. Now his ending is his passing away. What is it ther∣fore that I measure? where is that short syllable a 1.2 by which I measure? where is that long one which I am to measure. They haue sounded vp their sound, they are both flowne, and gone; they are now no more, and yet doe I measure them? Yes; and confidently do I answer (so farre as a man may trust a well-experienced b 1.3 sence) that this syllable is but

single, and that double; in respect of space of time I meane: and yet could I not do thus much, vnlesse these syllables were already past and ended.

4 Tis not therefore these voyces (which now are not) that I measure: but some∣thing it is euen in mine own memory, which there re∣maynes fastned. Tis in thee O my mind, that I measure the Times. Doe not thou clamorously contradict mee now, in that which is so; nay, doe not disturbe thine owne selfe with these rowtes of thine owne impressions. In thee (I say) it is, that I measure the times. The impression, which things pas∣sing by, cause in thee, re∣maynes euen when the things are gone: that is it which being still pres∣sent, I do measure: not

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the things them selues; for they purposely passe away, that this impression may bee made. This doe I mea∣sure, whenas I measure the times. Eyther therefore they are the times, or they are not which I measure.

5. But what when wee mea∣sure Silence; and say that this Silence hath held as long time as that voyce did; doe wee not then lengthen out our thoughts to the mea∣sure of a voyce, euen as if it now sounded; that so wee meditating or conning some∣thing in these vacant * 1.4 dis∣tances of Silence, may bee able to say it ouer in a space of time? For when the voyce and tongue giue ouer, yet then in our meditations go

wee ouer Poems, and Ver∣ses, and any other discourse, or Dimensions of Motions; yea, and for the spaces of times, how much this is in respect of that, doe wee (in our thoughts) repeate ouer; no other wise then if vocally we did pronounce them. Sup∣pose a man were about to vt∣ter a long speech; and in his thoughts should resolue how long it should bee: this man hath euen in silence already spent a space of time; and in commending it to his me∣mory, hath already begunne to vtter that speech, which continues sounding, vntill it be brought vnto the end pro∣posed. Yea it hath sounded, and will sound; for so much of it, as is finished, hath sounded already, and the rest will sound. And thus passeth it on, vntill the present inten∣tion conueighs ouer the Fu∣ture

into the past: by the di∣minution of the future, the past gayning increase; euen vntill by the vniuersall wa∣sting away of the future, all growes into the past.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Psal. 100. 3
• a 1.2

  I reade it quâ in steade of quam.
• b 1.3

  Quantum excercitato sensui cre∣ditur. So I reade it, and not Sensu.
• * 1.4

  Hee meanes, that a verse or speech re∣peated in silence, takes vp as much time as if it were pro∣nounced. ••o that though si∣lence be not mea∣sured by long and short sylla∣bles, as words are, yet it takes vp Time. So that tis not motion onely that makes time. The other Translater hath done it other-wise, which I leaue to censure.