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sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, knt.

c °urses participate more or less of Truth, according as their Subjects are^ore or less capable of Mathematical Demonstration. Therefore, this ra-^ter than Logick is the great Organ Orgatwi of all infallible Science; altho’: Mil not exclude Logick from being an Instrument of Reasoning, but ratherdelude it in Geometry ; for, the technical, and most useful Part of it, con-M'ning Syllogism, and the Art of Reasoning, is but a geometrical Ordering"E data per media proportionalia to determine the qucsitum. It would be^dlefs to run through the whole Encyclopædy, and shew you in every Part, great Use of Astronomy; even Quipcn Theology hath been much be-tiding to the trusty Service of this ancilla, in settling the sacred History byH Help of Chronology, which as it is a Part of Astronomy, is built chieflyVn the unerring Chronicles of the geftasuperum & cœlorum , Observations^ Eclipses, great Conjunctions, and the like Appearances; without whichflexes of Times, all sacred and profane History were but indigested Heaps,9|) d Labyrinths, where Men are at a Loss either to begin or end. But

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Phonology la Thing too much neglected by the Ancients) hath given anc hnography of this Labyrinth, and describ’d Times, as it were in a Map, byHich we may run back secure to many Chyliads of Years, conversingHh those of remote Ages, and there finding new Discoveries, as by Navi-frttion we converse with those of distant Climates.

Some, it may be, will knit the Brow, if I should fay, that even Holy-jkripture itself, sometimes requires an astronomical Interpreter; who else*hll give a good Account of the Ilexaemercn, or decide the ControversyHut the Retrocession of the Shadow upon the Dial of Ahaz? WhenHhout a Miracle that might be many Ways done by the rneer Fabrick of the; for it is easy to frame a Dial with such a Stile, that every Day ata Time, the Shadow shall seem to return; but what the Dial was, weHow, jp we ma y believe the Hebrew Writer, who describes it obscurely, yet0 that I can easily fancy it to be the same with that which the Eajlern Na-p°ns used, and which Vitruvius tells us, Berosus Chaldœus brought intof'eece — Hemicyclium cxcavcjtum ex quadrato, ad enclimaque fuccifum, hoc eft,"J elevationem poll —The Retrocession must therefore be real, either in thet or Shadow only; but what if it were in neither truely, but from a Pa-e lion ? the Sun return d ten Degrees by which it had gone down ; mightH a Parelion suddenly appear at ten Degrees distance from the Sun, theH being just set under the Horizon, or being hid by a Cloud ? (for, Pa-pons are Refractions made in nitrous Vapours higher than the Clouds) soH Shadow of this Parelion would make an Appearance as if the Sun hadjVted back ; ’tis what Cadamuftas, and other Defcribers of the Ea/l Indieshappens often in the Illand Sumatra , in the Month of April ; for ten orreen the Sun seeming to start back, and then to return

. . Degrees tiie oun leemmg to ltart DacK, ana tnen to return again,

ph'ere otherwise he would have appear’d. This may be done either by a^Mion, or a strong Refraction through a Vapour in an angular Form, like>?Uss Prism, passing between the Eye and Sun; for, if you gently pass aJS of Crystal before any Objects, the Objects will appear to start out of* r Places. Neither need we fear to diminissi a Miracle by explaining it;h j Retrocession of the Sun was given as a Sign, so was the Rainbow, which( j it appear’d never since, had been miraculous.

^ ‘eight ask the Theologian, who shall explain to me, how our Saviour ,c 1 e-as buried on Friday-Night, and rose again before Day on Sunday ,^ u ‘d be said to be three Days and three Nights in the Sepulchre, when his1^’ there was but a full Day and two Nights ? The World hath hithertob te d off this Difficulty with a Synecdoche , by taking in Parts of Friday andrts of Sunday-, but yet they want a third Night; neither doth Grotius, with

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