What a miracle is this! (fays St. Chryfoftom) he who fits above with the Father, at the very inftant of time is handled with the hands of men. And again, That which is in the cup, is the fame which flowed from the fide of Chrift (Theophilact.) Because we abhor the eating of raw fleth, and efpecially human flefh, therefore it appeareth as bread, tho it is, indeed, fiefh: (St. Auffin.) Chrift was carried in his own hands, when he faid, this is my body (St. Ambrose.) It is bread before it is confecrated, but when that ceremony hath paffed upon it, of bread it becomes the flesh of Chrift. Thus much for the Fathers. If now we refort to the Script ture itself, it is plain that our Saviour's own words, literally understood, do carry the meaning which the Papifts affix to them. This is my body; this is my blood. My fefh is qqu re meat, indeed; my blood is drink, indeed. nos vig

Now in what manner is all this to be got the better of? Here we have the authority of the Church, the fenfe of the Fathers, and the plain words of Scripture, all bearing teftimo ny, with their united force, to the truth of Tranfubftantiation by what fuperior weight of argument, is this threefold cord to be broke through? is there any other method of doing it, than by having recourse to the Reafon of the thing? We bring the doctrine to be tried at the bar of human Reafon; we there find it inconfiftent with the clear principles of Reafon; and hence confidently pronounce, that it is, in its own nature, impoffible. Against this, indeed, the authority of the Church is a cobweb, the opinions of Fathers lighter than air; and we affirm, that our Saviour's words muft neceffarily be taken in a figurative fenfe, because it is impoffible they fhould be true in a literal one. But here fteps out Dr. Patten, and roundly tells us, that the impoffibility of a doctrine is no argument againft its being revealed; for he affims, a revelation may come from God, tho' it contains things inconfiftent with the conceptions of man. Now no propofition is inconfiftent with the conceptions of man, otherwife than as it contradicts the Reason of man, and it then only contradicts his Reason, when he clearly perceives it to be impoffible. The confequence of all this is, that Tranfubftantiation may be trúc, for any thing Dr. Patten can have to fay against it. The fame fort of weapon we have, and fuch only, to beat down another doctrine with a hard name, Predeftination; for my part, I have nothing elfe againft it, but that it is inconfiftent with the conceptions of my mind concerning the nature and attributes of God, it contradicts my ideas of divine good

2

nefs, and justice, and this makes it impoffible for me to be lieve it could be St. Paul's mean 18 15sTode driw ovods confiftently with my be lief of his having been infpired.

Thus we fee with whom it is, that thefe decriers of rea fon unite, and to what point they would lead us. And hence there is fome room to fulpect, after all our boaftings and pas rade, that popery is not kept out of this nation by dint of argument and fair reafoning, was not the door against it barred by good and wholefome laws, it is much to be feared, it would pour in upon us like a deluge; with writers of Dr. P's ftamp, it is certain, the papifts have greatly the advantage in every step of the difpute; no body can give fo good reafons for the exclufion of reafon, and fo confiftently with them felves, as they do. It were to be wifhed, we would no longer give them an opportunity of taking up our own arms, and turning them against ourfelves. Let us be convinced, that the leaft reftraint upon reafon is injurious to the proteftant caufe, reafoning may weaken a falfe religion; a true one has nothing to fear from it: true religion can contain nothing in it, but what is reafonable, and what is in itfelf reafonable, it is a paradox to fay, "Reafon can ever hurt. Jadwyd no

The Caufes of Heat and Cold in the feveral Climates and SituaVrtions of this Globes fo far as they depend upon the Rays of the 1910 Sun, confidered, in order to fhew, that the difference of heat and cold in other countries may be nearly ascertained by a thersidrometer. By T, Sheldrake. 8vo. Is. Cooper. T.

The g

HIS Differtation, which contains about forty pages, is eme dedicated to the Earl of Macclesfield, Prefident of the Royal Society, and by the dedication we learn, that this tract hath been honoured with a favourable hearing before that *Society

2in And, indeed, whether we confider the intention of the Author, or his manner, of reafoning, or the fuccefs which feems atos have attended his conjectures, wherein he hath difplayed no fmall degree of philofophical fagacity, no lefs could be due to him than a favourable hearing. v Almost infinite, fays this Writer, is the variety of ob105fjects that employ the fenfe of vifion; and among thefe, the flowers that rife (pontaneously to adorn and beautify the face 55 of nature, are not the leaft engaging. They have charms to allure and gratify the organs of vition, and of fmelling;

they

1

they have wisdom and contrivance in their forms and structure, to engage the ftudy of the philofopher, and to excite • meditation in the divine: and as their beauty charms our eye, their virtues adminifter to the relief of every animal, in the cure of various maladies. It is not, therefore, curiofity, or ornament, alone, that induces us to with we • could teach the vegetable productions of other countries, to grow in English ground; but health and piety join our ideas of beauty, and all perfuade the culture of every fair and useful flower, herb, vegetable, and tree, whether it be the * growth of this, or the remoteft, clime.-As we have no certain rule for determining the heat, that exotic plants may require in fummer, nor, unless by dear-bought expe rience, what degree of cold they could, with fafety, bear in ⚫ winter, I was led to confider, whether it might not be poffible to discover fome method, for determining how much ⚫ lefs the cold of the winter, in more fouthern climates, might be, than in ours; and in what proportion their heat alfo, ⚫ might probably exceed that of our fummer, by adjusting a thermometer. fo, as to afcertain the difference; that if it were poffible we might, by the affiftance of good green< houses, thermometers, and ftoves, have the pleasure of feeing exotics here, in almoft the fame beauty and perfection as in their native countries."

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From the above quotation, the tendency of our Author's meditations begins pretty fully to appear. The train of thinking, which, on this occafion, prefented itself to him, is fome what fingular. We fhall, therefore, fairly place it before our Readers, keeping as closely to Mr. Sheldrake's own terms, as fuccinctness and perfpicuity will permit. gro

wory How t The difference of feafons, fays he, as well as the different degrees of heat or cold, depend upon the changes of the pofition of this globe, with refpect to the fun, the only visible fountain of warmth and life.-From repeated obfervations, the natural state of this globe feems to be, what we call temperate, or an intermediate degree between hot and coldThis natural warmth of the earth is what fecures fprings, and all other bodies, from being frozen; few winters proving fo coid, as to penetrate the earth to more than twelve or fourteen inches below the furface. The tranfitions from heat to cold, in the air embracing our globe, are chiefly owing to the elevation and depreflion of the poles, which cause so great a change in the fituation of the earth, that the obliquity and perpendicularity in which the rays of the fun fall, are continually in a state of variation; according to which warmth is

per

19

Heat and Cold in different Climates, &c.

479

perpetually increafing or diminishing.So far as action and reaction, occafioned by reflection, conduce to the production of heat, so far also will the continuance of the fun's presence, with the flowness of his motion, be found to increase that heat: andy on the contrary, cold will be increafed by the obliquity of his rays, the swifthefs of his motion, and the time of his abfence below the horizon.-Upon these principles it would ap pear, that a regular increafe of heat fhould always follow the approach of the fun, and as gradual a decrease of warmth, or increafe of cold, always attend his departure; but this is not fo, either on the Continent, or the Iflands. There are many accidents to prevent it; fuch as the fituation of hills, mountains, and the declivity of land from a true plane: for if the defcent be towards the fouth, it will be warmer than it would be, if towards the north. Clouds alfo will fometimes propa gate heat by reflection, and water-clouds will make the air cool. Winds from the South, if without rain, and from the fouth-west, always increafe warmth; as, on the contrary, winds from the eaft, north-eaft, north, and north-weft, always bring a colder air with them. Whenever water becomes a reflecting plane, the fmoothnefs of its furface increases very much the heat of the fun's rays: and, certain it is, that all bodies, whofe furfaces, being polifhed, reflect light, reflect heat also along with it; the degree of which will bear a juft proportion to the clofenefs of the pores, and extent, convexity, or concavity of the surface. Befides, heat is always increased, or diminished, as the colour of the body, on which the rays of the fun fall, is light or dark, or admits of different fhades from white to black; and as the furface of the body is ragged ors fmooth.Black abforbs light, and if the furface be rough, it will grow warm much fooner than if it were fmooth: white, on the contrary, reflects light and heat, and that more vigoroufly from a polished furface. The fame holds true of all intermediate degrees of colour, in proportion as they recede from the grand oppofites, black and white. Heat increases by the continuance of action, notwithstanding what caused it grows weaker; and cold increafes, notwithstanding the fun's approach, till his thinly difperfed rays become clofer collected together, and his prefence is longer with us. When a body is hot, a lefs degree of heat will preferve that heat, than was required to generate it; and fo, on the contrary, with respect to bodies that are cold, more heat is required to put the parts in motion again, than will keep them fo, when once agitatedjupdo GE 1913

It

It is certain, that all parts of this globe enjoy the fame quantity, or nearly fo, of the fun's prefence, in the fpace of a year; and it is certain, that all places do not enjoy the fame quantity of heat from his prefence.As the fun's motion from north to fouth, and from fouth to north, is confined between the tropics, fo is his motion swifter there, than in any other part of the globe: and the nearer he approaches the equator, fo much the fwifter is his motion from eaft to weit, and from north to fouth, and south to north. This will-appear from the following obfervation. The fun paffes from three degrees, thirty minutes, fouth latitude, to three degrees, thirty minutes, north latitude, being together feven degrees in about eighteen days; whereas, when the fun enters Gemini on the 21ft day of May, at twenty degrees north latitude, he fpends one entire month in going three degrees and thirty minutes, or till he enters Cancer, and touches the northern tropic, and another month in returning back from the tropic, till he arrives at Leo, on the 23d of July: in all which time, being fixty-feven days, the fun is as near to the tropic as he was before to the equator for eighteen days. Hence it ap pears reasonable to fuppofe, notwithstanding the fun paffes the equator twice in the fpace of twelve months, that as he spends only thirty-fix days in these two tranfits, the heat under either of the tropics may be as great, if not greater, than under the line. Secondly, for a further proof of the probability, that the heat under the tropic is as great, if not greater, than under the line, I fhall juft obferve the difference of velocity in the fun's motion, at the above mentioned different places, on the furface of the globe. Under the equator, the fun, in one hour, moves fifteen degrees, each degree containing fixty geo-. metrical miles; that is, he moves nine hundred miles in an hour: whereas under the tropic, tho' in an hour he moves the fame number of degrees, yet as each degree there contains. only fifty-five fuch miles, the velocity of his motion there is only at the rate of eight hundred and twenty-five miles in the hour; i. e. the fun travels feventy-five miles lefs in an hour, under one of the tropics, than under the equator. The mo tion of the fun then being flower under the tropic, may we not with reason fuppofe, that by his being nearly fo long vertical, and withal his motion fo much flower, the heat may thereby be raised to a more intense degree here, than it is under the equinoctial line? It is alfo to be remembered in this place, that the fun, in our fummer half of the year, remains about one hundred and forty hours longer above the horizon, under the tropic, than above that under the equator; which

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