, 4to.

The author argues against cometic astrology with great ability.

A prophecy on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in this present
year 1682. With some prophetical predictions of what is likely to ensue
therefrom in the year 1684. By John Case, Student in physic and
astrology.[266] London, 1682, 4to.

{129}

According to this writer, great conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur
"in the fiery trigon," about once in 800 years. Of these there are to be
seven: six happened in the several times of Enoch, Noah, Moses, Solomon,
Christ, Charlemagne. The seventh, which is to happen at "the lamb's
marriage with the bride," seems to be that of 1682; but this is only
vaguely hinted.

De Quadrature van de Circkel. By Jacob Marcelis. Amsterdam, 1698, 4to.

Ampliatie en demonstratie wegens de Quadrature ... By Jacob Marcelis.
Amsterdam, 1699, 4to.

Eenvoudig vertoog briev-wys geschrevem am J. Marcelis ... Amsterdam,
1702, 4to.

De sleutel en openinge van de quadrature ... Amsterdam, 1704, 4to.

Who shall contradict Jacob Marcelis?[267] He says the circumference
contains the diameter exactly times

1008449087377541679894282184894
3 --------------------------------
6997183637540819440035239271702

But he does not come very near, as the young arithmetician will find.

MATHEMATICAL THEOLOGY.

Theologiae Christianae Principia Mathematica. Auctore Johanne Craig.[268]
London, 1699, 4to.

This is a celebrated speculation, and has been reprinted abroad, and
seriously answered. Craig is known in the early history of fluxions, and
was a good mathematician. {130} He professed to calculate, on the
hypothesis that the suspicions against historical evidence increase with
the square of the time, how long it will take the evidence of Christianity
to die out. He finds, by formulae, that had it been oral only, it would have
gone out A.D. 800; but, by aid of the written evidence, it will last till
A.D. 3150. At this period he places the second coming, which is deferred
until the extinction of evidence, on the authority of the question "When
the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" It is a pity that
Craig's theory was not adopted: it would have spared a hundred treatises on
the end of the world, founded on no better knowledge than his, and many of
them falsified by the event. The most recent (October, 1863) is a tract in
proof of Louis Napo