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their Distances and Motions, whofe Curiosity might otherwise be very ill employed: there are fome Genius's defign'd, as it were, for these Studies, and they would want Matter to work upon without fuch Objects. The Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament fheweth his handy-work, Pfal. xix. 1. This expreffes the general fenfe of Mankind, and is the Voice, as it were, of Nature it felf, as well as the Word of God. Anaxagoras faid, he was fent into the World to contemplate the heavenly Bodies: And the contemplation of them has contributed more than any one thing in Nature befides, to preferve a sense of Religion among Heathens. And the best and wifeft of them thought, that they could never enough extol the Beauty, and Usefulness, and wondrous Excellency of these Bodies. And these Parts of Nature which are fo beneficial, and afford fuch fatisfaction to Mankind in general, may fully anfwer all the Ends needful in their Creation, tho' they should not be defigned for fuch farther Ufes, as fome modern Philofophers have contrived for them.

III. As the Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, and many of the fix'd Stars were not discovered, till the Invention of Telescopes; fo there are admirable Marks of Wisdom in many other Parts of Nature, which were never known till of late, and never could have been discovered, but by the help of Microscopes. But

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• Diog. Laert.

Celfos & erectos conftituit (homines Deus) ut Deorum cognitionem, cœlum intuentes, capere poffent. Sunt enim e terrâ homines, non ut incolæ atque habitatores, fed quafi fpectatores fuperarum rerum atque coeleftium, quarum fpectaculum ad nullum aliud genus Animantium pertinet. Cic. De Nat. Deor. 1. 2. §. 140. Jam verò circuitus Solis & Lunæ, reliquorúmque fiderum, quanquam etiam ad Mundi cohærentiam pertinent, tamen & fpectaculum hominibus præbent. Nulla eft enim infatiabilior fpecies nulla pulchrior, & ad rationem folertiámque præftantior: eorum enim curfus demetiti maturitates Temporum, & varietates, mutationéfque cognovimus. lb. §. 155.

Men are not the only Creatures, which are capable of praising and magnifying God for his wonderful Works: Angels, who know them more perfectly, do it much more; and they have need of no artificial Inftruments to make Difcoveries of the Divine Wif dom and Power.

IV. The Stars may be of great benefit and usefulnefs in the World, tho' they neither have that Influence which Aftrologers vainly suppose, nor are as Suns to other Earths: For they ferve to keep the circumjacent Air or Æther in Motion, which otherwife would congeal or stagnate; and to maintain that perpetual Circulation of Fluid Matter, which passes from Orb to Orb, through the Universe, and gives Life to all Things. It is now held, that the Rays of Light never returning to their Fountain, the Heat, and Light, and Bulk of the Sun, and Fix'd Stars, conftantly decrease; tho' the Decrease is so very inconfiderable, that it is believed to be demonftrable, that if all the Fluid, which the Sun lofes in a Year, were brought into a folid Form, it would not equal a grain of Sand. This muft needs appear incredible to any one, who confiders the prodigious efflux of Light from the Sun continually, in every point of space. And is it not evident, that the Planets, by Reflexion, return their Light to the Sun, and that there is a conftant mutual communication of Light between the Sun and the Fix'd Stars? And therefore, by both these ways, why may there not be a conftant fupply of luminous Matter, in proportion to that which is emitted? For tho the Planets do not return fo much as they receive; yet as this lofs would be fmall, fo it may be made up by the Light transmitted to the Sun from the Fix'd Stars; for if moft, or many of the Stars, fhould have no Planets in their Orbits, tho' the Sun fhould return to them as much Light as he receives from them; yet a conftant circulation of luminous Matter may be maintained with little diminution. And whatever

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the diminution be, it may be fupplyed by the Matter, which must be attracted by fo vaft Bodies as the Sun and Stars are, and become immediately inflamed and added to the Mass of Light.

V. Tho' this Earth be but small, in comparison of the ambient Heavens, yet the Inhabitants of it, from the beginning of the World to this time, have been exceeding numerous, and may be ftill vaftly more numerous before the end of it. And we must confider the Earth, not as it is at one particular Time, but as it is the Seat of Mankind, and the Habitation of all Generations for all Succeffions of Ages. And under this Notion, the Earth is no fuch contemptible place, tho' it be very small, in respect of the Heavens that furround it. Nor is it ftrange that the material World, how capacious foever it be, fhould be made for Mankind, to whom the Angels are Miniftring Spirits, and for whom the Son of God himself was pleafed to die.

VI. There are few or none of the Planets, but what by reafon of their too near or too remote distance from the Sun, feem incapable of being inhabited. M. Huygens in his Conjectures concerning the Planetary Worlds, fays, that this Water of our Earth would in Saturn and Jupiter be frozen up immediately, and in Venus and Mercury it would be evaporated; and he concludes, that every Planet must have its Waters of fuch a Temper, as to be proportioned to its Heat; Jupiter's and Saturn's must be of fuch a Nature, as not to be liable to Froft, and Venus's and Mercury's of fuch, as not to be easily evaporated by the Sun. He fays, That the Heat of the Sun is nine times greater in Mercury than with us; in Venus it is twice as hot as with us, the Light and Heat in Mars is twice, and fometimes threefold lefs than ours. If there were any Inhabitants in Jupiter, they would have but the five and twentieth part of the Light and Heat

Lib. I.

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that we receive from the Sun, and those in Saturn but the hundredth part. Upon which account, he is very hard put to it to furnish out Inhabitants for the reft of the Planets: but as for the Moon and the Satellites moving about Saturn and Jupiter, he does as good as give up the Cause, by reason that they have neither Seas, nor Rivers, nor Clouds, nor Atmosphere or Vapours, nor any kind of Water. Befides, that the time of Light and Darkness in the Moon being equal to fifteen of our Days, if the Bodies of the Inhabitants were such as ours are, he obferves, that those who had the Sun pretty high in their Horizon, muft be like to be burnt up in fuch long days, and those that liv'd under the Poles of the Moon, would be as much pinch'd with Cold, as our Whale-fifhers are about Ifeland, and Nova Zembla, in the Summer-time. Andthe Summer and Winter in the Moons or Satellites of Saturn, are fifteen Years long; and therefore they may well be concluded to be unhabitable.

But because it may be alledg'd, that the fame thing was believed of the Frigid and Torrid Zones, before Experience convinced Men of their mistake; and that, however, there may be other Planets or Earths yet undiscovered, at convenient distances from fome of the Fix'd Stars: I obferve, that tho' it fhould be granted, that fome Planets be habitable, it doth not therefore follow, that they must be actually inhabited, or that ever they have been. For they might be defign'd, if Mankind had continued in Innocency, as Places for Colonies to remove Men to, as the World should have encreased, either in Reward to those that had excell'd in Vertue and Piety, to entertain them with the Prospect of new and better Worlds; and fo by degrees, to advance them in proportion to their Deferts, to the height of Bliss and Glory in Heaven; or as a necessary Reception for Men (who would then have been immortal) after the Earth had been full of Inhabitants. For as the Fruit of the Tree of Life was

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defigned for Adam, if he had kept his State of Innocence, which he was not fuffered to tafte of after his Fall. For as God defigned that Men fhould have been immortal, if they had not finned, and that the Earth fhould have continued as it was at firft created, without either the Curfe which was denounced for the Tranfgreffion of our first Parents, or the Flood, which destroyed the old World; tho' he forefaw both the Fall, and the future degeneracy of Mankind: fo he might have designed the Planets for these uses, if Men had retained their Integrity, tho' he certainly knew, that they would not retain it. And fince the Fall and Mortality of Mankind, they may be either for Manfions of the Righteous, or places of Punishment for the Wicked, after the Refurrection, according as it -fhall please God, at the end of this World, to new modifie and transform them. And in the mean time, being placed at their respective distances, they do by their feveral Motions contribute to keep the World at a Poife, and the several Parts of it at an Equilibrium in their Gravitation upon each other, by Sir Ifaac Newton's Principles. According to his Principles likewife of Attraction and Gravitation, the conjunction of the Planets, must have fome effect upon our Earth, and upon each other, tho' not poffible perhaps to be reduced to any certain Rules of Obfervation. It is acknowledged, that Comets cannot be habitable by reafon of the prodigious Heat which they contract by approaching the Sun; and yet, what Ufes with any cer-tainty have been affigned them? It feems to be, of late, agreed by Philofophers, that the vast Quantity of Moisture in the Atmosphere of Comets, muft caufe Changes in our Air; but they are of different Opinions, whether this be for the better or for the worse. Aud indeed, they may be a natural Means in the hand of Providence, of beftowing Bleffings, or inflicting Punishments: And if Planets may ferve the fame ends without being made Places of Habitation, there is no

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