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to be above Seventeen millions of German miles di'ftant from the Sun : And a Bullet carried with the fame fwiftnefs that it has when it is fhot out of a great Gun, fuppofing it moved from the Earth to the Sun, would fpend twenty five Years in its paffage; to move <from Jupiter to the Sun, it would require One hundred and twenty five Years; and from Saturn thither, "Two hundred and fifty Years: and fuch a Bullet, by Mr. Huygens's computation, would spend almost Seven hundred thousand Years in its passage between "us and the nearest of the Fixt Stars; he fpeaks concerning the nearest of them, and then ftands amaz'd to think, what a prodigious number befides there must be of thofe, which are placed fo deep in the vaft Spaces of Heaven, as to be as remote from thefe, as thefe are from the Sun. For, if with our bare Eye we can obferve above a thousand, and with a Telescope can difcover ten or twenty times as many, what bounds of number, fays he, muft we fet to thofe, which are out of the reach even of thefe Affiftances! efpecially, if we confider the infinite Power of God. Really, when I have been reflecting thus with my Jelf, methought all our Arithmetick was nothing, and we are verfed but in the very Rudiments of Numbers in comparifon of this great Sum. For the requires an immense Treasury, not of twenty or thirty Figures only in our Decuple Progreffion, but of as many as there are grains of Sand upon the Shore. And yet who can fay, that even this number exceeds that of the Fixt Stars?

The Quantity of Motion in the World, is no lefs wonderful. For if the Earth move upon its own Axis, a place fituate under the Equator muft be carried with as fwift a motion, as a Bullet fhot out of a Cannon; and if the Earth ftand ftill, and the Stars ( move round about it, a Fixt Star in the Equator must move Fifty two thousand five hundred fifty five Miles in a minute of an hour; which, if not more, is at

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leaft Three thoufand times faster than the motion of a Cannon Bullet and the motion of the Fluid Matter interfpers'd between the Earth and the Stars, must be answerably rapid. And yet all these prodigious Motions are fo exactly proportioned and moderated, that, as that great Philofopher Mr. Boyle obferves, no Watch, for a few hours, has ever gone fo regularly, as the whole World has been moved for fo many Ages. And in the confideration of innumerable Inftances of the ftupendous Works of Nature, the Ingenuous, fays he, confefs their Ignorance, and the Confident betray theirs. A late Writer having obferved from M. Huygens, that a Cannon Bullet would be Twenty five Years in paffing from the Earth to the Sun, and confequently Fifty Years in moving thro' the Diameter of the Sun's Orb; concludes, according to the Proportion of the Diameter to the Circumference, that a Cannon Bullet would be about One hundred and fifty Years in performing the Circuit of the Earth's annual Motion; or that the Earth moves about One hundred and fifty times faster than a Cannon Bullet: Which would be rightly concluded, if the Earth moved in a perfect Circle. But then he adds, that this Orb being less than a Point, in comparison of the whole World's extent; if one could leave this Earth, and go on from any fide of it in a Right Line to all Eternity, he might perhaps never come to the last of thofe Suns, which we call Fixt Stars. This is in effect to fay, that there may be an infinite Number of Fixt Stars, or a Space containing an infinite Number of Miles or that there may be fuch a Number of Fixt Stars, or of Miles, as is capable neither of Addition, nor of Subftraction. So manifeft a Contradiction there is, in fuppofing any thing Infinite but God himself.

But if any Man fhall think these Calculations extravagant, (as Discoveries in Philofophy are commonly thought, by fuch as are little converfant in it,) let

him remember, that the highest Calculations, which feem most extravagant, are fet down according to the best Obfervations, that the Wit of Man, after the experience of fo many Ages, has been able to make. So that whether thefe Accounts be true or falfe, they fhew the infufficiency of humane Understanding to examine the Works of God, and do, by confequence, fhew how much more uncapable the wifeft of Men are to comprehend the Infinite Effence of the Creator himself.

The famous Mr. Huygens lately mentioned, fpeaking of the Passage and Communication of Light every way, and in every Point of Space through fuch vaft Regions (which must be much more to be admired, if there be fuppos'd to be a Vacuum, in which there can be nothing to direct or determine its Motion and regulate its Courfe) has thefe words; All thefe things are fo wifely, fo wonderfully contrived, that it is above the power of humane Wit, not to invent or frame fome what like them, but even to imagine or comprehend them.

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To fay nothing of the ftrange Difcoveries concern ing the Formation and Contexture of the Bodies both of Plants and Animals; the innumerable little Ani-, mals, which are difcovered by Microscopes in but one drop of Water, and many other Obfervations of the like nature, are fo wonderful, that we might well fufpect the truth of the Experiments, if Men of the greateft skill and integrity, as well in our own, as in other Countries, did not agree in them. The vast quanti ties of Water, which are continually flowing out of fo many thousand Rivers into the Sea, keep their constant course, and are fome way fo difpofed of, as that the Sea and Land retain always a due proportion to each other. But the Original of the Fountains from whence those Rivers proceed, and how this Circulation of Waters is made, is still matter of difpute. The concuffions of Earthquakes reaching fometimes to fo

i Conje&ure concerning the Planetary Worlds, lib. 1.

vast an extent, and the prodigious eruptions of Fire from divers burning Mountains in feveral parts of the Earth, throwing out abundance of Matter in Rivers of Fire, of great breadth, for many miles together, feem incredible to thofe, who have not read and confidered these things. The Attraction and Verticity of the Loadstone, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, Life and Motion, every thing in Natural Philofophy, when feriously examined, has fo many inexplicable Difficulties, as would make a confiderate Man very modeft in his Cenfures concerning things fupernatural. For if we had been placed in another World, a Natural Hiftory of this might have feemed as ftrange to us, as any thing Revealed can do now. And it must be great prefumption in us, who know fo little of the World we live in, to talk pragmatically of another, which we have only been told of; and to believe no more than our Senfes can inform us of, when every Senfe may inform us, how narrow and imperfect our Knowledge is, and that we take upon Truft, or fwallow in the Grofs, what we are commonly leaft diftruftful about.

And not only Nature, but even Art, exceeds the Apprehenfions of moft Men. The Mechanical Powers and Motions are wont to be mistaken for Magick, by fuch as have not skill and experience in those matters; the performances of Archimedes were fo wonderful beyond all expectation or belief, that the King of Syracufe is faid to have made a Decree, to forbid any Man to question whatever Archimedes fhould affert. The Force of Gun-powder might be thought incredible, if it were not fo common amongst us. Not to mention, that the Indians took Watches for Animals, and could not imagine, how Men could hold correfpondence at a distance by a little piece of Paper. What Man is there among the Vulgar, that can conceive, how the dimenfions and diftances of the Sun and Stars can be taken, and how the Eclipfes of the

Sun and Moon, and how the Satellites of Jupiter, can be calculated? And is not the Knowledge of the wifeft Man upon Earth infinitely more furpafs'd by the Divine Wisdom, than his Knowledge can excel that of the greatest Idiot?

III. Those who disbelieve and reject the Mysteries of Religion, muft believe things much more incredible. I. He that will not believe the Being of an Eter nal God, must believe Matter to be eternal: for it is certain, fomething must be eternal, because nothing could produce nothing; and unless there always had been fomething, there never could have been any thing. But this Eternal Matter must either have been once without Motion, or always with it: if it were once without Motion, then Matter must move it self, that is, Motion must be produced without any thing to produce it. If it were always in motion, then there must have been an eternal Succeffion, fince Motion cannot be all at once; for the very nature of Motion fuppofes Progreffion, and no Body can move in this Space and the next, at the fame inftant: for then it must be in two places at once. But all Succeffion of Duration is gradual, and the Degrees of it are capable of being numbred; and to fuppofe an Eternal Succeffion, is to fuppofe an Infinite Number; that is, a Number, to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be fubftracted; or a Number which is no Number. Motion therefore could not be Eternal, and confequently the World could not exift from Eternity.

But fince there must be fomething Eternal, there must be something, the duration whereof is indivifible, or which has all its exiftence together, fo as to have existed now no longer than it had done before. the Beginning of the World. For this is the notion of Eternity, that it has neither Beginning nor End: and therefore, things eternal never had a lefs or shorter duration, than they now have; and can never

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