Imatges de pàgina
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revolutions are as the cubes of their distances; And as it is very certain and vifible, that the fecondary planets refpect their primaries as their centres, and move round them, fo it is in fome measure (one would think) no less certain, and beyond doubt, that all the primary planets which have the self same respect to, and motion with regard to the fun, as thofe fecondaries have to their primaries, that thofe primaries, I say, do move round him as their centre, and not about the earth, to whom they have no fuch respect.

5. The laft argument I fhall allege for my preference of the Copernican to the Ptolemaic fyftem is from the great parity and congruity obfervable among all the works of the creation; which have a manifeft harmony, and great agreement with one another.

Thus in our present cafe, it is manifeft to our fight, that every globe we have any good view of, hath fuch like motions as thofe are which we afcribe to the earth, The fun, indeed, being in the centre, is as it were fixed there, and hath no periodical motion: but yet the other motion round its own axis, we can manifeftly difcern. And as for all the planets which move round about the fun, they have, as far as it is poffible

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for us to fee them, fuch motions as thofe we afcribe to the earth, namely, a diurnal rotation round their own axis, and a periodical revolution round the fun. And if this be manifeft in the other planets, what should hinder its being fo in our own? Why fhould ours be fingular? Why not be fuppofed to be moved as well as the reft, when it is very certain that either it hath thofe motions, or the heavens have fo; and it is far more natural and eafy for the earth to perform them, than for the heavens, as hath been already fhewn.

Thus having fhewn how far more probable the Copernican fyftem is than the Ptolemaic, fo far as it relates to the motions of the heavens and earth, and the fun being in the centre, it remains (before I proceed to the third and laft fyftem) that I fhould answer some objections alleged against this fyftem, partly from scripture, and partly from philofophy and fight.

The objections from fcripture are fuch as feem to affert the immobility and reft of the earth, and the motion of the fun and heavenly bodies.

The texts that are brought to prove the immobility and reft of the Earth, 1 are Chron.

xvi. 30. "The world fhall be ftable, that it be not moved. The fame is faid, Pfal. xciii. 1, "The world alfo is established, that it cannot be "moved." And fo the fame again Pfal. xcvi, 10. In Pfal. civ. 5. God is faid "To lay "the foundations of the Earth, that it fhould "not be moved for ever." And laftly, Solomon, Ecclef. 1. 4. afferts that "The earth "abideth for ever. Like to which is that of the Pfalmift, Pfal. cxix. 90. "Thou haft eftab"lished the Earth, and it abideth." Thefe are the principal texts which feem to affert the immobility and stability of the Earth.

The principal texts which mention the motion of the Sun and heavenly bodies, are fuch as afcribe rifing, setting, or ftanding ftill to them. Thus Gen. xix. 23. 66 The Sun was risen 66 upon the Earth, when Lot entered Zoar." And Gen. xv. 17. "When the Sun went down, ́ and it was dark, a fmoaking furnace, &c." So Ecclef. i. 5. "The Sun arifeth, and the "Sun goeth down, and hafteth to the place were "he arofe." So Pfal. xix. 5. 6. The fun is faid to come out of his chamber like a bride

6c groom, and to rejoice as a ftrong man to run "a race. That his going forth is from the end of "the Heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of " it." Pursuant to which expreffions of the

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Sun's moving, it is faid also to stand still, and to go backwards. Thus Jofh. x. 12, 13. "Sun, "stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou Moon, "in the valley of Ajalon. And the Sun ftood "ftill, and the Moon ftayed. So the Sun ftood "ftill, in the midft of Heaven, and hasted not "to go down about a whole day." And in 2 Kings xx. 10. and Ifai. xxxviii. 8. the Sun is faid to have returned ten degrees backward in one of the places, and its fhadow to have done fo in the other.

These are the chief texts of fcripture, which feem to lie against the Copernican hypothefis, in anfwer to which, this may be faid in general to them all that fince the defign of the holy writings is not to instruct men in philofophical, but divine matters, therefore it is not neceffary to restrain the fenfe of thofe texts to the strict propriety of the words, but take them to be spoken according to the appearance of things and the vulgar notions and opinions which men have of them, not according to their reality, or philofophical verity. Thus in divers other inftances the holy fcriptures fpeak, and thus even philofophers themselves fpeak. Yea, the Copernicans themselves, altho' they profeffedly own, and defend the contrary; yet in vulgar fpeaking in our prefent cafe, fay, The fun rifeth, fetteth

and moveth, &c. making that to be the act of the Sun in vulgar discourse, which they contend to be in reality performed by the Earth. And if philofophers and others did not thus exprefs themselves according to the appearance of things and men's vulgar apprehenfions of them, it would need a comment, and they muft explain themselves every time they fpeak, in order to their being understood.

Having given this general anfwer, I shall next confider the particular texts themselves; and see whether they neceffarily infer what they are brought for the proof of.

And in the first place, as for the texts brought to prove the immobility of the Earth, it is manifeft that the ftability of the world, mentioned in the three first texts, doth not relate to the earth's motion, either annual, or diurnal, but to the condition, ftate, and order of the world inhabiting the Earth, particularly the peace and profperity thereof. One of our own latest, and most learned commentators, the late bishop Patricky, understands the gofpel-state to be meant in the firft and third of the texts. And his

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See his commentary on Chron. and his paraphrafe on Pfalms.

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