of. But if (as to me it seems very probable) they are Planets of other Syftemes, fome of those Erraticks revolving round some of the Fixt Stars, then do they lay open a ftill more glorious Scene of GOD's Works, and give us fuch a representation of the ftate of the Universe, that the World never dreamt of before, and that even Angels themselves may be amazed at the fight of. BOOK Of the due,as well as great, DISTANCE of the Heavenly Bodies. HAVE before taken Stars (no less in all probability, as I E 2 faid, than the Sun it felf) to degene rate into fo many Points, yea to efcape our eye; nay more than this, that it causeth even our own Great Orb which our Earth defcribes about the Sun, to fink into almost a Point, or at leaft a Circle of but a few Seconds Diameter. I fhall therefore fay no more on that matter. But that which I fhall speak of in this Book, is the due proportion of the Distances of the Heavenly Bodies, that they are not fet at random, like a Work of Chance, but placed regularly and in due order, according to the best methods of Proportion and Contrivance. Which will be manifeft from the following Chapters, which will fhew that the Distance is fuch, that none of the Globes interfere with one another: but instead of that, are in due and the most nice, commodious Proportion. CHAP. CHAP. II. That none of the GLOBES of the Universe interfere. H AD the Universe been the Work of Chance, or any thing but a wife Architect, there would have been a great many blunders and inconveniencies in the Situation of fuch a prodigious number of immenfe Globes as the Universe doth contain. Some would have been too near, fome too far off, fome would have met with, knock'd and ftop'd one the other, and fome would have fo interfered as to have incommoded the other fome way or other. But instead of this, every Globe throughout the whole Creation is, as far as it is poffible for us to observe, E 3 fet fet at fuch a due Distance, as not only to avoid all violent Concourses, but also so as not to eclipse or shade one the other, wherever it may be prejudicial, or indeed not useful and convenient, or fo as to hinder one anothers kindly Influences, or to prejudice one another by noxious ones. This is very manifeft in our own Syfteme of the Sun; and because we fee it not otherwise, we may conclude it to be fo in all; unless we fhould make some exception for what is fufpected (and indeed only fufpected) of Comets, which in their approaches towards the Earth, are imagined to cause Diseases, Famines, and other fuch like Judgments of God. But this is only Surmife, and what befals the world at other times without the vifible approach of any Comet. But however, fuppofing that as Comets move in Orbs very different from those of the other Heavenly Bodies, |