זי

and 'tis millions of millions odds to an unit in fuch a Caft of a Chance. Such an apt and regular Harmony, fuch an admirable Order and Beauty must deservedly be afcribed to Divine Art and Conduct. Efpecially if we confider, that the fmalleft Planets are fituated nearest the Sun and ... each other; whereas Jupiter and Saturn, that are vaftly greater than the reft and have many Satellites about them, are wifely removed to the extreme Regions of the System, and placed at an immenfe Distance one from the other. For even now at this wide interval they are obferved in their Conjunctions to disturb one anothers motions a little by their gravitating Powers: but if such vaft Maffes of Matter had been fituated much nearer to the Sun or to each other (as they might as cafily have been, for any mechanical or fortuitous Agent) they muft neceffarily have caused a confiderable disturbance and disorder in the whole SyNtem.

IV. But let us confider the particular Situation of our Earth and its diftance from the Sun. It is now placed fo conveniently, that Plants thrive and flourish in it, and Animals live this is matter of fact, and beyond all difpute. But how came it to pass at the beginning, that the Earth moved in its prefent Orb? We have fhewed before, that if Gravity and a Projected Motion be

?

fitly proportion'd, any Planet would freely revolve at any affignable distance within the Space of the whole Syftem. Was it mere Chance then, or Divine Counfel and Choice, that conftituted the Earth in its prefent Situation? To know this; we will enquire, if this particular Distance from the Sun be better for our Earth and its Creatures, than a greater or lefs would have been. We may be mathematically certain, That the Heat of the Sun is according to the denfity of the Sun-beams, and is reciprocally proportional to the fquare of the diftance from the Body of the Sun. Now by this Calculation, fuppofe the Earth Thould be re moved and placed nearer to the Sun, and revolve for inftance in the Orbit of Mercury there the whole Ocean would even boil with extremity of Heat, and be all exhaled into Vapors; all Plants and Animals would be fcorched and confumed in that fiery Furnace. But fuppofe the Earth should 1be carried to the great! Distance of Saturn; there the whole Globe would be one Frigid Zone, the deepest Seas under the very Equator would be frozen to the bottom; there would be no Life, no Germination; nor any thing that comes now under our knowledge or fenfes. It was much better therefore, that the Earth fhould move where it does, than in a much greater or less Interval from the body of the Sun. And if you place it at

any

Newton

ibidem,

P. 415.

any other Distance, either lefs or more than Saturn or Mercury; you will ftill alter it for the worse proportionally to the Change. It was fituated therefore where it is, by the Wisdom of some voluntary Agent; and not by the blind motions of Fortune or Fate. If any one fhall think with himself, How then can any thing live in Mercury and Saturn in fuch intenfe degrees of Heat and Cold? Let him only confider, that the Matter of each Planet may have a different denfity and texture and form, which will dispose and qualifie it to be acted on by greater or lefs degrees of Heat acbcording to their feveral Situations; and that the Laws of Vegetation and Life and Suftenance and Propagation are the arbitrary pleafure of God, and may vary in all Planets according to the Divine Appointment and the Exigencies of Things, in manners incomprehenfible to our ImaginatiLons."'Tis enough for our purpose, to discern the tokens of Wisdom in the placing of our Earth; if its prefent conftitution would be fpoil'd and deftroy'd, if we could not wear Flesh and Blood, if we could not have Human Nature at those different Distances.

V. We have all learnt from the Doctrine of the Sphere, that the Earth revolves with a double motion. For while it is carried around the Sun in the Orbis Magnus once a year, it perpetually wheels

about

about its own Axis once in a day and a night: fo that in 24 hours fpace it hath turn'd all the parts of the Equinoctial to the rayes of the Sun. Now the Ufes of this vertiginous motion are very confpicuous; for this is it, that gives Day and Night fucceffively over the face of the whole Earth, and makes it habitable all around: without this Diurnal Rotation one Hemisphere would lye dead and torpid in perpetual Darkness and Froft, and the best part of the Other would be burnt up and depopulated by fo permanent a Heat. It is better therefore, that the Earth should move about its own Center, and make these usefull Viciffitudes of Night and Day, than expose always the fame fide to the action of the Sun. But how came it to be fo moved? not from any neceffity of the Laws of Motion or the Syftem of the Heavens. It might annually have compassed the Sun, and yet never have once turned upon its own Axis. This is matter of Fact and Experiment in the motion of the Moon; which is carried about the Earth in the very fame manner as the Earth about the Sun, and yet always fhews the same face to Us, not once wheeling upon her own Center. She indeed, notwithstanding this, turns all her globe to the Sun by moving in her menftrual Orb, and enjoys Night and Day alternately, one day of Hers being equal to about 14 Days

and

and Nights of Ours. But fhould the Earth be deprived of its Diurnal Motion; one half of it could never fee the Day, but must eternally be condemned to Solitude and Darkness. That the Earth therefore revolves about its own Center, is another eminent token of the Divine Wisdom and Goodnefs.

VI. But let us compare the mutual proportion of thefe Diurnal and Annual Revolutions; for they are diftinct from one another, and have a different degree of Velocity. The Earth rowls once about its Axis in a natural day in which time all the parts of the Equator move fomething more than 3 of the Earths Diameters; which makes about 1100 in the space of a year. But within the fame annual time the Center of the Earth is carried above 50 times as far once round the Orbis Magnus, whose wideness we now affume to be 20000 Terreftrial Diameters. So that the annual motion is more than 50 times swifter than the Diurnal Rotation, though we measure the lat ter from the Equator, where the Celerity is the Tarquet greatest. But it must needs be acknowledged, lorum vo- fince the Earth revolves not upon a material and bus. rugged but a geometrical Plane, that their proportions may be varied in innumerable degrees; any of which might have happen'd as probably as the prefent. What was it then that prescribed

de Circu

lutioni