clare a divine Power and Mind to be in them. And this he takes to be fo plain a Cafe, that he that could not difcern it, he thinks could difcern nothing. And then he thus concludes, In the Heavens then, there is neither any Chance, nor any Temerity, nor Error, or Vanity; but on the contrary, there is all Order, Truth or Exactness, Reafon and Conftancy. And fuch Things as are void of these are counterfeit, falfe, and full of Error.

-He therefore that thinks the admirable cæleftial Order, and incredible Conftancy, on which the Confervation and Good of all Things depend, to be void of a Mind, he himself deferves to be accounted devoid of a Mind. Thus with great Force and Reafon, Tully's Stoick rightly infers the Prefence and Concurrence of a Divine Being, and Power, from the Motions of the Heavens: Only not being aware who

that Being was, he erroneously imagines the heavenly Bodies themselves to have Divinity, and puts them therefore into the Number of the Gods; which Error is excellently refuted by Lactantius, in his Inftit. Divin. L. 2. c. 5, &c.

BOOK

The Confonancy of all the Globes in their Spherical Figure.

i

AVING in the preceding Book manifefted the Motions of the Earth and Heavens to be the Contrivance

and Work of GOD, I fhall enquire

in

in this, whether their Figure be of the fame kind, wifely fuited to the Motions, and in a word to the whole State and Convenience of the several Globes, fo as to manifeft it felf to be the Work of GOD?

Now as to the Figure; it is observable in the first place, that there is a great Consent therein, among all the Globes that fall under our view, and that is, that they are all Sphærical, or nearly fo, namely Sphæroidal (a). Thus all the Fixt Stars, fo far as we are able to behold them, either with our naked Eye, or our Glaffes. Thus the Sun, and thus all its Planets, and thus the Secondaries, or Moons accompanying Saturn, Jupiter, and our Earth. And although Venus, Mercury, and our Moon have Phafes, and appear fometimes Falcated, fometimes Gib

(a) See Phyfico-Theol. B. 2. ch. 1. Note a.

bous

bous, and fometimes more or less round, and even Mars too, in its Quadratures, becomes Gibbofe; yet at fuch times as thefe Planets fhew their full Phases, they are found to be fpherical, and only lose this Figure by virtue of their Pofition to the Sun, to whom they owe their Light. And this Sphericity, or Rotundity is manifeft in our Moon, yea and in Venus (b) too; in whofe greatest Falcations the dark Part of their Globes may be perceived, exhibiting them

(b) What I have here affirmed of the Secondary Light of Venus, I have been called to an account for, by an ingenious Aftronomer of my Acquaintance. But I particularly remember, that as I was viewing Venus fome Years ago, with a good 34 foot Glafs, when fhe was in her Perigee, and much horned, that I could see the darkned Part of her Globe, as we do that of the Moon foon after her Change. And imagining that in the laft total Eclipfe of the Sun, the fame might be difcerned, I defired a very curious Observer that was with me, and look'd through an excellent Glafs, to take Notice of it, who affirmed that he faw it very plainly.