FOOTNOTES:
[a] With the Copernicans, I take it here for granted, that the Diurnal and Annual Revolutions are the Motions of the Terraqueous Globe, not of the Sun, &c. but for the Proof thereof I shall refer the Reader to the Preface of my Astro-Theology, and B. 4. Chap. 3.
[] Every thing that is moved, must of Necessity be moved by something else; and that thing is moved by something that is moved either by another Thing, or not by another Thing. If it be moved by that which is moved by another, we must of Necessity come to some prime Mover, that is not moved by another. For it is impossible, that what moveth, and is moved by another, should proceed in infinitum. Aristot. Phys. l. 8. c. 5.
Solum quod seipsum movet, quia nunquam deseritur à se, nunquam ne moveri quidem definit; quinetiam cæteris quæ moventur, hic fons: hoc principium est movendi. Principii autem nulla est origo: nam ex principio oriuntur omnia; ipsum autem nullâ ex re aliâ nasciepotest: nec enim esset id principium, quod gigneretur aliunde. Cicer. Tusc. Quest. l. 1. c. 23.
Cogitemus qui fieri possit, ut tanta magnitudo, ab aliquâ possit naturâ, tanto tempore circumferri? Ego igitur assero Deum causam esse, nec aliter posse fieri. Plato in Epinom.
[c] Among the Causes which Cleanthes is said in Tully to assign for Men’s Belief of a Deity, one of the chief is, Æquabilitatem motûs, conversionem Cœli, Solis, Lunæ, Siderumque omnium distinctionem, varietatem, pulchritudinem, ordinem: quarum rerum aspectus ipse satis indicaret, non esse ea fortuita. Ut siquis in domum aliquam, aut in gymnasium, aut in forum venerit; cùm videat omnium rerum rationem, modum, disciplinam, non possit ea sine causâ fieri judicare, sed esse aliquem intelligat, qui præsit, & cui pareatur: multo magis in tantis motibus, tantisque vicissitudinibus, tam multarum rerum atque tanrarum ordinibus, in quibus nihil unquam immmensa & infinita vetustas mentita sit, statuat necesse est ab aliquâ Mente tantos naturæ motus gubernari. Cir. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. c. 5.
Homines cœperunt Deum agnoscere, cùm viderent Stellas, tantam concinnitatem efficere; ac dies, noctesque, æstate, & hyeme, suos servare statos ortus, atque obitus. Plutarch de placit. l. 1. c. 6.
[d] We need not be sollicitous to elude the History of these Miracles, as if they were only poetical Strains, as Maimonides, and some others fancy Joshua’s Day to have been, viz. only an ordinary Summer’s Day; but such as had the Work of many Days done in it; and therefore by a poetical Stretch made, as if the Day had been lengthened by the Sun standing still. But in the History they are seriously related, as real Matters of Fact, and with such Circumstances as manifest them to have been miraculous Works of the Almighty; And the Prophet Habakkuk, iii. 11. mentions that of Joshua as such. And therefore taking them to be miraculous Perversions of the Course of Nature, instead of being Objections, they are great Arguments of the Power of God: For in Hezekiah’s Case, to wheel the Earth it self backward, or by some extraordinary Refractions, to bring the Sun’s Shadow backward 10 Degrees: Or in Joshua’s Case, to stop the diurnal Course of the Globe for some Hours, and then again give it the same Motion; to do, I say, there Things, required the same infinite Power which at first gave the Terraqueous Globe its Motions.
Nam cùm dispositi quasissem fœdera Mundi,
Præscriptosque Maris fines, Annique meatus,
Et Lucis, Noctisque vices: tunc omnia rebar
Consilio firmata Dei, qui lege moveri
Sidera, qui fruges diverso tempore nasci,
Qui variam Phœben alieno jusserit igne
Compleri, Solemque suo; porrexerit undis
Littora; Tellurem medio libraverat axe.
Claudian in Rufin. L. 1. initio.
[f] Diei noctisque vicissitudo conservat animantes, tribuens aliud agendi tempus, aliud quiescendi. Sic undique omni ratione concluditur, Mente, Consilioque divino omnia in hoc mundo ad salutem omnium, conservationemque admirabiliter administrari. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 53.
[g] The acute Dr. Cheyne, in his ingenious Philos. Princ. of Natural Religion, among other uses of Day and Night, saith, the Night is most proper for Sleep; because when the Sun is above the Horizon, Sleep is prejudicial, by reason the Perspirations are then too great. Also that Nutrition is mostly, if not altogether, performed in Time of Rest; the Blood having too quick a Motion in the Day: For which Reason, weak Persons, Children, &c. are nourished most, and recruit best by Sleep.
CHAP. IV.
Of the Place and Situation of the Terraqueous Globe, in respect of the Heavenly Bodies.
Another Thing very considerable in our Globe, is its Place and Situation at a due Distance from the Sun[a], its Fountain of Light and Heat; and from its neighbouring Planets of the solar System, and from the fixt Stars. But these Things I have spoken more largely of in my Survey of the Heavens[], and therefore only barely mention them now; to insist more largely upon,