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those vast bodies continue their courses throughout 

 all ages ? How should they perform their usual stages, 

 without the least intermission or disorder! What a piece 

 of clock-work under heaven, was ever comparable to 

 this ? How steadily do all these motions conspire, ' to 

 answer the ends of divine providence, to dispatch the 

 noble offices of the several globes, to comfort and cherish 

 every thing residing on them, by the useful change 

 of day and night, and the several seasons of the year. 



We may learn Ihe wisdom of God, thirdly, from the 

 figure of the heavenly bodies, so well suited to the 

 motions, and to the whole state and convenience of them. 

 And 1 . They are all nearly spherical : I say, nearly, to 

 allow for their difference between their polar and equa- 

 torial diameter. Now this figure is both more capa- 

 cious than any other, and more agreeable to a mass in 

 motion, each part of it being at a due distance from the 

 centre of motion and gravity : besides, without this 

 there could have been no such agreeable alterations of 

 day and night, of heat and cold. And as to our own 

 globe, the winds could not have fanned the air, as now, 

 but must have been greatly retarded, if not wholly stopt, 

 by the angles and jettings out of other figures. Lastly, 

 the waters would have had intolerable confluences; here 

 too much, there none at all. So that instead of a habi- 

 table world, far the greatest part would have been a 

 desert, or an useless bed of waters. 



And all the parts of the earth are so distributed as 

 may best minister to their several uses. Thus the two 

 grand parts, the solids and fluids, instead of being jum- 

 bled into one mass, are admirably parted, and as nicely 

 disposed ot in proper places. -The strata-conveying 

 sweet water in all or most parts of the world, consist of 

 proper, pervious matter, remain distinct from tfie other 

 strata, and lie at sncn due depths, as either to break out 

 in fountains, or to be dug into for wells : all which is a 

 manifest demonstration of the concern of a Wise Agent. 



And not only the planets are a demonstration of this, 

 M 5 



