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turn at a determinate point : that the moon should supply 

 the absence of the sun, and remove the horror of the night; 

 that it should regulate the flux and reflux of the sea, 

 thereby preserving the waters from putrefaction, and at 

 the same time accommodating mankind with so manifold 

 conveniences: that all the innumerable hosts of heaven, 

 should perform their revolutions 'with such exactness, as 

 never once to fail, in a course of six thousand years, 

 but constantly to come about in the same round to the 

 hundredth part of a minute: this is such an incontest- 

 able proof of a divine architect, and of the care and wis- 

 dom wherewith he governs the universe, as made the 

 Roman philosopher conclude, " whoever imagines, that 

 the wonderful order and incredible constancy or the 

 heavenly bodies and their motions, whereon the welfare 

 and preservation of things depend, are not governed 

 by an intelligent being, is himself destitute of under- 

 standing. For shall we, when we see an artfully con- 

 trived engine, suppose a dial or sphere, immediately ac- 

 knowledge that it is the result of reason and understand- 

 ing: and yet, when we behold the heavens, so admira- 

 bly contrived, moved with such incredible velocity, and 

 finishing their anniversary revolutions, with such un- 

 erring constancy, make any doubt of their being the 

 work, not only of reason, but of an excellent, a divine 

 reason V 



But if from that very imperfect knowledge of astro* 

 nomy which his time affortled, even the heathen could 

 be so confident, that the he&venly bodies were framed 

 and moved by a wise and understanding mind : what 

 would he have said, had he been acquainted with our 

 modern discoveries ] Had he known the immense great- 

 ness of that part of the world, which falls under our ob- 

 servation ? The exquisite regulation of the motions of 

 the planets, without any deviation or confusion : the in- 

 expressible nicety of adjustment, in the velocity of the 

 earth's annual motion ; the wonderful proportion of its 

 diurnal motion about its own axis; the densities of the 



