with a Conjecture, fuggefing a Mean, Sc. 201 
nets, in confequence of it, muft recede to greater diftances 
from him, through the leffened attraction. -- 
. Here I beg leave to obferve, that if the material fyftem, in 
its prefent form, was not intended by its Creator to be perpe- 
tual, then the wafte of the fun’s matter, and the confequent 
diforder in the fyftem, arifing from the altered ftate of its gra- 
vitation, will only be a proof of that intention ; and not ope- 
rate apainft the truth of the doétrine. 
That fyftem, like every other, derived from the fame origi- 
nal, doubtlefs has within itfelf the means. of continuing in its 
prefent form, until the great and wife purpofes of its Author 
fhall be brought into effe&, and compleatly anfwered. 
With refpe& to the folar fy(tem, fo far as its continuance de- 
pends.on the fun, it feems calculated, notwithítanding the fup- 
pofed wafte of the fun’s matter, to laft for many ages : for the 
fun, by reafon of its prodigious bulk, and the divifibility of 
its matter, muft, from its own internal fources, furnifh light 
to the fyftem through a long tra& of time, without being fen- 
fibly diminifhed. . If thofe eccentric bodies, called comets, 
which have been thought intended to recruit the fun's wafte of 
fhall have all Yücceifively Tien i into the fun, and been. expend- 
ed. When that fhall happen, if there be provided no further 
means of recruit, the fyftem will begin to decay, and finally be 
reduced to a chaotic ftate : from which, like our earth, it may 
be reftored in fome new form, to anfwer the further purpofes of 
the Creator. I mention our earth, as in the Mz/aic account of 
it, its original i is defcribed i in fuch a manner, as to give us the 
idea of. its having | been, an old a by. {fome meals or other 
B b - ‘reduced 
FOL to9 
E 
