PART V.

Probable Conjectures as to the Nature. and Uses of all the Parts of the SYSTEM of the vifible World.

(1.)

HE Sun and Fixed Stars are, to be fure, on their external Re gions or fuperficial Parts, moft intenfe Fire or Light; and the grand Fountains of that Fire and Light which is in the whole vifible Universe, and without which there could be no fuch thing as a Vifible Univerfe, or Useful Syftem at all. So that there can be no doubt of the general Nature and Ufe of thofe external Regions. Nor perhaps fhall we be far out of the way, if we fuppofe thofe Parts of the Sun to be roooo Planets or Comers all on Fire.

(2.) The Planets, both Primary and Secondary, appear, as to their vifible external Regions, or fuperficial Parts or Atmospheres, to be like to that Planet we liye upon, the Earth; or poft convenient and well contrived Habitations for all forts of Sea and Land, vifible and grofs Animals:

Animals; with fuch Plants as are useful for any of their Prefervation and Suftenance, during their continuance thereon.

(3.) The Air expanded about the feveral Planets, which, as to their Elaftical Parts, are corporeal, but invifible, appear to be the proper Places for the Habitation of not wholly Incorporeal, but Invisible Beings; or of fuch as have Bodies made of too fubtle and aerial a Texture and Conftitution to be ordinarily feen by our Eyes, or felt by our Hands. And if it be confidered, that while all the ancient Prophane Traditions, and Hiftorical Accounts, as well as the Sacred Writings, which affure us of the Exiftence of fuch invifible Beings about our Earth, do at the fame time affure us of their See Prop. after my inhabitating in our Air, which is the only appaBoyle's rent Place, according to the beft Philofophy, Lectures where fuch invifible Beings, not deftitute of all p. 287--- Bodies, can poffibly inhabit; it will juftly deferve our Confideration, whether this be not the El. p.170, nobleft Defign and Ufe of our Air; tho' at the --178.Me- fame time its lowest Regions be an Atmosphere teor, p.68-- alfo; or be useful in Refpiration, in Refracti

297. or Serm.&

72.

on, &c. and fo fitted as to elevate and let fall the Vapours belonging to our Earth, for the Support of the Creatures, in groffer Bodies, inhabiting thereon.

(4.) The external Regions of Comets, which by paffing through fuch immense Heat when neareft, and fuch prodigious Cold when fartheft off the Sun, and by the confufed and Chaotick State of their Atmospheres, do evidently appear incapable of affording convenient Habitations for: any Beings that have Bodies, or Corporeal Véhicles, whether vifible or invifible to us; feem

rather

rather fitted to caufe the grand Mutations of New TheNature in the Planetary World; by bringing on ry, 2d Edit. P.437, Deluges in their Defcent, and Conflagrations in 438. and their Afcent from the Sun; as I have elfewhere p.440, c• more fully Difcourfed.

(5.) Thefe Comets, with their Atmospheres and Tails, feem alfo fitted, as to their external Regions, to be a very uneasy, hot, and fiery Habitation when near, and a very uneafy, cold, and chill one, when far off the Sun, and this both in their Surfaces, and in their Airs.

(6.) As to the Internal Parts or Regions of the Sun, Planets, and Comets, they seem to be Concave, and to include vaft open Spaces within. This Conjecture which is no way contrary to any other Phænomena of Nature, I ground particularly upon the fmall Inequality there is in Fact between the Polar and Equatoreal Semidiameters of thofe Heavenly Bodies which have diurnal Revolutions about their own Axes, compared with the much greater Inequality there would naturally be between them, if they had not fuch Central Cavities. For Example, If the internal Parts of the Earth were of the fame Denfity with the External, it is Demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton, that the Polar Semi-dia- Princip. meter or Axis would be about 17 Miles fhorter 2d Edit. than the Semi-diameter of the Equator. If P. 382--the Central Parts were much Denfer than the 387. reft, (as on all mechanical Accounts they ought certainly to be) thefe 17 Miles would be mightily increas'd, and probably amount to fome Hundreds. Yet is that Semi-diameter in Fact buc about 31 Miles shorter than the other. Whence it is probable, that the greater Denfity in the deeper Regions, is compenfated by the leffer

Denfity,

Denfity, or rather total Cavity of the Central Regions themselves. And this Reafoning is still vaftly stronger in Jupiter; where the difference of Semi-diameters ought to be much more remarkable, and to amount to fome thousands of Miles, while yet it is therein but just fenfible; and that only by the Ufe of the best Inftruments and Obfervations we have in Aftronomy.

(7.) It is not improbable therefore, that thofe Central Cavities may be fo fitted by Providence, as to afford Habitations to fome Creatures, as well as the external Surfaces, the Land, the Water, and the Air, have appear'd to do; tho' this in different Circumftances, as to the different Bodies, the Sun, the Planets, and the Comets. See Dr. Halley's Conjecture to fomewhat the like Purpose, Tranfa&t. Philof. No. 347. for A. D. 1716.

(8.) If the Sun has fuch a Cavity for Habitation, it must be fenced from the Heat of his more external Parts by a vaftly thick Wall or See pag.54. Partition; which that there may be even of maprius. ny thousand Miles, the prodigious largeness of its Diameter, and the little comparative depth of the penetration of Heat through folid Earth, do Demonftrate. Nor would fuch a central Cavity in the Sun be in danger of any pernicious Heat, tho' it were large enough to hold, on its inward Surface, as many Creatures as the external Surfaces of all the Planets and Comets put together could contain; as he that confiders the Tables, pag. 54. and 56. before will eafily believe. Perhaps fuch a Degree of Heat may be deriv'd from the outward to the inward Regions, as will fuit fome of the Purposes of the Great

Author

Author of Nature therein: But then all its
Light must be deriv'd from fome other
Caufe, than from the outward Parts of the
Sun.

(9.) If the Planets, or any of them, have
fuch Cavities for Habitation; because they keep
nearly at the fame Distance from the Sun, in
the feveral Parts of their Course, their Heat as
well as Light, must come most probably from
within alfo, as not being ever Recruited in their
Revolutions.

(10.) If the Comets, while they continue fuch, have the like Cavities for Habitation; Part of their Heat, because of their Access to the Sun every Period, may be derived from it, and recruited every Revolution: But then all their Light, as well as that of the rest, must be deriv'd from within also,

30, 33.

(11.) That the Earth in particular has fuch a Cavity, feems clear from Scripture, as well as it may be conjectured from Aftronomy, For when many, at least, of the Souls departed out of the World, are there reprefented as gone See Gen. down into the invifible World; as defcended xxxvii.35. into the Place beneath, or as gone down quick Num. xvi. into the Pit; and when our Bleffed Saviour is Ezek. there still represented as upon his Death, going xxvi. 20. down into the Invifible World, and defcending xxxi. 16. into the lower Parts of the Earth; nothing Rom. x. 7. Eph. iv. feems fo agreeable both to Nature and Revelation, as this Hypothefis; which supposes such a Receptacle for Invifible Beings beneath, as exactly answers to the foregoing Descriptions.

(12. If there be any fuch Cavities and Receptacles for living Creatures, and the Things neceffary for their Suftenance, in the Central Regions

9. 10.