Wilkins, John - A discovery of a new world : or a discourse tending to prove, that 'tis probable there may be another Habitable World in the Moon ; with a discourse concerning the Probability of a Passage thither; unto which is added, a discourse concerning a New Planet, tending to prove, that 'tis probable our earth is one of the Planets

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22040That the Earth may be a Planet. miſtake, 'tis likely did ariſe that groundleſs
obſervation of the ancient Jews; who would
not admit any to read the beginning of Ge-
neſis, till he was arrived to thirty Years of
Age. The true reaſen of which, wa this;
not becanſe that Book was harder than any
other; but becauſe Moſes conforming his
expreſlion to vulgar Conceits, and they exa-
mining of them by more exact rules of Phi-
loſophy, were fain to force upon them ma-
ny ſtrange Allegories, and unnatural Myſte-
ries.

Thus alſo, becauſe for the moſt part we
conceive the Stars to be innumerable, there-
fore doth the Holy Ghoſt often ſpeak of
them in reſerence to this opinion. So Jere-
my: As the Hoſt of Heaven cannot be num-
11Jer. 35. 22 bred, neither the Sand of the Sea meaſured ſo
will I multiply the Seed of David. So likewiſe
when God would comfort Abraham with the
promiſe of a numberleſs Poſterity, he bids
him look up to Heayen, and tells him, that
his Seed ſhould be like thoſe Stars for num-
22Gen. 15 5. ber: Which, ſaith Clavius, 33In 1. cup.
Sphæræ. eſt ſecundum communem ſententiam vulgi, ex-
iſtimantis infinitam eſſe multitudinem ſtellarum,
dum eas nocte ſerena confusè intuetur; is to be
underſtood according to the common opi-
nion of the Vulgar, who think the Stars to
be of an inſinite multitude, whilſt they be-
hold them all (as they ſeem confuſed) in
a clear Night. And though many of our
Divines do commonly interpret this Speech
to be an Hyperbole; yet being well

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