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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            <s xml:id="echoid-s409" xml:space="preserve">
              <pb o="25" file="0037" n="37" rhead="That the Moon may be a World."/>
            hath been ſaid, I may conclude, that the ſilence
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            of Scripture, concerning any other World, is
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            not ſufficient Argument to prove that there is
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            none. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s410" xml:space="preserve">Thus for the two firſt Arguments.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s411" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s412" xml:space="preserve">Unto the third, I may anſwer, That this
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            very Example is quoted by others, to ſhew
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            the Ignorance of thoſe Primitive Times, who
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            did ſometimes condemn what they did not
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            underſtand, and have often cenſur'd the Law-
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            ful and undoubted Parts of Mathematicks for
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            Heretical, becauſe they themſelves could not
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            perceive a reaſon of it. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s413" xml:space="preserve">And therefore their
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            Practice, in this particular, is no fufficient Te-
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            ſtimony againſt us.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s414" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s415" xml:space="preserve">But laſtly, I anſwer to all the above nam'd
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            Objections, That the Term (World) may be
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            taken in a double Senſe, more Generally, for
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            the whole Univerſe, as it implies in it the
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            Elementary and Æthereal Bodies, the Stars
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            and the Earth. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s416" xml:space="preserve">Secondly, more particularly,
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            for an inferiour World conſiſting of Elements.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s417" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s418" xml:space="preserve">Now the main Drift of all theſe Arguments
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            is to confute a Plurality of Worlds in the firſt
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            Senſe; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s419" xml:space="preserve">and if there were any ſuch, it might,
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            perhaps, ſeem ſtrange, that Moſes, or St. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s420" xml:space="preserve">John
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            ſhould either not know, or not mention its
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            Creation. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s421" xml:space="preserve">And Virgilius was condemned for
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            this Opinion, becauſe he held, quòd ſit alius
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            mundus ſub terra, aliuſque Sol & </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s422" xml:space="preserve">Luna, (as Ba-
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            ronius) That within our Globe of Earth, there
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            was another World, another Sun and Moon,
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            and ſo he might ſeem to exclude this from the
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            Number of the other Creatures.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s423" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s424" xml:space="preserve">But now there is no ſuch danger in this Opi-
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            nion, which is here deliver'd, ſince this World
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            is ſaid to be in the Moon, whoſe Creation is
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            particularly expreſt.</s>
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