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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339159That the Earth may be a Planet. other School-men, ſeems to be vvithout all
reaſon;
who make the Faculty, whereby
the Angels move the Orbs, to be the very
ſame with their Underſtandings and Will:
So that if an Angel do but meerly ſuſpend
the Act of willing their Motion, they muſt
neceſſarily ſtand ſtill;
and on the contrary,
his only willing them to move, ſhall be e-
nough to carry them about in their ſeveral
Courſes.
Since it were then a needleſs
thing for Providence to have appointed
Angels unto this buſineſs, which might have
been done as well by the only Will of God.

And beſides, how are the Orbs capable of
perceiving this Will in the Intelligences?

Or if they were, yet what motive Faculty
have they of themſelves, which can inable
them to obey it?
Now, as it would be with the Heavens;
ſo likewiſe is it with the Earth, which may
be turned about in its Diurnal Revolution,
without the help of Intelligences, by ſome
motive Power of its own, that may be in-
trinſical unto it.
If it be yet inquired, What cauſe there
is of its Annual Motion?
I anſwer: ’Tis
eaſily conceivable, how the ſame Principle
may ſerve for both theſe, ſince they tend the
ſame way, from Weſt to Eaſt.
However, that Opinion of Keplar is not
very improbable, That all the Primary
Planets are moved round by the Sun,
which once in twenty five, or twenty

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