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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24363That the Earth may be a Planet. riſing of it in the midſt, does ſo intercept
our
ſight from either of thoſe places, that
we
cannot look in a ſtreight Line from the
one
to the other.
So that it may ſeem to be
no
leſs than a Miracle, by which the Sea
(being a heavy Body) was with-held from
flowing
down to thoſe lower places of B, or
C
.
But now, if you conſider that the aſ-
cending
of a Body, is its motion from the
Centre
;
and deſcent, is its approaching
unto
it:
you ſhall find, that the Sea to move
from
D, to B or C, is a motion of Aſcent,
which
is contrary to its nature, becauſe the
Mountain
at B, or C, are farther off from
the
Centre, than the Sea at D, the Lines
A
B, and A C, being longer than the other
A
D.
So that for the Sea to keep always
in
its Channel, is but agreeable to its Na-
ture
, as being a heavy Body.
But the mean-
ing
of thoſe Scriptures, is, to ſet forth the
Power
and Wiſdom of God;
who hath ap-
pointed
theſe Channels for it, and beſet it
with
ſuch ſtrong Banks, to withſtand the
fury
of its waves.
Or if theſe Men do ſo
much
rely in natural Points, upon the bare
words
of Scripture, they might eaſily be
confuted
from thoſe other places, where
God
is ſaid to have founded the Earth upon
the
Seas, and eſtabliſhed it upon the Floods.
From the literal interpretation of which,
many
of the Ancients have fallen into ano-
ther
Error;
affirming, the Water to be in
the
lower place;
and as a baſis, whereon the
the
weight of the Earth was born up.

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