LECTURES ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. ON ASTRONOMY. H LECTURE XXXVII. OF THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM. AVING fhewn you the appearances of the heavenly bodies as feen from the earth, it will be now proper to fhew you why the motions of the planets appear to us fo different from what they really are. One of the ends for which man was formed, is to correct appearances and error by the investigation of truth; whoever confiders him attentively from infancy to manhood, and from manhood to old age, will find him ever bufy in endeavouring to find fome reality to supply the place of thofe falfe appearances, by which he has hitherto been deceived. Thus, it is the business of the prefent Lecture, to correct the errors that arife from appear in the heavens, and to prove the truth of the Copernican Shem, which is now generally received, because it rationally accounts for, and accords with the phenomena of the heavens. In this fyftem, the fun is placed in the center, and the earth and other planets revolve round him as their center. There are, however, ftrong reasons for believing that fome of the fages of antiquity were acquainted with the true folar fyftem as revived by Copernicus. It was the univerfal doctrine of the Pythagorean fchool, and is clearly marked out as fuch by Ariftotle: for thefe, fays he, affert that fire is in the midst of the world, and that the earth is one of the heavenly bodies. He afterwards fpeaks of a fet of men, who held a fyftem effentially fimilar to that of the modern Semitychonic. Eudemus, in his hiftory of aftronomy, as cited by Anatolius, fays, that Anaximander was the first who difcovered the earth to be one of the heavenly bodies, and to move round the center of the world. Ariftarchus held that the earth is carried round the fun, in the circumference of a circle, of which the fun itfelf is the center; and that the sphere of the fixed ftars is fo immenfe, that the circle of the earth's annual orbit bears no greater proportion to it, than the center of any Iphere bears to it's whole furface. Philolaus, and others, declared the motion of the fun, round about the earth, to be only apparent. They faw and felt the importance of his globe over our's, and fupponing it's influence to extend to much larger bounds than that of the earth, they placed it in the center of the univerfe. Among the Romans, we find that Numa built a temple to reprefent, as Plutarch interprets it, the fytem of the • Those that want further information on this head, may con fult the heavens, with a facred fire in the center of it. Thus alfo in the Jewish tabernacle, the feven lights had a reference to the feven chief lights of the heavens. Hence alfo the heavens are called in facred writ the tabernacle of the fun; the whole of our fyftem dwelling within his influence. The foregoing citations are, we prefume, fufficient to fhew that the ancients were not ignorant of the true folar fyftem. But ftill it was no general perfuafion, nor does it seem ever to have been mentioned after the. time of Ptolemy, who adopted that fyftem which now goes under his name; his fyftem, though erroneous, was ingenious; with it the world was content for many ages. It was then confidered as founded upon invincible demonftration; as a facred truth that could not be weakened by the powers of controverfy, or fhaken by the fluctuations of opinion. "But at the appointed time when it pleased the SUPREME DISPENSER of good gifts to restore light to a bewildered world, and more particularly to manifeft his wifdom in the fimplicity as well as the grandeur of his works, he opened the scene with a revival of found aftronomy.* This obfervation of the prefident of the Royal Society, is well worthy your attention; it will open your views of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, which is a topic that ought to be fet in every poffible light that can make it either more clearly, or more gcnerally understood. If you look through the hiftory of past ages from the early periods of the paf B2 toral fult the notes to Sydenham's tranflation of the Rivals of Plato, Duten's Inquiries into the Origin of the Difcoveries attributed to the Moderns; Jones's Effay on the firft Principles of Natural Philofophy; Baillie Hiftoire de l'Aftronomie ancienne. Sir John Pringle's Six Difcourfes, p. 97. toral and patriarchal life, you will fee arts and sciences progreffively advancing; fometimes indeed buried for a long interval, but again' reviving with new fplendor. You fee philofophy and religion advancing, and though fometimes deformed by fuperftition, and unnatural fyftems of atheism, yet fucceffively recovered from the dreams of the enthufiaft, and the fubtlety of the atheift. If you see fceptifm and infidelity making frequent attacks upon facred truths, you may reft fatisfied that these. attempts will, in due time, magnify it's power, increase it's honors, and advance it's triumphs. There is no man but what, with respect to the arts and improvements of life, looks back with pity on past times, compared with his own; and philofophy never extended the province of human knowledge fo far and wide as within the last century. It is thus alfo with divine knowledge; this has had the fame gradation and order of progreffion, nature and law, type and shadow, the fubftance and the archetype; the kingdom of GoD is ftill advancing, and the evidences of his adminiftration and attributes ftill opening; very thing evinces that a grand defign has been carrying on from the earliest account of hiftory by a remarkable courfe of Providence, for the benefit of the whole human race. GOD pervades infinity, and fees through eternity; he fees the child not only as ftruggling with cries and tears, but he fees in the child the advancing and full grown man. While we fee partially and therefore imperfectly the fingle and unconnected, or perhaps only the loweft link of the extended and univerfal chain of being; GoD fees the whole and every part in their origin, their connection, their progreffion, and confummation. From the fall to the prefent day, GOD has for our happiness, in the only way proper proper to display his goodnefs, and make us fenfible of his mercies. He adminifters his bleffings as we are able to bear them; HE is the fountain of eternal good, but we are not fo capable of receiving as he is of communicating. As our powers are enlarged, and our nature refined, our pleasures will improve, and our happiness advance.* The univerfe is the flage and theatre of God, carrying on the whole, and every part from greater to lefs perfection, and drawing in juft proportion all the creatures to himfelf. Almighty goodness neither flumbers nor fleeps, but is ever labouring to advance our ftate; we are first brought into life, from life advance to reafon, from reason to virtue, virtue to grace, and grace to glory. It is divine love that through eternity is] drawing order from confufion, raifing harmony from feeming difcord, building ftrength on weakness, and happiness on the mifery of it's creatures. Love, eternal love, fhines in the rudeft as in the gayeft, in the darkest as in the brighteft fcenes of nature, in the ftill fmall voice as in the thunder of almighty B "The means which God vouchfafes to employ for the perfect overthrow of the Devil's kingdom, are not fuch as he night be expected to put in ufe, if his omnipotence were alone regarded; but they are fuch as are confiftent with the free agency of man, and fuch as are adapted to the nature of man as a rational and moral agent; and adapted to the juftice, and wisdom, and mercy of God in his dealings with fuch a creature.”—“ He abftains therefore from all fummary, abrupt, coercive measures, and he employs no other means than thofe of perfuafion and argument, invitation and threatening. It is very obvious, that ages must elapfe before these means can produce their full effect; that the progrefs of the work will not only be gradual, but liable to temporary interruptions; infomuch, that it may at times feem to go backward as often as particular circumstances in the affairs of the world draw away the attention of men from the doctrine of the gospel, or roufe an extraordinary oppofition of their paffions to it's precepts." Bp. Horfley's Sermon for the Philanthropic Society, March 25, 1792. |