XXII. Fig. 1 and 2) with respect to the said Sun, but likewife in their Satellites; for Inftance, in thofe of Jupiter F, and Saturn H, in relation to the fame Planets, fince these are commonly attracted to their primary Planets, after the fame Manner as those Planets are attracted to the Sun, or exert a Motion by their Gravity towards the fame.

SECT. IX, and X. A ftrong Proof that the Heavenly Bodies gravitate towards each other, and Convictions from thence.

BUT befides all this, I must not pafs by a Remarkable Obfervation related by Mr. Whifton, Pralect. Phyf. p. 289. who fhews experimentally, that befides this Gravitation or Attraction between the Planets and the San, and between the Satellites and their Primary Planets, there may be vifibly discover'd the like At:raction between one Planet and the Satellites of another. These are his Words, fo far as they relate to this Matter.

For as Saturn H (Tab. XXII. Fig. 1 and 2) remained fome Years ago a long Time about its Conjunction with Jupiter, F, (that is, when Saturn and Jupiter are at the nearest to each other, and we fee from the Sun S, Saturn at V, and Jupiter at F, in, or almoft, in a ftrait Line) and confequently it must necessarily follow, that Saturn, by reafon of the Greatness of its Body and its Nearness to Jupiter, (for it is by both thefe that the Force of Attraction is regulated according to Mr. Whiston) muft occafion fome remarkable and vifible Effects in the Satellites of Jupiter; if that Planet with its Satellites be attracted to Saturn; and fo the Matter is really found to be, and the Satellites of Jupiter do change their ufual Course in this Nearness of Saturn agreeable to the faid Law of Attraction. So that even the fo juftly esteemed Aftronomer. Mr. Flamstead, who would not at firft allow of

this Attraction in the Heavenly Bodies, after having made the most accurate Calculations, did frankly confefs, that this Law does likewife obtain among them in full Perfection.

Now let any one who hitherto has doubted of God's directing Power in the World, judge from these Experiments, whether there be not a wonderful Force acting upon these vaft Globes (whose Magnitudes are not wont to be measured by Feet, Fathoms or Miles, but by whole Diameters of the Earth; and whereof one, namely Jupiter, contains 8000 of the fame) which Power fo violently protrudes thofe Bodies without any Inftruments, that no Cannon Bullet can be compared to the fwiftness of their Motion; and at the fame time does fo dire& the manner of these violent Motions likewife, without using any vifible Means, that they are obliged (in fpight of the unconceivably strong Efforts, which they inceffantly make, to fly out of their Orbits,) to obey the prefcribed Laws of Attraction or Gravitation towards each other in every the smallest Point of their Way; and thereby to determine their Motion within fuch narrow Bounds, even fo far, that these Planets at a greater Proximity to each other, do by the fame Laws continually depart farther from each other, and fo render an Obedience thereto according to the most exact Rules.

Finally, After all this, let the unhappy Atheist confider, fince all these Heavenly Bodies are driven or attracted with fo dreadful a Force towards each other, whether it happens without Wisdom, that they having for fo many Ages moved according to thefe Laws, have not at fome time or another fallen foul or ftruck against each other in fuch a manner, as to burft in a thousand Pieces; the rather, because even fome of the principal Mathematicians maintain, that it is poffible that VOL. III. Iii

not

notwithstanding the regular Motions afcribed to the Comets, they may yet run against the Globe of the Earth, and fo produce a Percuffion between two fuch swiftly moving Bodies, which no Body can think upon but with Terror: But of this laft fort of Heavenly Bodies, fince we know fo little of 'em, excepting what is liable to Difputes, we fhall make no farther mention here. This is certain, that unless an Atheist does absolutely deny his own Principles, and allows that an unconceivable Wisdom and Power working without visible Means, has place in the World, he will live in a continual fear, that the like Misfortune may befal the Earth upon which he dwells: For that thefe Laws according to which fuch great Bodies, none excepted, do continually endeavour to approach each other, can be afcribed to any other Caufes than merely to the Will of the fupream Director, does not feem to me to have ever yet been proved by any Body.

SECT. XI. The Operations of Gravity in Bullets and Bombs.

NEITHER Time nor Place will permit us to produce here any more of all thofe Arguments from Mechanicks or the Science of Motion, by which we could strongly prove a directing Wisdom, fince all the Motions of Bodies running againft, or among each other, even to the very fmalleft, are found to obferve certain Laws, which could not proceed but only from an Understanding and Powerful Being, fince they are regulated according to Reafon and Judgment.

The aforementioned Gravity feems alone to give fufficient Proofs thereof in thofe Things which are every where obferved among us upon the Superficies of the Earth.

And

And for greater Confirmation, what is there in the World more Untractable, more Ungovernable, than the Motion of the Parts of Gunpowder when 'tis fet on Fire? And who could have imagined that those Motions in the discharging of Bullets from Guns, and toffing of Bombs from Morters, do always obferve the Laws of Gravity prescribed to them in their dreadful Force and Swiftnefs,with fo much Accuracy and Nicenefs, as to become on that very account the Objects of the Mathematicks? And yet we fee that they don't move one Point forwards without continually obeying the fame in their fo fwift a Courfe. And this Experience is even proper from whence to form fixed Rules in Gunnery and Bombarding, whereby Bodies protruded with fo unexpreffible a Force, in a Course fo fwift, as hardly to be reftrained by any Powers, can be fo exactly deter mined and regulated by the Defign of Men, whọ have ftudied the Laws to which they are Subject, as to be made to fall upon, or ftrike any particu lar Place, provided the fame be within their reach.

SECT. XII. The Operations of Gravity in the Catenaria or Chain-Curve.

WE could here produce numberless Cafes in which it may be proved, that not only thofe prodigious flying Globes, fuch as Cannon-Bullets and Bombs, of which we have already fpoken, but likewife thousands of Millions of others, and of the (malleft Bodies, do defcribe Geometrical CurveLines, wherein the Property of the Line, accor ding to all the Laws of Mathematicks, is preserved in all its Points. Thus there run many thousands of Water-Particles out of the spouting Pipe of a Fountain, and not one of 'em fhall tranfgrefs the Iiia Line

Line which the Mathematician can fhew that it ought to describe in those Circumftances. What Honour did that great Mathematician Leibnitz acquire, by fhewing that he had attain'd to a perfec Knowledge of the Curve-Line A CB, Tab. XXIV. Fig. 3. which is produced by the Gravity of the Parts of a Chain or Rope, faften'd to two Nails AB? And how much Efteem and Credit has it given to Dr. Gregory, to have been the first Discoverer of fome new Properties of the fame? How many Mathematicians have in vain turned all the Powers of their Mind towards these Discoveries, who notwithstanding that they fufficiently knew the Properties of Gravity, which was the only true Cause thereof; yet are forced to own, that they were unable to defcribe rightly upon Paper the Catenaria or Chain-Line, for fo the abovefaid Curve is named? And who can contemplate without Astonishment, how nimbly the ignorant Parts of which this little Chain confifts, do difpofe themselves by their Gravity into that Order, which is requifite to produce the fame? And thus we might give many more Examples of the fame Nature.

SECT. XIII. There can be no Ignorant Neceffary Firft Caufe deduced from a Series of Ignorant Causes operating together.

I KNOW very well, that those who set themfelves as much as poffible against a Knowledge of God refulting from the Creatures, will anfwer, that thefe Laws of Nature, according to which all thefe Things happen, and this Difpofition of the Parts of the Catenaria, this Motion of Fountain-Water in its Courfe and Line, this Direction of Bullets and Bombs in their Flight are always neceffa