five and twenty days; and so testify to us, that the Sun turns upon its own centre: the axis of the motion inclining to the ecliptic.

These solar spots are probably evaporations, which arise from the body of the Sun, somewhat as vapours do from the earth; and they form themselves into clouds. That which adds to this probability, is, that the spots are always changable in their bulk, form, and configuration. Sometimes their number is greater, and sometimes less, and sometimes there are none at all. Some of them shine, and others that shone, become dark. Diligent astronomers, who have waited on them for nine or ten years together, have never found them in all this time to return to the same configuration. In Charlemaign's time, every one saw a spot in this great luminary. And there have been divers days together, (as in the year 1547,) wherein the Sun has appeared little brighter than the Moon in her total eclipse, and the stars have been visible at noon day. Virgil and Ovid intimate such a darkness upon the Sun once for a whole year together, that the fruits of the earth could not be ripened.

The apparent diameter of the Sun being sensibly greater in December than in June, it is plain, and observation confirms it, that the Sun is proportionably nearer to the earth in winter than in summer. It is also confirmed, by the earth's moving swifter in December than in June; which it does about five fifteenths. And for this reason there are about eight days more from the Sun's vernal equinox to the autumnal, than from the autumnal to the vernal.

Mr. Tompion's observations, from the equa

tion of natural days, render it evident, that the motion of the Sun (if we may speak in those terms) must be swifter at some times, than at others. Great God, the motion is always under thy glorious guidance!

According to Cassini, the Sun's mean distance from the earth is 22,000 semidiameters of the earth. And the Sun's diameter is equal to 100 diameters of the earth: And therefore the body of the Sun must be 1,000,000 times greater than the earth.

Cassini more directly expresses himself; that the Sun's distance from the earth is 172,800,000 English miles.

Take Mr. Derham's computation; Saturn is computed at 93,451 miles in diameter, and consequently 427,318,300,000,000 miles in bulk: Jupiter at 120,653 miles in diameter, and by consequence 920,011,200,000,000 miles in bulk. But yet as amazing masses as these all are, they are all far outdone by that globe of fire, the Sun: which, as it is the fountain of light and heat unto all the planets about it, by its kind influences affording them the great comforts of life; so does it in bulk surpass them all. Its diameter is computed at 822,148 miles; and so there must be 290,971,000,000,000,000 miles in the solid con

tent of it.

Dr. Grew is of opinion, that for ought we know, the Sun may afford us his light, without such an intense heat, as has been imagined. The beams of the Sun, he thinks, may first conceive their heat, when they come to be mixed with our atmosphere. There are things intensely hot, which give no light at all; but rotten wood, or

fish, and the glow worm, and some other bodies, give a brisk light, without any heat. Light and heat, he thinks, have no necessary conjunction, at least not in any sensible proportion. It is known also, how necessary the air is to produce fire, and even light itself, in some of those bodies that shine in the dark. If the Sun were a burning body, and the heat of it so much greater than that we feel of it, as to be in proportion to its distance; how comes the substance of it so little to be altered by so intense a heat, and to hold this heat with so great an equality for near six thousand years? One way or the other; either so luminous a body without fire, or so burning a body, not consumed or altered; it is wonderful!

But Sir Isaac Newton supposes, that a very large dense, and fixed body, when heated beyond such a degree, may emit light so copiously, that by such emission, and by the re-action of its light, and by the reflection and refraction of the rays within its hidden meatus, it may come to grow still hotter and hotter, as deriving more degrees of heat by those ways, than it can of cold by any other. Thus he supposes the Sun a vast globe that is vehemently heated, and the heat thereof preserved by its great magnitude, and the mutual action and re-action which there is between it, and the light emitted by it. And its parts are preserved from evaporating in flame and fume, not only by the great fixity of its nature, but also by the mighty weight and thickness of the atmosphere, which environs it, and condenses its vapours, whenever they are emitted.

However, behold the Sun seated by the glorious God, like a powerful monarch, on his throne, (as

Dr. Cheyne expresses it) from thence distributing light, and life, and warmth, in a plentiful effusion, to all the attendants that surround him; and that so equally, that the nearest have not too much, nor the farthest too little his bulk and situation so contrived, in respect of the planets, as to have quantity of matter just enough to draw round him these massy bodies, and their satellites, who are so various in their quantities, and their distances, and that in regular and uniform orbits. The doctor says well, these are things that clearly speak the omnipotence and omniscience of their Author.

What a fancy is that of Dr. Wittie, that the Sun is probably the seat of the blessed! the Sun which is the centre of the heavens, and the seat of inherent light. It is true, of the blessed we read, they shall shine as the Sun; and their blessedness. is called, the inheritance of the saints in light. But this is very short of demonstration, that the saints must be lodged there. Though the church militant were once represented as clothed with the Sun, it follows not, that the church triumphant dwell in the Sun.

And Mr. Arndt propounds a thought, which cannot be too much dwelt upon as the Sun is the ornament of the heavens, so is Christ the ornament of his church.

Dr. Cheyne with good reason apprehends, that the quantity of light and heat in the Sun is daily decreasing. It is perpetually emitting millions of rays, which do not return into it. Bodies attract them, and suffocate them, and imprison them; and they go no more back into their fountain.

Mr. Bernoulli, from the flashes of the light, in

the vacuity of a tube accommodated with mercury, whereby a dark room is enlightened, renders it likely that our atmosphere, and all the bodies on our globe, are saturated at all times with rays of light, which never do return to their fountain.

It is true, this decrease of the Sun is very inconsiderable. It shews that the particles of light are extremely small, since the Sun for so many ages has been constantly emitting oceans of rays, without any very sensible diminution. However it is from hence evident, that the Sun had a beginning; it could not have been from eternity; eternity must have wasted it: it had long ere now been reduced unto less than the light of a candle.

Glorious God, thou art the father of lights, the maker of the Sun!

In a late act of the faith, as they call their inhuman butcheries, performed by that execrable hell upon earth, the inquisition in Portugal; a confessor being brought forth to die a grievous death, as soon as he came to the light of the Sun, which he had not seen for some years before, he broke forth into this expression, Who that has reason in him, could worship any but the Maker of that glorious creature! they gagged him immediately!

My pen shall not be served so. Enjoying the benefits of the Sun, I will glorify him that made it thou alone art for ever to be adored, O thou Maker of that glorious creature!

An eminent writer of natural theology has this remark, that the Sun is the image of those, who exercise authority over others. And that all superiors in every station, looking towards the Sun, should have shot to their minds the rays of such