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Denfity, or rather partial Cavity of the Central Regions themselves. And this Reasoning is still vaftly ftronger in Jupiter; where the difference of Semi-diameters ought to be much more remarkable, aud to amount to fome thousands of Miles, while yet it is therein but juft fenfible; and that only by the Ufe of the best Inftruments and Obfervations we have in Aftronomy.

7. It is not improbable therefore, that those Central Cavities may be fo fitted by Providence, as to afford Habitations to fome Creatures, as well as the external Surfaces, the Land, the Water, and the Air, have appear'd to do; tho' this in different Circumftances, as to the different Bodies, the Sun, the Planets, and the Comets. See Dr. Halley's Conjecture to fomewhat the like Purpose, Tranfact. Philof. No. 347. for A. D. 1716.

(8.) If the Sun has fuch a Cavity for Habitation, it must be fenced from the Heat of his more external Parts by a vaftly thick Wall or See pag. Partition; which that there may be even of many 54. prius. thousand Miles, the prodigious largenefs of its Diameter, and the little comparative depth of the penetration of Heat through folid Earth, do Demonftrate. Nor would fuch a central Cavity in the Sun be in danger of any pernicious Heat, tho' it were large enough to hold, on its inward Surface, as many Creatures as the external Surfaces of all the Planets and Comets put together could contain; as he that confiders the Tables, pag. 54. and 56. before, will easily believe. Perhaps fuch a Degree of Heat may be deriv'd from the outward to the inward Regions, as will fuit fome of the Purposes of the Great

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Author

Author of Nature therein: But then all its
Light must be deriv'd from fome other
Caufe, than from the outward Parts of the
Sun.

(9.) If the Planets, or any of them, have fuch Cavities for Habitation; because they keep nearly at the fame Distance from the Sun, in the feveral Parts of their Course, their Heat as well as Light, must come most probably from within alfo, as not being ever Recruited in their Revolutions.

(10.) If the Comets, while they continue fuch, have the like Cavities for Habitation; Part of their Heat, because of their Access to the Sun every Period, may be derived from it, and recruited every Revolution: But then all thefr Light, as well as that of the reft, muft be deriv'd from within alfo.

30, 32.

(11.) That the Earth in particular has fuch a Cavity, feems clear from Scripture, as well as it may be conjectured from Aftronomy. For when many, at leaft, of the Souls departed out of the World, are there reprefented as gone See Gen. down into the invifible World; as defcended into xxxvii.3 5. the Place beneath, or as gone down quick into the Num. xvi. Pit; and when our Bleffed Saviour is there ftili zek. represented as upon his Death, going down into xxvi. 20. the Invisible World, and defcending into the lower xxxi. 16. Parts of the Earth; nothing feems fo agreea- Eph. iv. ble both to Nature and Revelation, as this Hypothefis; which fuppofes fuch a Receptacle for Invifible Beings beneath, as exactly anfwers to the foregoing Defcriptions.

(11.) If there be any fuch Cavities and Recepticles for living Creatures, and the Things neceffary for their Suftenance, in the Central Regions

Rom. x. 7.

9, 10.

Regions of the Sun, or of the Planets, or Comets, 'tis certain their State and Circumftances must be very different from thofe on the Surfaces of the Planets. They must all live in Concave Spheres, which muft hinder all Intercourfe between them and this vifible World: Nor can they have any Philofophical Evidence that there is fuch an External World at all; which is the Cafe of the reft of this Univerfe, as to us, if we, with all the vifible Stars, Comets and Planets, be our felves included in fuch a Cavity; which is not abfolutely impoffible to be fuppos'd. But then, as to the particular Circumftances of fuch Creatures, their way of Living, and the Courfe of Nature and Providence, and Divine Revelation relating to them, I shall not venture here to propose any particular Conjectures about them; only hinting this, that the Power of Gravity from the External Parts See Math. being in this Cafe none at all, as we have elfewhere obferv'd, there may be therein such a World as is that we here fee, with the like Sun, Planets, and Comets; only that they must be fo much lefs in Quantity and Largenefs, as the greater Narrownefs of their Cavities requires: Yet ftill fuch as the Imagination will not be able to distinguish from our larger visible Univerfe it felf.

Philof.

Prop. 44.

N. B. I hope that all judicious Perfons will diftinguish what I venture barely to Conjecture fometimes in this, from what I ufually Affert in the other Parts of this Treatife: It being ever proper, if any one propofes Conjectures to the World, which are often of confiderable Advantage, as they afford Hints for farther Enquiries, and Occafions for the Discovery of Truth, to diftin

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distinguish them ftill from Affertions; which ought generally to be built on confiderable Evidence, before they are propofed as true to the World: Which Diftinction between Affertions and Conjectures I always aim to make, and always beg of my Readers, that in their Perufal of my Papers, they will ever make the fame alfo.

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PART VI.

Important Principles of Natural Religion, Demonftrated from the foregoing Obfervations.

Y the Obfervations already made from the true Syftem of the World, it appears,

(1.) That the Souls of even all Brute Creatures are Immaterial, i. e. not compos'd of that dull, unactive, insensible, folid, paffive Subftance, which we call Matter, or Body, and of which all the Visible and Senfible World about us is compos'd. For it certainly appears, that all this Subftance, which we properly call Material Subftance, or Body, is fo far from a Capacity of Senfation, Thought, Activity, and Moving it felf and the Body, which are the known Properties of the Souls of even Brute Creatures themselves, that it is not capable of any active Property at all; being ever mov'd, impell'd, attracted, and directed entirely as other Bodies or Powers act upon it, and not otherwife. This I fay is the natural Confe

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