that his persecutors could believe in his sincerity; LECT. VII. even had he not declared, the moment after, his retention of his own belief; which he did. But persecution is the parent of hypocrisy. A consistent Christian would have died, rather than have infringed his integrity. Yet, not hurling condemnation, but pitying the illustrious Florentine, let us turn his history into a lesson for ourselves. In things of every kind, earthly as well as spiritual, "godly simplicity and integrity"

conversations of four Days, are discussed the two principal Systems, the Ptolemaic and the Copernican." Notwithstanding the extreme moderation of the work, scarcely amounting to an avowal of the Copernican doctrine, it was made the ground of severe proceedings. Pope Urban VIII. had, in private life, been his friend; but he was now drawn over by the monks to become a zealous enemy. A congregation of cardinals and others, all his sworn enemies, condemned his book, and cited him to the tribunal of the Inquisition. He was obliged to come to Rome, was imprisoned some months, and on the 23d of June, 1633, kneeling and placing his hand upon the gospels, to denote a declaration by oath in the presence of the God of truth, he uttered the dictated words, "With a sincere heart and undissembled fidelity, I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies." Immediately as he rose from this impious mockery, he betrayed the strongest emotion, stamped on the ground, and said, E pur si muove ! (It moves, however.) He was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and to repeat weekly for three years the seven Penitential Psalms. With regard to the place of imprisonment, great favour was shewn him. Instead of a dungeon, he was confined in the Bishop's palace at Sienna, and afterwards in a similar retreat near Florence. In this condition he prosecuted his investigations on the laws of motion, the planetary phenomena, and other parts of mechanical philosophy; till deafness, blindness, sleeplessness, and excruciating pain wore out the venerable philosopher. He died, aged 78, Jan. 8, 1642, the year of the birth of NEWTON. -Alas! How low does this great man sink, by the side of many a poor, tender, and delicate woman, who has refused to purchase a release from the most cruel torture of the rack or the flames, by yielding to utter any falsehood or deny any truth!

opposition to

the Copernican doc

LECT. VII is the only right course: and, whatever it may cost, it will bring happiness in the end.—But Protestant it is not so much known that, long after that event, pious and learned Protestants viewed Galileo's doctrine with the same alarm and abhorrence as the Romish church professed to feel: and they founded their determination upon the following passages of Scripture.

trine.

"He hath established the earth upon its foundations: it shall not be moved, for ever and ever.- - For upon the seas he hath founded it, and upon the streams he hath fixed it.-0, give thanks unto Him--who hath spread out the earth upon the waters !—The mount Zion" [and therefore, they inferred, the whole earth, of which any hill or mountain is only a part,] -"shall not be moved, for ever and ever.-Generation goeth,' and generation cometh; but the earth for ever standeth.The sun- -rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. From 1 the end of the heavens is his going forth, and his circuit to their uttermost parts.--Praise him, ye heavens of heavens; and ye waters that be above the heavens.--Who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, who layeth rafters in the waters, upper chambers."*

his

Upon the interpretation which men of the. highest ability attached to these declarations of Scripture, they rested the most positive confidence, that the sun flies round the earth every twenty-four hours, and that the earth rests immoveably in the centre of the universe. " This," said one of the most eminent men of the Reformed Church, "we affirm, with all divines, natural philosophers, and astronomers, Jews and

Psa. civ. 5; xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6; Eccles. i. 4. cxlviii. 4; civ. 3.

Psa. xix. 6;

OF PROTESTANTS.

269

Mohammedans, Greeks and Latins; excepting LECT, VII,
one or two of the ancients, and the modern
followers of Copernicus."*
It is in no small

degree curious, but it conveys also a serious
lesson to us, to observe what was a very great
stretch of candour and charity, one hundred and
fifty years ago. "That the sun moves and that
the earth is at rest," wrote another of that class
of learned men, "is testified in Scripture:-
that the earth also cannot be moved, being as it
were founded and fixed upon bases, pedestals,
and pillars.
Some philosophers, indeed, both
ancient and modern, and Copernicus the most
distinguished among them, have maintained the
contrary. Gemma Frisius has taken pains to
explain this opinion of Copernicus in the most
favourable manner that he could; and some
celebrated philosophers have endeavoured to
reconcile it to the Bible, by considerations drawn
from the ambiguity and various use of language.
Others have recourse to the condescension of
the style of Scripture, which, upon matters that
do not affect faith and religion, is wont to lisp
and prattle (ovμexígew,) like a father with his
babes. But our pious reverence for the Scrip-
ture, the word 'of truth, will not allow us to
depart from the strict propriety of the words;
as, by so doing, we should be setting to infidels
an example of wresting the Scriptures: unless

* Gisb. Voetii Disput. Theol. vol. I. p. 637. Utrecht, 1648.

LECT. VII. we were convinced by sure and irrefragable

Ancient ideas

of the starry heavens;

arguments; as perhaps there may be a few so convinced, but they are ambitious persons, though professing themselves to be devoted to sacred studies." *

The length to which these observations has gone appeared necessary, in order to establish the broad and strong foundation of that principle of Bible-interpretation which, to my full conviction, will liberate us from difficulty, in relation to the supposed discrepance between the facts of science, especially geological science, and the testimony of the Holy Scriptures.

A few more instances will be useful: but they shall be briefly mentioned.

"Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars; if thou be able to number them. So shall thy seed be.In multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore." Here we have two similitudes, to represent the great increase of a national population; a population which, in the most flourishing times of Israel and Judah, cannot be estimated as having reached to more than eight or nine millions. Yet it is represented by two comparisons, which lie in opposite extremes. The one falls immensely short. With a little skill and perseverance, Abraham might

* Joh. Henr. Heideggeri Med. Theol. Christ. p. 136; Zurich,

1696.

+ Gen. xv. 5; xxii. 17.

NATURAL OBJECTS.

271

shore sands.

have counted all the stars visible, even in his fine LECT. VII. climate. They could scarcely have amounted to fifteen hundred. But the second object of com- and the seaparison presents a number which the most advanced arithmetic could with difficulty write in figures, and which would many times exceed the number of human beings that have ever lived upon the face of the globe. Will any one say, that these are not figurative expressions, peculiarities of idiom; which must be interpreted by the rule of common sense, the one by extending, the other by contracting?

A mode of expression to be interpreted upon the same principle is that of representing a long period of time, in relation to the history of mankind, by "a thousand generations:"* whereas all the generations of the human race, from Adam to the present hour, cannot exceed two hundred.

2. Concerning atmospheric phenomena, a few The atmothings are to be noticed.

The Hebrew word (?) is commonly translated firmament, after the example of the Septuagint (orepéwua) but many modern critics have sought to mollify the unphilosophical idea of a solid concave shell over our heads, by using the word expanse. No doubt they felt their minds acquiescing in this term, as expressing very well the diffused fluid which surrounds the

sphere.

* Deut. vii. 9. 1 Chron. xvi. 15. Psa. cv. 8.