The Discovery of a World in the Moone | Page 9

then as they are,[3] as when he calls the Moone one of the greater lights #hame'orot hagdolim# whereas 'tis the least, but one that wee can see in the whole heavens. So afterwards speaking of the great raine which drowned the world,[4] he saies, the windowes of heaven were opened, because it seemed to come with that violence, as if it were, poured out from windows in the Firmament.[5] So that the phrases which the Holy Ghost uses concerning these things are not to be understood in a literall sense; but rather as vulgar expressions, and this rule is set downe by Saint Austin, where speaking concerning that in the Psalme, who stretched the earth upon the waters,[6] hee notes, that when the words of Scripture shall seeme to contradict common sense or experience, there are they to be understood in a qualified sense, and not according to the letter. And 'tis observed that for want of this rule, some of the ancients have fastened strange absurdities upon the words of the Scripture. So Saint Ambrose esteemed it a heresie, to thinke, that the Sunne and starres were not very hot, as being against the words of Scripture,[7] Psalm. 19. 6. where the Psalmist sayes that there is nothing that is hid from the heate of the Sunne. So others there are that would prove the heavens not to be round, out of that place, Psal. 104. 2. Hee stretcheth out the heavens like a curtaine.[8] So Procopius also was of opinion, that the earth was founded upon the waters, nay, he made it part of his faith, proving it out of Psal. 24. 2. Hee hath founded the earth upon the seas, and established it upon the flouds. These and such like absurdities have followed, when men looke for the grounds of Philosophie in the words of Scripture. So that from what hath beene said, I may conclude that the silence of Scripture concerning any other world is not sufficient argument to prove that there is none. Thus for the two first arguments.
[Sidenote 1: In Epist. ad Gilbert.]
[Sidenote 2: Part 1. Q. 68. Art. 3.]
[Sidenote 3: Gen. 1. 16]
[Sidenote 4: Gen. 11.]
[Sidenote 5: Sr. W. Rawly c. 7. §. 6.]
[Sidenote 6: l. 2. in Gen. / Psal. 136. 6.]
[Sidenote 7: Wisd. 2. 4. 17. 5. / Ecclus. 43. 3. 4.]
[Sidenote 8: Com. in c. 1. Gen.]
Unto the third, I may answer, that this very example is quoted by others, to shew the ignorance of those primative times, who did sometimes condemne what they did not understand, and have often censur'd the lawfull & undoubted parts of Mathematiques for hereticall, because they themselves could not perceive a reason of it, and therefore their practise in this particular, is no sufficient testimony against us.
But lastly I answer to all the above named objections, that the terme World, may be taken in a double sense, more generally for the whole Universe, as it implies in it the elementary and ?thereall bodies, the starres and the earth. Secondly, more particularly for an inferiour World consisting of elements. Now the maine drift of all these arguments, is to confute a plurality of worlds in the first sense, and if there were any such, it might, perhaps, seeme strange, that Moses, or St. John should either not know, or not mention its creation. And Virgilius was condemned for this opinion, because he held, quòd sit alius mundus sub terra, aliusque Sol & Luna, (as Baronius) that within our globe of earth, there was another world, another Sunne and Moone, and so he might seeme to exclude this from the number of the other creatures.
But now there is no such danger in this opinion, which is here delivered, since this world said to be in the Moone, whose creation is particularly exprest.
So that in the first sense I yeeld, that there is but one world, which is all that the arguments do prove, but understand it in the second sense, and so I affirme there may be more nor doe any of the above named objections prove the c?trary.
Neither can this opinion derogate from the divine Wisdome (as Aquinas thinkes) but rather advance it, shewing a compendium of providence, that could make the same body a world, and a Moone; a world for habitation, and a Moone for the use of others, and the ornament of the whole frame of Nature. For as the members of the body serve not onely for the preservation of themselves, but for the use and conveniency of the whole, as the hand protects the head as well as saves it selfe,[1] so is it in the parts of the Universe, where each one may serve, as well for the conservation of that which is within it, as the helpe of