Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/158

154 these also are the abodes of animated beings of various orders and descriptions, and among the rest, of man, for whose sake and use the whole has been provided. He who believes, as every one ought to believe,that the Divine Being created the universe for no other end, than that mankind, and thereby heaven, might have existence, (for mankind is the seminary of heaven,) must needs believe also, that wheresoever there is any earth, there likewise are human inhabitants. That the planets, which are visible to our eyes, as being within the boundaries of this solar system, are earths, may appear manifest from this consideration, that they are bodies of earthy matter, because they reflect the light of the sun, and when seen through a telescope, they appear not as stars glittering by reason of their flame, but as earths variegated by reason of their opake spots. The same may further appear from this consideration, that they, in like manner as our earth, are conveyed by a progressive motion round the sun, in the way of the zodiac, whence they have their years, and seasons of the year, as spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and in like manner revolve about their own axis, whence they have their days, and times of the day, as morning, mid-day, evening, and night. Moreover some of them have moons, which are called satellites, and which perform their revolutions round their central globes, as the moon does round our earth. How is it possible for any reasonable person, acquainted with these circumstances, to assert or to conceive, that such bodies are void or destitute of inhabitants? That, besides the planets in our solar system, there are also innumerable others in the universe, may be rationally inferred from this consideration, that every fixed star in the firmament is found to shine, not with