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N. B. I propofe the Five first as Arguments exceeding probable; but this laft as a really certain Demonstration.

PROP. II.

The Annual Motion, or that which occafions the Succeffion of Summer and Winter, and the apparent Motion of the Sun through the Eclip tick, in the Space of 365 Days, which we call a Year, belongs to the Earth, and not to the Sun.

DEMONSTRATION.

(1.) All the Phænomena or Appearances re lating to this Matter, are now certainly known to be equally natural and neceffary Confequences of an Annual Revolution of the Earth, as of the Sun; as all Aftronomers confefs. And he who confiders the prodigious Greatness of the Sun's Body, and the comparative Smallness of the Earth, will be under no Temptation to fuppofe that the vast Sun revolves round this little Earth; efpecially when he reflects, that all things will be the very fame, if this little Earth be fuppos'd to revolve about that vaft Sun in the fame time.

(2.) There are no known Laws of Motion according to which fo great a Body as the Sun can revolve about fo fmall a Body as the Earth; nay, this is directly contrary to all fuch known Laws whatfoever. For let the Occafion or Influence derived from thefe two Bodies be of what fort you pleafe, either Gravitation, or Magnetifm, or Impulfe, &c. ftill the greater D

Body,

Body, as in all like Cafes, must have the greateft Force and Efficacy to move the other. And we may full as well expect that a Sling, containing a Milftone in it, may be faften'd to a Pebble, and continue its Motion about that Pebble, without removing it, as that the Sun can revolve about our Earth, while the Earth continues immoveable in the Center of that Motion.

(3.) There is no Instance of such a thing in the visible World, as a great Body thus revolving about a small one, that continues it self immoveable all the while; but all the Inftances are on the other fide. The fmaller Moon revolves about the larger Earth; the fmaller Circumjovials and Circumfaturnals revolve about the larger Jupiter and Saturn; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, revolve all, not about the fmaller Earth, but about the larger Sun; as is now confefs'd by the whole Aftronomical World; and as is certainly demonstrated by the Phafes of Venus and Mercury feen See Fig. I. through a Telescope. And tho' in a strict Senfe all these larger Bodies may be fo far faid to revolve about thofe fmaller, as they may ftill, on both fides, revolve about the common Center of Gravity; yet because the common Center of Gravity of the Sun and Earth must be fo very near the Center of the Sun, and so very far from the Center of the Earth; and by confequence, the Motion of the Sun, if compar'd with that of the Earth about it, must be so very infenfible; it follows, that the most fenfible Annual Motion, of which we are now speaking, muft ftill, by all parallel Inftances, belong to the Earth, and not to the Sun.

(4.) The

The Copernican, or true Solar System · Pag. 34

Saturn with his Ring and five Moons.

Jupiter and his 4 Moons

Mars's Orbit

Earth &

Venus

Mercury

Fig. 1.

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These are the three Famous Systems of Aftronomy. In the Copernican the the Phafes of Venus and Mercury, which are Full in one Conjunction with the Sun, when they are beyond it as to the Earth Demonstrate that Ptolemaicklyftem in which that situation is imposible, is utterly falle.

Nor is there the least evidence in the World for the Tychonick which the very Figure shens to be absurd and monstrous: That the Vaft Sun with its Prodigious System of the Planets, should be as in the Copernican; and yet that this System of the Sun and Planets fhould all Revolve round this little Earth in a years time! ISenex feulp

(4.) The Hypothefis that this Annual Motion belongs to the Sun, and not to the Earth, introduces the utmoft Confufion among the Celeftial Motions, and that without any proper occafion in the World. For what ftrange confufion is it for us to imagine that the fingle Earth, which is now confefs'd by all to be fituate between Mars above, and Venus below it; while all the rest of the Planets, Saturn with his Satellites, Jupiter with his, and Mars, Venus, and Mercury, without any, do all revolve not about the Earth, but about the Sun; nay that the Superior revolve about it in longer, and the Inferior in fhorter Periods or Years, while the Annual Period, is in a mean between them; that I say the fingle Earth be exempted from the common Law of the whole System? What a heap of Abfurdities are here? That while all the reft of the Planetary World revolve about the Sun, in their feveral regular Periods or Years, that yet our Earth, contrary to all Probability, fhould be fuppos'd to carry not the Sun only, but all the Solar System alfo round it felf in a Year's time, as it certainly muft, if the Annual Motion belong to the Sun? See Fig. II This Hypothefis of the famous Tycho, which is the only one that is not abfolutely impoffible to be true, is yet fo wild, groundless, and extravagant in it felf, and fo prodigiously improbable, that I fhould exceedingly wonder at its first Introduction, and much more at its Admiffion still in Roman-Catholick Countries, did I not know that Injudicious Perfons have interpreted Scripture against the true System; and that an Infallible Church has Establish'd that Interpretation; nay, has condemn'd the true one

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