matter in hand, I shall therefore referre the Reader to their authors, and omit any large proofe of them my selfe, as desiring all possible brevity.
1. The first is this: That there are no solid Orbes. If there be a habitable World in the Moone (which I now affirme) it must follow, that her Orbe is not solid, as Aristotle supposed; and if not her, why any of the other? I rather thinke that they are all of a fluid (perhaps aereous) substance. Saint Ambrose, and Saint Basil did endeavour to prove this out of that place in Isay[1], where they are compared to smoake, as they are both quoted by Rhodiginus[2], Eusebius, Nierembergius[3] doth likewise from that place confute the solidity and incorruptibility of the Heavens, and cites for the same interpretation the authority of Eustachius of Antioch; and Saint Austin,[4] I am sure seemes to assent unto this opinion, though he does often
- ↑ Isa. 51. 6.
- ↑ Ant. lect. l. 1. c. 4.
- ↑ Hist. nat. l. 2. c. 11. 13.
- ↑ In lib. sup. Gen. ad lit.
