Those glitt'ring Specks Thou scarce discern'st below,
Are Founts of Day, stupendious Orbs of Light,
Thus, by their Distance, lessen'd to thy Sight.
Now
thing we know, indefinitely and inexhaustably. From whence then this vain Opinion of our selves? May we not more justly suppose these glorious Orbs, inhabited by those numberless Orders of more glorious Beings which are betwixt Us and our Creator? (For surely, there are more Gradations, more Ranks of Beings betwixt Us and God Almighty, than there are betwixt Us and the meanest Insect we know;) and as we cannot, with any shew of Reason, imagine all these glorious Beings were created at the same Time with our selves, neither can we believe their Habitations to have been formed at the same Time with this of Ours; but by a Parity of Reason must suppose them to have been created as long before our World as these other Beings have existed before Mankind.
Moses in his Account of the Creation (Genesis Chap. 1. verse 16. God made two Lights: the greater Light to rule the Day, and the lesser Light to rule the Night,) seems to imply as much: for he is here describing whatever was created at the same Time with this Earth of ours, and the two great Lights here mentioned, can only relate to this solar System, since they are far from being Great, if considered with the other Stars: for the Sun itself, if not less, is no bigger certainly than many of the fixed Stars; and a very small Knowledge in Astronomy will convince any one, that the Moon is less, without Comparison, than any Star discovered by the naked Eye. As to his subjoyning, He made the Stars also: it indeed attests God to be the Creator of all Things, but seems, at the same time, to insinuate their former Creation; as if he had said, After this manner God created the Earth, and made two great Lights to give Light unto it, even the same God who had created the Stars. And in the 17th and 18th Verses, where it is said, God set them in the Firmament of Heaven, to give Light upon the Earth, and to rule over the Day and over the Night, and to divide the Light from the Darkness: still is meant only the Sun and Moon, as may be learnt from Verse the
14th,
