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fands for the Confeffion of our Lord JESUS CHRIST) been able to fupprefs a little, contemptible, innocent, unlearned and defenceless People, nor get the better of those Principles fo pernicious to their Atheistical Authority? By which Principles, Men were taught indeed to fubmit themselves to the Powers that were over them; because there is no Power but of GOD, and because the Powers that be, are ordained of Him, Rom. xiij. 1. But also on the other fide, (which is by no means to be endured by an Atheistical Governour, who would direct all things according to his own Pleasure) that Subjects are obliged, in cafe the Worship and Revealed Will of GoD were opposed even by the mightiest of Monarchs, to deny their Fear and Obedience. Was there ever any Religion better calculated to oppofe a Supream Power, that does not own God, like this, tho' in all other Cafes it makes the most obedient Subje&s? And can any Prince, who accounts his Religion nothing else but a Bridle for the People, in any wife endure to hear even the meaneft of his Subjects fay, with the Apostles, in Acts v. 29. We ought to obey God rather than Man? Or, will he fuffer a Religion to be exercised in any Place under him, where the Founder of it fhall give this exprefs Charge to those that exercise it, when perfecuted for his Name fake; Be not afraid of them that kill the Body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath Power to caft into Hell; yea, I Say unto you, fear him, Luke xij. 4, 5. from whence an Atheist himself may judge, if all Religions owe their beginning to State-Craft only, whether the Christian would not long before this have been at an End: And fince that could not be compaffed by fo many bloody Perfecutions, and raging Cruelties of the highest Worldly Powers, whether the

faid Religion muft not have been preserved from the very Rife of it to this Day, against all the Attempts and Designs of thofe that would extirpate it, by the Intervention of a much higher and more refiftlefs Power?

SECT. XXXVIII. Atheifts differ from the Wifeft

Men.

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Now to return from this Digreffion to the Bufinefs in hand, it is undeniable, that this Northern Temperate Zone is inhabited by the wifeft and moft learned Men; most of whom acknowledge a GoD and fupreme Director of all Things; from whence it is plain, that the owning a Deity, which has made and preferved all things, is received and maintained by the wifeft of all People. If now a deplorable Sceptick, and who ftill pretends to doubt of thefe great Truths, will not continue arrogantly to maintain, that the wifeft Men are the greatest Impoftors, and that the lefs knowing are all cheated, and that he himself is the only wife and righteous Man; he will at least, by comparing all these things together, find a juft Caufe filently to fit down; and whatever his Philofophy might have taught him before, to enquire farther, whether his perfevering in this Conceit, that he is the only wife Man, be not the greatest of Follies; and whether the Proofs made ufe of by others, to fhew that there is a Go D, are not ftronger than those to which he hitherto adhered: Laftly, Whether from the Works of Nature, the Wisdom of the Creator may not as justly be inferr'd, as the Skill of the best Workman from thofe of Art. Which trouble, if he please to take, he will have got a great way already, unless he be entirely abandon'd to his own unhappy Principles.

SECT.

SECT. XXXIX. Concerning the Frigid Zones.

THE two laft Zones (Tab. XVI. Fig. 1.) are thofe that are called the Frigid or Cold Zones, of which the Southern km i, lies under the Southern Pole'm, and feem as yet to be entirely unknown to Geographers, being reprefented upon their Maps very doubtfully, either by Seas or by the Terra Auftralis Incognita.

The Northern Frigid Zone gp h, especially if one approach pretty near to the North Pole p, discovers nothing elfe but uninhabited Defarts, frightful Rocks, and Mountains of Snow and Ice for the most part; concerning which, the Defcriptions of Nova Zembla, Spitsberg, and Greenland, may be confulted.

SECT. XL. The Impoffibility of approaching the Poles.

ONE can hardly read without Astonishment, what Kircher fays in his Subterraneous World, and which he confirms by a Cloud of Witneffes, namely, as Men approach the North Pole p, the Sea is driven towards it with fo irresistible a Force, and, as if it fell from a Cataract or Precipice, that many, who have had the Misfortune to come within the faid Stream, have been hurried away, Men, Veffels and all, and never feen again; and on the contrary, thofe who have endeavour'd to fail towards the South Pole m, have found the Sea flowing against them with fo terrible a Strength, that neither Sails nor Oars could bring them nearer to it.

I leave this Relation to its own Weight; but how little Hope there is ever to difcover and to learn the exa& Geography under the Poles, may be learn'd from all the Voyagers that have bent their

Courfe

Course that way, Certainly, that in Kepler's time, which is fomething more than a Century, we were ignorant of every thing concerning them, and did not so much as know whether it was Land or Sea under the Poles, is fufficiently fhewn by his Epitome Aftronom. p. 166, and 159. De Stair does likewife reprefent in his Phyfiology, the invincible Difficulties of ever getting thither; faying, p. 487, that when the Hollanders endeavour'd to find a Paffage to the Eaft-Indies by the North, and therefore were obliged to fteer their Course towards that Pole, the Compafs loft all its Virtue and Direction; by which means all Hopes of advancing farther, feemed to be entirely cut off. Yea, to be convinced, that it is still unknown to all Men, what are the Countries lying under the Poles, we need only caft our Eyes upon the Cofmotheoros of Mr. Huygens, p. 119. who, in plain words affirms the fame, adding thereto, that he may exprefs the Difficulty, if not Impoffibility thereof, in the following With: 0, if one might but once fee thofe Regions!

But altho' fome might think it poffible, that in following Ages the fame may be discover'd, yet the abfolute Impoffibility of ever attaining to the laft Degree of Latitude, is daily more plain by new Experiments; the vain Attempts of the boldeft Sailors are every time fo many new Proofs thereof. But that which feems to fruftrate all Hopes, even for the future, are the impracticable and always obftructing Mountains of Ice, which are found there yearly by our Greenland Traders, and which, according to all Probability, may date their Age from that of the World; fince the Sun feems never to have had fo much Strength, as to be capable of diffolving these vaft Tracts of Ice, frozen by fo many and fuch long Winters. So that any Accefs to the Poles will be always defeated thereby, and

as long as the Earth continues in the fame Pofition with respect to the Sun, the fame Difficulties are like to remain.

CONTEMPLATION XXI.

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Of FIRE.

SECT. I. Tranfition to FIRE.

OW, tho' we do not, like fome Philofophers, affert the Earth, Air, Water and Fire to be the only Principles orFoundation of all Things, nor pretend to limit the Wisdom of the Almighty to a certain Number of Principles, if we may fo fpeak; yet it can be denied by no body, that all of 'em center in the Compofition of many natural Bodies: Wherefore we fhall proceed to confider this last Element of Fire.

SECT. II. The Inconveniences that would befall us, if there were no fuch thing as Fire in the World.

IF there be any one ftill fo unfortunate, as not to be able to break loofe from thofe deplorable Sentiments, that every thing that exifts, and even Fire itself, has been made by mere Chance and ignorant Causes, at least, without any wife and determinate End; Let fuch a one retire within himself, and contemplate this Globe of the Earth, and every thing belonging to it, in the

State

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