Who can refrain from falling down with reverential filence, when he confiders the magnificent ftructure of the univerfe? Yet how fmall a part of the great things around us can be taken in by our limited faculties? We fee enough to furprise us, the great visible effects proclaim the majefty of the invisible caufe; further than this they do not, they can not go.

No other eye than the DIVINE is equal to the view of nature; and no mind lefs than that of the GREAT DESIGNER is able to perceive, with perfect clearness, the uniformity of the defign amidst the vaft variety of parts that are to outward appearance fo diffimilar and heterogeneous. There is nothing in which the nature of man prides itself fo much as in fuperior knowledge and wisdom; and yet how low is the point to which human knowledge can afcend! In the objects which furround us, in fubjects in which we are moft nearly interested, how fmall is the part we can difcover! The best directed and moft fuccefsful refearches only inform us how little is known, and give us no cause to be satisfied with the difcoveries they have made.

LECTURE

1

LECTURE XXXVI.

ON ASTRONOMY.

THE heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament fheweth his handy work.

In them hath he fet a tabernacle for the fun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as á ftrong man to run à race.

His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

When I confider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the ftars which thou haft ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the fon of man, that theu vifiteft him?

Praise ye him fun and moon, praise him all ус ftars of light.

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for HE commanded and they were created.

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wifdom thou haft made them all.

Transported with a furvey of the wonders which prefent themfelves in heaven above, and on earth below, the Royal Pfalmift breaks forth into an exclamation on the variety and grandeur, the harmony and proportion of the works of God. He is ftruck with the awful magnificence of the wide extended firmament, where the fun, that fountain of life, and heart of the world, that bright leader of the armies of heaven, is enthroned in glorious majefty; where the moon fhines with a fuftre borrowed from his beams, amidst a multiVOL. III. L: 1.

tude

tude of fhining orbs differing from each other in magnitude and fplendor. Thefe, though they have neither fpeech nor language, yet by their fplendor and magnificence, their motions and their influences, all regulated and exerted according to the ordinance of their maker, do in a very intelligible and ftriking mannner declare the GLORY of GOD, and are magnificent heralds of their maker's praife.

To contemplate thefe fublime and interesting objects, and to explain to you the phenomena which fo eminently fignalize the celeftial worlds, is the bufinefs of the Lectures on Aftronomy. Of the various branches of fcience cultivated by mankind, aftronomy is one of the most important and most ufeful; our faculties are enlarged by the grand ideas it conveys, and the mind is exalted above the contracted prejudices of the vulgar and illiterate. It explains to you the laws or rules that govern and direct the motions of the heavenly hoft, and by which the ALMIGHTY Carries on and continues the wonderful harmony, order, and connection, obfervable throughout the planetary fyftem; it enables us to difcover the fize of the planets, and determine their refpective distances. By the knowledge derived from this fcience, we difcover alfo the bulk of the earth, and ascertain the fituation and extent of the countries and kingdoms into which it is divided; by aiding the navigator, and facilitating his paffage through the tracklefs ocean, trade and commerce are carried on to the remotest parts of the world, and the various products of the feveral countries are diftributed for the health, comfort, and convenience of it's different inhabitants.

There can be little or no occafion to excite

your

* See Bishop Horne's more than excellent Commentary on the Flulais,

your attention to the wonders continually exhibited in the heavens; the magnificent objects you there difcover, forcibly awaken the idea of their AUTHOR, by presenting the moft ftriking inftances of his power and his glory. It is towards heaven you turn your eyes, when you look up for affiftance to that infinite goodness and power, from whom alone it can be received. No one, indeed, can view the immenfe expanfe of heaven, without being ftruck with admiration at the variety of bodics apparently in motion, with which that expanfe is adorned; at the uniformity and regularity with which they seem to move from one part of the heavens to the other, always keeping within a certain limit, and pointing out by their different fituations the different feafons of the year, and diffufing the various degrees of heat and light neceffary for the preservation of animal and vegetable life.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ASTRONOMY.

Of the various phenomena that offer themfelves for your obfervation, the most obvious is the DIURNAL MOTION, or that which feems to be common to the whole heavens, and which is completed in twenty-four hours.

Of the moving bodies, the fun is the first that engages our attention, not only on account of his almost infinite fuperiority over the reft, but because of our own more immediate dependence on him. In common with the other celeftial bodies he has an apparent motion from caft to weft, for we fee him every day rifing in the eaft, topping the fky as it were archways, then defcending till he fets in the weft.

If you confider the ftars, you will find that the greater part rife and fet every day; and after a few

L12

a few days obfervation, you will conclude that the ftars have a motion common to all, by which they are carried round the earth in 24 hours.

If, in order to confider more attentively the circumftances of this diurnal motion, you place yourself in an elevated fituation, you will perceive a circle terminating your view on all fides by the meeting, or apparent meeting of the heaven and earth; your day and night depend upon it, it prefcribes to every ftar in heaven the race that it has to run, and bounds your view fo effectually that you can neither fee whence they rife, or whither they tend. This circle is called the horizon, it divides the heavens into two parts; but that part alone which is above the horizon is vifible, and as this part appears to us under the form of a concave hemifphere, it is ufually termed the visible bemifphere.

On confidering with attention for one or more nights the motion of the stars, you will find each ftar defcribing a circle in about 24 hours; those. ftars that are most northward, describe smaller circles than thofe that are more to the fouth; you will find the circles defcribed by different ftars diminishing gradually, till they are loft and confounded in one point that is called the pole of the world. To be more particular, if you look towards the fouth, you will obferve fome stars just appearing above the horizon, grazing this circle but not rifing above it, and then vanishing; obferve a group a little farther from the fouth, and you will find them rife above the horizon, making a fmall arch, and then going down; take another group ftill more diftant from the fouth, and you will find thefe defcribing a larger arch, and taking a longer time to go down. Turn now your face to the north, and you will find fome that juft fkim the horizon, mount to the top of the heaven and

then