down to this earth; fhould have answered no end in their original formation? or that they must needs have formed nothing but a body of confufion, on the face of the fun, from whence they proceed, although it be a globe fo immensely more magnificent, and vast, than this planet, or indeed than any of the other planets that are benefited by its most glorious light?

How much more rational is it, to conclude, that what thus, at laft, and in a mere fecondary operation, adorns this earth; as we catch portions of it, on our way through the regions of space; did, at its first emanation, not only, in like manner, but even much more beautifully adorn the body from which it has been emitted.

Surely, therefore, both reason, and philofophy, in concurrence with common sense, fhould teach us to conceive the fun to be a 21. glorious manfion: an habitation, whofe furface is covered with a vast variety of fplendid objects; of different colours; fhining, and becoming visible, by their own emitted light.

And fuppofing this to be the case; if the light which each one of them affords, were no more illustrious, than even that in which

the appearance of that poor vile infect, the glow-worm, is exhibited, on earth, what must be the effect, at the diftance of a thousand, or only at the distance of an hundred miles from the fun?-What? but that they must there, all be mixed and blended together, just in the fame proportion, in which the whole aggregate of differently coloured bodies exift on the fun : and fo as to form, precisely, what we call a ray of light, appearing white, and confifting of all the feven colours united and blended together*?

A ray of light, therefore, and what we call white, which is the compleat reflexion of the whole; may fairly be concluded to be nothing more, than all the different colours that are emitted from the different bodies on the whole furface of the fun, mixed together, fo as to contain juft fuch a portion of each colour, as on the whole exifts in all the bodies of that

* It is well known even to every novice in philofophy, that if a circular piece of card be divided into seven portions, or spaces, in proportion to the different lengths of a ftring, required to form the feven different notes of mufic, and if the seven primary colours of the rainbow be painted in those spaces; and then the card be whirled round very rapidly, fo as to blend the appearance of the colours together, it will seem to be really white.

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colour,

22.

colour, or of any degrees of it, on the whole disk of the fun, when taken together.

If this be a philofophical and rational conclufion, as I cannot but deem it to be; I must then further conclude, that fun-fhine is neither more nor lefs than the emanations of glory, in that body; and that we may venture, on that account, to conceive it to be one of the mansions of Heaven; and, because of its near connexion with our earth, more immediately our heaven.

And a very remarkable observation, made by Mr. Herschell, confirms this idea.

For, whatever be the cause of the shining of the fixed stars, it is manifeftly fimilar to that of the shining of the fun: and he has obferved, that the ftars, when accurately examined, by the highest magnifiers we have yet been able to procure, are of different colours. Some blueish; fome reddish; of very different fhades; fome pink; fome white, and dufky of very different fhades *; that is, in truth, (to bring the obfervation down to my ideas;

* The accounts of all these different colours may be feen minuted with great exactness, in Mr. Herschell's moft curious Catalogue of Double Stars, in the Philofophical Tranfactions, vol. lxxv. p. 47.

or

or rather to raise it up, to higher apprehenfions ;) in thofe glorious bodies; in those heavens; the colours are not mixed juft in the fame proportion, as they are in ours: but there are more bodies emitting red, or blue tints and therefore, their white, their funShine, is not just the fame as ours Although it may nevertheless be quite as glorious, or even more fo.

Every information we have in Scripture, concerning heaven, and the inhabitants of the heavens, tends to confirm this idea. For they have appeared, not only with emanations of light and colours, in themselves; but also, very frequently, with emanations of light and colours, in the fubjects and objects with which they have been furrounded.—And the very first seal of God's favour to mankind, after the flood, was the rainbow in the clouds, wherein these colours are fhewn to us, in the moft vivid manner in which we can, at prefent, and here on earth, be made acquainted with them.

Thus, for inftance, in the great and majestic appearance of the Divine Shecinah, that was manifefted to the elders (or nobles) of Ifrael, in the Mount, we find the appearance

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pearance that has been recorded, was not seen merely in a trance, or dream, according 23. to the common idea of a vifion ; but was obvious to their bodily fenfes: and here were feen the most glorious emanations of colours.

Exodus, ch. xxiv. ver. 9, 10, II.

9*. Καὶ ἀνέβη Μωυσῆς καὶ Ααρών και Να δαξ, καὶ ̓Αβιέδ, καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα τῶν πρεσβυ τέρων Ἰσραήλ·

τα

10. κ ἴδον τὸν τόπον * εἱςήκει ἐκεῖ ὁ Θεὸς τῇ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ τὰς πόδας αὐτῷ ὡσεὶ ἔργον πλίνθε σαπφέρε, καὶ ὥσπερ εἶδος σερεώματος τῇ ἐρανε τῇ καθαρότηι.

11. Καὶ τῶν ἐπιλέκων τῶ Ἰσραήλ ἐ διεφώνησεν ἐδὲ εἰς· καὶ ὤφθησαν ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τὸ θεῖ, καὶ ἔφαίον, καὶ ἔπιον.

9. And Mofes afcended, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abibu, and feventy of the elders of Ifrael.

10. And they far the place, where food, THERE, the God of Ifrael; and what was under

* The Vatican copy has τῆς γερεσίας inftead of τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ; and in the next verfe omits the word ἐκεῖ.