hing then to be enquired after, is, whether they be of a
corruptible nature, [1]not whether they can be destroyed by God, for
this Scripture puts out of doubt.

[Sidenote 1: 2 Pet. 3. 12.]

Nor whether or no in a long time they would weare away and grow worse,
for from any such feare they have beene lately priviledged.[1] But
whether they are capable of such changes and vicissitudes, as this
inferiour world is liable unto.

[Sidenote 1: By Doctor _Hackwell_ _Apol._]

The two chiefe opinions concerning this, have both erred in some
extremity, the one side going so farre from the other, that they have
both gone beyond the right, whilest _Aristotle_ hath opposed the truth,
as well as the Stoicks.

Some of the Ancients have thought, that the heavenly bodies have stood
in need of nourishment from the elements, by which they were continually
fed, and so had divers alterations by reason of their food, this is
fathered on _Heraclitus_,[1] followed by that great Naturalist
_Pliny_,[2] and in generall attributed to all the Stoicks. You may see
_Seneca_ expressely to this purpose in these words,

_Ex illa alimenta omnibus animalibus, omnibus satis, omnibus stellis
dividuntur, hinc profertur quo sustineantur tot Sydera tam exercitata,
tam avida, per diem, noctemque, ut in opere, ita in pastu._[3]

Speaking of the earth, he saies, from thence it is, that nourishment is
divided to all the living creatures, the Plants and the Starres, hence
were sustained so many constellations, so laborious, so greedy both day
and night, as well in their feeding as working. Thus also _Lucan_ sings,

_Necnon Oceano pasci Phoebumque polumque credimus._

[Sidenote 1: _Plutarch. de plac. philos. l. 2. c. 17._]

[Sidenote 2: _Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 9._]

[Sidenote 3: _Nat. Quaest. lib. 2. cap. 5._]

Unto these _Ptolome_[1] also that learned Egyptian seemed to agree, when
he affirmes that the body of the Moone is moister, and cooler than any
of the other Planets, by reason of the earthly vapours that are exhaled
unto it. You see these ancients thought the Heavens to be so farre from
this imagined incorruptibility, that rather like the weakest bodies they
stood in need of some continuall nourishment without which they could
not subsist.

[Sidenote 1: _I{o} Apost._]

But _Aristotle_ and his followers were so farre from this,[1] that they
thought those glorious bodies could not containe within them any such
principles, as mig