Seems like the TL;DR would be something like: Man sees planet pass in front of the sun, but with fuzzy & bright bits & bulging where otherwise sharp edges around the planet & sun would be. Man then proceeds to explain why science is complementary to christianity.
It interesting to see some passages tying the discovery with the faith in general. This is 1700s after all. And how the approach taken is in contrast to what a lot of fundamentalist or conservative Christians believe today. Talking about a deep resentment towards science and how they see it as an attack on their faith.
And it is funny that here is someone from 1700s, quoting an Orthodox Christian writer from more than 1500 years before who seems to be pretty ok with aliens living on Venus:
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"St. Basil the Great considered the possibility of multiple worlds and said: "
As a potter, who made thousands of water pots with the same skill and exhausted no art and no power, the Creator of the universe has enough creative power not only for a single world, but
for as many as [He] wants to create in a single moment alone.
"
