foon as Man was created in the Image of God, ver." 26, 27. God gave him an abfolute Power and Domi nion over them all. He bleffed them, and faid unto thems Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and fubdue it, and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea, and over the Fowl of the Air, and over every living Thing that moveth upon the Earth. As Man was thus created in the Image of the Ever-blessed Trinity, all the Excellencies and Perfections that were to be found in every Species of Animals in their most perfect State, were all in a fuper-eminent Degree in the perfect human Nature, thereby our first Parent had an intire Knowledge, and abfolute Dominion over all the various Kinds, Ranks, and Orders of the animal and vegetable World. By the firft he was enabled to know the very central Natures, and most Intimate Properties and Powers of every Species, and to give them fignificant Names, expreffive of their feveral Natures. Thus we read, Gen. ii. 19. And· out of the Ground the Lord God formed every Beast of the Field, and every Fowl of the Air, and brought them unto Adam to fee what he would call them and whatfoever Adam called every living Creature, that was the Name thereof. The Original of all Names was to express the Nature of the Things named, upon which Account Names and Natures were very frequently in Scripture ufed promifcuoufly. And as he perfectly knew their several Properties and Powers, and had them all in a fuper-eminent Degree within himself, fo he had an abfolute Power to direct and controul them, fo as to fulfil the Will of their Creator, in anfwering the End of their Creation, and preferving the Peace and Harmony of the whole System.

Whilft

I

Whilft they received through him, as God's Vicegerent, and their Governor, fuch Communications of Happiness, as their Nature was capable of, and their State of Being required. He was their immediate Lord, receiving from the infinite Fountain of Light and Good, a conftant uninterrupted Communication of Life and Bleffing, which were through him derived to all the feveral Parts and Inhabitants of the animal and vegetable Creation, and thereby kept them all in abfolute Subjection and Dependence upon him; fo that he had an intire Dominion over this whole vifible World which we inhabit. To this original Charter or Commiffion, the holy Pfalmift refers, Pfal. viii. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Lord, what is Man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man, that thou vifiteft him? Thou madeft him lower than the Angels, to crown him with Glory and Worship: Thou madeft him to have Dominion, over the Works of thy Hands, thou haft put all Things in Subjection under his Feet; all Sheep and Oxen, yea, and the Beasts of the Field, the Fowls of the Air, and the Fishes of the Sea, and whatfoever walketh through the Paths of the Sea.

Here, Madam, let us make a Stand, and review, with Astonishment and Rapture, the infinite Wif dom, Power, and Goodness of our Almighty Creator, the transcendent and inconceivable Beauties of the new World, the Harmony, the Peace, and Happiness of these its once happy Inhabitants, bleffed with more exalted Faculties, Strength, and Beauty, cropping the everlasting Verdure, the unfading Flowers of Paradife, drinking the untainted Streams of Life and Immortality in a delicious Garden, into

which neither Sin nor Sorrow, Corruption or Death, had yet entered, exempt from Pain and Sickness, Labour and Misery, where the Spirits of Darkness had no Power, nor the least Appearance and Shadow of Evil could find Admiffion; where all was Purity, Light, and Pleafure, the Joys and Beauties of eternal Spring; where each of them, in their proper Place and Order, were miniftering to the Happiness of their Sovereign Lord, the Harmony and Order of the Syftem; and proclaiming aloud, as it were with one Voice, the Glory and the Goodness of him that made them!-Such was, fuch must have been, (if we believe the Scriptures) the bleffed Condition of these once happy Creatures.

Is there any Thing in this Account that seems either impoffible or improbable? Does not the whole appear confiftent, reasonable, worthy of God, and agreeable to Scripture? On the other hand, how mean, how trifling, how unworthy of God, how repugnant to Scripture, is the Philofophy of thofe, who fuppofe them to be either animated by Evil Spirits, or elfe, allowing them no fpiritual Principle of Motion or Action, fuppofe them to be mere Machines, to have no more Senfe or Perception than a Clock, or a Watch; that though they have fome Motion, fome Appearance of Sense, and Shadow of Reason, yet it is no more than what arifes from the Structure of their Organs, and the Mechanifin of their Frame; that they are therefore no more the Objects of our Compaffion, than any other Piece of Machinery. That their Cries and Complaints, which we commonly fancy to be Expreffions of Grief, Pain, or Suffering, are no more to be regarded than the Sound

of

of a Drum when it is beaten, or the Noise of a Clock when it ftrikes. Is not this offering Violence to Reafon, Nature, and common Senfe? Is it not making a Mock of God's Creatures? Sure I am that the Scriptures, and moft antient Philofophy, treat this Subject in a very different Manner. Mofes declares, in the most express Manner, that they have living Souls, Gen. i. 29, 30. And God faid, Behold, I have given you every Herb bearing Seed which is upon the Face af all the Earth; and every Tree, in which is the Fruit of a Tree, yielding Seed, to you it shall be for Meat. And to every Beaft of the Earth, and to every Fowl of the Air, and to every Thing that creepeth upon the Earth, wherein there is Life, or (as it ought to be rendered, as in the Margin, a living Soul) I have given every green Herb for Meat. On this Account it is that the Scriptures every where represent them as Objects of the Divine Care and Compaffion, as depending upon him for the Support and Suftenance of that Life which he has given them. Hence holy Job, xxxiii. 41. asks this Queftion, Who provideth for the Raven his Food? When his Young-ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of Meat. The Pfalmift has the fame Expreffion, Pfal. cxlvii. 9. That God giveth Fodder to the Cattle, and feedeth the young Ravens when they call upon him. So again, Pfal. civ. speaking of the whole Brute-Creation, he says, These wait all upon thee, that thou mayeft give them their Meat in due Seafon; when thou giveft it them, they gather it; when thou openest thy Hand, they are filled with Good. Our bleffed Lòrd fays the fame Thing, Matt. vi. 26. Behold the Fowls of the Air, for they fow not, neither do they spin, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. And, in the Levitical Law, God feems to affert his VOL. I. peculiar

Que

1

his own.

born

peculiar Title to every Species, and their Relation to him, by claiming the First-born of each as peculiarly Thus we read, Exod. xiii. 12. The Lord Spake unto Mofes, faying, Sanctify to me all the Firstamong the Children of Ifrael, both of Man and Beaft, it is mine. And Pfal. cxlviii. where all Creatures are called upon to praife God, Beafts and all Cattle, Worms and feathered Fowl. It will be found to have a much more exalted Meaning, than appears, at first Sight, to an unattentive Reader.

But now I expect to be asked, if this were the original happy State of the Brute-Creation, how came they to lose it? How came they into this miferable Condition in which we fee them at prefent? A God of infinite Wisdom and Goodness could make none of his Creatures to be miferable; much lefs would he, by an arbitrary Act of his Will and Pleasure, deprive them of any kind or Degree of Happiness, which his Goodness had freely conferred upon them, without any Offence or Demerit on their Parts. They are not properly moral Agents; no Command or Prohibition had ever been given them; and, where there was no Law, there could be no Tranfgreffion; and, where there was no Tranfgreffion, one would naturally imagine there would be no Punishment. And yet there feems to be an univerfal Sentence of Condemnation gone out against the whole System. They fuffer in every Article of their Nature in fuch a Manner, as one would think nothing but fome univerfal Guilt, and intire Corruption and Degeneracy of their Nature could poffibly deferve or bring upon them. how elfe comes it to pafs, that there fhould be, in fome of them, fuch a Malignity and Cruelty of Tem

per,