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 Beaft of the field, and every Fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to fee what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living Creature, that was the Name thereof. The Original of all Names was to exprefs the Nature of the Things named, upon which account Names and Natures were very frequently in Scripture ufed promifcuously. And as he perfectly knew their feveral Properties and Powers, and had them all in a fupereminent 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 they received through him as God's Vicegerent, and their Governour, 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 absolute Subjection and Dependance upon him; fo that he had an intire Dominion over this whole vifible World which we inhabit. To this Ori

ginal Charter or Commiffion the holy Pfalmist 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 fubjection 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 whatsoever walketh through the Paths of the Sea.

Here, Madam, let us make a stand, and review with Astonishment and Rapture the infinite Wisdom, Power, and Goodnefs of our Almighty Creator, the transcendent and inconceiveable Beauties of the new World, the Harmony, the Peace and Happiness of thefe its once happy Inhabitants, bleffed with more exalted Faculties, Strength and Beauty, cropping the everlafting 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 Mifery, where the Spirits of Darkness had no Power, nor the leaft Appearance or Shadow of Evil could find admiffion; where all was Purity, Light, and Pleasure, the Joys and Beauties of eternal Spring; where each of them in their proper Place and Order were miniftring to the Happiness of their Sovereign

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Lord, the Harmony and Order of the System, 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 suppose 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 Senfe and Shadow of Reafon, yet it is no more than what arifes from the Structure of their Organs, and the Mechanism 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 a Drum when it is beaten, or the Noife 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 ancient Philofophy treat this Subject

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in a very different manner. Mofes declares in the most express manner, that they have living Souls; Gen. i. 29, 30. And God faid, Bebold I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth, and every Tree, in which is the Fruit of a Tree, yielding Seed, to you it fhall 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. afks this Queftion, Who provideth for the Raven his Food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of Meat. 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. fpeaking of the whole Brute-Creation, he fays, Thefe wait all upon thee, that thou mayft give them their Meat in due Seafon; when thou giveft it them, they gather it; when thou openeft thy Hand, they are filled with good. Our bleffed Lord fays the fame thing, Mat. 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 peculiar

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peculiar Title to every Species, and their Relation to him, by claiming the First-born of each, as peculiarly his own. Thus we read Exod. xiii. 12. The Lord pake unto Mofes, faying, Sanctify to me all the First-born among the Children of Ifrael, both of Man and Beaft, it is mine. And Pfal. cxviii. 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 firft 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 lofe it, how came they into this miferable Condition in which we see them at present? A God of infinite Wif dom and Goodness could make none of his Creatures to be miferable; much less would he, by an arbitrary Act of his Will and Pleasure, deprive them of any kind or degree of Happinefs, 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 Syftem. They fuffer in every Article of their Nature in fuch a manner,

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