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 Beafts of the Fields 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 Aftonishment and Rapture, the infinite Wif dom, Power, and Goodness of our Almighty Creator, the tranfcendent and inconceivable Beauties of the new World, the Harmony, the Peace, and Happinefs of these its once happy Inhabitants, bleffed with more exalted Faculties, Strength, and Beauty, cropping the everlasting Verdure, the unfading Flowers of Paradise, drinking the untainted Streams of Life and Immortality in a delicious Garden, into which

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 leaft Appearance and 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 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 thefe once happy Creatures.

Is there any Thing in this Account that feems 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 those, who fuppofe them to be either animated by Evil Spirits, or else, allowing them no fpiritual Principle of Motion or Action, suppose 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 Reason, yet it is no more than what arises 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

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 Sense? Is it not making a Mock of God's Creatures? Sure I am that the Scriptures, and most antient Philosophy, treat this Subject in a very different Manner. Mofes declares, in the moft exprefs 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 fhall be for Meat. And to every Beast 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 Question, 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 fays, Thefe wait all upon thee, that thou mayeft 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, Matt. vi. 26. Behold the Fowls of the Air, for they fow not, neither do they fpin, and yet your heavenly Father feedeih them. And, in the Levitical Law, God feems to affert his VOL. I.

peculiar

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 Firstborn among the Children of Ifrael, both of Man and Beast, 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 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 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 seems 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

per, and in others fuch poifonous Qualities, or fuch hideous Deformity, as is quite fhocking and terrible to human Nature? But the most beautiful and harmlefs, even those whom we confider as the Emblems of unfpotted Innocence, as Lambs and Doves, are exposed to the fame Calamities of Mifery, Pain, Corruption, and Death, as thofe of the most favage and cruel Natures. Now it is as plain, from Reason and the Nature of Things, that these malignant Qualities are not effential to them, were not originally implanted in them at their firft Creation, as that from an abfolutely good and perfect Cause no Evil could proceed : And the Scriptures declare that God pronounced them all to be good, yea very good; endued with every Perfection that their Nature and Rank in the Scale of Beings required. Whence then this deplorable Change this unhappy Subverfion of their primitive State, their prefent lamentable Condition!

I have already told you that their Happiness confifted in the Communications of Divine Bleffings, which were conveyed to them through the pure Canal of the unfallen human Nature. Our firft Parent, in his State of Innocence and Glory, ftood in the Place of God to the World below him, cloathed with all the Beauties and Bleffings of Paradise; the created Image of the Ever-bleffed Trinity; through him were derived all the Bleffings of that happy State to all the different Species, Tribes, and Families of the animal Creation. This was the happy State of the primitive Earth, and all its Inhabitants, till Man, by his Transgreffion, loft the Favour of his Maker, and forfeited, both for us and them, the bleffed Privileges of our primitive State and Condition; the Communication

of