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 pass, that there should be in fome of them fuch a Ma

lignity and Cruelty of Temper, and in others fuch poisonous Qualities, or fuch hideous Deformity as is quite fhocking and terrible to human Nature? But the most beautiful and harmless, even those whom we confider as the Emblems of unfpotted Innocence, as Lambs and Doves are expofed to the fame Calamities, of Mifery, Pain, Corruption and Death, as those of the most favage and cruel Natures. Now it is as plain, from Reafon 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 Caufe 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 Happinefs 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, stood in the place of God

to

to the World below him, cloathed with all the Beauties, and Bleffings of Paradife; 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 Tranfgreffion 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 divine Light and Life betwixt God and Man being fufpended, he had no more Power to direct and govern the Creatures below him. He ftood naked and deftitute, poor and helpless in the midst of his numberless unhappy Subjects and Domesticks, utterly unable to affift or deliver himself or them from the Bondage of Corruption he had brought upon them, he being by his own Act and Deed devoted to Darkness and Death, neceffarily involved the whole System in the fame Calamity. The Centre of Bleffing was fhut up from him, or rather he had shut himfelf out of it; His Eyes were closed to the Light of Heaven, and all the Sources and Channels of divine Communications were intirely interrupted; He had no Bleffing to receive, and therefore none to beftow. He was fallen under the Influences of the aftral World, confined as a Malefactor to a Prifon of his own making, to be fcourged and punished by the jarring discordant Properties of the di

vided

vided Elements, to which he had voluntarily fubjected himself; no wonder, therefore that the whole Syftem of Creatures below him, who were his Subjects, Domefticks, and Dependants, are deeply affected by his Fall, and hare in his Punishments. So the Apostle to the Romans tells, Chap. viii. That the Creature, (the whole Creation) was made fubject to Vanity, not willingly (not by any Fault of their own) but by reafon (on the Account, by the Sin) of him, who hath fubjected the fame in hope; that is, of Adam, who was their immediate Lord and Governour. For we know that the whole Creation groans and travels in Pain. The whole Syftem of the vifible Creation fympathizes and fuffers with their rebellious Lord. Thus when a great Subject is attainted of High Treafon against his Sovereign, the Sentence affects not only himself, but his Chil dren and Domefticks; and an intire Forfeiture of all the Privileges of his Blood and Birth, are the certain and neceffary Confequences of his Condemnation: So that as Man was by his Tranfgreffion devoted to Darkness and Death, fo were all the BruteCreation, who were his Domesticks and Dependants. Though it was not indeed fo properly a judicial Sentence pronounced upon them, as a neceffary Confequence of their State in Nature, and the Relation and Dependance which they ftood in to our first Parent their natural Lord and Sovereign. They were by his Tranfgreffion made fubject to Vanity, Mi

fery,

fery, and Death, but no violent Execution was fuffered to be made upon them, but in the way of Sacrifice; none of them were to be put to death, but by God's own Appointment to be Types and Monitors of the great propitiatory Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who was flain from the Foundation of the World for the Salvation and Redemption of loft Mankind. No Power was given to Man to murder or abuse them, to kill or eat them, as we have now, that was a particular Indulgence granted to Man after the Flood, which had fo broken and corrupted the Face of Nature, weakened and deftroyed the vegetable Powers and feminal Principles of the Earth, that the Herbs and Fruits had, in a great meafure, loft their natural Temperature, and were lefs capable of nourishing the Bodies of Men, upon which God gave them liberty to eat the Flesh of Beafts, Birds, and Fishes, as well as the Fruits of the Earth, as we read Gen, ix. 2, 3. The Fear of you, and the Dread of you, fhall be upon every Beaft of the earth, and upon every Fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the Fishes of the Jea; into your band are they delivered, every moving thing that liveth fhall be Meat for you, even as the green Herb, have I given you all things.

The State of the Brute-Creation, therefore, has, ever fince the Fall of Man, been very different from what it was at the firft. Some of them are fierce and untractable, preying

about

about in defart Places, the Enemies and Des ftroyers of Mankind, who yet ftill confefs their original Subjection to them by flying from them, and not affaulting them, unless compelled by Hunger, or in their own Defence : the rest are in a State of Servitude and Subjection, miniftring in their proper Place and Order, to the Pleasure and Neceffities of Mankind. Upon this view they are represented to us both by Reason and Revelation, as the unhappy Objects of our Care and Compassion, as guiltlefs Sufferers for our Tranfgreffions: they declare it to be a Breach of natural Juftice, an Indication of a cruel and unnatural Temper to abufe or opprefs them, to increase the Miseries, and aggravate the Sufferings of these innocent unhappy Creatures, and to add by our Barbarity to the Weight of that Bondage to which they are made fubject by our Difobedience, to put them to unneceffary Labours, to load them with immoderate Burdens, to punish them with immoderate Severities, or withhold from them thofe neceffary Refreshments which their State and Condition requires. The Wife Man in the Book of Proverbs, Ch. xii. 10. makes it an Act of Righteousness, the Dictate of natural Equity: The righteous Man regardeth the Life of his Beaft, but the tender Mercies of the Wicked are cruel. Where he plainly declares it, to be the Mark and Duty of a righteous Man to be merciful to his Cattle; and the Property of an unjuft and wicked Man to be cruel and barbarous. God himself in the old