ditation; which is metaphorically called rumination, with reference to this property of certain animals.

Such are these: but when we compare the beasts of the field and the forest, they, instead of the harmless hoof, have feet which are swift to shed blood*, sharp claws to seize upon their prey, and teeth to devour it; such as lions, tygers, leopards, wolves, foxes, and smaller vermin.

Where one of the Mosaic marks is found, and the other is wanting, such creatures are of a middle nature between the wild and the tame; as the swine, the hare, and some others. Those that part the hoof afford us wholesome nourishment; those that are shod with any kind of hoof may be made useful to man; as the camel, the horse, the ass, the mule; all of which are fit to travel and carry burthens. But when the foot is divided into many parts, and armed with claws, there is but small hope of the manners; such creatures being in general either murderers, or hunters, or thieves; the malefactors and felons of the brute creation: though among the wild there are all the possible gradations of ferocity and evil temper.

* Rom. iii. 15.

Who

Who can review the creatures of God, as they arrange themselves under the two great denominations of wild and tame, without wondering at their different dispositions and ways of life! Sheep and oxen lead a sociable as well ás a peaceable life: they are formed into flocks and herds; and as they live honestly they walk openly in the day. The time of darkness is to them, as to the virtuous and sober amongst men, a time of rest. But the beast of prey goeth about in solitude: the time of darkness is to him the time of action; then he visits the folds of sheep, and stalls of oxen, thirsting for their blood; as the thief and the murderer visits the habitations of men, for an opportunity of robbing and destroying, under the concealment of the night. When the sun ariseth the beast of prey retires to the covert of the forest; and while the cattle are spreading themselves over a thousand hills in search of pasture, the tyrant of the desart is laying himself down in his den, to sleep off the fumes of his bloody meal. The ways of men are not less different than the ways of beasts: and here we may see them represented as in a glass; for, as the quietness of the pasture, in which the cattle spend their day, is to the howlings of a wilderness in the night, such is

the virtuous life of honest labour to the life of the thief, the oppressor, the murderer, and the midnight gamester, who live upon the losses and sufferings of other men.

The different qualities and properties in which brute creatures excel are as manifest proofs of the divine wisdom as their different modes of living. The horse excels in strength and courage. His aptness for war is finely touched in the book of Job-Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?-He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men: he mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword*. When he heareth the sound of the trumpets, and the noise of the battle at a distance, the thunder of the captains and their shouting, he signifies by his voice and his motion, that he is impatient to join them and be in action. The fox excels in subtilty and subterfuge; and his arts find employment for some amongst mankind, who disdain to busy themselves in any useful study or labour for the benefit of the community.

The dog is gifted with that sagacity, vigilance, and fidelity, which qualify him to be * Job xxxix, 19.

the

the guard, the companion, the friend of man; and happy is he, who finds a friend as true and uncorrupt as this animal; who will rather die by the side of his master than take a bribe of a stranger to betray him. The sensé whereby he is enabled to trace a single person through a croud of people, is a gift of the Creator, which exceeds our comprehension : and many other examples of the sagacity of this creature would be incredible, if they were not common and well attested. By what natural faculties they are performed, it is hard for us to conjecture.

In all brute creatures there is implanted an ardent attention towards their offspring, which prevails over every other considération. Even the weakest creatures will undertake to defend and preserve their young at the hazard of their lives. They do not leave their offspring to be attended for hire by others, that they may be at liberty to follow their own unprofitable pleasures this duty is their greatest pleasure; and yet it never exceeds the bounds of discretion. Beasts, with all their tenderness, are never betrayed into any acts of false indulgence: their affection never gratifies itself with raising up their young to an unnatural state of ease, idleness, and ignorance: as soon

as

as they are well able to exercise the faculties the Creator hath given them, they are compelled by their parents to provide for their own wants. And, through the divine bounty, the world is open to them, and their own labour is sufficient to maintain them. Provision of the proper sort is within the reach of every species, and a place is allotted to each, in which it does not encroach upon the rest. The mountains and rocks are a refuge for the wild goats, which climb over frightful precipices to a pasture where no other creature can partake with them. The beast of prey is covered by the wood, and can feed himself according to his nature. Foxes, and other animals, have holes wherein they rest and hide themselves under the earth. The sheep hath a fold, the ox hath a stall, provided for them by man; having no covert provided by themselves. Beasts of labour are maintained by their labour; for few men are so unjust as to muzzle the or when he treadeth out the corn.

The different manners of beasts and cattle, with their dependence upon the bounty of God, are briefly described to us in those sublime terms which are peculiar to the Scripture. Thou makest darkness that it may be night; wherein all the beasts of the forest do