creature upon earth can make that use of man, which man makes of all the rest; in rendering himself, if he will, a better rea-soner, a better citizen, a more devout worshipper of God. This is so important a part of our present subject, so curious in itself, and so necessary to the improvement of the human understanding, that I must beg your attention, while I dwell upon it as far as the time will permit.

As

1. First then, we borrow from beasts, cattle, and creeping things of the earth, many of our best ideas of moral good and evil. it was said by Solomon, "Go to the ant, consider her ways and be wise;" so might it be said, with parity of reason, go to the sheep for a pattern of submission and obedience: go to the ox for an example of patient labour: go to the swine; consider its stubborn disposition, its intemperance, and beastly uncleanness; and thence learn to abhor and avoid them. The passage taken by St. Paul from the poet Callimachus contains a plain allusion to the unprofitable character of this beast"The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, flow bellies *" for the swine of the Eastern

Kpnleg auı Yeusai, naxa Inpix, yæsspes apyær. Tit. i. 12. countries

countries drags its belly upon the ground, and is so incapable of speed, that it can scarcely walk. And such is man, if he is a slave to his bodily appetites; his feet are retarded by the heaviness of his nature, and he can make no progress in any work that is good, useful, or ingenious.

The first man was instructed in Paradise from the qualities of brute creatures, which God summoned before him for his observation. The first writing in the world was by pictures and forms of animal life, for the conveying of religious and moral truth to the mind, before alphabetical writing was in use. These forms or likenesses had been abused by the idolaters of Egypt; so God forbad the use of them, and appointed the alphabetical signatures in their stead; which still retain some traces of the old animal forms *. The moral fables of antiquity are chiefly founded on the properties and manners of brute creatures, which are made to converse and reason according to the views and tempers of each, and so to give notice of the ways of different sorts

See some very ingenious observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetic Writing, by the Rev. Mr. Davy, printed for Cadell.

of

of men. Thus also did God instruct his people in the law of Moses, by ordering their diet as they were to order their conversation. The unclean, and the rapacious, were prohibited, and, as it were, excommunicated; the useful, gentle, and obedient were selected for food and sacrifice. The prophets explain

Isaiah describes the

things in the same way. conversion of cruel and immoral heathens to the gospel of peace, under the figure of a miraculous reformation amongst the wild beasts of the earth; when the lion should eat straw like the ox, the wolf and the lamb should feed together, and all the savage kinds should put off the nature of evil beasts, as formerly when they had all lived quietly under the same roof in Noah's ark, a figure of the church of Christ. The New Testament carries on the same mode of instruction, and Péter is taught in a vision that a communication was to be opened between the Jews and the Gentiles, under the figure of a liberty to eat all kinds of unclean beasts, now to be made clean by their reception to the purity of the gospel *. Even the ill qualities of the great adversary of mankind are set forth for our dread and ablor

* See Acts x. Compare verses 14, 15, and 28.

rence,

rence, from Genesis to the Revelation, under the emblem of the old serpent, cursed above every beast of the field; insidious, insinuating, double-tongued, and having the power of death in his bite. We see him again under the emblem of a roaring lion, going about and seeking whom he may devour. Thus are all the creatures serviceable, both good and bad, in giving us ideas for the improvement of the mind and manners.

All

2. We may observe next, that industry and activity are recommended to us by the example of the whole animal creation. All work, that they may eat; and therefore, he, who does not work, is not fit to live. creatures seek their meat from God; it is not provided for any of them in an inactive state, but they must employ themselves to find and obtain it. Birds of the air are upon the wing from morning till evening. Wild creatures must hunt before they can be fed. Some partake of that sentence of labour passed upon man after the fall, and labour with him for their daily food. If it is then the appointment of God, that all his creatures should be in action, the idle man is a monster in the creation, who must pay for his offence either by poverty, sickness, ignorance, or vice; and

must,

must, in some respect or other, become a nuisance to society; on which consideration, it is a great evil in government to maintain any, or to suffer any, for want of employment, to live idly.

3. From the state of beasts under the dominion of man, as God hath wisely established it, the parallel is very strong for the benefit and necessity of government amongst mankind.

Among brute beasts we find the two classes of wild and tame, totally differing in their manners, and in a state of hostility with each other. Man is over them all, to feed the gentle and domestic, to reward the laborious, and to secure them from the incursions of the common enemy. To the one sort he is a governor and protector; to the other an avenger, who ought not to bear the sword in vain; for if he does, he himself must suffer by it as well as the beasts that are committed to his care; the enemy being equally at war with both.

Let us now suppose this law of subordination and subjection to be dissolved: let us suppose the authority of man to be withdrawn, and all animals abandoned to their natural liberty: what would be the consequence? The swine would make his part good by his impu

dence,