FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE BRUTE-CREATION: OR, AN ΕΧΑΜΙΝΑΤΙΟΝ OF Father BOUGEANT's PHILOSOPHICAL AMUSEMENT, &c, LETTER II. FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE BRUTE CREATION. LETTER II. MADAM, OUR favourable Acceptance of my First Letter, encourages me to hope you will not be displeased with a Second; in which I propose to confider more diftinctly the Queftion before us. I fhall view it in every Light that Revelation and Reafon can give us. I fhall confider the Account that Mofes gives of their first Formation, and original State, in Paradife, and compare it with their present State and Condition in the World; from whence I fhall draw fome Inferences and Conclufions, and endeavour to anfwer fome Objections; and leave it to your own good Judgment to determine upon the Evidence that fhall be given. The The Apostle to the Hebrews, xi. 3. tells us, that by Faith we understand that the Things which are seen (this whole vifible World, with all its various Inha bitants and Productions) were made out of Things which are not feen, (an ideal, invifible, glorious World, eternally fubfifting in the Divine Mind); that this prefent temporary, fading State of Things, which we call the natural World, is an Out-birth, a creaturely Manifeftation of the invifible Powers and Beauties of eternal Nature, impreffing and difplaying themselves through all the Regions of created Nature, through all the Tribes and Families of the animal, vegetable, and mineral Kingdoms; and to which they exactly correfpond, as the Shadow to the Subftance, and the Impreffion to the Soul. From this fruitful Womb of eternal Nature, were produced in their appointed Seafon, by the infinite Wisdom, Goodnefs, and Power of the Almighty, the whole mundane System, the World with all its Inhabitants, all the Subjects of the animal and vegetable Kingdoms; all the innumerable Species, Tribes, and Families of Birds, Beafts, and Fishes, Reptiles and Infects; all that live upon the Earth, fly through the Air, or fport themselves in the great Abyss, from Behemoth and Leviathan, to the smallest Infect: The very leaft and meaneft, as well as the greateft, are all the Work of God, formed by infinite Wisdom and Power, upon the perfect ideal Models in the Divine Mind. Mofes describes the Creation or Formation of the Fishes and Fowls out of the Waters, as the Work of the Fourth Day. Gen. i. 20, 21, 22. God faid, Let the Waters bring forth abundantly, the moving Creature that hath Life, or (as it is more truly rendered rendered in the Margin) a Soul; and Fowls, that may fly above the Earth, in the open Firmament of Heaven; and God created great Whales, and every living Creature that moveth, which the Waters brought forth abundantly after their Kind, and every winged Fowl after his Kind, and God faw that it was good. The Beafts and Reptiles, as produced out of the Earth, were the Work of the Fifth Day, ver. 24. And God faid, Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his Kind, Cattle, and creeping Thing, and Beast of the Earth after his Kind, and it was fo. And God made the Beast of the Earth after his Kind, and Cattle after their Kind, and every Thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his Kind: and God faw that it was good. They were all pronounced to be good, yea, very good, being the Productions of infinite Wisdom and Goodness, formed in Member, Weight, and Measure, of the most exquifite Beauty, the most delicate Proportion, without Defect, without Superfluity, exactly fitted and enabled to anfwer the various Purposes of their Creation, to execute the Will of their Creator, to minister to the Delight and Service of Man, and contribute to the Beauty and Harmony of the univerfal Syftem. Thefe, therefore, were the first Inhabitants of Paradise, in which they were fettled by their Maker, with a fpecial Bleffing to increase and multiply their Species, in the feveral Regions of Nature, appointed for their Habitation. We may confider them as the numerous Domestics of fome great and mighty Prince, fent beforehand, to fill, adorn, and beautify the feveral Offices and Apartments of his Court, and give him a magnificent and triumphant Reception. Accordingly we find, that fo foon |