:

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 propofe to confider more diftinctly the Question 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 firft Formation, and original State, in Paradife, and compare it with their prefent State and Condition in the World; from whence I fhall draw fome Inferences and Conclufions, and endeavour to answer 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 feen (this whole vifible World, with all its various Inhabitants and Productions) were made out of Things which are not feen, (an ideal, invisible, glorious World, eternally fubfifting in the Divine Mind); that this present 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, Beasts, and Fishes, Reptiles and Infects; all that live upon the Earth, fly through the Air, or sport themselves in the great Abyfs, from Behemoth and Leviathan, to the finalleft 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 defcribes 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 maving Creature that bath Life, or (as it is more truly

rendered

rendered in the Margin) a Soul; and Fowls, that may fy 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 Goodnefs, formed in Member, Weight, and Meafure, of the most exquisite Beauty, the most delicate Proportion, without Defect, without Superfluity, exactly fitted and enabled to answer 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 firft Inhabitants of Paradise, in which they were fettled by their Maker, with a special Bleffing to increafe and multiply their Species, in the feveral Regions of Nature, appointed for their Habitation. We may confider them as the numerous Domeftics 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

foon as Man was created in the Image of God, vera 26, 27. God gave him an abfolute Power and Dominion over them all. He blefed them, and faid unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and fubdue it, and have Dominion over the Fifh of the Sea, and over the Fowl of the Air, and over every living Thing that moveth upon the Earth: As Man was thus created in the Image of the Ever-bleffed Trinity, all the Excellencies and Perfections that were to be found in every Species of Animals in their most perfect State, were all in a fuper-eminent Degree in the perfect human Nature, thereby our firft Parent had an intire Knowledge, and abfolute Dominion. over all the various Kinds, Ranks, and Orders of the animal and vegetable World. By the first he was enabled to know the very central Natures, and most Intimate Properties and Powers of every Species, and to give them fignificant Names, expreffive of their feveral Natures. Thus we read, Gen. ii. 19. And out of the Ground the Lord God formed every Beaft of the Field, and every Fowl of the Air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them ; and whatfoever Adam called every living Creature, that was the Name thereof. The Original of all Names was to exprefs the Nature of the Things named, upon which Account Names and Natures were very frequently in Scripture ufed promifcuoufly. And as he perfectly knew their feveral Properties and Powers, and had them all in a fuper-eminent Degree within himself, fo he had an abfolute Power to direct and controul them, fo as to fulfil the Will of their Creator, in anfwering the End of their Creation, and preferving the Peace and Harmony of the whole Syftem.

Whilt

I