warrant of such multitudes of his unborn, or newlyborn creatures, if their natural depravity did not render them proper subjects of dissolution?

It is true, the young of beasts suffer and die, as well as infants; but it is only because they are involved in our misery. They partake of it as the attendants of a noble traitor share in his deserved ruin. Sin, that inconceivable, virulent, and powerful evil, drew down God's righteous curse upon all that was created for man's use, as well as upon man himself. Hence only spring the degeneracy and death, that turn beasts to one promiscuous dust with mankind. (Compare Gen. iii. 17; Rom. v. 12; and viii. 22.) We may then justly infer, from the sufferings and death of still-born or newborn children, that man is totally degenerate, and liable to destruction, even from his mother's womb.

FIFTH ARGUMENT.

BUT take your leave of the infant corpse, already buried in the womb, or deposited in a coffin of a spau long; fix your attention on the healthy, sucking child. See him stupidly staring in his nurse's lap, or awkwardly passing through childhood to manhood. How visible is his degeneracy in every stage!

Part of the divine image, in which he was made in Adam, consisted in purity, power, and knowledge : But now, he is naturally the least cleanly, as well as the most helpless and ignorant of all animals. Yes, if the reader could forgive the indelicacy of the assertion, for the sake of its truth, I would venture to shew, that there is no comparison between the cleanliness of the little active animals, which suck the filthy swine; and of helpless infants, who suck the purer breasts of their tender mothers. But, casting a veil over the dribbling, loathsome, little creatures; without fear of being contradicted, I aver, that the young of those brutes, which are stupid to a proverb, know their dams, and follow them as soon as they are dropped; whilst infants are months without taking any particular notice of

their parents, and without being able, I shall not say to follow them, but even to bear the weight of their swaddled body, or stand upon their tottering legs.

With reference to the knowledge necessary for the support of animal life, it is undeniable that brutes have greatly the advantage of mankind. Fowls and fishes, immediately and with amazing sagacity, single out their proper nourishment among a thousand useless and noxious things: But infants put indifferently to their mouth all that comes to their hand, whether it be food or poison, a coral or a knife; and what is more astonishing still, grown-up persons scarce ever attain to the knowledge of the quantity, or quality, of the meat and drink, which are most suitable to their constitutions.

All disordered dogs fix at once upon the salutary vegetable, that can (in some cases) relieve their distress: But many Physicians, even after several years' study and practice, hurt and sometimes kill their patients by improper medicines. Birds of passage, by mere instinct, find the North and the South more readily than mariners, by the compass. Untaught spiders weave their webs, and uninstructed bees make their combs, to the greatest perfection: But fallen man must serve a tedious apprenticeship to learn his own business; and with all the help of masters, tools, and patterns, seldom proves an ingenious artist.

Again, other animals are provided with a natural covering, that answers the double end of usefulness and ornament: But indigent man is obliged to borrow from plants, beasts, and worms, the materials with which he hides his nakedness, or defends his feebleness; and a great part of his short life is spent in providing, or putting on and off garments, the gaudy tokens of his shame, or ragged badges of his fall.

Are not these plain proofs, that man, who, according to his superior rank, and primitive excellency, should in all things have the pre-eminence, is now a degraded being, cursed for his apostacy with native uncleanliness, helplessness, ignorance, and nakedness, above all other animals?

SIXTH ARGUMENT.

MAN's natural ignorance, great as it is, might nevertheless be overlooked, if he had but the right knowledge of his Creator. But, alas! the holy and righteous God judicially withdraws himself from his unholy, apostate creatures. Man is not properly acquainted with Him in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his being.' This humbling truth may be demonstrated by the following observations.

God is infinitely perfect; all the perfection which is found in the most exalted creatures, is but the refleotion of the transcendent effulgence, belonging to that glorious Sun of spiritual beauty; it is but the surface of the unfathomable depths of goodness and loveliness, which regenerate souls discover in that boundless ocean of all excellence. If therefore men saw God, they could far less help being struck with holy awe, overwhelmed with pleasing wonder, and ravished with delightful admiration; than a man born blind, and restored to sight in the blaze of a Summer's day, could help being transported at the glory of the new and unexpected Scene: "Could we but see virtue in all her beauty," said a Heathen, "she would ravish our hearts."* How much greater would our ravishment be if we were indulged with a clear, immediate discovery of the divine beauty, the eternal original of all virtue, the exuberant fountain of all perfection and delight! But, alas! how few thus behold, know, and admire God, may easily be seen by the impious or vain conduct of mankind.

If a multitude of men ingenuously confess, they know not the King; if they take his statue, or one of his attendants for him; or, if they doubt whether there be a king, or sport with his name and laws in his presence; we reasonably conclude, that they neither see nor know the royal person. And is not this the case of the superstitious, who, like the Athenians, worship an 'unknown God?' Of idolaters, who bow to favourite

Si virtus conspiceretur oculis, mirabiles amoris excitaret sui. Cic.

mortals, or lifeless images, as to the true God? Of infidels, who doubt the very being of a God? And of open sinners, the bulk of mankind, who live every where as if there was none?

6

Our natural ignorance of God manifests itself still more evidently, by the confessions both of real and nominal Christians. The former, before they knew God, and were admitted to behold his glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ,' bitterly complained as Isaiah, 'Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself;' or mournfully asked with David, 'How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?' It is plain, then, that by nature they were as others, without God (practical atheists) in the world,' and have as much reason as St. Paul to declare, that the world by wisdom knew not God.' As for nominal Christians, though they daily pray that the fellowship of the Holy Ghost may be with us all,' it is evident they are utter strangers to communion with God by his Holy Spirit. For if we affirm, that he blesses his children with a spiritual discovery of his presence, and manifests himself to them as he doth not to the world,' they say we are mad, or call us enthusiasts. This behaviour shews, beyond all confessions, that they are totally unacquainted with the light of God's countenance: For, what greater proof can a blind man give, that he has no knowledge of the sun, than to suspect his ueighbour of lunacy, for affirming that sunshine is a delightful reality?

6

From this moral demonstration of our natural ignorance of God, I draw the following conclusion. If the Lord, who is a mild and condescending King to all his loyal subjects, a Father full of endearing and tender love to all his dutiful children, hides his face from mankind in a natural state; and if what little they know of him, is only by conjecture, hear-say, or inference ;* it is a proof, that they are under his displeasure, and consequently, that they are rebellious, fallen creatures.

This is the knowledge of God mentioned Rom. i. 21. It is sufficient to leave without excuse those who do not improve it till they attain to the saving knowledge mentioned John xvii. 3; 1 John v. 20.

1

For what but rebellion could thus separate between beings so nearly related as an infinitely gracious Creator, and favourite creature, whose soul is, according to a Heathen," divinæ particula auræ;" and according to Moses, the very breath of God?' We may then rationally conclude with the evangelical prophet, that 'our iniquities have separated between us and our God,' and that our sins have hid his face from us,' eclipsed the Sun of Righteousness, and brought such darkness on our souls, that, by nature, we know neither what we are, nor what we should be; neither whence we come, nor whither we are going; neither the grand business we have to do, nor the danger that attends our leaving it undone.

SEVENTH ARGUMENT.

IF by nature mankind know not the Lord to be their God, is it surprising that beasts should not know mankind to be their lords? Nevertheless reason agrees with scripture in maintaining, that man, by far the noblest work of God here below, should, according to the reason and fitness of things, bear rule over all the sublunary creation. But, alas! even in this respect, 'How is the crown falleu from his head!' Inferior animals have as little regard for him, as he has for his God. Notwithstanding his artful contrivances, greedy birds and mischievous beasts eat up, trample down, or destroy, part of the fruit of his rural labour. warmer climes, armies of locusts, more terrible than hosts of men, frequently darken the air, or cover the ground, and equally mock at human power and craft. Wherever they light, all verdure disappears, and the summer's fruitfulness is turned into wintry desolation.

In

If locusts do not reach this happy island, caterpillars, and a variety of other seemingly insignificant, but really formidable insects, make a more constant, though less general attack upon our trees and gardens. In vain are they destroyed by millions; they cannot be fully conquered; and the yearly-returning plague forces the