FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE BRUTE-CREATION: OR, AN EXAMINATION 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 distinctly the Question before us. I shall view it in every Light that Revelation and Reason can give us. I fhall confider the Account that Mofes gives of their first Formation, and original State, in Paradise, and compare it with their present State and Condition in the World; from whence I shall draw some Inferences and Conclusions, and endeavour to answer some Objections; and leave it to your own good Judgment to determine upon the Evidence that shall 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 visible World, with all its various Inhabitants and Productions) were made out of Things which are not feen, (an ideal, invisible, glorious World, eternally subsisting in the Divine Mind); that this present temporary, fading State of Things, which we call the natural World, is an Out-birth, a creaturely Manifestation of the invisible Powers and Beauties of eternal Nature, impressing and displaying 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 Substance, and the Impression to the Soul. From this fruitful Womb of eternal Nature, were produced in their appointed Season, by the infinite Wisdom, Goodness, 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 Insects; all that live upon the Earth, fly through the Air, or sport themselves in the great Abyss, from Behemoth and Leviathan, to the smallest Insect: The very least and meanest, as well as the greatest, are all the Work of God, formed by infinite Wisdom and Power, upon the perfect ideal Models in the Divine Mind. Moses 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 Beasts and Reptiles, as produced out of the Earth, were the Work of the Fifth Day, ver. 24. And God said, 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 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 System. These, therefore, were the first Inhabitants of Paradise, in which they were fettled by their Maker, with a special Bleffing to increase and multiply their Species, in the several Regions of Nature, appointed for their Habitation. We may consider them as the numerous Domestics of fome great and mighty Prince, sent beforehand, to fill, adorn, and beautify the several Offices and Apartments of his Court, and give him a magnificent and triumphant Reception. Accordingly we find, that fo foon |