ING SOULS. And fuch they are in Hebrew Scripture faid to be; and fo they are denominated in our English Bibles, according to the . Margin which has been always understood as of the fame autho rity as the Context itself. Thus (ch. i. 20.) Let the Waters bring forth the Moving Creature that bath LIFE: in the Hebrew, and in the Margin, that hath SOUL. and (ver. 30.) To every Beast of the Earth, and to every Fowl of the Air, and to every Thing that Creepeth upon the Earth, wherein there is LIFE: in the Hebrew, and in the Margin, wherein there is a LIVING SOUL.

The Sum of the whole is this. In the Scripture Account of the Original

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Original Conftitution of Men and Brutes, the very fame Terms are applied to Both. Are the Brutes of the Duft of the Ground? So is Man. Have Men the Breath of Life in their Noftrils? So have Brutes. Are the One Living Souls? So are the Other. For the Lord GOD formed both Man and Brute of the Dust of the Ground, and breathed into their Noftrils the Breath of Life, and fo Man and Brute became LIVING SOULS, or (ch. vii. 4. 23.) LIVING SUBSTANCES.

I hope I fhall not be mifunderftood in this fhort difquifition concerning the Creation of Brute Animals, as if I meant hereby in any respect to disparage the real

Dignity and Excellence of Man

kind.

I acknowlege with all thankfulness and humility, that

there

are perfections, endowments, and advantages on the fide of Men, which elevate Us far above the Brutes; and when we take into the account the future Immortality of Man, the diftance between us is infinite. But as it appeared to me neceffary, in a Treatife of this nature, to confider the Origin of the Creatures who are the Subjects of it; it. would have been an act of great. partiality to ourselves, and of injuftice to their cause, to have omitted any circumftance, that may be advanced in their favor, to conciliate fome attention from us towards them. And furely it

5

is

is fomething in their favour, when, in looking to the rock from whence Adam was hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence he was digged, we find that, in our original compofition, we are all of the Duft of the Ground, that we are all of One Breath, that we have all OneFather, and that One GOD created us.

In Dominion, Rationality, and future Immortality, a Man hath undoubtedly the preference to a Brute; and in these respects he is + Made in the IMAGE, after the Likeness of GOD. But let it be obferved that he is but a created Image, or an Image of Appointment. It is not abfolutely ne

* Ifa. li. 1.

H 3

+ Gen. i. 26.

ceffary

ceffary to his conftitution as a Living Creature, that he should be thus appointed and diftinguished. He might have been without Dominion, without Reafon, and without Immortality; and yet would have been a Man as to figure, feature, nakedness, and upright pofture.

DOMINION is a * GIFT or Grant unto Man, for which he is accountable to Him that gave and granted it; and which may, and in fome cafes has been taken away from a man without his ceafing to be a man.

And when

ever he abuses the Power and Do

* Thou madeft him to have Dominion over

the works of thy bands. Pfa. viii. 6.