treadeth out his corn, or, that labours for his profit or his pleasure; He taketh care that he is UNGIRD ED: He giveth him STRAW and PROVENDER: He leadeth him forth to the WATERING: He alloweth him the Bleffing of SABBATH and to protect him from the inclemency of the weather, He followeth the example of the Patriarch JACOB2 who, when he built himself an Houfe, made BOOTHS for his CATTLE: (Gen. xxxiii. 17). He attends to all his Wants and Infirmities; and confiders well his Age, his Stature, and his Strength. If Young, he breaketh not the Back of his tender colt, but waiteth till his finews are strengthened unto perfection. He neither Nicks him,

P 3

him, nor Docks him, but takes him fuch as GOD made him. If Aged, he galleth not his feeble Sides, nor addeth one weight extraordinary to the weight of his years; but, with a sense of gratitude, he rewardeth his paft and faithful fervices with renewed attention, forbearance, and indulgence. He faith within himself.____. This Beast by toil and sweat hath adminiftred to my pleasure or to my profit for many years paft; and now that he is no longer able to perform my work, Shall I difmifs him as a creature not worthy * of my future protection? Shall I fubject him to the caprice, or abuse, or unexperienced fervitude of a new, and, it may be, of a cruel and mercenary Master? If { he

he is not fit for my work, he is not fit for any work. And fhall I curfe the age of my Beaft, because he hath worne himself out in my fervice? Or the gain, ' which I have acquired by his labor, fhall I corrode it by the PRICE of his blood? NO.

If I

chop not his Hay; if I grind not his Corn; if I affift not the decay and unevennefs of his Teeth by conducting him to the longest, mildeft, and tendereft Grafs in my Pasture; I will yet testify my Approbation of his former fer'vice, by putting an instant period to all his Pain.'

Whether Young or Old, whether Strong or Weak, whether Sound or Maimed, the RIGHTEOUS man proportions the Work to the

Ability of the Brute, and balances them both in the juft Scale of Equity. As he regardeth the Happinefs of his Beaft, so he provideth for the EASE of it. And however this may appear a Circumftance of very fmall moment; yet, to guard us against greater inftances of Injustice, and to shew how extremely

cautious we fhould be in offending against the Brutes, who are entirely in our power, and have no means of redrefs, we find to this purpose, the following precept in the facred Law of Moses;

Thou shalt not plow with an OX and an ASS together: (Deut. xxii. 10). Some have thought that St. Paul alludes to this precept in

*Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, 2 Cor. vi. 14.

2 Cor.

2 Cor. vi. 14. If the Apostle had it in view, it is a mere allufion to it, and not an interpretation of it. It may confirm it, but does not fuperfede it. And even if we were to admit that St. Paul's fuppofed allufion to it was intended as the true and proper interpretation and defign of the precept, ftill it exhibits to us the wisdom and benevolence of the Lawgiver, in delivering a Civil Law in words, which fhould at the fame time convey the idea of Mercy to Brutes. But Aben Ezra, a Spanish Jew Commentator, by making this obfervation on the paffage before us, viz. that the ftrength of an ASS is not as the strength of an OX, intimates that he and his nation understood it in the literal fenfe,

and