FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE BRUTE-CREATION: OR, An EXAMINATION of Father BOUGE ANT's Philofophical Amusement, &c. LETTER II. MADAM, You OUR favourable Acceptance of my firft Letter, encourages me to hope you will not be difpleased with a fecond; in which I propofe to confider more diftinctly the Queftion before us. I fhall view it in every Light that Revelation and Reason 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; B from 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 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, invifible, glorious World, eternally fubfifting in the Divine Mind) that this prefent 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 themfelves 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, Goodness, and Power of the Almighty, the whole Mundane Syftem, the World with all its Inhabitants, all the Subjects of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, all the innumerable Species, Tribes, and Families of Birds, Beafts, and Fishes, Reptiles, and Infects, all that live upon the Earth, fly through the Air, or fport themselves in the great Abyss, from Behemoth and Leviathan to the the smallest 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 moving Creature that hath Life, or (as it is more truly 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 Beafts and Reptiles as produced out of the Earth, were the Work of the Fifth Day, ver. 24. And God Jaid, 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 fp. 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 Purpofes of their Creation, to B 2 execute execute the Will of their Creator, to minifter to the Delight and Service of Man, and contribute to the Beauty and Harmony of the universal Syftem. Thefe, therefore, were the first Inhabitants of Paradise, in which they were fettled by their Maker with a fpecial Bleffing to increase and multiply their Species, in the feveral Regions of Nature, appointed for their Habitation. We may confider them as the numerous Domesticks of fome great and mighty Prince, fent 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 as Man was created in the Image of God, ver. 26, 27. God gave him an abfolute Power and Dominion over them all. He bleffed them, and faid unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and fubdue it, and have dominion over the Fifh of the fea, 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 first 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 |