children would ask bread, and no man to break it unto them* but God is pleased to take them away by the sudden point of the fword, not more painful than the tedious cutting of the teeth. The Righteous MAN too muft die, and be feemeth to die in pain: In the fight of the unwife, bis departure is taken for mifery; and his going away to be utter deftruction; yet he is in peace: and though he may feem to be punished in the fight of men, yet is his hope full of immortality :: and having been a little chaftifed, he fhall be greatly rewarded. Wifdom iii. 2, 3, 4.

* Lam. iv. 4..

Accord

According to the foregoing fuppofition, in the day of public calamity, the fame event of untimely death befalls the righteous MAN, the helpless BABE, and the unoffending BRUTE. Now, if the Man and the Babe are not exempted, I prefume there is no occafion for me to endeavor to prove, that more favor ought to be fhewn to the innocent Brute, than to the innocent Man. If it is in his Mercy that GOD taketh away the Man ; it can be no impeachment of his Mercy that the Brute dieth likewife. But fup pofe it were in Wrath; whatever evil may ensue, to the account of wicked men be placed all the difmal charge. For, as the GoD of Nature is the God of Grace, and as the fame GOD who was the Creator

Creator of the world is the moral Governor of it, I am emboldened to say, on the principles of divine revelation, that Nature would never have groaned, if Man had not finned. If the Brutes, then, fuffer through our fins, upon ourfelves be their misery; we are the occafion of it all: for, when the Land mourneth, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the BEASTS and the BIRDS are confumed. Jerem. xii. 4.

See here the dire effect of Sin. The Land mourneth, the Herbs wither, the Brutes perifh; and why? for the WICKEDNESS of them that dwell in the Land. Say not, then that GOD is unmerciful to

the Brutes; but say, rather, that the unmercifulness and cruelty is in MAN, who provoketh the Almighty to curfe the land, which would otherwise produce food fufficient for all the inhabitants thereof; and what little is referved for the BEAST or the BIRD, is devoured by the Men through whom the calamity cometh.

In this manner might we in fome measure account for the miferies which befal the innocent. It is their misfortune to be connected with the guilty: but the general Mercy of GOD towards all his creatures is no more to be called in queftion for this, than the Juftice of a wife Legifla ture is to be arraigned, because,

in the punishment of a criminal, the effect of his crime may extend to his innocent family. The Law doth not punish the innocent; but if the innocent suffer for the guilty, charge that fuffering to the account of the Criminal. And yet, after all that has been faid, I firmly believe, that no evil which the innocent Brutes fuffer from the hand of GOD on the account of Men, is in any refpect equal to the pains and miferies they endure from the Cruelties of Men. For GOD is merciful even when provoked to Judgment, but MAN is cruel without any provocation at all. Let me fall, faith David, into the hands of the LORD, (for his Mercies are great), and