DISC. fear. If, to answer the purposes of crea

I.

tion, or to convey to his mind ideas of his invisible enemies, any were at that time wild and noxious, with regard to him they were tame and harmless. In perfect security he faw, he confidered, he admired. But when he rebelled against his God, the creatures renounced their allegiance to him, and became in the hands of their common Creator inftruments of his punishment." The beafts of the field" were no longer at peace with him." Yet, in confequence of the new covenant and promise to redeem man and the world, we find it faid after the flood-" The fear of you " and the dread of you fhall be upon every

beast of the earth, and upon every fowl "of the air, upon all that moveth upon "the earth, and upon all the fishes of the "fea "." So far is the fuperiority of the human fpecies ftill preferved, that " every "kind of beafts, and of birds, and of fer

pents, and things in the fea, is tamed, " and hath been tamed of mankind "." In

P Gen. ix. 2.

¶ James iii. 7.

fome

I.

fome cafes, for the fake of eminently holy DISC. perfons, favoured by heaven on that account, the instincts of the most favage and ravenous have been fufpended; as when fome of every kind affembled and lodged together in the ark, and when the mouths of the lions were stopped in the den of Babylon, while the righteous and greatly beloved Daniel was there. The Redeemer of the world endued his difciples with the original privilege- -"Behold I give you

th

power to tread on ferpents, and on fcor"pions; and nothing fhall by any means "hurt you'." And, agreeably to fuch promife, St. Paul " shook off the viper into "the fire, and felt no harm." The vIII" pfalm is a beautiful representation of the extent of this privilege, as it was poffeffed, at the beginning, by the first Adam, and as it hath been fince restored to the fecond -" O Lord our Lord, how excellent is "thy name in all the earth! Who haft "fet thy glory above the heavens. Out of

Acts xxviii. 5.

* Luke x. 19.

"the

DISC.

I.

"the mouth of babes and fucklings haft "thou ordained ftrength, because of thine "enemies, that thou mightest still the ene66 my and the avenger. When I confider

thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the "moon and the ftars which thou haft or"dained; what is man, that thou art "mindful of him? and the fon of man "that thou vifiteft him? For thou haft "made him a little lower than the angels, "and haft crowned him with glory and "honour. Thou madeft him to have do"minion over the works of thy hands; "thou haft put all things under his feet: "all sheep and oxen, yea and the beafts of "the field; the fowl of the air, and the "fish of the sea, and whatsoever paffeth

66

through the paths of the feas. O Lord "our Lord, how excellent is thy name in "all the earth!"

Let us indulge a few reflections on the foregoing particulars.

The imagination naturally endeavours to

form

I.

form fome idea of the sensations that muft DISC. have arisen in the mind of the first man, when, awaking into exiftence, with all his senses and faculties perfect, he beheld the glory and beauty of the new created world. Faded as we must fuppofe it's glory and it's beauty now to be, enough ftill remains, to excite continual wonder, praife, and adoration. Yet it is represented in the Scriptures of truth, as lying under a curse, as groaning and travelling in pain, and as little better than a prifon, from which all, who are truly fenfible of it's condition, and their own, wish and pray to be delivered, into the liberty of the Children of God. But if fuch be our prison, what notions are we led to form of those mansions, which our Lord is gone before to prepare for us, in his Father's houfe? Creation was finished in fix days; and we read, that, "on the seventh, God refted from all his "work which he created and made. But the tranfgreffion of man would not

: Gen. ii. 2.

fuffer

DISC. fuffer him to reft. 66

My Father," fays I. the bleffed Jefus, "worketh hitherto, and "I work ":" Sin made it's way into the first creation, and is gradually destroying it, as a moth fretteth a garment-" Lift up

your eyes to the heavens, and look upon "the earth beneath; for the heavens shall "vanish away like fmoke, and the earth "shall wax old like a garment, and they "that dwell therein fhall die in like man"ner".""But we, according to his pro"mife, look for new heavens, and a new "earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness*." We read of one, who, in vifion, in vifion, "faw a "new heaven and a new earth, for the "firft heaven and the first earth were paffed "away." When the new creation fhall be finished and prepared, an act of Omnipotence will be exerted, fimilar to that which paffed at the formation of Adam. The Lord God will again " form man out

of the duft of the ground, and breathe "into his noftrils the breath of life."