And overpaid its value with thy blood. Thy saints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen Dipt in the fountain of eternal love. Thy saints proclaim thee king; and thy delay Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see And flee for safety to the falling rocks. DITTO, 1. 855---868. Come, then, and, added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest, Due to thy last and most effectual work, Thy word fulfill'd, the conquest of a world! DITTO, 1. 902-905. END OF THE SECOND DISCOURSE. D Third Discourse ON THE ANIMAL CREATION. GENESIS I. 26. And God said, Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. IN two former discourses, I have considered the principal of those passages in the Old and New Testament, which relate to the case of the animal creation, the design of God in placing them under the dominion of man, and some of the precepts respecting them. I proceed now to consider, as I at first proposed, in a more particular and systematic way, the duties which man owes to the animals committed to his care. Dominion implies government for the general good of the governors and the governed, together with all things intended by the Great Governor of All for their well-being and comfort; and these may be comprehended under the heads of protection,-discipline,-food,rest, and assistance in accidents and sickness. Upon each of these heads I shall speak more at large, and conclude with some general in structions. I. "The advantages, which mankind possess above the rest of the animal creation," says an excellent writer, "are principally derived from reason, from the social principle, from taste," meaning the mental taste, "and from religion *." In another place, he says: "Their want of language seems owing to their having no regular train or order in their ideas, and not any deficiency in their organs of speech. Many animals may be taught to speak, but none of them can be taught to connect any idea to the words they pronounce. The reason, therefore, why they do not express themselves by combined and regulated signs, is, because they have no regular combination in their ideast." The animal creation, therefore, not being endowed with reason, and being placed under the dominion of man, he is in the place of reason to them; that is, he is to determine for them, to the * Dr. Gregory's “ Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World." Seventh Edition, Sect. II. p. 82. + Ditto, p. 11. |