minion which GOD has given him* 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; whenever he tyrannizes over them with the brutal fierceness of a Shark, a Vulture, or a Tiger; though he may retain the shape of a man; he degenerates into a Monster, and forfeits the title of the Image of GOD"whose Mercies are over all his Works?" Psalm CXLV. 9.

And as Dominion, fo REASON is a GIFT unto Man, yet not infeparable from the human form (as is evident in the cafe of Idiots.) And whenever we abufe that

Reason, and act beneath the character and dignity of a rational creature; we lose the divine Image in that respect; we have nothing to denominate us Men but outward fhape; or, in other words, we become Brutes in the fhapes of Men.

And as Dominion and Reafon, fo future IMMORTALITY is * a GIFT; and, being a Gift, we have no natural claim or right to it, but by the Grace of the Donor. We cannot claim it merely because we are animated Duft; for on this pretence a Lion may put in the very fame claim.

*The Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jefus Christ our Lord. Rom. vi. 23.

Nor

*

Nor can we claim it through any Merit of our own; for it is GOD that worketh in us both to will and to do, or, GOD gave us our powers of thinking and acting. If it should be faid that we are intitled to it through the Merit of another; it is plain that exclufive of that merit, we should have no claim to it at all. Or if it should be faid that, from the first moment of our existence, Immortality was stamped upon us, or, that + GOD created Man to be immortal, and made him to be an Image of his own Eternity; ftill it was GOD's Will and Pleasure thus to dignify and diftinguish the duft of the Ground in one fhape, from the like duft of the Ground in ano

* Phil. ii. 13.

+ Wifd. ii. 23.

ther

ther shape. It was GOD that made thee to differ from a Brute; and what haft thou, that thou didst not receive? I Cor. iv. 7.

GREAT then as MAN is, Rational and Immortal, Image and Likeness of GOD; how exalted foever his ftation now, or whatever it may be hereafter; it invalidates not this truth, that our Difference from and Excellence above the Brutes is through the Gift and Grace of GOD. the first point of Existence, in our original Compofition, we feem to have been more upon a level; and during our Existence here, we fubfift together as the joint and temporary tenants of the earth, alike as to paffion,

In

fense,

fenfe, and appetite; and alike subject to infirmity, pain, and death. The Brutes eat, and drink, and fee, and hear, and tafte, and smell, and have organs of fenfation as well as Men. The Blood circulates in their veins as in our own. They hunger, they thirst, they faint for want of food and refreshment; and Man hath the fame paffions, and stands in need of the same support. And when GOD taketh away their breath, they die, and return to their duft. Pfa. civ. 29. And when the breath of Man goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. Pfa. cxlvi. 4. In fome refpects, in ftrength, in fwiftness, in fcent, and sharpfightedness, it is certain that many of them exceed us. And

though