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places; and, also, one preached by Dr. Barry, at Reading; and, though last, not least, Mr. Pratt's Poem of the Lower World. Should these Discourses, thus expanded and revised, tend to promote the same good cause, the author will account himself happy and honoured in his work.

Great Gransden Vicarage,
November 1st, 1815.

also, an excellent little tract, published by Rivingtons, &c. price 3d. entitled, "Thoughts on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to the Brute Creation," taken from an 8vo. volume on the same subject, by Dr. Primatt, published in 1776. With these, also, should be mentioned Mr. Parkinson's "Dangerous Sports ;" and, in a very humble way, The Vocal Repository Tract, entitled, A Word for the Dumb.

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Three Discourses

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.

IT is my intention, in this and the two following discourses, to take occasion, from the words of the text, to set before you the case of the brute creation, the uses which man is permitted to make of them, and his duties towards them. In the present discourse, I

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shall consider the case of the animals at the creation, after the fall, at and after the flood, and under the law of Moses. In my next, I shall consider their state under the Gospel; and in my third, the duties owing from man to the brutes committed to his dominion.

I. When our great Creator had finished his work, and saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good," and, "having made man in his own likeness," he invested him with dominion over the creation, and brought "every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, unto Adam, to see what he would call them;" and our first parent gave unto every thing a name, and reigned sole lord of this our earth. Unto man were assigned" for meat," " every herb bearing seed,

which is upon the face of all the earth, and

every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree

yielding seed."

"And to every beast of the

earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth

wherein there is life," God

green herb for meat."

66 gave every "Righteousness" was

then "the girdle of" man's "loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf dwelt with the lamb, and the leopard lay down with the kid; the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together:" (ISAIAH xi. 5, 6.) all was harmony, and all was happiness: the brute creation put their trust in man, and man delighted in the trust; nature wore a universal smile, and the joys of paradise were second only to the joys of heaven.

But our first parents, by their disobedience to the Creator, reversed this state of innocence, and entailed sin and misery upon the whole creation: "For their wickedness the land mourned, and the herbs of every field withered,

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