Second 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 my last discourse, I undertook to show from these words, the case of man and of the brute creation, and of our duties towards them. I went through the principal passages on this subject in the Old Testament, and proposed in this, to consider the case of animals under the gospel. And, here, as there have been persons in all times of the Christian dispensation, who have denied the right of using them as food; and as there are some in these times who maintain the same doctrine, as well as others who object to it on the ground of humanity, it seems to be necessary, in the first place, to prove, that man is permitted, under the gospel, to eat flesh, or, in other words, to take away life for his sustenance. I. 1. Before I mention our blessed Lord himself, I will just notice that remarkable instance of abstemiousness, John the Baptist, the "Elias who was for to come," (MATT. xi. 14.) and who might be said, comparatively speaking, to have come "neither eating nor drinking," (MATT. v. 18.) whose food was "locusts and wild honey:" (MAtt. iii. 4.) his life, therefore, was sustained by the labour of the bees and the death of the locusts. 2. Our blessed Lord, "by whom are all things," (ROM. viii. 6.) and who, when upon earth, "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," (1 PET. ii. 22.) and who would neither "break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoaking flax," (ISAIAH xlii. 3.; MATT. xii. 20.) scrupled not to partake of the usual entertainments of those times, at which, no doubt, according to the custom of the Jews, there was flesh. So much did he frequent and partake of them, that the Pharisees, in reproach, called him "a gluttonous man." (MATT. xi. 19.) At the feast given by Matthew the publican, on his quitting his profession, (MATT. ix. 10, 11.) and at the marriage feast in Cana, he probably partook, with others, of "oxen and fatlings." (JOHN ii. 1-11.; MATT. xxii. 4.) In the parable of the Prodigal Son, mentioned as a type of the rejoicing in heaven on the repentance of a sinner, the fatted calf is killed for the enter tainment." (LUKE XV. 23.) And, again, at the marriage supper of the king's son, another likeness of the kingdom of heaven, we hear expressly of the "oxen and fatlings" being "killed." (MATT. xxii. 4.) Of the paschal Iamb he partook along with his disciples, who were most of them fishermen by trade, an employment which consists in the taking away of life for the sustenance of man. Upon two occasions he brought a multitude of them miraculously to their nets; (LUKE V. 1-11.; JOHN xxi. 1-14.) and these were, probably, their common food, as we find they had fishes with them upon those occasions, when Christ miraculously increased them, together with the bread, to give food to fainting thousands. (MATT. xiv. 15-21.; MARK vi. 35-44.; LUKE ix. 10-17.; JOHN vi. 5-14.) Of fish, also, he ate, even after his resurrection. (LUKE XXIV. 42.; JOHN xxi. 29.) He mentions, also, without any censure, the " two |