dispute as men do, this plodding practice of the Ox might possibly be ridiculed by the Ass, as the orthodox Believer, who is content to tread in the steps of his forefathers, is scoffed at by the rambling Freethinker, who uses it as the privilege of his nature, to deviate into by-ways, untrodden by those who were much wiser than himself.

Surefooting is an image not improperly ap plied to elementary Truth in Science: whence it will not be unnatural to suppose, that this first Character of the clean Animals was intended to be expressive of rectitude and certainty of principle in moral agents. Error is various and changeable in its nature: but Truth, being one and the same in all ages, will always be productive of sobriety, regularity, and Uniformity, in those who are content to follow it.

XI. The other character of a clean beast is that of chewing the cud; a faculty so expressive of that act of the mind, by which it revolves, meditates, and discourses on what it. hath laid up in the memory, that it is applied to this sense by the Greeks and Latins; and

a

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ΑναμηρυκωμενΘ- τη μνημη τα βεβρωμενα. Lucian. In this passage the act of eating, together with that of chewing the cud, is applied to the memory and understanding.

the word ruminate is well known to have the same metaphorical meaning in English. A beast thus employed hath likewise all the outward appearance of abstraction in its countenance, as if it were engaged in some deep meditation and it practices the chewing of the cud more particularly, when it is least subject to interruption, that is, when it is lying down at rest. Pliny makes the same observation; and I apprehend there is a natural reason for this, as the food is more easily recalled into the mouth from its temporary lodgement in the stomach, when the body is lying in an horizontal position. This character then, as it stands in the scripture, must signify a devout turn of Thought, and holiness of Conversation: for the word of God is the food of the mind, which, being laid up in the heart, should be again revolved at all seasons; so that being properly applied to the inward

a

Taking it from Aristotle, of whom he is little more than the transcriber, in very many subjects. This circumstance did not escape that great master of natural imagery, Milton.

Others on the grass

Couch'd, and now fill'd with pasture, gazing sat,

Or bedward ruminating.

Par, Lost, B. iv.

man,

man, it may contribute to a daily increase in grace and godliness. Such is the practice of that man whom the Psalmist pronounces to be blessed his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. His attention is followed by all. the signs of spiritual growth and strength:. he bringeth forth his fruit; his leaf withers not, and his work prospers. All of which is signified to us in some other words of St. James-" whoso looketh into the perfect law. "of liberty and continueth therein, he being

not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the "work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Every Israelite, who answered to these two characters of the clean Animals, was blameless in principle and practice, and was an Israelite indeed*.

XII. If we are right in general concerning the signification of these characters, the solution will be farther confirmed by an applicacation of it to particular cases. Two animals are described in the xith Chapter of Leviticus,

* If the Reader desires to know what others have said on this part of the subject, he may find the opinions of Origen, Irenæus, Hesychius, and others, very well exhibited by Pierius, Fol. 64. E.

in each of which but one of these characters is found. The Camel chews the Cud without dividing the hoof; and the Swine divides the hoof without chewing the Cud. With this opposition in their external marks, our plan requires that there should be as great an opposition in their manners. Accordingly, we find the Camel endued with gravity, patience, tractability, modesty, and a constitution almost incredibly temperate and abstemious: while the Hog is the most refractory, impatient, noisy, impudent, intemperate, and nasty, of all the animal Creation.

If we descend to a more critical consideration of their different natures, the moral heathen seems to have been censured under the figure of the Camel, and the immoral Israelite under that of the Swine. Pride is apt to boast of moral goodness, as sufficient in itself, without the hearing of the word of God. The Camel hath short Ears, which appear as if they had been cropped; and the enormous size of the creature, with his lofty carriage, and those vast bunches of flesh which deform his body, express the disposition of him who is puffed up in his fleshly mind: who in his own opinion hath attained to the first magnitude of wisdom and perfection. But it is

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as impossible for such an one to enter into the kingdom of heaven, as for a Camel to go through the Eye of a needle: he is as much too big for the narrow way of Christian humility and self-abasement, as a Camel for the passage of a needle's Eye.

The Swine is an image of him who holds the truth in unrighteousness. Of this error the Scribes and Pharisees of our Saviour's time were the greatest examples. For as the swine, if we judge by the print of his feet, and some other of his properties, hath an alliance with the better sort of cattle, and is of a mixt nature: so they were strict in their adherence to the doctrines of the Church, and valued themselves upon a punctual observation of the ceremonial Law: but were inwardly full of extortion and excess; devourers of widows houses; an unclean insatiable herd, before whom the Pearls of the Gospel were not to be cast.

XIII. My subject leads me to observe in this place, that the animals which were clean were also sacred; that is, set apart by the law for the purpose of sacrifice. The propriety of which is evident, in whatsoever sense we understand the institution of sacrifice. For if the worshipper, who offered a beast to God,

meant