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ftances) than juft to ornament the discourse with the elegance of the conceit. Their chief end is to fupport the particular Truth there inculcated. Thus it is in the Text we are now confidering; it contains an inftruction partly declarative, and partly perceptive. In mere Animals, obfervant of the Command to increafe and multiply, the Offspring, when enabled to provide for itself, is difmiffed from the Parent's Wing, by an instinctive provifion, which equally difpofeth both to a Separation. But the REFLEXION and REASON beftowed upon Man, which engaged the Parent to a longer care, in protecting, and providing for, its Offspring, impreffeth on the Offspring, in its turn, a tender fenfe of gratitude, and love towards the Parent, for the benefits. received in that defenceless state; and naturally difpofeth it to be attentive to the welfare of the Parent, when flattered by the glorious duty of returning an obligation. This might fomewhat impede or run counter to the first great Command and bleffing, which, in the infancy of the world, efpecially, required all poffible encouragement:

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Therefore, by the most divine address it is here directed, that we should suffer this tye to give place to one more important→→ Therefore fhall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his Wife.

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2. With regard to the fecond pointWhy Mofes did not chufe to relate the Story of the Rib, where he mentions Eve's Creation, on the fixth day-This may be eafily understood. The Story of the Woman's formation from the Rib is, as may be feen from the fequel of the ftory, of fo much concern in domeftic life, that we cannot conceive a fitter place for it than this, where we find it, in the Entrance upon the fatal effects of our first Parent's idle curiofity: from which Pofterity might draw a Leffon of great importance, viz.the mutual obligation incumbent on each Sex, when united, to watch over the other's conduct, equally with its own; as nothing can affect the welfare of the one, in which the other will not be equally concerned ; each being deftined to bear, together with his own, the other's fhare, whether of good or evil. The account, therefore, of

Eve's formation was, with much art and decorum, omitted in the place where the Chronologist would expect to find it; and poftponed, till it could be delivered with the advantage of being made an introduction to the history of the FALL.

The best Hiftorians have, in the fame manner, created beauties from a well-contrived neglect of the order of time.

The next thing to be confidered, after the Mofaic account of the CREATION of Man, is, what we are told concerning his SPECIFIC NATURE.

That he was of a nobler Kind than any other of the Animals brought, at the fame. time, into Being, abundantly appears from the LIKENESS in which he was made; and from the PREEMINENCE which was given to him over the rest. "And God faid, let "us make Man IN OUR IMAGE, after our "likeness; and let him have DOMINION "over the fish of the Sea, and over the "fowl of the Air, and over the Cattle, and "over all the Earth *."

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Now, in what did this image or likeness confift? Certainly not in Man's having an IMMATERIAL PART, fince he had this, as the best Philosophy evinceth *, in common with the whole animal Creation. And the Historian makes the image, or likeness, to confift in fomething peculiar to Man. Now, the only two things, peculiar to him, are his SHAPE and his REASON. None but an Anthropomorphite will fay, that it was his Shape, which reflected this Image of his Creator. We must conclude therefore, that it was the faculty of REASON which made the resemblance.

But further, when God fays, let us make Man in our Image, it is immediately fubjoined and let him have dominion over the whole brute Creation. Now, nothing but the faculty of Reafon could invest man with this Dominion, DE FACTo, which was bestowed upon him, DE JURE.

Still further, we fee Dominion was given him on account of this preeminence of being made in the image of God-Let us make

* See note [A], at the end of this Book.

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man in our Image, and let him have Dominion-But a preeminence, which qualified Man for Dominion over other Animals, could be nothing but REASON, which he had, and which they wanted; whereas an immaterial principle, with which both were endowed, afforded no room for preeminence; efpecially fuch a preeminence as qualified Man for Dominion.

But now, the fubftance in which the faculty of Reafon refides, could not be a material fubftance, as this beft Philofophy, we fay, hath fhewn *. Man, therefore, must needs confift of an immaterial Substance, joined to a material; or, in other words, he must be a compound of SOUL and BODY. And this feems to be intimated, and not obfcurely neither, by the Words of the Text; when it comes, in the fecond Chapter, to give a more distinct account of Man's Nature than hath been given in the preceding Chapter, where He is placed, according to the order of time,

*See Clarke and Baxter, as reprefented in the note [A], above referred to.

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