Sa Chap. 35. an Expofrtion upen theBóekof ]o S. Verf: a r. i<< inability, that is,they liveas if theyhad nothing, but (what beatfs have ) fenfe and appetite togovern their lives by. He that loth not pia¢}ife according to knowledge what he knows, is like, and worfe than a beat} that bath noknowledge. For when a beat} doth any thing abfurdly, hedoth like a beat}; but when man Both any thing absurdly, he degenerates or failed) from his own forme, he doth not like a man, and the :efore is worfe thana beat}. And that's ir, I conceive, which the Apotllefude aimes at in the aothverle of his Epiflle, where rebuking a very vile generations of men, Re- vilers, who fpeal¿svil of thofe things which theykow not ; he pre- fently adds, Butnkit they knew nat:+rally as brute-beaffs, in thole things they corrupt themfelves. When he faith, whatthey know na- turatly as brute-beafis, his meaning is, what theyknow incommon with beaus, that is, by fence and appetite, which are common co man and beaff, ( as reafon and undertiandingare common to Man and Angel-: ) Now (-faith the Apoftle) what theyknow naturally at brute beafl.r, in chofe things they corrupt themfela'es,w:rich brute beans do not. For chelewords, as brutebeafs, are tobe taken in conßrudkionand interpretation, with the formerpart of the fen- tence, What they know naturally, not with the latter, they corrupt themfetves. Their knowledge indeed is nobecter than the know- ledge of brute bea(ls, natural, but in corrupting themlelves they are unlike to,and do worfe than brute beatls, who runnor to fuch excelles ; yet there is nothing more commonin Scripture, than to fay that men aet the beat}, when they tin, and put off chofe manners which become andare worthy of an ingenuous and ra- tional man. For as man is partaker both of a fpirirual and fenfi- civenature, fo he takes his denomination from that part towhich, in his difpofLion and converfation he molt inclines : Hence he is fometimes called Gad, or an Angel ofGod , and fometimes he is compared to themoil hurtful of beafis, aLyon, fometimes to the worfl of beafis, to.a Fox, to a Wolfe, to a Dog, to.aSwine, to a generation of Vipers, CO what not, which may put amark of di (honour and reproach upon him. Fifthly, Note ; It's agreat fha»te, reproof, and reproach to max a when beaïp's unanfwerably to the teachings of God. It isbetter to be a beat} in or by nature, thantobe abeafl ( and continue
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