318 YOWERS AND' CONTESTS OF tr"LE'SFY ÄND-SPrRYT. Does not the wasp, that little angry insect, fix a sting in us sometimes without any provocation ? And thus it becomes the very image and proverb of ill - nature as well as the dog ; so that men of such a temper are called dogged and waspish. Does not our Lord Jesus himself give Herod the name of a fox for,the same reason, viz. because of the craft, the plunder, and the various and bloody injuries which were practised by that man among bis subjects, and are .well represented by the natural actions of that subtle and mischievous animal among his fellow- brutes, See Luke xiii. 32. Is not the swine often overwhelmed with food by its own greediness ? And does not that foul animal imitate the glutton well ? You grant all this proceeds from the very make and frame, the blood and juices of these ani- mals, and from the keenness or Other peculiar qualities of their natural spirits : And why may not the first rrio- tions and stirrings of the same vices in us proceed from the ferments ofour blood too? Have yoú never observed the resemblanceof pride working in a peacock, or a well- fed horse; how those brutal beings exult and glory, the one in his beauty, the other in his strength and his pecu- liar endowments ? This proud ferment heaves and swells their bodily natures : And why may not some of our pride be supposed to begin there too ? I confess these animals have no rational mind in them, no thinking spirit, no will, either to resist or consent to these motions Of the flesh or blood ; so that theyare under no moral law : These actions of theirs are agree- able to their original nature, and are under a. divine appointment rather than a prohibition ; therefore they are not capable of sin and guilt. But man, who hath these same animal motions and ferments of the flesh, and the same appetites, and springs of passion, had nothing, vicious in his original frame and constitution, but derived all that is faulty from his first parents, who' were wilful sinners, and. who spoiled their whole nature; and upon this account he will hardly be found innocent. But his guilt appears' much more evident, when we consider, that man has also an intelligent mind, a reason- able soul, capable, in some measure, of resisting these irregular tendencies of the flesh ; therefore he becomes guilty in the sight of God, by wilful consent to them, and o 7
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