246 RDIN AND RÉCOOERT, í&LC. as old as the blessing: Bnt sin and sorrowcame in together, and spread a wide curse over the birth of man, which Letore stood only under a divine benediction : Nor is the blessingon human propagation quite taken away, though pains of child-bearing are added to it. Daily observation and experience prove that the blessing of propagation repeated to Noah ; Gen. ix. 6. did not take 'away that curse. See question VIII. at the end. IV. Let us consider in the next place how the generality of mankind are preserved in life.' Some few there are indeedwhom divine providence has raised to riches and plenty, and their food is daily provided for them without care or toil ; but the millions of human creatures in all the nations of the earth are forced to support a wretched life by hard labour of .the body, and intense and grievous fatigue of their joints and limbs, and all their na- tural powers. What dreadful risks both of life and limbs do multitudes run through in order to purchase their own necessary food, and to support their young helpless families at home ? 'What waste of the hours of sweet repose at midnight, as well as long and slavish and painful toils of the day, do multitudes sustain, in order to procure daily nourishment ? It is by the sweat of their brows they obtain their bread ; it is by á continual exhausting their vital spirits, that many of them are forced to relieve their own hunger, and to keep off death, as well as to feed their young offspring that otherwise would be born merely to perish. If we survey the lower tribes, of mankind, even in Great Britain, in a land of freedom and plenty, a climate tem- perate and fruitful, a country which abounds with corn and fruits, and is stored with beasts and fowl, and fish, in rich variety for food, what a hard shift do ten thousand families make to keep out famine and support life ? Their whole time is devoured with the labours of the flesh, and their souls ever beset and al= most eaten up with gnawing cares and anxieties, to answer this important question, what shall I eat and what shall I drink even in the poorest and the coarsest manner ? But if we send our thoughts to the sultry regions of Africa, or the frosts and snows of Norway, to the rocks and desarts of Lapland and northern Tartary, what a hideous and frightful thing is human life in those climates ? Ilow is the rational nature of man almost lost between their slavery, their brutality, and their incessant toils and hardships ? They are treated like brutes by their lords, and they live like dogs and asses among labours, and wants, hunger and weariness, blows and burdens without end. Did God appoint this for innocents ? Perhaps, you will say, there is a pleasure in eating and drinking, which answers to the pain Of procuring our food: But alas! Can this short pleasure of a few minutes, in trolling a few morsels down our throats, or trashing the gnllèt with plenty of liquids, be supposed to grin
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=