THREE ESSAYS ADDED BY NAY OF APPENDIX: iVherein are contained some plain Representations of important Points relating to the foregoing Questions. FIRST ESSAY. d Debate, whether the present Miseries of Man alone will prove his Apostacy from God? Suer. I.The Follies and Miseries of Mankind in a general Survey. THE miseries and follies of the creature man have been an ancient and endless subject of declamation among the writersof the heathen world, as well as among christians. A just survey of human nature, from its entrance into life, till its retirement from this visible world behind the curtain of death, would furnish us withabundant matter of sorrow and complaint; and we should be ready to say concerning man, Is this the creatxre that is so superior to the rest of the inhabitants of this globe, as to require suchpeculiar care of the Creator in forming him? Is this the animal furnished with such transcendent powers of thought and reason; whereby he is said to be exalted above brute animals? Does he deserve such an illustrious description as Ovid gives of him, after he had described the formation of beasts, birds and fishes ? Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altor Deerat adhuc, & quod dominavi in ceetera posset, Natus homo est. Sive Mine divino semine cretum llle opifex rerum, mundi melioris erigo, Finxit in effigiem moderantum cuneta deorum: Pronaque cum spectent animata entera terrain Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri Jussit, ,Sr erectos ad sidera tullere vultus." Thus in English: !' A creature of a more exalted kind,, Was wanting'yet, and thenwas man designed ; Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire fumed, and fit to rule the rest.
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