the Devil, we need no other information that Light, its opposite, must be an emblem of God.

VIII. Hitherto I have deduced the grounds and reasons of this distinction from such passages of scripture as do not literally interpret, but only imply an interpretation of it; though in so direct a manner, that no doubt can remain, but with readers who are either very ignorant or very much prepossessed. However, it is asserted in. the plainest terms in the book of Leviticus itself, that the meaning of this Law is such as I have supposed it to be. The words are these: "I am the "Lord your God which have separated you "from other people: ye shall therefore put a "difference between clean beasts and unclean, "and between unclean fowls and clean; and

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ye shall not make your souls abominable.

by beast or by fowl, or by any manner of "living thing that moveth upon the ground, "which I have separated from you as unclean. "And ye shall be holy unto me; for I the "Lord am holy which have severed you from "other people, that ye should be mine*. The substance of which in fewer words is

a Lev. xx. 24.

this: God tells them, they should abstain from the eating of these unclean beasts, only to remind them of their own separation from unclean Gentiles: while, on the other hand, they were to partake of the clean, because they themselves were to be holy unto the Lord.

IX. It is time now to descend to the particulars of this Institution, and enquire, what animals are assigned to the two different classes above mentioned, and how their qualities, when morally understood, agree to the two different kinds of people they were intended to represent. A few creatures selected from the inhabitants of the Earth, the Air, and the Waters, will be sufficient for our pur pose, because we may form a judgment of all the rest from such a specimen. The propriety of a distinction between them will appear upon the first hearing of their names: for, if we review the xith Chapter of Leviticus, we find on the good and peaceable side, amongst the clean creatures, Oxen, Sheep, Goats, and Lambs; all fishes with fins and scales; all fowls, as Doves, Larks, and such like, which are unexceptionable in their manners, and lofty in their flight.

On

On the other side, there are dogs, swine, wolves, foxes, lions, tygers, moles, and serpents; eels and water-snakes; vultures, kites, ravens, owls, and bats.

All these, and many other creatures, so far as their instincts and properties are discovered to us, agree so well with the different sorts of men, to whom the Scripture hath given them an alliance, that none but the infinitely-wise Creator, who framed them for moral as well as natural purposes, could have distinguished and applied their several natures with so much simplicity, brevity, and propriety.

X. It is evident, upon a first inspection, that there is a wide difference between these two parties, with respect to their manners and ways of life: but we have here a more compendious method of distinguishing quadrupeds by certain external characters, expressive of their internal natures and instincts: those only being adinitted into the Class of clean animals, which divide the hoof and chew the cud. In regard to these external characters, it might be sufficient for our present purpose to observe, that they are generally attended with a disposition tractable, harmless, and profitable. But I cannot help thinking, that the characters themselves are expressive of

moral

moral endowments: though unless they are interpreted with some degree of caution, it may be easy for us to fall into groundless refinements, and to mistake subtilty for solidity.

Thus much is clear; that an animal with a cloven hoof is more inoffensive with its feet, than the several tribes of wild beasts, whose paws are armed with sharp claws, to seize upon their prey or than the horse, whose feet are applied by instinct as offensive weapons or the dog, who although he is not armed with claws, like the bear or the tyger, hath feet endued with great swiftness that he may pursue and destroy such creatures as are gentle and defenceless.

Then again, neither Aristotle nor Pliny need be cited, to prove that quadrupeds with a divided hoof tread surer than those whose hoof is entire; there being a plain mechanical reason, why a foot, which presents several angles and edges, should take faster hold of the ground. I have frequently observed, that such creatures have a surprising felicity in keeping upon their legs, either up or down or across any dangerous declivity. The goat affords us the most extraordinary instance of this sort; particularly the wild mountain goat,

whose

whose agility in conveying himself with safety over the craggy cliffs and precipices of the Alps, hath been celebrated by learned travellers'.

It is also worthy of a remark, that this class of animals is not only surer footed, but more orderly and regular in their progress. Sheep have a natural propensity to follow one another's steps. It is their custom to approach the fold, or come forth from it again, in a train or file. They traverse their pastures inthe like order; whence it is observable, that the fields which they frequent are quartered out by a multitude of narrow tracks, which they seem to follow with a scrupulous exactness. This habit is still more remarkable in the Ox: it being the practice of oxen to tread in the very footsteps of their predecessors: so that when a drove of them have passed through any deep and narrow road, they leave the surface divided into a regular succession of ridges and furrows, as if it were the work of art. If brute creatures could reason and

a Scheuchzer in his Itinera Alpina. Ainsworth supposes the expression in Gal. ii. 14. which is certainly metaphorical, was spoken with an allusion to this faculty of rectitude in the cloven footed animals-they walked not uprightly according to the truth.

dispute