Ohs. 2. The greatness of man's folly and impotency in governing his own soul. Though he tameth other things, he doth not tame him.self. We seek to recover our loss of dominion over the creatures, but who seeketh to recover that power which he once had over his own soul ? How can we look to have our dominion entire over beasts and inferior creatures, when by the irregularity of our lusts we make ourselves ns one of them ? Ps. xlix. 12, ' He is as the beasts that perish.' We all affect sovereignty, but not holiness. Men seek to conquer others, but not themselves. Solomon saith, ' He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that winneth a city ; ' that is the nobler conquest, but we effect it not. We would recover our lordship over the creatures, but still remain captives to our own lusts. Domat feram, non domat linguam ; it was Austin's ^ complaint, we do not tame the beasts in our own bosoms. The evil tongue is the worst serpent ; and the most rabid and curst of aU the fierce beasts is the railer ; and therefore Solomon saith, Prov. xxi. 19, ' It is better to dwell in a wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.' In the wild desert there are lions, and bears, and tigers, but these assault us but now and then, and these can but rend the skin ; but a contentious woman is like a tiger, that still lieth in our bosoms, with sharp and bitter words, ever ready to fret out our hearts.
06s. 3. The deepness of man's misery. Our own art and skill is able to tame the fiercest beasts, and make them serviceable ; beasts as strong as lions and elephants ; fishes that do, as it were, inhabit another world ; birds as swift almost as a thought ; serpents hurtful and nox- ious. But, alas ! there is more rebellion in our affections ; sin is stronger, all our art will not tame it. We may teach beasts to do things contrary to their fierceness and natural dispositions ; elephants to crouch, horses to dance; but man is drjpiov Svafieraxeipiirrov, as Plato called him, a beast that will not easily come to band. We sec
^ Aug. Serm. 4, de Verbis Domini.
292 AN EXPOSITION, WITH XOTES, [J AS. HI. 7, 8.
in children much stubbornuess, ere they come to be ripened and habi- tuated in sin. A man would think their inclinations should be more flexible ; but ' folly is bound up in their hearts.' Certainly man's will is the toughest sinew in the whole creation.
Ohs. 4. Art and skill to subdue creatures is a relic and argument of our old superiority. The heathens^ discerned we had once a do- minion, and the scriptures plainly assert it : Gen. i. 2G, 'Let tlieni have dominion over the fowl of the air, over the fish of the sea, and over all the earth, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing.' Next to God's glory, they were ordained for man's service and benefit. We had a right and a grant from God, and therefore all the beasts were to come to Adam and receive their names, which was a kind of formal submission to his government, and a ])resentingof their homage and fealty to him. For tlie maintaining of this government, God gave man wisdom, and planted an instinct in the creatures by which they should be ready to obey him, fearful of doing him harm and oftence. And therefore, when the grant was in part renewed, it was said to Noah and his sons. Gen. ix. 2, 'The fear and dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, fowls of the air, fishes of the sea,' &c. So that then Adam could converse among the beasts without fear (as Noah and his sons did afterwards in the ark by singular dispensation), and command them at his beck and will ; there would have been, on man's part, no such difficulty to subdue them to human uses — Adam, in the great wisdom with which he was then furnished, knowing how to accommodate himself to the dispositions of the beasts ; and on the beasts' part, there would have been no repugnancy. But, alas ! ever since the fall this right was forfeited, and the creatures withdrew them- selves from man's obedience, and proved hurtful and rebellious; 2 therein representing to us our own treason and disloyalty. And therefore usually wild beasts are made an instrument of divine vengeance : 2 Kings xvii. 25, ' The Lord sent lions among them.' So Ezek. xiv. 15, ' 1 will cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and spoil it.' The insurrection and rebellion of the creatures against us is a memo- rial of our unfaithfulness and rebellion against God. But yet, though this grant be forfeited, it is not wholly extinguished. A wicked man hath lost his right, but not the use, which to liim is continued out of God's i)atience and general providence, for the preservation of human society. And the elect have a new title and right by Christ, which will at length fully instate them in the absoluteness of the old dominion ;3 when the creature, being ' freed from the bondage of corrui)tion,' shall willingly be subject to the children of God, Kom. viii. 19-22. But for the present tlie dominion is exercised in a much lower way than it was in innocency. Though we have some skill to subdue them, and govern them for human uses, either of ])rofit or delight; and though there be some instinct of fear in the huilful creatures, and therefore they do not come abroad at such times as man is supposed to be in