though, after all, in ten thousand instances, instinct in them leaves him far behind, and enables them to discern and execute things without number which man with all his attainments can never reach. But it is in things relating to the soul that I am to speak of him : and in these he will be really found as stupid and brutish as the very beasts.
[The beasts do discern, for the most part, what is condu- cive to their welfare, and distinguish it from that which would prove injm'ious. But, waving this, I will admit that the beasts discern not the comparative value and excellency of the things around them. And what, I would ask, are the views which men have of sin and holiness, of heaven and earth, of time and eternity? I ask not what their speculative notions may be, but what their practical views ? Who, in his unregenerate state, regards all earthly things as vain, empty, worthless? Who looks upon sin as hateful and abominable ? Who affects holi- ness as the perfection of his nature, and as a source of the sublimest bliss ? Who accounts every thing as dung and dross in comparison of the favour of God, and the enjoyment of the divine presence ? Theoretically, it is true, men know better than the beasts ; but practically not a whit more than they ; yea, they sink below the beasts in proportion as they act directly contrary to the plainest dictates of their judgment. Unconverted men, notwithstanding they acknowledge a su- preme Being, act as much without a reference to his appro- bation as the very beasts : and hence David describes and addresses them in these humiliating, but most appropriate, terms : " They say. The Lord shall not see ; neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people : and ye fools, when will ye be wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall he not see^?" Nay, more, the pious Agm*, cast down on account of the remains of these infirmities within him, exclaimed, " Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man^." I think, then, that the assertion in my text is thus far made good ; and that not only are the lowest of the people in the state described by him, but the highest and most exalted upon earth. In this respect there is no difference between nien ; for all, without exception, are prac- tically, and by nature, as the beasts that perish.]
But man resembles the beasts also, II. In his habits —
[See what are the habits of the brute creation ', All are intent on that only which will gratify their sensual appetites ;
a Ps. xciv. 7 — 9. ^ Prov. xxx. 2.