Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/28

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is natural, when contemplating a practice of wide extent, and weighty influence, to inquire into its origin. There are some things in the constitution of society that are expressly appointed by God, or evidently and naturally arise out of the relations of human life. Such as the institution of marriage, and the duties of parental care and filial obedience. These things we can easily account for. They are fit and proper in themselves, according to the constitution of human nature, and the appointment of our wise and gracious Creator.

We can also account for the subjection of the brute creatures to man. God has endowed man with reason, which they do not possess, and which gives him a vast superiority over them. They appear, also, to have been (in a great measure) created for the service of man, and they have been expressly placed in subjection under him. In man's original state of innocency God blessed him, and gave him dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth. Gen. i. 28. Again, after the fall of man, and after the flood, God renewed and extended the grant to Noah and his sons, giving them not only dominion over the brute creation in general, but also permission to use for food such as are suitable for that purpose, at the same time carefully restricting them from cruelty towards the meanest creatures. Gen. ix. 1—4. 