Whoever
puts animals to cruel and unnatural uses, disturbs, in the opinion of
the Quakers, the harmony of the creation, and offends God.
The Quakers in the second place, are of opinion that the renovated man
must have, in his own benevolent spirit, such an exalted sense of the
benevolent spirit of the Creator, as to believe, that he never
constituted any part of animated nature, without assigning it its proper
share of happiness during the natural time of its existence, or that it
was to have its moment, its hour, its day, or its year of pleasure. And,
if this be the case, he must believe also, that any interruption of its
tranquillity, without the plea of necessity, must be an innovation of
its rights as a living being.
The Quakers believe also, that the renovated man, who loves all the
works of the creator, will carry every divine law, which has been
revealed to him, as far as it is possible to be carried on account of a
similarity of natures through all animated creation, and particularly
that law, which forbids him to do to another, what he would dislike to
be done unto himself. Now this law is founded on the sense of bodily,
and on the sense of the mental feelings. The mental feelings of men and
brutes, or the reason of man and the instinct of animals, are different.
Pages:
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154