The School of Recreation (1684 edition) / Or, The Gentlemans Tutor, to those Most Ingenious Exercises of Hunting, Racing, Hawking, Riding, Cock-fighting, Fowling, Fishing

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Since there is no table of contents, the twelve bracketed items on the title page (“Hunting”, “Racing”...) have been made into links to the corresponding chapters.
MAN, the Abridgement of the Creation, or the Compendium of all Gods Works, having divested himself by Sin of that Original Innocence and Angelical State of Life wherein his Creator had placed him, and thereby Subjected his collapsed Nature to the Malediction of God, In the sweat of thy Face thou shalt eat thy Bread , &c. It pleased however the Almighty to continue and confirm that Original grand Charter he had at first granted him, of being Lord of the Creatures : Hereby intimating, That tho man is now Born to Trouble, Labour and Cares , as the Sparks fly upward ; yet God has not deprived him of any Comfort or Felicity, which the Earth or Creatures of it can afford; but has invested him with a superior Authority and Dominion over the Beast of the Feild, the Fowl of the Air, and the Fish of the Sea . Thus it comes to pass, that every Creature payes a Duty and a Subjection , (as it were) to man, as to their Master ; and notwithstanding the Ferocity and Salvageness of their Natures, become tame and submissive to the Empire of Man. They court his Favour and mutely supplicate his Friendship and Confederacy, for the subduing the Enemies of their several Species : They readily obey his Precepts, and ravisht with his Service willingly execute his Commands. And thus by this prime Priviledg from God, Man is allowed the Liberty of subduing the Creature, and recreating his Mind by Hunting, Fowling, Fishing and the like; and by observing the Natural Instincts of every Species, the innate Enmity and Cunning of every Creature, may glorify the Immense Wisdom of his Creator.