The Jews were under a divine prohibition not to make an idolatrous graven image or likeness of any aquatic animals. However strange this idolatry may appear, yet, such was its extent, that it prevailed not only in Syria, but in the borders of Lebanon, also at, Ascalon, Ashdod, and Joppa, cities within the precincts of the tribes of Dan and Judah. Hence we see the propriety of the judgments inflicted upon the Egyptians. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood.—Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.—And the fish that was in the river died: and the river stunk.” This was a punishment particularly well adapted to the state of that blinded and infatuated people: as it showed them the baseness of those elements which they reverenced, and the insufficiency of the gods in which they trusted. And this remarkable display of the Divine displeasure was the means of affording knowledge very salutary to the Israelites; as it served to warn them not to fall into the same or any similar act of idolatry, when they had seen it thus debased and exposed, and attended with such instances of accumulated evil.[149]
Father Lamy remarks, that the principal parts of Fishes are the gills, scales, and fins. Some have scales, and no fins; others have neither scales nor fins. Upon which is founded the distinction which Moses makes of clean and unclean fishes. Such as have neither scales nor fins are thought unclean. The authority for this is what the Lord commanded Moses to communicate to the children of Israel. “These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: they shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but you shall have their carcases in abomination.” The physical reason for this distinction may be, because those which have fins and scales are the most nourishing; and the others, which are without fins and scales, being, in general, very difficult of digestion,—such as the Conger, Eel, &c., which are too gross and fat for many stomachs. Among the Romans, no fishes were suffered to be offered up in sacrifice, or served up to the table of the gods, but such as were scaly.
In this distinction, direction, and prohibition, concerning fishes, there is a further meaning. Dr. Spencer says, “God ordained this distinction of meats, that the puerile nation of the Hebrews might be led by an application of this law to the first elements of sanctity and actual purity. And this conjecture is founded upon the reason God himself has assigned for this institution; for after he had delivered the law about separating the clean from the unclean animal, he immediately adds, ‘Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’ Which words St. Peter applies not to legal but to evangelical sanctity, such as we should aspire to through the whole course of our lives. I must not deny that the text of Leviticus, in the outward letter, requires only a sort of legal sanctity, extending merely to corporeal purification: but it is agreeable to the umbratic nature of that law, that we should believe those words to have contained a more sacred meaning at the bottom, and to have directed the Jews to a sort of purity properly so called, and conformable to that of the Divine nature itself, under the figure of external purification.” Indeed without a view to the moral purification of the soul, an institution merely affecting the body would be but of minor importance.
This distinction then being founded upon the moral principles of good and evil, no doubt the peculiarities of the animals themselves will serve to furnish instruction. A celebrated writer on this subject remarks:—The progressive motion of fishes is owing to the tail: for so may a boat be driven forward by the agitation of a single oar from the stern. The fins serve to keep a fish upright, and support it while it is stationary in any part of the water. The centre of gravity being above the middle region of the body, a fish floats unnaturally with its back downwards, when the fins are taken off. The scales of fishes, which are very hard, bright, and radiated, compose a sort of armor, which serves for their defence, and adds at the same time an appearance of light and purity. The fishes thus distinguished differ as much in their way of life from the smooth and slimy inhabitants of the waters, as in their color and appearance; for they are generally disposed to raise themselves from the bottom, and swim about with agility in the superior regions of the water; while the Eel buries itself in the mire, and all the crustaceous tribe lie scrabbling upon the ground. Fishes of the Eel or snake kind are disturbed by thunder and storms, and swim about when the waters are thick and turbulent: but as soon as the elements are at rest again, they presently slide down to their native mud.
Thus the mind, when polluted with impiety, and bowed down with unbelief, cannot be raised to the contemplation of evangelical truth, unless it is alarmed by the fear of Divine judgments; on which occasion profligate sinners are sometimes most violently agitated, hurrying themselves as fast as they can into a state of repentance. But as this is a temporary repentance, excited merely by a fear of suffering, the effect abides no longer than the cause continues to operate; and so their terrors and their penitence vanish together. When there was alarming thunder and destructive hail in the land of Egypt, and fire from the Lord ran along the ground, even Pharaoh could recollect himself, and say, “I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. But when he saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.” Such is the fruitless issue of that involuntary repentance, which has no principle of Divine grace to support it. The moral of this distinction is obvious: the whole being a figurative monition, that a sordid and groveling way of life was to be abhorred by those who professed to serve God; whose mind being under the direction of revealed truth, and influence of the Holy Spirit, their affections were to be raised from vice to virtue, from pollution to purity, from things temporal to things eternal. There are many persons who bury themselves in the mud like the Eel, drown their senses in eating and drinking, or waste their precious time in sleep and idleness;[150] utterly disregarding all serious reflection, devotional elevation, holy rectitude, and spiritual enjoyment. Our Saviour, who spake many things to the Jews in parables, says, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” This was spoken to fishermen, who had been called from their employment by our Lord, and to whom he said, “I will make you fishers of men.” They had hitherto been laboring to catch fish, but hereafter they were to catch men: thus their secular calling is turned into a spiritual channel. The word σωγηνη is said to mean a drag-net, the particular use of which is to drag fishes up from the bottom of the water. The similitude between that occupation from which, and that employment to which our Saviour called them, consists in these particulars:—the sea in which they were now to fish is the world, the fishes they were to catch are Jews and Gentiles, the net with which they were to catch them is the Gospel, and they themselves were to be fishermen. Or thus:—by the net may be understood the Gospel; by the sea into which it is cast, the unconverted world; by casting the net into the sea, the preaching of the Gospel; by those that cast the net into the sea, ministers; by the fishes enclosed, the hearers; by the net gathering of every kind of fishes, profane persons as well as sincere Christians; by the net being full and drawn to shore, a set time coming when the Gospel shall have fulfilled that for which it was sent, the mystery of God being finished; by the good being gathered into vessels as valuable and precious, and the bad cast away as vile and contemptible, that separation which shall be made at the final close of time between merely nominal and real Christians, casting the former into hell, and bringing the latter to heaven.
This parabolical method of conveying important instruction, by which heavenly things are represented and set forth by expressions borrowed from earthly things which are familiar to us, was very ancient, as appears from Jotham’s parable, and much in use among the Jews. It engaged the attention, because it was pleasant; it assisted the memory, which is apt to retain what is conveyed in this form; it excited inquiry after the meaning of what was thereby intended: and, consequently, was likely to be rendered beneficial to the hearers. Father Quesnel remarks, The net of God’s word, animated by his Spirit, draws souls out of the abyss of sin and error, to Christian faith and piety. The net and vessel of the visible church receives both the good and bad fishes, true Christians and hypocrites. This is neither the time, nor the place of distinction; all must continue mixed together till the great day of separation. A man’s being in the church will not infallibly assure him of salvation: as yet there is time to become such as we ought to be. But the moment will come, when all desires and endeavors to this purpose will be attended only with despair. And who knows but this moment may be just at hand. Our faith is very weak if we can think of being separated from the righteous without shuddering. Our love of salvation is very faint, if we do not endeavor earnestly to separate ourselves in this world from the wicked, by the holiness of our lives and conversation.
Section II.—On Fowls.
Number of Species — Superiority and peculiar Construction — Skill in building their Nests — Power and season of Propagation — Dexterity in providing Food — Instinct — Migrations — Insects — Religious Improvement.
Not any part of nature is destitute of inhabitants. The woods, the waters, the depths of the earth, have their respective tenants; while the transparent and elastic air, and those regions where man can never soar, but with much art and at considerable risk, are occupied with the most beautiful creatures. Every order of animals is fitted for its situation in life; but none more apparently so than birds. Though inferior to beasts in the scale of nature, yet they hold the next rank, and far surpass fishes and insects, both in the structure of their bodies, and in their sagacity.