441
Also on the title page of Hildrop’s remarkable book is the famed quotation from
Job xii. 7, 8, 9, and 10: “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the
fowls of the air and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
and the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and
the breath (spirit) of all mankind.” Hildrop’s thesis is that unlike the denatured species of man, all other animals have souls that are immortal, but “degraded by the fall
of man.” Of the 13 creatures depicted in Vandergucht’s Garden of Eden, two are
human, one looks to be an unknown species like that of a bald uakari monkey
(Cacajao calvus), there is a coral snake, and a goat. The other eight species are
avifauna, dominated by the “Moa” and what could be a hybrid swan/chicken. In
1783, Calvinist philosopher John Wesley (1703–1791) referred to the fact that
“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen…”.
6
Wesley went on to compare such creatures to “Angels” and pointed out that humanity’s qualities of language, sight, and understanding were each inferior to those of such other creatures.
He had obviously read Hildrop and Bougeant (Figs. 48.1 and 48.2).
Animals, Wesley went on, know our thoughts by way of an unfathomable wisdom. Indeed “they sang together when the foundations of the earth were laid”.
7
Moreover, throughout dozens of other sermons Wesley acknowledged the extraordinary insights of Hildrop’s proposition that the “Brute-creation” comprises immortal
souls, the truest expressions of God and God’s creative will; that even a flea is
immortal; that such animals’ preservation was essential—their highest wisdom
impossible to distinguish from man’s. That in their natural state they should never
6 Arminian Magazine, 1783, Vol. 6, “A Sermon on Hebrews,” 1. 14, p. 7. https://babel.hathitrust.
org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858022058451&view=1up&seq=11, Accessed May 3, 2020.
7 Ibid., p. 14.
Fig. 48.1 An Ancient
Friend. (Photo © J. G.
Morrison)
48.1 Bougeant and Hildrop
Also on the title page of Hildrop’s remarkable book is the famed quotation from
Job xii. 7, 8, 9, and 10: “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the
fowls of the air and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
and the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and
the breath (spirit) of all mankind.” Hildrop’s thesis is that unlike the denatured species of man, all other animals have souls that are immortal, but “degraded by the fall
of man.” Of the 13 creatures depicted in Vandergucht’s Garden of Eden, two are
human, one looks to be an unknown species like that of a bald uakari monkey
(Cacajao calvus), there is a coral snake, and a goat. The other eight species are
avifauna, dominated by the “Moa” and what could be a hybrid swan/chicken. In
1783, Calvinist philosopher John Wesley (1703–1791) referred to the fact that
“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen…”.
6
Wesley went on to compare such creatures to “Angels” and pointed out that humanity’s qualities of language, sight, and understanding were each inferior to those of such other creatures.
He had obviously read Hildrop and Bougeant (Figs. 48.1 and 48.2).
Animals, Wesley went on, know our thoughts by way of an unfathomable wisdom. Indeed “they sang together when the foundations of the earth were laid”.
7
Moreover, throughout dozens of other sermons Wesley acknowledged the extraordinary insights of Hildrop’s proposition that the “Brute-creation” comprises immortal
souls, the truest expressions of God and God’s creative will; that even a flea is
immortal; that such animals’ preservation was essential—their highest wisdom
impossible to distinguish from man’s. That in their natural state they should never
6 Arminian Magazine, 1783, Vol. 6, “A Sermon on Hebrews,” 1. 14, p. 7. https://babel.hathitrust.
org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858022058451&view=1up&seq=11, Accessed May 3, 2020.
7 Ibid., p. 14.
Fig. 48.1 An Ancient
Friend. (Photo © J. G.
Morrison)
48.1 Bougeant and Hildrop