y6 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



St. Paul gives us to understand that this suffering 

 of animals shall not be hopeless, but that they shall 

 be delivered together with man from the bondage of 

 corruption. By the word creature is understood all 

 living beings except man. He is not here implied, 

 as St. Paul kept men separate in order to make his 

 argument clear. The creature was made subject to 

 vanity, or sin ; not willingly, that is, not from choice, 

 but by reason of Him who subjected the same, that 

 is, through Adam, who by his transgression brought 

 the creature into bondage and subjection to the 

 evils of sin. The word creature is used to point 

 out the lower order of beings in contrast with man. 

 They shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 

 tion, (that is, from the state of decay which belongs 

 to the matter and not the soul), into the glorious 

 liberty of the children of God ; that is, into the same 

 happy condition of freedom and deliverance from 

 the evil, which will be the final privilege of the 

 redeemed. 



That the creatures themselves, when this glory is 

 revealed in the sons of God. shall then also be de- 

 livered from the bondage of sin, in the final restitu- 

 tion, is plain. The word creature used in the sense 

 of the passage quoted is so very different in its pur- 



