beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely." Hos. ii. 16-18. The evil propensities of man, and the antipathies of the lower creation, will be destroyed together "in that day." So it is elsewhere predicted, in the Millennial day men "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And in the prediction before us, it is the promise of the Lord that when the time of his "covenant" with the inferior animals in favour of his people shall arrive, He shall also "break the bow and the sword and the battle," from the earth. Instruments of war shall be rendered unnecessary, as war itself will not be practised. Neither will "the bow" be handled against the lower creation. God having made a covenant with them, "for" his people, so also will he break the bow that these animals may be allowed to "lie down safely." But if they are to be secure against the aggressions of men, so also will the peace and safety of men be uninterrupted by their attacks, and unthreatned by their opposition. God's covenant is "with" them, "FOR" his people. This covenant is not confined to one class of animals, but embraces at once 66 the beasts of the field," "the fowls of heaven," and "the creeping things of the ground." All the tribes which men are made to fear, are thus included. How perfectly distinct is the prediction! yet its truths are disbelieved. Beasts, birds, and reptiles, are all supposed by many to be only "wicked men." But God makes no covenant with "wicked men." On the contrary, He everywhere threatens to destroy them. And it deserves to be noticed how precise is the language employed above. He will "make a covenant" with the lower creation-beautifully expressive at once of their continued existence, and the cessation of their enmity; but the instruments of war and of cruelty He threatens to " BREAK" "out of the earth." They shall altogether cease to have exis

tence.

66

A similar prediction, concerning the same time, and pressing more fully the change upon the natures of the Inferior Animals, is given by the prophet Isaiah: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of His roots....and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den, ["adder's," marg.] They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Is. xi. 1-9. In the prophecy already considered, it is predicted that the various animals shall "lie down safely." This might have been considered as proof of the eradication of their mutual antipathies toward each other, as well as their relief from that fear of and enmity to man by which they are at present characterized; for unless the former were also removed, they could not lie down "safely." But in the prediction last quoted, their mutual cordiality is explicitly foretold. The meekest and the most ferocious, the least suspecting and the most crafty, the unresisting and the most courageous,-all mingle here in harmonious concert. The ravening wolf shall cease to injure the innocent lamb, and the forest-prowling leopard to tear the kid; the cow and the bear shall graze together; and the king of the forest, no longer glutting in blood, shall partake of oxen's food; the venomous asp and adder shall become harmless, and children without dread engage them in sport. -And how beautifully introduced is the reason of all this: "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." As the sin of man, in departing from the living God, was the cause of all the discordance introduced into this lower world, so when he is brought again to the allegiance due to

his Maker-when the knowledge of the Lord shall become universal, and man everywhere submits to the sceptre of His Son-then shall the curse of enmity be removed, and all be restored to happiness and peace. As man's rebellion unfitted him for properly exercising power over the Inferior creation;-when he would have employed them in unhallowed subserviency to the execution of his own rebellious schemes against the Most High-then was he deprived of his hitherto unlimited authority; the submission of all was rendered reluctant, and the fealty of many absolutely refused. But when the power of the First and great Seducer is destroyed from the earth, when the reign of universal holiness has commenced; and when, by cordial attachment to God through His Son, man shall have become fit to be again entrusted with primeval authority, under Christ he shall again stand forth as the honoured and acknowledged lord of all the inferior creation.

Notwithstanding of its particularity, however, the above prediction is also supposed to foretell merely a great change on the dispositions of men. Every thing stands opposed to such an opinion, and we cannot discover a single circumstance from which it derives the slightest support. The very fact into which the whole prediction is thus explained, is itself included, as a separate and distinct part of it. There is therefore no reason for substituting the destruction of wicked men from the earth for the change upon the natures of these animals, both being equally predicted. Besides what we have already quoted concerning the wolf and the lamb, &c., of the Branch it is predicted, only two verses before, that "with the breath of his lips shall He slay the wicked." ver. 4. What need is there then of supposing that all the promises which follow, concerning the inferior animals, mean nothing else than what is thus already predicted in language so distinct and appropriate? The substitution becomes the more unwarrantable too, from the fact of this change being expressly predicted as a circumstance additional, both to the destruction of the wicked and the righteous reign of the Branch: "With righteousness shall He judge the poor,

and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked; and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins; the wolf ALSO shall dwell with the lamb," &c. It is thus evident, that both do not mean the same thing; but that when the one shall take place, so" also" shall the other. The truth that the wicked shall then be slain, rests on no higher authority than does that of the change upon the natures of the animals mentioned.

A similar prediction is given by Isaiah, towards the close of his prophecy, in which one additional circumstance is introduced: "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." Is lxv. 25. In neither of the preceding quotations was the food of the serpent noticed. From this we are informed that "dust" alone is assigned to it. This was part of the curse originally pronounced upon the serpent as the instrument of man's fall. While therefore the effects of sin, in entailing upon the creatures a spirit of enmity, shall then cease to operate, a stigma is still left upon one of them. The feeling of enmity to man and to other animals is to be taken away, even from the serpent tribe; but, probably as a remembrancer of its having been the instrument employed by Satan in beguiling the mother of all, the serpent is doomed to feed on dust during that dispensation in which the Evil One himself shall be chained, incapable of practising his wiles on man. And does not this peculiarity also indicate the fact of these animals being really referred to? But those who spiritualize, as it is called, all the predictions concerning the inferior animals attend little to such distinctions. Even accurate classification is wholly overlooked, when they equally convert into men of one character and disposition all the "beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and the creeping things of the ground." Although every cir cumstance indicates their being designed to be under

stood in their natural sense, the lion and the leopard, the wolf and the bear; the ox, the cow, and the calf; even the asp and the cockatrice are all transformed with ease and, however disimilar in their natures and habits, all become men of holy character and harmless dispositions. Consistency would require that the little children too, whether weaned or only at the mother's breast, for whom these animals will, by the predicted change, be rendered safe play-mates, should also be made to grow to the perfect stature of harmless manhood. The circumstance of children being introduced into the prophecy, and that in contradistinction both to lions and lambs, to leopards and kids, is additional proof that both are to be regarded in their natural sense, if either be. The whole circumstances form evidence sufficient to prove, (should the language of such predictions require confirmation,) that upon the natures of the Inferior animals, a great, a miraculous change will be effected at the Millennial Day.*

SECTION XI.

THE REDEEMER'S MILLENNIAL REIGN.

It has already been seen, from some of the preceding

*As we shall have frequent occasion to controvert the opinions advanced by the Rev. Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane, in his recent publication against Millenarianism, we owe it to him here to mention, that although he tumultuously opposes the doctrine of Christ's Personal Reign, he seems also to reject all the ordinary work of transformation of the inferior animals. Viewing the predictions in their natural sense, he says, (p. 69,) they" evidently imply that both the human race and the brute creation are to be then preserved, and that it [the Millennium] is to be a period of uncommon felicity to man and beast." But it is not easy to reconcile this miraculous restoration of the natures of the inferior animals to the pacific state in which they were before the fall, with his opinion (p. 134) that the Millennium, in which this wonder will be witnessed, is to be realized by the mere general diffusion of religious knowledge and prevalence of Christian principles." The Scriptures are silent as to the mode of this change of nature, but that it must be miraculous requires no proof to show. It is one of the many wonderful displays of love which Christ, the God of nature, will make at His return.