Isai. xi. 6 — 9. The ivolf also shall divell loith the lamb, and the leopard shall lie doivn with the kid ; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatli7ig together ; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the hear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : a7id the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall j)lay on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice'' den. Tliey shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall he full of the knoivledye of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
THE happiness and prosperity of kingdoms depend much on the wisdom and equity of those who govern. Yet the best of rulers cannot always secure their people either from the turbulence of faction, or from assaults of foreign enemies. Thus it is with the king- dom of Christ on earth. He, the Lord and Governor of all, is endowed with every qualification for the discharge of his regal office % and executes that office with consummate equity and wisdom^ : yet, through the infirmities of his subjects, and the malice of his adversaries, his kingdom is far from enjoying the full advantages of his administration. There will, how- ever, be a time, when his domiinion shall be extended over all the earth, and perfect peace shall reign throughout all his empire.
The prophecy on which this observation is grounded, will naturally lead us to shew,
I. The change that shall be wrought on men in the latter day — Men in their intercourse with each other too much resemble the brute creation —
[It is indeed humiliating to compare men with venomous and ferocious beasts : but there is scarcely any beast, however savage, to which God himself has not compared us"^. Nor is it by figurative representation onl}^, but by plain and express declarations, that God has marked the evil dispositions of our fallen nature*^. And if we either look around us, or within us, we shall see that his descriptions are by no means exaggerated. Let any one observe the proud and envious, the wrathful and
^ ver. 1 — 4. ^ ver. 5.
<= He likens us to foxes, Cant, ii, lo ; serpents and vipers, Matt, iii. 7. and xxiii. 33 ; wolves, Matt. x. 16 ; wild asses, Jer. ii. 24 ; wild boars, Ps. Ixxx. 13 ; wild bulls, Isai. Ii. 20, &c.
d Rom. i. 29—31. 2 Tim. iii. 2—4.