a Gen. iii. 17, 18. b Isai. xi. 6—9.
Thus throughout the whole creation shall, to a certain extent, the paradisiacal state be restored.]
Now, as this will be a state of inconceivable blessed- ness, the whole creation is represented as looking and longing for it —
[It will be remembered that our blessed Lord was foretold as " the person whom all nations desired." Now he was fore- told under that character, not because all nations did desire him, but because all nations, if they had known him, would have desired him. So here the whole creation is said to look and wait for the day spoken of in my text, not because they do indeed expect it with such solicitude, but because they would expect it in that way, if they were fully apprised of the bless- edness attendant on it. And, as in other passages of Holy Writ, the woods and the hills are often spoken of as participat- ing in, and expressing, the joys of God's people ; so here, by a very strong figure, the whole creation is represented as stretching forth the neckc, with eagerness, in looking for it, and groaning with impatience6- for its arrival; yea, and as experiencing the pangs of parturition till they shall be liberated from their present burthen e. Nor are these expressions at all too strong, if the different parts of the creation were capable of discerning and appreciating the blessedness of the change that shall await each in its proper sphere, and to the full extent of its capacity. Every part is at this time " under the bondage of corruption," that is, under the curse introduced by sin ; and every part, according to its capacity, shall be delivered from that bondage, and be brought, so far as it is capable of it, into a participation of the " liberty that shall then be accorded to the children of God." These were the feelings assigned to the inanimate creation at the first advent of our Lord in his abased state f; and the same creatures may well be said to pant for a renewal of their joys, when our Lord shall come again to establish his kingdom over the face of the whole earth.]
But all this may, almost without a figure, be uttered as descriptive of,
II. The state of God's children in particular —
These have already the foretaste of these joys in their own souls —
[The " first-fruits " were a part of any produce, devoted to God as an acknowledgment that the whole was from him :
c dwoKapacoda. d avffTtva^ci. c crvvwcivei.
f Ps. xcvi. 11 — 13. and xcviii. 4 — 9.