The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; and the lion shall eat straw as the ox: but, as for the serpent, dust shall be his food. They shall not hurt, nor shall they destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.

A few observations, illustrative of this important pas sage, it will be proper to add.

As the prophet employs the word chosen, it may not be inexpedient to introduce the following extract from Mr. Taylor of Norwich. The state, membership, privileges, honors, and relations, of professed Christians, particularly of believing Gentiles, are expressed by the same phrases with those of the ancient Jewish church; and, therefore, unless we admit a very strange abuse of words, must convey the same general ideas of our present state, membership, privileges, honors, and relations to God, as we are professed Christians. For instance, as God chose his ancient people the Jews, and they were his chosen and elect; so now the whole body of Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, are admitted to the same honor; as they are selected from the rest of the world, and taken into the kingdom of God, for the knowlege, worship, and obedience of God, in hopes of eternal life43.'

As this world will still be a state of trial, it will consequently be still chequered with some shades of vice and

42 LXV. 17, 18, 20, 22, 21, 23, 25. This is from Mr. Dodson's amend ed Translation of Isaiah, which, in these verses, varies but little from that of bp. Lowth.

43 Among other similar passages, which Mr. Taylor cites as illustrative of the assertion in the text, are the following. 'Rom. VIII, 33, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's ELECT? Eph. I. 4, According as he hath CHOSEN us (Gentiles, chap. II. 11) in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love. Col. III. 12, Put on, therefore, as the ELECT of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, 2 Thess. II. 13. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN you to salvation, through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth, Tit. I. 1. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's 's ELECT.' Taylor on the Romans, Intr. p. 31.

some remains of infelicity. Accordingly Isaiah says, and the sinner, who shall die at a hundred years, shall be deemed accursed.

Dr. John Edwards, a learned divine of the English church, after declaring, that it is not to be doubted of, that there shall be bodily strength and vigor, in an unusual degree,' to those who live in the millenniary period, adds, 'the people of those times shall be long-lived: which I gather from Isai. lxv. 20. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days**? That is, says Mr. Lowth, from thence, or from that time, there shall be no untimely deaths, either of infants who are abortive, or never grow up to man's estate; or of old men who do not live out the full term of life45. This proposition, it appears reasonable to understand, as being a general one, and liable to exceptions; for, though premature deaths may hereafter be of rare occurrence, the law of our nature forbids that they should not sometimes happen.

The clause, which occurs in the subsequent part of the same verse, does, however, when viewed through the medium of our common translation, strongly countenance the idea, that this law will be suspended, and that the human frame will hereafter be differently constituted. But this medium is, I apprehend, false and fallacious. That the child shall die an hundred years old, is the incoherent language of the prophet, according to that version. That he, who shall die at a hundred years, shall die a boy, is the improved translation of Mr. Dodson47. But the words, I

44 Hist. of all the Dispens. of Relig. vol. II. p. 743. 45 See the same observations in Dr. Wells.

46 The following is a method of evading the 'difficulty, but it is not satisfactory. Some,' says Mat. Henry, understand it of children, that in their childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by death nipped in their blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred years old. More rational is the explanation of Vatablus. The expression is an hyperbole, and it signifies, that mankind shall live very long.

47 Similar is bishop Lowth's translation. For, he that dieth at an hundred years, shall die a boy.

conceive, should have been rendered, he, who shall die at a hundred years, shall die a young mants; and the meaning is, so great will be the age to which men will frequently attain in the millenniary period, that he, who dies at a hundred years old, will be regarded but as a person arrived at maturity49. The expressions of the Jewish prophets, it may here be remarked, are not always to be understood in their strict and literal sense. Thus the prediction in the concluding verse of the present chapter, that the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, that the lion shall eat straw as the ox, and that, as for the serpent, dust shall be his food, is explained by the ablest commentators with some latitude of interpretation. The words are neither susceptible of a literal explication, nor do they, separately considered, contain any precise symbolic signification. They are exactly of the same import as a parallel passage in the xith chapter of the evangelical prophet, which has been recently cited.

The longevity of those, who are to live in the millenniary period, is in two other verses alluded to. They shall not, it is said, generate a short-lived race, but their days shall resemble the days of a tree. And this important circumstance, the reader will shortly see, has been declared to be the language of prophecy, by those who have com

48 That the Hebrew word, which occurs in this place, may be translated a young man can admit of no doubt. It is so translated, in our common version, in ch. XIII of Isaiah, v. 18, in ch. II of Zachariah, v. 4, and in various other books of the Old Testament. To the two spies, who were sent by Joshua into Jericho, this word is applied (Jos. VI. 23); and it is given as a denomination of the patriarch Joseph, at a time when he was 28 years of age (Gen. XLI. 12). The same Hebrew word, in the XIXth ch. of the book of Judges, when in the feminine gender, is used six times as the appellation of a woman, who was a concubine; and (Ruth II. 5.) it is annexed to the name of Ruth, who had been married at least ten years, and at the period spoken of was a widow.

49 Should the work, alluded to in the advertisement, be published, I shall there enter with some minuteness into the causes, which, it may be expected, will hereafter be productive of great health and uncommon lon gevity.

mented on the book of Revelation, as well as by those who have illustrated Isaiah.

Of the industrious part of mankind, at present, only a small part receive an adequate and reasonable compensation for their labors. In rewarding the exertions of ingenuity or of diligence, no laws of proportion are observed, no rules of equity are attended to. In this respect, society will gradually assume a new aspect. Those of whom the prophet speaks are not to labor in vain, but they are to wear out the works of their own hands. Those who build, and those who plant, are alike to enjoy the benefit of their own industry. Mankind will mutually labor for each other's benefit, and to supply each other's wants. No longer will a decided majority of them, as is now the case in almost all the civilised countries of the globe, lead a life at once of indigence and of toil; whilst a few individuals, in every district, riot in luxury and splendor, and, with systematic prodigality, consume upon themselves or their families the labors of hundreds and of thousands.

After having introduced remarks on the xxth and xxist chapters of the Apocalypse, I shall now go back to ch. vii. Nor need the reader wonder at this; for it has already been stated, and Mr. Mede has proved it beyond all controversy, that the Apocalypse contains a number of contemporaneous predictions. And it is the observation of bp. Newton, that the latter part of it, comprising the eleven last chapters, is designed as a supplement to the former, to complete what was deficient, to explain what was dubious, to illustrate what was obscure'

The complete overthrow of all antichristian rule and authority the prophet had described at the close of ch. vi. in his account of the sixth seal. It is, therefore, very natural, and conformable to the method of all the prophets, that, in the following chapter, he should pass on to the description of the subsequent state of the world and of the church. The

50 Vol. III. p. 188.

representation which he there gives is figurative throughout, in a high degree sublime, and is strongly expressive of the great holiness and felicity, which will hereafter prevail.

After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.-And one of the elders answered ", saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heats2. Bp. Newton, in agreement with his explication of the sixth seal which has already been noticed, found himself under the necessity of declaring, that this is a description of the state of the church in Constantine's time, of the peace and protection it should enjoy under the civil powers, and of the great accession that should be made to it both of Jews and Gentiles.' That it is to be understood of a state of things in this world, I am perfectly ready to admit ; and acknowlege the force of Vitringa's observation, that we are admonished of this, be

51 It is the remark of Beza on this verse, that he who begins speaking, is, in the Evangelists, often in this manner said anoxρivea. But since the verb to answer has no such acceptation in English, to say that one of the elders answered, though what follows is not a reply to any question, is a translation, manifestly aukward, and calculated to embarrass the unlearned reader. That amoxpivedα in various places of the New Testament, signifies simply to speak, or to begin to speak, is a point on which the critics are agreed. The words in the Greek are xai atεxpion EIS EX των πρεσβυτέρων, λεγων μιο. Bezas translation is, tum me compellavit unus ex illis senioribus, dicens mihi; that of Mr. Wakefield's, like Castalio's, is more brief, and one of the elders said unto me. Among the places which call for a like alteration are Mat. XI. 25, and XXVIII. 5.

52 V. 9, 13-16.