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From the land that I have given them
Hath Jehovah thy El said."

"And it shall come to pass in that day,
I will richly supply,* hath Jehovah said;

I will richly supply the heavens,
And they shall richly supply the earth;

And the earth shall richly supply the corn,
And the wine and the oil;

And they shall richly supply the seed of God.

And I will sow it for me in the earth,

And I will pity her that was named unpitied.

And I will say to no people of mine, my people!
And he shall say, my Eloah."

Isaiah gives the same picture of the rich fertility

of the country: (xxx. 23.)

"And he shall give rain for thy seed,
With which thou shalt sow the ground;

And bread shall thy soil produce,

And it shall be rich and nourishing:

And thy cattle shall feed in that day in wide pastures,
The oxen and the asses that shall till the ground.

They' shall eat well fermented maslin,

Which has been winnowed with a fan and a shovel :

And there shall be upon every high hill,

And on every lofty eminence,

Divided hills with streams of water,

In the day of the great slaughter when the mighty fall."

* To address or answer "Be rich unto." Compare Rom. x. 12.

SECTION THE NINTH.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL IN THE FLESH UPON THE NEW EARTH IS TO BE EVERLASTING.

Plainly a people in flesh and blood sustained by the fruits of the earthYet their felicity is never more to be disturbed-This positively asserted: and may be argued and illustrated from the nature of God's covenant with them, which on their part is unconditional and everlasting-Reflections on the term Covenant-The Old and the New.

ALL this rich display of the bounties of nature which we have seen to be predicted, certainly relates to a nation in the flesh, to Israel restored to that same country, from which they had been driven: the scenes described are scenes of terrestrial felicity; they cannot relate to the joys of departed spirits, nor of saints risen in their spiritual, immortal and incorruptible bodies. The happiness here depictured is such as "flesh and blood" may inherit, and of which, as far as we know, men in the flesh can alone taste the enjoyment. But yet, the scripture is very express in declaring, that this state of things shall be for ever; and I know not how to fix any limits to its language. Restored Israel is never more to suffer

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a reverse, or to find any period to their undisturbed repose. No chastening rod is any more to be held over them; and though still belonging to "the earthy," and to the "natural," as distinguished from the "spiritual," increasing and multiplying upon the earth, and supported by its produce, yet I think their state is described as a deathless state.

The description which we find of the restored city in the sixty-fifth of Isaiah will particularly claim our attention: (verse 17)

"Then behold, I create

New heavens and a new earth;

And the former things shall not be remembered,
Neither shall they any more arise in the mind.

But rejoice ye, and be glad,

In the world to come, which I create:

For lo, I create Jerusalem a joy,

And her people a cause of gladness.

And I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And be glad in my people.

And there shall no more be heard therein

The voice of weeping, or the cry of distress.

There shall not be thence any more an infant of days,
Nor an aged man that shall not have completed his days.

For the youth, a son of a hundred years, would die ;
And the sinner, a son of a hundred years, would be lightly
regarded!

They shall build houses, and inhabit them;

And they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

They shall not build, and another inhabit;
They shall not plant, and another eat.

For as the days of a tree are the days of my people,
And they shall wear out the works of their hands.
My chosen shall not labour in vain,

Neither shall they bring forth for nought,

For they are a seed blessed of Jehovah,
And their offspring with them.

And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer,
And while they are yet speaking, I will grant their petition.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And dust shall be the serpent's food.

They shall not hurt nor destroy

In all my holy mountain, hath Jehovah said."

Difficulties will be felt in some part of the translation of this passage, of the twentieth verse particularly. But, however we interpret the language of the prophet, at the lowest estimate of its meaning, we perceive plainly that a great and important change has taken place in the circumstances of human life. Its endurance is not our short span of threescore years and ten, in which so many "come up and are cut down like a flower;" when it so often happens, that "one builds and another inhabits," "one plants and another eats ;" and where those ills and calamities which cause "the voice of weeping to be heard," send so many prematurely to the grave. But we have evidently before us a portraiture, if not of a deathless state, as I am inclined to believe, yet certainly of most extended longevity, perhaps of more than patriarchal longevity,-" as the days of a tree are the days of my people.". So

that the sturdy oak,* which now casts its leaves upon the graves of thirty generations, would then be no more than the cotemporary of a living man; the sapling grow up with the youth, the majesty of its spreading boughs be coeval with the prime of life, and the ages of its decrepitude be past, before the old man has filled his days. At the lowest estimate of this language, I think we may conclude, here is a length of days described, that will wear out millennium: nor would that be so extraordinary, when we consider that the lives of the children of fallen Adam, before the Flood approached, very nearly reached this period.

Again, at the lowest estimate of this language, it might have been inferred that if death is not altogether removed, it is only inflicted as a punishment on notorious transgressors. But I understand from other passages, that sin and transgression are effectually prevented by the dominion of a Divine Influence on the hearts of the children of men. We shall see hereafter that this is expressly declared of the restored remnant of Israel. And the blessing may extend to the survivors of mankind, or to many portions of them, or to all, but not by a perpetual covenant, concerning which we shall afterwards inquire. And upon the whole, I think, that in the passage before us, the supposition of death is hypothetically stated in the twentieth verse.

"For the youth, the son of an hundred years, would die." Such would be the case, that if a

* The olive tree of those climates would far extend the comparison.

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