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in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. But we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body." (1-3.) "For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so." (7-10.)

III. Thus, as the design of the gospel was to bring "peace on earth, and good-will to men," (LUKE ii. 14.) so it was no less intended to bring peace and good-will to the lower part of the animal creation, and to promote goodwill between man and them, and between each

other. As, after six days of creation, God rested on the Sabbath-day; and, as man and beast, after six days of labour, have their Sabbath appointed to them, so we expect, that, after six thousand years of labour, of trouble, of vexation, and of sorrow, God-in whose sight a thousand years" are

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66 as one day," (2 PET. iii. 8.)-will be pleased to afford a final, full, and everlasting Sabbath to all the works of his hands. The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the Messiah and his reign, says, in the eleventh chapter, "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 also 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. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. 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." (ver. 1. 5-9. See, also, lxv. 25.) The vision of St. Peter, before mentioned, in which he saw a great vessel, "as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air," (ACTS x. 11, 12.) was emblematic of the very same thing, speaking to the eyes as well as to the ears.

It is true, that these passages are generally understood in a figurative sense, as describing that harmony which shall prevail amongst

mankind, amongst men, who, being of as contrary dispositions as the wolf and the lamb, and the lion and the ox,-which now tear and devour,-shall, by the blessed and softening influence of the gospel, be made to love and delight in the society of each other. But, though the passages undoubtedly have this figurative meaning, yet it is no less true that they will be fulfilled in the very letter of it also. So it was in the days of innocence in Paradise, till it was interrupted and turned into enmity by the sin of man.

But, what Adam disturbed and lost by his disobedience, the Second Adam, by his obedience, will repair and restore. (1 Cor. xv. 22.) For, according to his promise, "we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 PET. iii. 13.; Rev. xxi. 5.) "There shall be no more curse." (Rev. xxii. 3.)

The Christian poet, whom I quoted at the conclusion of my last discourse, after considering the misery which prevails in the world between man and man, and man with beast, and brutes among themselves,—and then contemplating the blessed restoration of all things, promised by HIM who created them, and hath redeemed them, and engaged to restore them, -breaks out into strains, which must find a welcome in every heart which at all feels the gracious influence of the gospel. I cannot do better than conclude with some of them:

Oh! scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy?

Rivers of gladness water all the earth,

And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean,
Or fertile only in its own disgrace,

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