when his mental faculties are rightly difpofed for perceiving and relishing their objects, no man can be truly happy even in the most favourable outward fituation, whofe mind is not properly regulated. There is no peace unto the wicked; his heart is like the troubled fea, which cannot reft. He, whose mind is rightly difpofed "can enjoy a very high degree of happiness in himself, and, above all, in God as his chief good, even in the most unfavourable outward fituation. Like the apoftles of Christ, he can fing hymns of praise in prison and in chains. Like the Prophet Habakkuk, although the fig-tree does not blofom, though there is no fruit in the vine, though the labour of the olive fails, and the fields yield no meat, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the ftall, he rejoices in the Lord, and joys in the God of his falvation. But, fo long as men are in their prefent embodied state, in which the mind perceives, feels, and acts, through the channels of the bodily fenfes, and they are furrounded by material objects adapted to these fenfes, the outward fituation of man must have some influence upon the degree or permanency of his enjoy.

ment.

The predictions in this chapter, and those throughout the whole bible relative to this period, reprefent it as particularly diftinguished for both thefe fources of human happiness. Truth and righteoufnefs

righteoufnefs fhall then prevail in the world. It is not eafy for us, at prefent, to conceive to how high a degree of refinement and elevation human happiness might arife, even in fuch a ftate of things as the present, did truth and righteousness univerfally prevail among men. But imagination muft lose itself, and fly almoft beyond the sphere of human thought, when it wings its way towards that height of terrestrial bliss, to which a world of wife and good men shall afcend, when there shall be nothing to hurt or annoy in all God's holy mountain ;-when God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes ;-when there shall be no spiritual death; and when, for that reafon natural death fhall be ftripped of its terror;-when men fhall be vigorous, healthy and long-lived;-and when there fhall be no more crying, forrow, nor pain. It is affigned as the reafon of all this, that the former things are paffed away, and that God who fits upon the throne, and fways the fcepter of the univerfe fhall then renew all things; not men only but all things.

It is clear from the words now under our view, and from many other paffages of fcripture, to which I fhall foon direct the attention of the reader, that there fhall, then, be a kind of renovation of the world, or a bringing it back to fomething like its original or paradifaical state, in the following particulars, at least.-The Devil shall be VOL. II. reftrained

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reftrained from tempting men, for a thoufand years. When he was permitted to tempt the firft parents of mankind, they foon finned and forfeited Paradise, and if he were not restrained by the particular interpofition of God, it is highly probable that univerfal righteoufnefs would not dwell in the new heavens and the new earth.-Wars fhall ceafe to the ends of the earth, and univerfal peace shall prevail. The brute creatures, gently treated by man, fhall become gentle to man, and to each other. "The wolf alfo fhall dwell with "the lamb, and the leopard fhall ly down with the "kid: and the calf, and the young lion, and the

fatling together, and a little child fhall lead "them. And the cow and the bear fhall feed, "their young ones fhall ly down together; and "the lion fhall eat ftraw like the ox, and the fuck

ing child fhall play upon the hole of the afp, "and the weaned child fhall put his hand upon "the cockatrice den. They fhall not hurt nor

deftroy in all God's holy mountain; for the earth "fhall be full of the knowledge of God, as the "waters cover the fea."

In reference to this peaceful and happy state of the brute creation, at the time of the manifeftation of the fons of God, they are reprefented, by Paul, Rom. viii. 18,-23. as directing their earnest expectation to that state of the world.-Then, in all probability, a more mild and temperate state

of

of the air fhall take place; and the earth, under the influence of a better climate fhall become much more fruitful, There shall be no more curfe; and among the reft, most probably, that curfe which made the earth bring forth briers and thorns, and doomed man to earn his food by the fweat of his brow, fhall be taken away.

I do not stop to produce philofophical conjectures, to account for the temperature of the air, or for the fruitfulness of the earth. Without fuppofing any change in the figure, fituation, or motion of this earth, or of any of the other parts of this folar fyftem; it is perfectly eafy for the Almighty to render the air mild, and the earth fruitful. Let us never forget, that it is a part of the foundest philofophy that all the inanimate, as well as all the animate creatures of God are perpetually dependent upon their Creator, and must become the most pliant inftruments in his hands. He fays to the fea, "Hitherto fhall thou come, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be ftaid." It is he, "who binds the fweet influences of Pleiades, "and looses the bands of Orion: who brings forth "Mazzaroth in his feafon, and guides Arcturus "with his fons: who knows the ordinances of hea

ven, and fets the dominion thereof in the earth." Without being able to affign any philofophical caufe for it, have we not fometimes met with a particular year, in which the air hath been un3 B 2 commonly

commonly mild, and the earth uncommonly fruitful? And is not one day or one year with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thoufand years as one year or one day, in this as well as in other refpects?

But a good moral reafon may be affigned for that temperature of the air; and fruitfulness of the earth: Even that men, because righteous, are fit for bearing fuch a state of things. Wicked men cannot have plenty, and idleness in their power, without running to great excefs in wickedness. When the mind is not well informed, and rightly employed, which it is not in wicked men, nothing but bodily employment can keep them from exceflive wickednefs. Wherever there is a town peopled with opulent and idle men, there iniquity abounds. But as righteousness only dwells in the new earth, freedom from bodily labour will be improven to mental cultivation, employment, and delight.

In that state men will be healthful, vigorous and long-lived. "There fhall be no more death. "There fhall be no more thence an infant of days, "nor an old man that hath not fulfilled his days: "for the child fhall die an hundred years old.

They fhall not build, and another inhabit; they "fhall not plant, and another eat: for as the days "of a tree are the days of my people, and mine "elect fhall long enjoy the works of their hands."

For