or suppressing the affection which it is employed to represent; and the agent and subject of the substi. tuted act, are the agent and subject also of that for which it is substituted. If the passage in question then, were supposed to be used by that figure, the animals would still be the subjects of the acts denoted by those that are ascribed to them, as absolutely as they would had the verbs been used by a metaphor. There is no ground, however, for the supposition that they are employed by the hypocatastasis. There are no analogous acts which those literally expressed by the verbs can be presumed to represent. There are none of a resembling kind that are any more appropriate than those to their nature. But there is no other figure by which the language could possibly be made to denote men and their actions. There is, in fact, no figure whatever in it, except the comparison of the lion with the ox in eating straw. The animals must, therefore, by the laws of language, be the sole subjects of the prediction; and the acts foretold of them, those which they are in fact to exert.

13. Comparison of the prevalence and abundance of the knowledge of Jehovah throughout the habitable earth, to the prevalence and abundance of the water where the earth is covered by the sea. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,

because the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,"-v. 9. What a forceful and impressive similitude! As the waters cover that part of the globe which is occupied by the sea, and are present at every point of it: so the knowledge of the Lord is to spread over all that part of the earth that rises above the ocean, and is inhabited by men. The holy mountain is Mount Zion. They who are not to hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain, are supposed by Calvin, Hengstenberg, Maurer, Alexander, and others, to be men. Jerome, Cocceius, Vitringa, and many others, suppose them to be the asp, basilisk, and ferocious animals of the preceding verses; and that is undoubtedly the true meaning, as they are the antecedent of the verbs. The reason that the universal knowledge of the Lord is alleged as a proof that they are then to be harmless is, that at the period when that knowledge is to become universal, the curse brought on man, the animal world, and the earth, is to be repealed.— Chap. lxv. 17-25.

The prophet next predicts the conversion of the Gentiles, and the restoration of the Israelites at that epoch.

14. Elliptical metaphor, in denominating the Messiah the Root of Jesse; whom he had before called a branch from his roots, and a sprout from

his stock.

"And it shall be in that day, that the Root of Jesse, which stands as a signal to the nations, unto him shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious,"-v. 10. Or more simply, "And it shall be in that day, that the Gentiles shall seek unto the Root-sprout of Jesse, which stands as a signal to the nations, and his rest-that is, his place or station-shall be glorious." That he is to stand and be as a signal to the nations, that is perceptible at a distance, and that the place of his rest shall be glorious, indicate that he is to be visible. In the corresponding prediction, chap. iv. 5, it is foretold that Jehovah shall then create on every dwelling-place on Mount Zion, and on her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; which is to be an element, doubtless, of its glory. The verb translated seek unto, signifies to inquire of, or consult for instruction in respect to his will and their duty, and shows that he is directly to communicate with them. and make to them new revelations. There is a similar prediction, chap. ii. 3: “And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem,"

We are thus shown that the glorious place of his rest is to be Mount Zion; and that the nations are to go thither for the purpose of being taught what he requires of them; and that he is to speak or communicate to them his word, as he did to his ancient people and the prophets, and impose on them his law. The period when this is to take place is in the last days, and manifestly from his visible presence and communication directly with men, after his advent.

15. Comparison of the Root of Jesse to a signal to the nations. As conspicuity is doubtless the relation in which he will be to them as a signal, it indicates that he is to be visible, and in a mode that will bespeak his deity. The passage is thus a clear revelation that he is then to appear in person, and that the Gentile nations are to recognise him as the Messiah, and submit to his sceptre. There is no law of language by which it can bear any other meaning. It is not metaphorical, except in the denomination of the Messiah as a Root-sprout of Jesse which stands. The acts affirmed of the Messiah and the Gentiles, and the characteristic of the place of his rest, are not employed by hypocatastasis for others of an analogous nature. If they were supposed to be used by that figure, the persons and place of which they are affirmed would still be

the subjects of those which they are employed to denote. But they are not substituted for others of a different kind. In the first, "unto the Root-sprout of Jesse which stands as a signal," the attitude ascribed to the Root-sprout is appropriate to him considered as a signal. It was for that reason, doubtless, that he was denominated a Root-sprout, instead of a Branch of Jesse; that he might be exhibited in an attitude of loftiness and conspicuity suited to the office of a signal or standard to the nations. No other attitude would accord with that relation. A mere branch extending horizontally from the stock, and near the ground, would be unsuitable to it. The attitude ascribed to the Rootsprout must therefore be taken as denoting precisely what it directly expresses, not as put for a position of a different kind. This is made indisputable, moreover, by the law of the metaphor, which, when an agent or object has been made the subject of that figure, requires that the acts, conditions, or qualities that are then affirmed of it shall be appropriate to the nature that has been metaphorically ascribed to it. Thus Judah, being declared to be "a lion's whelp," is then treated in the other affirmations that are made of him as like that animal. "From the prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion: who shall