riginal condition;
but especially Rom. viii. 19 ff.--that classical passage of the
New Testament which is really parallel to the passage before us. 4.
A subordinate argument is still offered by the parallel descriptions
of heathen writers. From the passages collected by _Clericus_, _Lowth_,
and _Gesenius_, we quote a few only. In the description of the
golden age, _Virgil_ says, _Ecl._ iv. 21 sqq.; v. 60: _Occidet et
serpens et fallax herba veneni occidet._--_Nec magnos metuent armenta
leones._--_Nec lupus insidias pecori._ _Horat. Epod._ xiv. 53: _Nec
vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile nec intumescit alta viperis
humus._--_Theocrit. Idyll._ xxiv. 84. Utterances such as these show how
unnatural the present condition of the earth is. They are, however, not
so much to be regarded as the remains of some outward tradition
(against such a supposition it is decisive that they occur chiefly with
_poets_), but rather as utterances of an indestructible longing in man,
which, being so deeply rooted in human nature, contains in itself the
guarantee of being gratified at some future period. But, with all this,
we must do justice to the objection drawn from the evident parallelism
of passages such as chap. xxxv. 9, and to another objection advanced by
_Vitringa_, that it is strange that there is so much spoken of animals,
and so little of men. This we shall do by remarking that, in the
description of the glorious effects which the government of Christ
shall produce on the earth, the Prophet at once proceeds to the utmost
limit of [Pg 122] them; and that the removal of hostility and
destruction from the irrational creation implies that all that will be
removed which, in the rational creation, proceeds from the principle of
hatred, inasmuch as it is certain that the former is only a reflection
of the latter, and that the Prophet speaks with a distinct reference to
this supposition which he afterwards, in ver. 9, distinctly expresses.
Hence, to a certain degree, a double sense takes place; and, in the
main, _J. H. Michaelis_ has hit the right by comparing, first, Gen. i.
and Rom. viii., and then continuing: "Parabolically, however, by the
wild beasts, wild and cruel nations are understood, which are to be
converted to Christ; or violent men who, by the Spirit of Christ, are
rendered meek and gentle, just as Paul, from a wolf, was changed into a
lamb." We are the less permitted to lose sight of the reference to the
lions and bears on th