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. 9. None shall hurt.] Here the foregoing allegory is fully explained. In God's Holy Mountain-that is, in the Church - there shall be a holy, harmless, and a sweet harmony of hearts. The word among them shall be this, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1Jn 4:11 Some differences and jars there may occur among the best, as did between Paul and Barnabas, Jerome and Augustine, Luther and Zuinglius; but these last not long - at utmost but till they come to heaven; and the ground of such a distemper is, that we know but in part, and therefore love but in part. 1Co 13:9 Oh pray for that blessed sight, Eph 1:17-18 and for a fuller comprehension of those several dimensions, Eph 3:18 that the "earth may be full of the knowledge of the Lord."
As the waters cover the sea,] i.e., The bosom and bottom of it, that God's word may dwell richly in us in all wisdom, and that the knowledge we have of it may be a transforming knowledge. 2Co 3:18 Two or three words of God's mouth hid in the heart, and there mingled with faith, work such an evident and entire change in a man, saith Lactantius, a that you can hardly know him to be the same. Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus, maledicus, effraenatus, paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam. Da cupidum, avarum, tenacem, &c. Give me a man that is angry., ill-spoken, unruly; with a few words of Almighty God, I will make him as meek as a lamb. Give me one that is covetous, an oppressive hold fast, a very Nabal, I will make him a Nadib; of a covetous churl a liberal person, of a viper a child, of a lecher a chaste man, &c. Lo, this is the fruit of the sound and saving knowledge of God and of his word, of ourselves and of our duties.
a Lactant. Instit., lib. iii. cap. 86.