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the greater or less extent of the general whole to which it refers. It was in this comparative sense, that St. Paul said that the sacrifice or death of Christ was in the end of the age, and that the ends of the age had come upon himself and his contemporary brethren. More than fifteen centuries of that age had, in fact, passed away, and only thirty or forty years remained; so that the times of which he spoke were indeed, in the end, according to a common form of expression, though the end itself had not yet arrived. But when the disciples asked Christ, what should be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age, it is evident that they used the term in the absolute sense, referring to a single point of time as the close. So our Saviour understood them, as appears from his answer. In this sense, also, he taught the multitude, by the parables of the tares and of the net, what should take place in the end of the age; when a separation was to be made between the false and the true professors of his gospel.

The same course of remark must be applied also to the other expressions which we have mentioned. Compared with the entire duration of so long an age, the concluding space of thirty or forty years, was naturally and with propriety called, the last days. Accordingly, St. Peter and St. Paul apply that appellation to the times when Christ was manifested for the people, when God spoke to them by his Son, and when the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles at PenBut in a sense more restricted, the last

tacost.

1 Matt. xiii. 40, &c.; 49, &c.

days and the last time, were those which began within four or five years of the end, continuing onwards till the very close itself. Thus, St. Jude, who is supposed to have written within this period, represented that the apostles had prophesied of it as the last time, in distinction from their own, which was but a few years before. And St. John, in an epistle written as some critics judge, still more nearly to the end, taught his brethren that theirs in praticular was the last time, because that the antichrists which had been foretold, had already come.

IX. We have now illustrated the several texts in which the form of expression is manifestly occasioned by the peculiar usage that has been pointed out. But, as might be expected, there are other passages in the New Testament, which seem to be affected by that Jewish idiom. In some, the allusion is so much obscured by our translators, that it can be traced only in the original. From the many in which it is preserved, either partially or entirely in our common version, we will select a few, and submit them for consideration. St. Paul represents that believers had already tasted of the powers of the age to come : 'those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world [literally age] to come.' Does he not here mean, of the gospel dispensation? He also speaks of the peculiar manifestation of God's

1 Heb. vi. 4, 5.

goodness, as being given in the age to come: God hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages [or age,2] to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace towards us, through Christ Jesus."3 Let the reader examine the context of this passage, and he will find it to favor the supposition that the apostle had reference to the gospel age. The same may be said of the following text with its connexion: God by the working of his mighty power, wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world [literally age,] but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.4 Our Saviour also, in one instance, used the well known phrase, this age and the age to come : 'whosoever speaketh a word against the holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world [literally age,] nor in the age to come.”5

X. In concluding, we would guard the reader against a mistake that may result from too hasty a survey of the general facts stated in this disser

2 There is no point on which critics are better agreed than that the the plural form is often used in the New Testament, merely to give emphasis to the singular, according to a Hebrew idiom.

3 Eph. ii. 6, 7. 5 Matt. xii, 32.

4 Eph. i. 20, 23.

tation. Having ascertained that there was an established custom by which the term age, or [aion,] was appropriated, in certain connexions to the the Mosaic dispensation and to that of the Messiah, the danger is, that we shall then attempt to make it always relate to one of these periods. But the reader should be apprized, that it was not originally thus restricted. It had a more general and indefinite signification. In the usage which we have mentioned, it was reduced from the latitude of its native meaning, to a special and confined application; just as we now reduce the same English term, age, from its generally indefinite signification, by joining it with certain epithets, or by introducing it in certain connexions. By this means, we make it point out those particular portions of time, called the golden age, the dark age, &c.

Let it be carefully considered, then, that the Greek term in question, meant, in its primary sense, simply long duration, without reference to any distinct period whatever. In this indefinite sense it is often used in the New Testament; as in all those cases in which it is translated for ever, and for ever and ever, in our common version, and probably likewise in all those instances in which it refers exclusively to past time. It was only in certain combinations, and under certain circumstances, that it was appropriated to the two definite portions of time distinguished by the economy of Moses and that of Messiah.

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