bread, (Twv alvuwv) from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day, has a shadow of things to come, who is there so wise and so favoured by God, that he may behold the first as of many months, and the tenth day thereof and the remainder? But why need I speak of the feast of seven weeks of days, and of the seventh month, whose new moon is the day of trumpets, with that tenth day of propitiation; things understood alone by the God who hath ordained them.

Who hath perceived so clearly the mind of Christ that he can explain the seven years of liberty for Jewish servants, of the remission of debts, and of ceasing from the cultivation of the sacred land? There is, moreover, beyond the feast of seven years, that which is called the jubilee, which, how its scope is to be made evident, or what true laws are to be fulfilled in it, is in the knowledge of no one save of him who hath beheld the father's will concerning his ordinance, (awwo) in all ages, according to his inscrutable judgments and untraceable paths. A difficulty has often oppressed me when comparing two of the Apostle's expressions, how it should be the fulness of ages (συντελημα αιωνων)

in which once for the doing away with sins

(alerησiv τwv åμаρruwv) Jesus has appeared, if in (αθέτησιν των

future times, there are ages to succeed them, (αιωνες μετα τουτον επερχομενοι).

For these are his words in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “ Νυνι δε ἁπαξ επι συντελεια των αιώνων,

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εις αθέτησιν των ἁμαρτιων, δια της θυσίας αύτου πεpaνερwται;" but in the Epistle to the Ephe

sians,

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σε Ίνα ενδειξηται εν τοις αιωσι τοις επερχομε νοις τον υπερβαλλοντα πλουτον της χάριτος αυτου εν χρηστότητι εφ' ἡμας.”

Concerning which things, conjecturing (oroxaLoμEVOC) I imagine, that as the completion of the year is the ending of the last month, to which the beginning of another month succeeds, so many ages consummating as it were a year of ages (auwvwv), the present age is the consummation, after which certain ages to come (uɛλλovTES TIVEÇ avec) shall succeed, of which the first is the age about to begin, and in those future ages God will shew the riches of his grace in goodness, &c. He continues, He continues, "one who sees these things, and beholds mentally a week of ages, "and a certain holy Sabbath, perceiving also a "month of ages, that he may behold the sacred

"new moon of God; and a year of ages, that "he may perceive the feasts of that year, in "which it behoves every male to appear before "the Lord God, (Deut. xvi. 16.) and years ac

cording to the analogy of such ages, that he 66 may attain (karaλaμßavy) to the seventh sacred

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year (ɛros), and to the seven ages, reckoning

by sevens, (και αιωνων ἑβδοματικοις επτα) so that "he praises him who hath set in order such "wonderful things; how is it possible that he "should speak of the trifles of this short hour "of a day of the present age? (nμepas Tou тndeτου τηλι

κουτου αιώνος) and will he not act with regard "to these things, that by this preparation be

coming worthy to partake of the daily bread,

(του επιουσιου αρτου) in the present day, he

may receive it also, even until (the) day (kai σε καθ' ἡμεραν.).

But as the opinions of commentators, or the voice of tradition, must equally be unavailing without the consent of Scripture, I will proceed to notice another passage in which the prophet Ezekiel appears to have alluded to these millennial periods here spoken of by Origen. In the forty-seventh chapter we have a remarkable

vision of the "waters which issued out from "under the threshold of the house eastward,"

which is thus continued, " And when the man "that had the line in his hand went forth east

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ward, he measured a thousand cubits," or as

,ויטר אלף באטה,it is in the original

"He

"measured a thousand with a cubit, and he

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brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.

"Again He measured a thousand, and brought "me through the waters; the waters were to the "knees. Again He measured a thousand, and

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brought me through; the waters were to the

"loins.

"Afterward He measured a thousand, (and "it was) a river that I could not pass over: "for the waters were risen waters to swim in, a "river that could not be passed over."

When we remember that the invitation of the prophet is "Ho every one that thirsteth, come

ye to the waters," we shall be prepared to admit, that under this same similitude, the doctrine which maketh wise unto salvation through Christ, may be alluded to in this description, as well as in the words of Isaiah; but while we

have thus no difficulty in the supposition that the progress of the Gospel does, in some manner, form the theme of this vision, we must still seek from Scripture alone, such help as may lead us to a right and consistent interpretation of the several particulars comprehended in this portion of Ezekiel's prophecy.

All commentators will, I believe, agree that the sense which is conveyed under the metaphor of waters, is the same in this place, as in the passage of Isaiah which I have already noticed, or in that of Zechariah, who predicts that "it "shall be in that day that living waters shall go "out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the "former sea, and half of them toward the "hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it "be. And the Lord shall be king over all the "earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, " and his name one." And thus the fulness of this spiritual river is referred to the time of the Messiah's future dominion. Nor is it less evident that the description given in the subsequent verses of Ezekiel's prophecy, is identical in meaning with that which is found in the Apocalypse.