The words of the former are, "Behold on the "bank of the river were very many trees on the 66 one side and on the other."-" And it shall come to pass that every thing that liveth,

"which moveth whithersoever the river shall

come shall live and there shall be a very "great multitude of fish, because these waters "shall come thither; for they shall be healed, "and every thing shall live whither the river "cometh. And it shall come to pass that the "fishers shall stand upon it."-" And by the "river on the bank thereof, on this side, and on "that side shall grow all trees for meat, whose "leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit "thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new "fruit according to his months, because their "waters they issued out of the sanctuary, and "the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf "thereof for medicine."

But by St. John also, it is said, "He shewed "me a pure river of water of life, clear as "crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God "and of the Lamb; in the midst of the street "of it, and on either side of the river was there "the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of

"fruits, and yielded her fruit every month and "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of "the nations *.

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Thus the river of Ezekiel is the river "of the

But

water of life," and the trees "whose leaf shall "not fade," of which it is said by the Prophet "that the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and "the leaf thereof for medicine;" are those the leaves of which are described in the Apocalypse, as being "for the healing of the nations." as this identity includes also an identity of time, and as the words of the Apocalyptic prophecy are admitted to refer to a period subsequent to the commencement of the millennial kingdom of Christ, so the last thousand measured by "the

man that had the line in his hand," when the waters were risen, "waters to swim in, a "river that could not be passed over," is that very time in which "Satan shall deceive the "nations no more till the thousand years be "fulfilled."

Thus, then, the Scripture itself affords to us a measure whereby we may compute the several

* Rev. xxii. 1. &c.

thousands which should precede the last of those mentioned by Ezekiel. It teaches us that the subject here referred to is the accomplishment of that covenant, whereby the promised Saviour should appear when "the fulness of the time" being come," God sent forth his Son, to redeem "them that were under the law, while in the progress of fulfilment he should gradually

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cause the Gospel of the kingdom to be "preached in all the world for a witness unto "all nations,' before the end shall come." Thus, also, that voice of tradition, or that computation of chronology which brings the most remarkable events of the Gospel dispensation, whether in its preparation or development, most nearly to coincide with the commencement of four millenary periods, is not without some evidence of Scripture in favour of its authenticity; and whatever internal marks of truth we may discern in the computation used in the book of Enoch, thus receive an independent confirmation, the strength of which will depend upon the probability of our conjecture, that the cubit has been made use of by Ezekiel as a measure of time, with the mystical sense to which I have already

referred. It is at least evident, that what is spoken of as space in Ezekiel, is calculated as time by St. John, while in another part of the Apocalypse, the command to "measure the "temple of God," is given as being synonymous with some estimate of duration; for when it is added, that the court should not be measured because "it is given to the Gentiles," the time of their possession of it is also shewn --" The

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holy city shall they tread under foot forty and "two months." Nor is this conclusion unsupported by other testimony. In the book of Daniel †, the prophet is said to have looked, "And behold there stood other two, the one on "this side of the bank of the river, and the "other on that side of the bank of the river. "And one said to the man clothed in linen, "which was upon the waters of the river, How

long shall it be to the end of these wonders? "And I heard the man clothed in linen, which "was upon the waters of the river, when he "held up his right hand and his left hand "unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth

* Apoc. xi. 1. 2.

Dan. xii. 5, 6, 7.

"for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and "a half."

The Angel who is described by Daniel as

being on the waters of the river," fulfils his appointed office of measuring the times which should elapse during the accomplishment of the prophecy, before the symbolical waters should have flowed to their fulness. When therefore we observe, that Ezekiel describes the angel who "brought him through the waters," in terms similar to those employed by Daniel †; and when we remark also that the symbolic waters are in both cases employed by each angel as a measure, while in one instance that measure is expressly referred to time; it will hardly be doubted, that the measures employed in the other case are also measures of time, and that they may therefore be rightly interpreted according to the guidance afforded by the Apocalypse with respect to the last of those millennial periods.

It would therefore seem that we shall not depart from the analogy of scriptural expression, if we argue, that the gradual rise of the waters, or the