describes certain men who had already crept in unawares, who were filthy dreamers, spots in their feasts of charity, murmurers and complainers; and in reference to them, he calls on the Christians of his time, to remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.'5 Here, it is plain, Jude supposes the men who had crept in unawares, to be the mockers foretold by the apostles, and the days in which he wrote, to be those called by them the last time. Thirty or forty years previ ously, our Saviour, while upon earth, taught his disciples that the end of the world would take place before the generation, then living, should pass away. For when his followers came to him privately on the mount of Olives, and asked, among other things, What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?' he replied to them in the following manner, concerning the end: Ye shall hear of wars,' said he; be not troubled, the end is not yet.' They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and then shall

5 Jade 4-17, 18.

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6 If Jude here referred, as seems probable, to certain warnings which the apostles had left in their writings, he must have alluded to the following passages: 1 Tim. iv. 1. Now, the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,' &c. And 2 Tim. iii. 1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves,' &c. Also 2 Pet. iii 3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.' Admitting that Jude referred to these passages, we must, on his authority, apply them likewise to the same period.

many be offended; but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.' At length, when the gospel shall have been preached throughout the habitable world, added he, then shall the end come;' and he immediately proceeded to describe the scene, in what is almost universally considered a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem; concluding the whole with this solemn affirmation, Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.'1

From all these examples, it appears that both our Saviour, and the writers of the New Testament, looked forward to some great revolution then near at hand, which they denominated the end of the world, the end of all things; and that, in conformity to this remarkable appellation, they called their own age the last days, or the last time, because it immediately preceded that approaching and momentous change.

II. But how shall we account for their having used such phraseology? We know that, according to our modern acceptation of the terms, theirs were not the last days, nor that period the end of the world; and why did they call them such? Several eminent Christians, among whom are Grotius, Locke, Whiston, Priestly, and some of the german divines, have felt themselves driven to the conclusion, that the apostles, if not Christ himself, absolutely mistook so egregiously, as to think that the material world would be actually destroyed, about the close of their own

1 Matt. xxiv. 3-34; particularly 3, 6, 13, 14, 34.

age. Other commentators, again, 'have passed in marked silence over part of the passages now before us; and then, taking a sudden leap, with the utmost gravity, over all the obstacles of common sense and manifest fact, they have applied the rest, on their own authority, to a period yet future. But a very common course with Orthodox, as well as Liberal critics, has been to explain the subject by the consideration, that the prominent expression ought to have been translated, not end of the world,' but end of the age, or dispensation.' Here let us pause.

That the latter is the strict, literal rendering of the original, no one at all acquainted with the Greek language, will deny. It is a fact worthy of special attention, that in every instance of the phrase, 'end of the world,' in our version of the New Testament, the term rendered world, is [aion]; which signifies, in its primary sense, and according to its general though not invariable usage,1 a period of time, a duration, of greater

1 There are, perhaps, two exceptions to its common signification:

1. It was used, rarely by the Grecian writers, and frequently by the Oriental, to denote the high angelic beings, the Eons of the Gnostic philosophers. Whether, in this sense, it ever occurs in the New Testament, is somewhat doubtful; since many have suspected that an instance may be found in Eph. ii. 2, where the term is translated, course.

2 Some of the best critics think that it was sometimes used, according to a certain Hebrew idiom, to denote this material world. Professor Stuart has given (Spirit of the Pilgrims, No. 8, Aug. 1829, pp. 422–424) a list of eleven passages from the New Testament, in which he pronounces it to be used in this sense. But, with deference to the learned Professor's philological authority, to us there appears no reason whatever for his interpretation in most of these cases and in the rest there

or less extent. And since we ought not to depart, without necessity, from the most simple interpretation, we are bound, in justice, to construe this phrase thus, the end of the age or dispensation, in every case where the context naturally admits such a sense. At the same time, it is not denied that, did the circumstances plainly appear to require, the original term might possibly bear the other translation, according to an ancient usage, which, however, was extremely rare, if indeed it ever existed. Let it be remembered, then, that 'the end of the world,' mentioned in the New Testament, is, without a solitary exception, the end of the age, or dispensation, according to the literal and most natural rendering.

This fact certainly throws important light upon our subject; still, it does not remove all its obscurity. It does not account for St. Peter's assertion, that the end of all things' was then at hand; nor for the circumstance, that the apostles habitually called their age the last days,' or 'the last time.' All these are terms which, according to our modern usage at least, do by no means belong to the end of a mere dispensation.

seems no necessity for resorting to so unusual a definition, if we except the two last texts he has quoted. These are Heb. i, 2. By whom also he made the worlds [tous aionas];' and Heb. xi, 3. By faith we perceive that the worlds [tous aionas] were created by the word of God.' And even in these two passages, some critics have concluded, perhaps incorrectly, that, not the material worlds, but the Mosaic and Christian dispensations were meant. Should this interpretation be admitted, we venture to assert, that not an instance in the New Testament could be found, in which the term plainly denotes the material world; and we are not aware that any examples are alleged from other books.

To a cautious examiner, there may also remain some perplexity in the manner in which even the expression, end of the age,' as we here translate it, is employed in the New Testament. In itself, it is altogether indefinite, since it might refer to the end of any considerable portion of time whatever; but nevertheless, we find it always introduced as a term, the peculiar application of which could not then be mistaken. It would seem, that there must have been some prevailing expectations, not expressly stated, and some generally received forms of speech, now passed away, which at that time rendered the phrase in question, perfectly familiar and definite. Else, why was that in particular denominated the age, in distinction from all others, as though every body would of course understand what one was referred to? Or, what led the disciples to suspect, as their question on the mount of Olives intimated, that some remarkable signs were to precede the end of that age, rather than that of any other ? Or again, why did St. Paul use language otherwise so insignificant, and even unintelligible, as the remarks, that Christ appeared in the end of the age, and that the ends of the age had come upon him and his contemporary brethren? It may not, indeed, be difficult, after some examination, to apply these expressions; but the question still arises, can we make them appear to fall readily into the natural current of speaking and writing, unless we suppose that they were dictated by certain circumstances not familiar to peo, ple at this day?

III. It is our object to show that there really