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    term was employed by the ancients to sigaify not m \ y the periods of time themselves , but the constitutions of tilings which were to endnre tKrtmgh them . For this reason the visible world was occasionally called al mftv ^ its comparatively eternal duration being thereby indicated . This applica- * tion of the phrase occurs in this very Epistle , where it is said , " By faith we understand that the u&vsc , the constitution of things , ( meaning visible ,

    natural things , ) was accomplished by the word of God . " In this metaphor rical sense , the term a&veq implies some constitution of things enduring throughout the ages to which the context refers : and in the passage before us , we find it said of the Son , that ' * through him God had made rw <; awva $ 9 the constitution of things . " What order of things it was that is here referred to , can he determined only by the nature of the subjeet in hand and general

    scope of the writer . The subject in hand in this instance was the new dis- * pensation by Christ •* - the scope of the writer , to shew its excellence ast an immortal state . Hence , in this instance , the phrase the ages or constitution of things , is not so properly to be referred to the natural world as to the future state , founded for us by Christ . If this interpretation should be thought to Want confirmation , I think it may be found in an expression whieh the

    writer uses shortly after . " It is not , " says he , " to the angels that h 6 Has subjected the world to come , whereof we speak" Does he not here plainly intimate that the world of which he had been previously speaking i ^ as what we have supposed , viz . the future state ? It does not appear to what preceding passage he can so properly be alluding as to that under consideration . '

    Proceeding with his argument , it is plain that the writer freeiy appropriates to the Messiah all such things as had been said concerning the dignity of Israel generally , and of their leading kings in particular . Th © reason probably is , that he thought it evident that all such things must necessarily be true , a fortiori , in a pre-eminent sense , of that promised seed of Israel , who was the hope and glory both of the nation at large and of its royal

    dynasty in particular ; and therefore , that in an argument intended to prove that the scripture had said much greater things of the promised Messiah , though a man , than it had of the angels , it was quite in point to quote th ^ m . Such is the expression , * ' I will be to him a father , and he shall be to me a son , " - which was most certainly applied in the first instance to Solomon ,

    In like manner that which follows , " And let all the angels of God do him homage , " which is quoted from the Septuagint Version of the JSong of Moses , in Deuteronomy , appears to have been originally intended of the people of Israel , who are represented as hailed with honour by the angels on their entry into the promised land , nq t ^ v o */ coi >/* £ viji / , here called the world , but which is often used in no wider a sense than that of Canaan or

    Palestine . The writer would appear to transfer the whole to the occasion of Christ ' s triumphant entry into heaven after his resurrection . We immediately encounter another passage of some difficulty . ' * With respect to the Son it saith , Thy throne , O God , is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom * Thou ha&t loved

    righteousness and hated iniquity ; therefore God , thy God , has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows . " There is no room to doubt that this passage , like one of the foregoing , was originally written with reference to King Solomon : I cannot conceive that any unprejudiced reader of the 45 th Psalm can for a moment doubt of this . This alone is sufficient to shew , that be the meaning of the wofcIb what it will , they cannot necessarily prove jupy thing of Christ which might not also be asserted

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    BTS Illustrations of the Ephtte t * the Hebrews .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 378, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/18/