According to the Jews, however, who lived in the time of our Saviour, the grand object of the mission of the promised Messiah was not to be consummated till the _Seventh_ age, when should commence, to use the words of the Apostle, who applied them very differently, the keeping of the eternal “Sabbatism which remaineth for the people of God.” This notion of a _Seventh_ age was not entirely unknown to the Heathen, for we find some traces of it in their writings; but it seems to have originated in the mysticism or glosses of those who at that period, had made “the word of God of none effect through their traditions.” It is of great importance to our argument, to give some instances of this mysticism, as it incidentally proves that the Jews originally held the longer computation. One of the reasons assigned by their Rabbins for the tradition of the _Seven ages_, from time immemorial, is that because the Hebrew letter ‏א‎ _Aleph_, which (pointed) stands with them for a _thousand_, is found to occur _six times_ in the 1st verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis; therefore, the world is to last in its corrupt or fallen state for _six thousand_ years; and that then it is to be restored and purified as at the beginning! Another reason, to which indeed, we have already adverted in our First Part, is that because God employed _six days_ in the work of Creation, and rested on the _Seventh day_; therefore, there are to be _Seven ages_ of the World, each containing a _thousand years_! Such notions as these appear to have been current among both Jews and Christians in the days of the Apostles; and we find them transmitted with even a higher degree of mysticism, to the first age of _Apostolical Succession_! Irenæus, who flourished A. D. 170, in commenting on the number of the Beast, endeavours to connect the _Six_ ages of the world, with the number _Six_, which occurs in the units, tens, and hundreds of that number, and adds, “For in as many days as the world was made, in so many thousand years is it being brought to an end”. And on this account, the Scripture says—and the heavens and the earth were finished and all their garniture; and on the _Sixth day_, God finished the works which he made; and on the _Seventh day_, God ceased from all his works—but this is a narration of the prototypes of things, and a prophecy of things that shall come to pass; for the day of the Lord is as a _thousand years_: but in _Six days_ the creation was finished; it is manifest, therefore, that its consummation is the _six thousandth year_.[55] In this curious passage, it is evident that the disciple of John, the beloved Apostle, has followed the ideas of the Jews rather than those of his inspired Master, and has mingled up the mystical notions of the Rabbins with the sacred truths of Revelation.