It is conceded that the wrath to come (Matt. iii. 7; Luke iii. 7.), should probably be the wrath _about_ to come, meaning the destruction soon to fall on the Jewish State. This word _mell[=o]_ (about) takes the passage out of the hands of those who would apply it to a far-off eternal punishment. The word in other passages would have been alike opposed to the common construction; and, therefore, it was left out. This is the plain common-sense view of the case; and I shall hold the translators and revisers guilty of a base fraud, till some good reason can be given for their conduct. This probably cannot be done. AI[=O]N, AI[=O]NIOS. That the expression, "end of the world," where the original for _world_ is _ai[=o]n_, ever has the meaning of end of this material universe cannot be proved. Where Jesus promises to be with his disciples to the end of the world (_ai[=o]n_) is the most favorable instance. But in the sense here intended, namely, enabling them to perform miracles, he was with them, only to the end of the Jewish age. By that time the Gospel was so well established, as no longer to need miraculous interposition. In what sense Jesus was with the disciples, is explained by the closing words of Mark's Gospel. "And they went forth, preaching everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word, by the signs that followed. Amen." My critic says of _ai[=o]n_, p. 107: "It may at times refer to the Jewish dispensation, with its limit fixed at the judgment executed upon the holy city, and the destruction of the temple." Then it _may mean_ this, in Matt. xiii. 38, 39, 49, and xxiv. 3. "It does not always mean age; for this meaning is inadequate for the _worlds_, _ai[=o]nos_, of Heb. i. 2, xi. 3." It does not seem so; for God created the ages and dispensations of time, as much as he did the material worlds. _Constituted_ may be better than _created_. God is the author of both creations. Aion is a term that always implies time, or duration, and not material substance. De Quincey says that everything has its aion. The _ai[=o]n_ of an individual man is about seventy years. The aion of the human race would probably be some millions of years. It would follow from this reasoning that the _ai[=o]n_ of God would be eternal, past, and to come. De Quincey does not, I believe, carry his reasoning to this result; and I had never seen the argument stated before, as it is in the passages produced by Mr. K., from Aristotle and Plato. But the same reasoning that makes the _ai[=o]n_ of God eternal, makes every other limited. It would be illogical, and appear so at once, if one should argue, God is eternal; and, therefore, punishment is eternal.