ne, until that day when I drink it new with you in
my Father's kingdom.' (Matt. xxvi. 29.) He takes the words literally,
and argues that they must imply a terrestrial kingdom, since only men of
flesh can drink the fruit of the vine. He confirms this view by
appealing to two other sayings of Christ recorded in the Gospels--the
one the promise of a recompense in the resurrection of the just to those
who call the poor and maimed and lame and blind to their feast (Luke
xiv. 13, 14); the other the assurance that those who have forsaken
houses or lands for Christ's sake shall receive a hundredfold now _in
this present time_ (Matt. xix. 29; Mark x. 29, 30; Luke xviii. 30)
[158:3], which last expression, he maintains, can only be satisfied by
an earthly reign of Christ. He then attempts to show that the promises
to the patriarchs also require the same solution, since hitherto they
have not been fulfilled. These, he says, evidently refer to the reign of
the just in a renewed earth, which shall be blessed with abundance.

As the elders relate, who saw John the disciple of the Lord, that
they had heard from him how the Lord used to teach concerning those
times, and to say, 'The days will come, in which vines shall grow,
each having ten thousand shoots, and on each shoot ten thousand
branches, and on each branch again ten thousand twigs, and on each
twig ten thousand clusters, and on each cluster ten thousand
grapes, and each grape when pressed shall yield five-and-twenty
measures of wine. And when any of the saints shall have taken hold
of one of their clusters, another shall cry, "I am a better
cluster; take me, bless the Lord through me." Likewise also a grain
of wheat shall produce ten thousand heads,' etc. These things
Papias, who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, an
ancient worthy, witnesseth in writing in the fourth of his books,
for there are five books composed by him. And he added, saying,
'But these things are credible to them that believe.' And when
Judas the traitor did not believe, and asked, 'How shall such
growths be accomplished by the Lord?' he relates that the Lord
said, 'They shall see, who shall come to these [times].'

I shall not stop to inquire whether there is any foundation of truth in
this story, and, if so, how far it has been transmuted, as it passed
through the hands of the elders and of Papias. It