and literal application to those Asiatic Churches then existing, and signified further seven several phases that ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; 13. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 14. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna; and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; 19. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. 25. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. 26. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. 28. And I will give him the morning-star. 29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. iii. 1. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. 5. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth: 8. I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name, 9. Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before the Church Catholic would present to the all-seeing eye in its progress through coming ages, down to the consummation. Such has been the view taken by not a few commentators; and illustrated at large in a former age by Vitringa, in the present by Mr. Girdlestone. I subjoin a chronological diagram of their respective schemes, for the reader's information.* To myself the view seems quite untenable. For not a word is said by Christ to indicate any such prospective meaning in the descrip thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Vitringa's and Girdlestone's Schemes of the Epistles to the Seven churches, as prefigurative. V. From John to the Decian Persecution, A.D. 250. Ephesus. G. Do. V. Smyrna. G. From the Decian to the Diocletian Persecution, A.D.311. From the end of the Diocletian persecution to A.D. 800. From Luther to the Persecutions of Protestants on the V. From A.D. 1200 to 1500 and the Reformation. Sardis. G. From the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the formation of the Bible Society, 1804. V. The earlier times of the Reformation, in its political weakness. Philadelphia. G. Bible and Missionary Societies' Era. V. The lukewarm state of the Protestant Church following its establishment, to 1700, &c. Laodicea. G. Lukewarmness before the Millennium. tions. On the contrary, in the two-fold division of the Revelations given to St. John, a division noted by Christ himself," the things that are," and "the things that are to happen after them,"1-it seems to me clear that the Epistles to the seven Churches were meant to constitute the first division, being a description of the state of things in the Church as they then were; and that the visions that followed,-visions separated with the utmost precision from the former, alike by a new summons of the trumpet-voice, and a scene and scenic accompaniments altogether new also,-constituted (alone and distinctively) the visions of the future. Indeed, the summons itself expressly so defined it; "Come up, and I will (now) shew thee the things which must happen hereafter."-With this simple, striking, and stronglymarked division made by the Divine Revealer, the hypothesis of the seven Epistles depicting seven successive phases of the Christian Church appears to me an interference altogether rude and unwarranted. Besides that it were easy to show how ill the states of these seven Asiatic Churches, here described in local order,3--I say how ill these severally depicted ecclesiastical sketches answer to any seven chronologically successive phases of the professing Church, or Christendom, that human 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent. 20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." 1 Apoc. i. 19 ; και & εισι, και & μελλει γίνεσθαι μετα ταυτα. 2 Apoc. iv. 1 ; & δει γινεσθαι μετα ταυτα. 3 That is, in the order of a circuit such as we may suppose St. John to have travelled in his visitation of them. wit and research can ever frame out of its actual history.1 Not but that we may admit of an universality of application attaching to the moral pictures here set before us. Such is the case with all the historical and biographical sketches in holy scripture: especially, for example, with the pictures from time to time presented of the moral and religious state of the Jewish people, in the course of their long history. The character which belongs to all holy Scripture, of being profitable always and to all, applies of course to this section of it, as much as to the rest. And, thus considered, where is the Church, where the individual Christian, that may not have made profitable use and self-application of all the several addresses, at one time or another: with their words of searching and inquiry, of warning and comfort, of reproof and expostulation, of sympathy, -exquisite sympathy and compassion,-not for the faithful martyr only, but even for the lukewarm and fallen. The words, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," are, as Ambrose Ansbert has observed, a direct intimation that this universality of application was intended in them. And, doubtless, he whosoever has seriously and with prayerful mind perused them, has in his own heart experienced the truth of the declaration," Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy."-But this is very different from the view combated. I must not omit to add further that these descriptive sketches of the seven Asiatic Churches seem to have been intended by its great Head as representative specimens, if I may so say, of the then checquered state and character of the Church in general. And in the admix 1 It may suffice on this point to refer to my examination of the Church-scheme of the Seals, which will be found in the Appendix to the fourth Volume. The reader will easily apply the reasoning there drawn out: and make for himself the necessary mutata mutanda in its transference to the argument in the Text. 2 So Augustine, Ep. xlix. 2; "Johannes scribit ad septem ecclesias quas commemorat in illis partibus constitutas: in quibus etiam universam ecclesiam septenario numero intelligimus commendari." So too in his C. D. xvii. 4, 4. ture which they unfold of evil intermixed with the good, error with truth, vice with holiness, there is very strikingly set forth to us Christ's own view of the energizing, even thus early, within its bosom, of the Spirit of the Wicked one, the inrooting of the tares sown by him among the wheat, and budding of that germ of evil which, as St. Paul had foreshown, was not to cease its working till it expanded into the grand Apostacy. 3. With regard to the promises made to conquerors in all these various churches, it can scarce fail to strike even a superficial reader, that there is a correspondence very marked between them, and the blessings described as the privilege of the saints in the Millennary State, or the New Jerusalem. Thus to the faithful ones that overcame in the Ephesian Church, it was promised, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God: " while in the description of the New Jerusalem it is said, "On either side of the river was the tree of life. . . . Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life:" Apoc. xxii. 2, 14.—To the conquerors of the Church of Smyrna it was promised, "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death: 2-a promise answering to that which we read of those that partook of the first resurrection at the opening of the Millennium, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; for on them the second death hath no power; Apoc. xx. 6 as also of those who, on the judgment of the great white throne proceeding, were found to have their names written in the Book of Life; Apoc. xx. 12, 14, 15.-The same is the correspondence between the promise to the Laodiceans, "To him that overcometh I will give to sit with me on my throne," and the millennary privilege of reigning with Christ the thousand years, and for ever; Apoc. xx. 4, xxii. 5.--The considerate reader will easily see |