CHA P. III.

9

Behold, I will make them of the fynagogue of Satan (which fay they are Jews, and are not, but do lie) behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

10 Because thou haft kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which fhall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

11 Behold, I come quickly hold that faft which thou haft, that no man take thy crown.

12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he fhall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, whichis new Jerufalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon bin my new

name.

13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the churches.

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write, Thefe things faith the Amen, the faithful and true witnefs, 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 fpue thee out of my mouth:

17 Because thou fayeft, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: and knowest › not that thou art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,.. that thou mayeft be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayeft be cloathed, and that the fhame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-falve, that thou mayeft fee.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke, and chaften: be zealous therefore, and repent.

20 Behold, I ftand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will fup with him, and he with me.

21 To him. that overcom meth will I grant to fit with me in my throne, even as I alfo overcame, and am fet down with my Father in his throne.

22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what dhe Spi rit faith unto the chi■hes. 03

The

The fecond and third chapters contain the. feven epiftles to the feven churches of Afia, Ephefus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These seven are addreffed particularly, because they were under St John's immediate inspection; he " conftituted bishops over them; he was as it were their metropolitan, and refided much at Ephefus, which is therefore named the first of the feven. The main subjects too of this book are comprised of fevens, feven churches, feven feals, feven trumpets, and feven vials; as feven was also a mystical number throughout the Old Testament Many contend, and among them fuch learned men as More and Vitringa, that the feven epiftles are prophetical of fo many fucceffive periods and states of the church from the beginning to the conclufion of all. But it doth not appear, that there are or were to be seven periods of the church, neither more nor lefs; and no two men can agree in affigning the fame periods. There are likewife in these epiftles feveral innate characters, which are peculiar to the church of that age, and cannot be fo well applied to the church of any other age. Befides other arguments, there is also this plain reafon; the last state of the church is defcribed in this very book as the moft glorious of all, but in the laft ftate in thefe epiftles, that of Laodicea, the church is reprefented as wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.’

But though thefe epiftles have rather a literal than a myftical meaning, yet they contain excellent moral precepts and exhortations, commendations and reproofs, promifes and threatenings, which may be of use and inftruction to the church in all ages. The form and order of the parts you will find the fame almoft in all the epif-tles; firft a command to write; then fome character and attributes of the fpeaker, taken from the vifion in the firft chapter, and appropriated to the matter of each epiftie; then commendations or reproofs with fuitable promifes or threatnings; and then in all the fame conclufion, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the churches.' What therefore the Spirit faith unto one church, he faith in fome meafure to all the churches.

The

u Tertull. adverf. Marcion. Lib. 4 Sect. 5. p. 415. Edit. Rigaltii. Paris 1675. Millii Prolegom. in Nov. Test. p. 20.

The church of Ephefus in particular is admonished to repent, and forewarned that if fhe would not repent, her candlestick fhould be removed out of his place.' But this admonition belonged equally to all the churches: and hath not the candlestick been accordingly removed out of its place, and the light of the gofpel taken from them? Were they not ruined and overthrown by their herefies and divifions from within, and by the arms of the Saracens from without? and doth not Mohammediẩm ftill prevail and profper in thofe countries, which were once the glory of Christendom, their churches turned into mofques, their worship into fuperftition? Ephefus in particular, which was once fo magnificent and glorious a city, is become a mean fordid village, with fcarcely a fingle family of Chriftians dwelling in it, as approved authors teftify. To the church of Smyrna it is predicted, that she should have tribulation ten days, or ten years' according to the ufual ftile of prophecy and the greatest perfecution that the primitive church ever endured was the perfecution of Diocletian, which lafted ▾ ten years, and grievously afflicted all the Afian, and indeed all the eastern churches. This character can agree to none of the other general perfecutions, for none of the others lafted fo long as ten years. Z As the commendatory and reproving part of these epiftles exhibits the prefent state of the churches, fo the promiffory and threatning part foretels fomething of their future condition; and in this fenfe, and in none other, can these epistles be faid to be prophetical.

:

The first epistle is addreffed to the church of Ephesus as it was the metropolis of the Lydian Afia, and the place of St John's principal refidence. It was, accord

ing

x Hodie enim hæc urbs Afianæ olim magnificentiæ exemplum, plane fordet, cafulis et gurguftiis deformata, non civitas, fed vicus: et vix ibidem fupereft una Chriftianorum familia, ut ex certis conftat teftibus, iifdemque eruditis viris, qui hodiernam Ephefum defcripferunt, Smitho (Notit. Sept. Ecclef. Af. p. 4) et Ricaultio (de Stat. Eccl. Græc. p. 50) Vitring. P 72, 73.

y Eufeb. Ecclef. Hift. Lib. 8. Cap. 15, et 16. Lactant. de Mort. Perfecut. Cap. 48.

Z Quæ perfecutio omnibus fere ante actis diuturnior--- Nam per decem annos, &c. Orof. Lib. 7. Cap. 25. p. 528. Edit. Havercamp.

b

c

ing to Strabo, one of the best and most glorious cities, and the greatest emporium of the proper Aha. It is called by Pliny one of the eyes of Afia, Smyrna being the other but now, as eye-witnesses have related, it is venerable for nothing but the ruins of palaces, temples, and amphitheatres. It is called by the Turks Ajafaluk, or the temple of the moon, from the magnificent structure formerly dedicated to Diana, The church of St Paul is wholly deftroyed. The little which remains of that of St Mark is nodding to ruin. The only church remaining is that dedicated to St John, which is now converted into a Turkish mofque. The whole town is nothing but a habitation for herdsmen and farmers, living in low and humble cottages of dirt, sheltered from the extremities of weather by mighty maffes of ruinous walls; the pride and oftentation of former days, and the emblem in thefe, of the frailty of the world, and the tranfient vanity of human glory. All the inhabitants of this once famous city amount not now to above forty or fifty families of Turks, without one Chriftian family among them: so strikingly hath the denunciation been fulfilled, that their 'candlestick fhould be removed out of his place.'

Smyrna was the nearest city to Ephefus, and for that. reafon probably was addreffed in the fecond place. It is fituated on lower ground than that ancient city, and lieth about forty-five miles northward of Ephefus. It is called Efmir by the Turks, and is celebrated not fo much for the fplendour and pomp of the buildings (for they are rather mean and ruinous) as for the number, and wealth, and commerce of the inhabitants. The Turks have here fifteen mofques, and the Jews feveral fynagogues. Among thefe enemies of the Chriftian. name the Chriftian religion alfo flourishes in fome degree. Smyrna ftill retains the dignity of a metropolis, although there are only two churches of the Greeks. But befides

them,

a Strabo Lib. 14. p. 634. Edit. Paris p. 941. Edit. Amftel. 1707. Lib. 12. p. 577. Edit. Paris. p. 865. Edit. Amftel. 1707.

b Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib, 5. Cap. 31. p. 280. Edit. Harduin. C Smith Sept. Afie Ecclef. Notit. Rycaut's Prefent State of the Greek Church. Chap. 2. Wheler and Spon's Voyage, B. 3. Van Egmont's and Heyman's Travels, Vol. 1. Chap. 9.

d Smith, Rycaut, Wheler and Spon. ibid. Van Egmont's and Hey man's Travels, Chap. 8.