Happy, if so much good could be said of all the professed churches of Christ. But Christ adds;

Ver. 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.

In some great sin, various of their members were living. And the Saviour saw fit not to call the delinquents, nor their crimes by name; but to denote both by some figure well known. So delicate and wise is the word of Divine reproof! It chooses acceptable words. It presents a kind glass in which people may thus discover themselves, and reform without being too fatally exposed. Of some, it thus has compassion, making a difference. May public instructers improve this hint of Christ relative to the best modes of public reproofs. May they avoid the Scylla of harshness needlessly offensive, and cruelly personal, on the one hand-and the Charybdis of hiding their reproofs, and rendering them ineffectual by false delicacy, on the other.

We know not the particular things here condemned; but that church, no doubt, well understood the reproof. Some wicked character, or sect, was there indulged in the church, in a degree similar to the idolatrous Jezebel, the queen of Ahab, who persecuted the prophets of the Lord, and unrighteously put her royal consort into possession of Naboth's vineyard. And she made herself both impertinent and hateful by her idolatries. Some wickedness was winked at in this church, which tended to real idolatry, which is spiritual impurity. They pleaded divine authority for their peculiarities; but their pleas were false. Evils. like this have infested the church of Christ in all agesplausible by the blandishments of innovators, and assuming shades of difference in different times and places.

gave her

Ver. 21. And I 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 searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

This sect, spiritually licentious, Christ had called upon to repent; but they had refused. And he now denounced that he would soon turn their bed of selfish religion, and of mystical impurity, into a bed of torment; perhaps alluding to the threatening in the prophet, of the same wrath for a similar sin-" Behold, all ye that kindle a fire; that compass yourselves about with sparks! Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled; lo, this shall ye have at my hands; ye shall lie down in sorrows." As a bed of licentiousness shall end in a bed of eternal torments; so the framers of licentious sentiments-forming their sentiments from their own imaginations, and not from the word of God, shall, at the end, lie down in eternal sorrows! And their children-probably neglected under some sanctimonious pretence, or trained up for annoyance to the faithful saints-Christ would "kill with death!" probably indicating, that the error of this sect was of a nature to prove fatal to their families. Thus their own wickedness should correct them; and they, with their neglected children, should perish in their sins. And all the churches, beholding such examples of justice, shall know the judgments of God, and that Jesus Christ is the Jehovah, who knows all hearts, and will render to all according to their real characters!

Ver. 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.

Some, by the grace of God, had escaped the pollutions which have been noted. They should walk with Christ in the purity of his salvation, with no additional burdens. These had not known certain depths, in which, it seems, the censured sect had gloried. To these depths they proba

bly gave some specious name of wisdom: but Christ calls them "depths of Satan." The boasted intimacy of this sect, then, was not with God, as they vainly fancied; but with the wicked one. Too many, alas, have made the same mistake, fancying they were led by the divine Spirit ; when their leader, in fact, was a fallen angel! So that their boasted depths of wisdom were, in reality, but "depths of Satan," who transforms himself into an angel of light. Such will turn into crooked ways, and be led forth with the workers of iniquity. But the true disciples of Christ will hold fast till he come.

Ver. 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.

It is predicted of Christ, in Psalm ii., relative to the heathen, and the antichristian world, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This has a special allusion to "the battle of that great day of God Almighty," which shall sink the antichristian world. And this event Christ sees fit to ascribe to the persevering triumphant saints. They are noted as doing this work of judgment, in the same sense in which they are to "judge the world." They will have perfect fellowship with Christ in those mighty operations; and he will do these things in answer to their prayers for the salvation of Zion. Christ thus puts upon his children the honour of his operations of judgment, even as the two witnesses are said to "have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and power to smite the earth with all plagues as oft as they will." The Psalmist gives the same view of this honour put upon the triumphant people of God; that "the high praises of God are in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hands, to execute vengeance

upon the heathen, and punishment upon the people; to execute upon them the judgments written; this honour have all the saints:" "Even as I have received of my Father." This honour the Father has officially given to the Son, as Mediator, and as Head over all things to the church, as a part of the reward of his sufferings and humiliation, when he obeyed, and died to magnify the law. And Christ gives a participation of the honour of it to his children, in consequence of their obedience to the gospel. As he says in another passage, "He that overcometh shall sit down with me in my throne; even as I have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Christ had before said to his disciples, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept the Father's commandments, and abide in his love." As the saints are justified, and will be glorified in Christ; so he puts a measure of his honour, in governing and judging the world, upon them. His saints will have full fellowship with him in these events, and in his destroying the antichristian world, to prepare the way for the Millennium: and he will do it in answer to their prayers for Zion, and to complete her salvation.

Christ's giving to all that overcome, the morning-star, means his giving himself to them. "I am the bright and morning star." This is indeed the gift of all gifts. "He that overcometh, I will be his God, and he shall be my son." Well does such a promise close with the gracious demand so often repeated, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Seven times over, in this book, is this divine command given in the same words! We have here, then, a perfect testimony given to the personality and divinity of the Holy Ghost! And most perfect is the testimony, in this book, borne to the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity of God. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God the Father gave unto him. And it is, at the same time, what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Let the communications thus made unto us sink deep into our hearts. Let them be to us quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Let them pierce to the dividing asunder, as it were, the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow. Let them be the discerner of our thoughts and intents of the heart. May our sins be hence purged off. May all the members of the church of

Christ see to it that no followers of Jezebel, no seducing characters, or practices, are allowed in their hearts, or in their communities; lest they at last find themselves shut out from the holy temple above, and must lie down in eternal sorrows.

LECTURE IV.

REVELATION III.

Ver. 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.

Four of the epistles of Christ to the churches have been considered. Three yet remain.

low

Sardis, southward of Thyatira, was once the renowned capital of Croesus; and was the seat of the Lydian kings. The gospel had there triumphed, and a church was collected. But their religion was, at this time, at a very ebb. Christ, in his address to them, takes the characteristic of his being the official director of the Holy Spirit in his multiform gifts and operations, denoted by the perfect number seven; and of his holding in his gracious power the stars, the ministers of the gospel. He thus signifies to a delinquent church, that he it is who can replenish them with graces and gifts; or withdraw from them all gospel blessings, as he may please. The phrase, "the seven spirits of God," is a powerful expression of the different gifts, and operations, and of the infinite fulness of the Spirit of God. Paul alludes to the same, when he tells the Corinthians, "There are diversities of gifts; but the same Spirit." Christ assures this church of his full acquaintance with them, and that while they had a name to live, they were dead. We would