As there is no particuler church on earth perfectly pure, it is not to be expected, that, in the church at Ephefus, there fhould be every thing to be praised, and nothing to be blamed. Chrift reproves that church for having fallen from the ardour of her firft love. Supreme love to God, fincere love to all men, brotherly love to the household of faith, and a strong and fteady love to truth and holiness, are indifpenfably neceffary in a Chriftian. The first fruit of the Spirit is love. The first and great commandment is to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our foul, with all our ftrength, and with all our mind; and the fecond is like to it, to love our neighbour as ourselves. It is not uncommon for new converts, to feel and express a greater ardour of love at first, than they do afterwards. This was the cafe with the church, at Ephefus. But the commonnefs of the fault does not diminish the guilt.

Verse 5th.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or elfe I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

This church is called npon to recollect the former ardour of their love, to compare it with their prefent

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prefent indifference of mind, fincerely to repent of their fins, and to express their repentance by fuch actions, as those which formerly flowed from their firft love. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his command. "ments are not grievous." Chrift affures them, that, if they do not repent, he will come unto them, in the course of his providence, and quickly deprive them of the benefit of a conftituted church among them.. It is highly probable, that this church did not repent; and that, therefore, the threatened judgement was brought upon it; for, long before the time in which I write, there was no Chriftian church in that place, which was once the famous church and city of Ephefus.

Verfe 6th-But this thou haft, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I alfo hate.

This church is praised for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. This fect abounded in Afia about the time John wrote this book. It took its name from Nicolas its founder. Clement, Ephiphanius, Austin, Eufebius, and other ancient writers, give large accounts of the erroneous principles and vicious practices of this fect. As it long ago funk into that oblivion; which its own impurity deserved, it is unneceffary, and would be improper

proper to trouble the reader with a particular account of it. Its votaries allowed and practifed fornication, adultery, and idolatrous facrifices. Thefe deeds the church at Ephefus hated; and these are hateful to Chrift.

Verfe 7th. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the churches, To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradife of God.

Whoever hears the things contained in this epiftle, let him, for his own intereft, attend to what the Spirit of God faith to all the churches. Tho' the church of Ephefus, as a collective body, may not repent, and therefore may be deprived of the privilege of a conftituted church, yet no individual Chriftian, who acts a proper part, fhall be deprived of the internal and spiritual bleffings of religion, for the fault of others, or even of that church of which he is a member. Every individual Chriftian, who overcomes the temptations to which he is expofed, and especially thofe trying ones, which arife from communion with a church' grofsly corrupted, and from the example of impure fectaries, whatever he may lofe of worldly poffeffions, fhall enjoy the intellectual, the moral, VOL. I. Ꮧ

the

the spiritual life, with all its concomitant pleafures in the prefent and future world. This is the import of" eating of the tree of life, which is "in the midst of the paradife of God." This hieroglyphic is taken from the account of the tree of life, in the midst of the paradife of God, contained in Genefis ii. 8,-9, 16,-17. and iii. 22,-24. That tree of life was the symbol of the spiritual, intellectual, and moral life of man, which confifts in perceiving, feeling, intending, acting, and enjoying, as fuch a creature as man was intended to do, and ought to do. This fpiritual life ftands in the closest connection with the innocence, or renovation of our nature, and is inconfiftent with the grofs perverfion of it. Hence, from the fore-cited paffages, we find, that Adam was not prohibited from the tree of life, fo long as he preferved his innocence; but whenever he yielded to temptation, and ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he was prohibited from the tree of life, and a guard was placed around it. As Adam, by yielding to temptation, deprived himself of the tree of life, fo, whoever by the grace of God fhall refift and overcome temptations, fhall receive from Chrift, and enjoy in the prefent, and more perfectly in a future ftate, that spiritual life, of which the tree of life in the middle of the garden was the emblem. Rom. viii. 6.-" To be carnally "minded is death; but to be fpiritually minded

"is life and peace." Chrift faith, (John x. 10.) "I am come that they might have life, and that

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they might have it more abundantly." They fhall poffefs that fpiritual life which is the perfection and the blifs of human nature.

Verfe 8.-And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna, write, these things faith the first and the laft, which was dead, and is alive;

Chrift commands John to write this epiftle to the minister of the church in Srayrna, and defigns himself by a part of that hieroglyphic, under which he appeared in the firft vifion. Particularly, he ftiles himself the first and the laft, true God; and he who was dead and is alive again, true man. This defcription of his character was very proper to adminifter comfort and fupport to the church in Smyrna. Their character was afperfed. How comforting, to think that Chrift, as God, knows their real character; and cannot poffibly be mifled by any mifreprefentations? Many of them were to fuffer death from the hands of their perfecutors: How comforting to know, that Chrift, by his own death, had taken the fling out of death to all his followers, and, by his refurrection, had given them the fulleft proof and the fureft pledge of their refurrection? Smyrna, as