allusion, the import of these words would be, that the Lord should then consider and reward them as his elect.

The Lord will confess their names before his Father and before his angels. Heavenly honour! immense reward! When they were yet in this pilgrimage, the world separated and reproached them, and cast out their names as evil; but then the Lord will mention them to his Father, as his, and as worthy of preferment and dignity. Those around them on earth, often insulted and mortified them while here-but then, the angels will honour and exalt them through all eternity.

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P

A PASTORAL CHARGE

TO THE ANGEL AT PHILADELPHIA.

Verse 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 has 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 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.

This charge is given to the new succession of the gospel ministry in the Protestant Church; which is called Philadelphia, because of the brotherly love that subsists between the different communities belonging thereto, and their unanimous testimony against Popery and its corruptions, both in doctrine and worship. It is worthy of remark, that the different names of these seven Churches, when considered according to the meaning of the primitive words, of which they are composed, are all expressive of the internal state of these Churches at their distinct periods of time.

1. Ephesus, signifies ardent desire or desirable, and expresses that ardent wish and zeal of the Church during the apostolic period, to extend and propagate the Christian religion, and her amiable and lovely character in the sight of heaven.

2. Smyrna, dénotes myrrh or bitterness, and in pro phetic language is an emblem of persecution and sufferings, to which period it also refers.

3. Pergamos, an exalted tower, or steeple. This was the name of that well fortified castle at Troja, from whence this signification originated; which here indicates that firm and invincible stand, which the Church had taken from the time of Constantine the Great.

4. Thyatira, from 9ów, I sacrifice, and vago, I corrupt, a corrupted sacrifice, and expresses that corrupt worship of God introduced by Jezebel, which was not a sweet savour, but the offensive smell of a mortified offering before the Lord.

5. Sardis, from the Hebrew word Sarad, to remain, signifies the remainder, the residue. After the schism, the Greeks were under the proud impression of being the only Church of Christ left, after the great conflict with Paganism and the establishment of Popery among the Latins; but after the Mahome

dan inundation on the Eastern part of the Roman empire, their Church became a remnant indeed.

6. Philadelphia, signifies brotherly love.

7. Laodicea, signifies judicature of the people, or the rights of the people; because in that Church the highest authority is lodged in its members, who rule the Church as a political polity, according to reason and conveniency of circumstances. Here all Ecclesiastical discipline and Church censure is lost.

Verse 7. He that is holy-is true. The holy one of Israel, Jer. xlv. 11; the true antitype of the Jewish high priest, who was considered the most holy person in Israel, Exod. xxviii. 36. Among all the sons of men he is holy without sin, and perfect in his own person. He is the real antitype, in whom all types and figures of the old covenant were actually fulfilled; true in all his promises to his Churches in all his threatenings to his enemies-The only infallible guide through the dark valley of this world.

He that hath the key of David. By this expression the Lord refers us to that memorable prophecy, Jer. xxii. in which the prophet foretells the final doom of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. According to the use the Lord makes of that prediction in this place, Jerusalem and the land of Juda denote the Christian countries in Europe, and Sebna, the proud and haughty treasurer over the kings house, signifies the Pope at this present time; who abuses the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the vilest manner, as Sebna did his authority in Juda; He shall be violently turned and tossed like a ball, driven from his station, verse 18, 19; and the Lord himself will be the true Eliakim, who will make a better use of these keys to the castle and royal treasury of David, than he has done-And what he does will be final.

Every year on a certain day, the Pope assumes the pretended authority of his chair, and pronounces a host of most horrible curses and anathemas against the Protes

tants, giving them over to the devil for eternal damnation, because they will not acknowledge the pretensions of his holiness. The poor man seems to be ignorant, that the Lord has seven Churches in one; though no doubt, there are also seven principal parts in his own body, from which he might learn wisdom. Weak children of God might be terrified by this unchristian and audacious conduct of the Roman bishop; the Lord therefore comforts them, that he has the key to the heavenly treasury, and that the tyrannical anathemas of the haughty Popes are of no effect.

Verse 8. I have set before thee an open door. Sédwxx

óv, might be rendered, I have established publicly before you an opened door. See Eph. i. 22. and Luke xii. 9. where didou signifies to constitute, establish, and everίov, publicly before an assembly, council, or diet. Here the Lord refers to that great work of reformation, which was begun in Germany by those eminent men of God, Luther, Zwingel and Calvin, in the year 1517. Luther stood singly before that grand assembly at Worms, A. D. 1521; and with great resolution and presence of mind contended for the Word of God, as the only rule of faith. At the diet of Augsburg, A. D. 1530, those ministers and churches, which had embraced the evangelic doctrine of Luther, made that famous confession of faith, by which the Lutheran community stands distinguished from other Protestant societies of later date. A. D. 1548, the Interim was agreed to, and 1555, on the 25th of September, the Protestants obtained legal authority for the free exercise of their religion in Germany, which they have enjoyed to the present day. Thus the Lord has publicly established an open door, for the progress of the Evangelic doctrine, and for an extensive propagation of the gospel of Jesus among many nations. And the Protestants did not want for zeal, to enter this open door. The light of the reformation soon spread all over Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, and into some parts of France, Bohemia, Poland,