Page images
PDF
EPUB

gal life, were of all others the most subject to the influence of malignant dæmons. The Popes, however, urged this doctrine from motives of self-aggrandizement, as this was a most effectual measure, to subject the whole body of ecclesiastics solely to the interest and service of the Roman see. They likewise lived and supported themselves by the things sacrificed to images, and the traffic that was carried on in relics of saints, and by superstition. Thus the servants of the Lord in that Church were drawn aside and corrupted by deceptious doctrine, as the word to seduce, signifies.

Verse 21. And I gave her space to repent. Kal Swxa αὐτῆ χρόνον ἵνα μετανοήση, should be rendered: And I have given her a chronon of time, that she might repent. I take a chronos in the Revelation to be a time of 1100 years. If this period is to be computed, from the time when the Roman see entered into close connexion with the rplers of France, by whose assistance its pontiffs were afterwards raised to sovereign majesty; then the final doom and bed of this Roman Jezebel would be about A. D. 1840. For Gregory III, began this connexion, A. D. 740, by a splendid embassy to Charles Martel, with an infamous promise to withdraw himself and the city of Rome from their allegiance to the Roman emperor, in case of his assistance; whom he bitterly hated, on account of his opposition to image worship. See Walch's Hist. of the Popes.

Of her fornication. Togveía, of wegdw, to carry over in order to sell, to carry merchandize. This word does not denote merely a single instance of this enormous crime, but a general manner of living, and that of the worst kind; it signifies the trade of a prostitute, who receives men for money; and for the sake of gain, entices and allures even those in conjugal life, to commit adultery. is worthy of remark that she is said to commit fornica

It

tion-and those who cohabit with her, are charged with adultery. The first is the same act of an unmarried person, the last of one in lawful wedlock. The Lord hereby informs us, that he never stood in any connexion with Popery, or that he never considered this Jezebel his spouse; but the Catholic community, in as far as it is not Papal, not Roman, is still considered a Church of Christ, the ministers of which break the bonds of union between them and their heavenly Lord, by entering so far into the spirit of Popery, as to promote its propagation. She is here represented, Jezebel like, as a woman of great art, who seduces both by her alluring pleasures, and compeling power. Her pleasures are all bottomed on self-interest, being objects of avarice, of pride and earthly happiness; and her threats misery, pain and death. By these means she seduces the servants of the Lord to commit this crime with herself, by deifying her own person, and inducing all her connexions to pay her divine honours, and also to submit to all her institutions as of divine authority.

Verse 22-23. Here the Lord threatens to bring judgment on her, on them that commit adultery with her, and on her children. Jezebel of old, was thrown down from her window, where her flesh was eaten by dogs. 2 Kings ix, 33-37. This was a signal judgment of God. Popery will meet with one equally rigorous. From her downy sofa of pleasure, on which she has captivated by her charms and intrigues, and enraptured her lovers for a whole chronos, the Lord will cast her into a sick bed of great pain and affliction. Her paramours, who forsook the Lord and committed adultery with her, are the college of cardinals, the higher clerical orders and prebendaries, who enter into the life and spirit of the Roman see, and enjoyed her pleasures and benefits; and those rulers of the world, who have supported her in her aspiring views, and persecu

[ocr errors]

tions against the servants and witnesses of the Lord. They shall also be cast into the same bed of tribulation and distress with her; part of which we have now seen during these sanguinary revolutions in Europe, but the dregs of the Lord's cup are yet to come. Ps. lxxv. 8.

The Lord seems to have this woman and her transac tions during many centuries before his eyes; for he also speaks of her children. These are not the Christian churches and congregations under the government of Popery Charity requires to make this Christian distinction.

Her children are the different monastic orders, formed for her support, and after her spirit and image; and those missionary societies in protestant and other Christian countries, who use all their endeavours to extend the banners and authority of the Pope, among the true worshippers of Jesus Christ. The Lord will kill them with death, if they do not repent. This manner of expression always denotes sudden death, by signal judgments from heaven: such as earthquakes, epidemic diseases, sanguinary revolutions, or the desolations of a blood-thirsty tyrant. The accomplishment of this dire sentence will carry such evident marks of a divine and special judgment, that all the churches in the different parts of Christendom at that time, shall thereby know the hand of the Lord Jesus. It probably terminates in that great harvest, Rev. xiv. 15; in which also many children of God are gathered into the heavenly garner, but in a very different manner, from the children of Jezebel.

Verse 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest at Thyatira. The Lord makes a remarkable distinction in the body of the ministry at Thyatira. They are divided into the following three classes: 1. The woman Jezebel, and her lovers and children. 2. The angel. 3. The rest at Thyatira.

I. This woman and her connexions have been sufficiently described. According to prophecy they will once more arise to a considerable power in Christendom, and for a short time, exercise great tyranny and persecution, chiefly against the Protestants, before she receives her final doom by the hand of the Lord. Her course is now nearly run, and her last elevation at hand; after which she shall op pose the Church of Christ no more.

II. The angel-The acknowledged gospel ministry of Jesus Christ in his Church at the time, to which this charge refers. Their general character, the Lord has given in the 19th verse, of which they all partook, more or less, in the performance of their official duties. This angel is twice addressed in the plural number, verse 23, and 24; in order to show, that he is a moral representative of many. He is here described, as being in the presence of this idolatrous woman, who profited much by his remissness in duty, though he himself remained faithful to the Lord.

III. The rest at Thyatira.-Are also ministers of the true and uncorrupted gospel of Jesus; for they are said, to have not this doctrine, and did not know the deep schemes of Satan in the establishment of this woman, and her train of corruptions, or no doubt, they would have borne a more effectual testimony against her. They are here represented as in no connexion with the woman, and as of a distinct party from the angel also; for λοιπός from λείπω, signifies the forsaken, the missing, the removed, h. e. from the ruling church-power. The Lord mentions them with such approbation, that we may well feel interested to ask: who can they be? I cannot help seeing here that host of ancient witnesses, who according to Mosheim, have since the seventh century, either withdrawn from the ruling Church on account of the vices of the clergy, the ambitious projects of the Roman pontiffs, and the corruptions

of religion; or were driven away by persecution in almost every country of Christendom, but particularly from those, under the jurisdiction of the aspiring bishop at Rome. Though their persecutors, and afterwards the inquisition, charged them with ignorance, and blackened their confession of faith, by accusations evidently false; yet even their enemies acknowledged the sincerity of their piety, wherever they were truly known. They kept themselves concealed at first, in order to be screened from persecution, but when in succeeding time they collected into settlements and formed congregations, their enemies stigmatized them with many names, viz. such as: Vallenses, Albingenses, Waldenses, Paterini, Cathari, Bulgarians, the Brethren of the free Spirit, Beghards, &c. &c. &c. Many of these people were indeed men of whom the world was not worthy, a holy seed of the Lord, wherever their pilgrimage was destined; for they were rarely suffered to remain long unmolested in the same place, though always better Christians than their persecutors.

And here perhaps is a suitable place to determine with more precision, whom we are most properly to understand by the angel in each of these charges, and by the Churches to which they belong. The true answer to this inquiry is of no small importance in the explanation of these charges, and of great moment in theology in our days, where so many sects and churches in Christendom claim this prerogative exclusively for themselves, and condemn others. Let us for a moment compare all these charges, and upon a review of the whole, the Lord will probably himself satisfy our wishes. By comparing text with text, we shall be the less liable to fall into error. It is evident, that these angels are not the moral representa tives

I. Of all the Christian ministry of every sect and party throughout Christendom. For the Lord himself distin

N

« PreviousContinue »