LECTURE SECOND.

THE COMMISSION AND VISION.

REVELATION, chap. i. 9-end. "I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamus, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength. 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last; 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,

Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."

HAVING in the last considered the Title and Inscription of this book, with the accompanying Salutation, we now come to "the Revelation" itself, which divides into two parts. The first, consisting of the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia, occupying to the end of the third chapter; and the second, from chapter four to the end; to the first of which the section now read is introductory, containing the Commission to the Apostle to write these addresses, and a Vision suited to the occasion.

I. First, the COMMISSION, ver. 9-11: "I John, who "also am your brother and companion in tribulation, "and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, 66 was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of 'God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

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These are the circumstances under which the Apostle received this Revelation-while in banishment for the faith of Christ, in the time of a severe persecution of the Church; when he was not the only sufferer, for he speaks of those of whom he was the "companion in tribulation" as well as "in the kingdom and patience of Christ." And it is not a little remarkable that the Lord Jesus should choose this time to favour his Apostle with this glorious Revelation. It shows the high consideration in which he held his suffering disciple, as also that the

time when the world frowns upon the Church, is the time when God draws nearest to it in the enjoyment of his presence. (B.)

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." By this, I conceive, we are given to understand that the Apostle was entranced, and (as it were) taken out of himself, in spirit transported into another scene, as was the case with the prophet Ezekiel, when he says, (chap. ii. and iii.) that the Spirit "entered into him," and "lifted him up and took him away." (Compare also the rapture of the Apostle Paul, described 2 Cor. xii. 1.) Which circumstance shews the perfect inspiration of this book, God overruling the powers and faculties of the Apostle in order to give him this Revelation.

"On the Lord's day,"—that is, as is generally supposed, "the first day of the week;" the day which the Christian church observes in commemoration of our Lord's resurrection; for which observance this designation of it is thus an additional sanction. Though it is possible that "the Lord's day" may rather mean that emphatic "day of the Lord" which forms the burden of so many prophecies, and of this prophecy in particular; in which case the sense would be that the Apostle was in spirit and vision transported into that period. But this must remain doubtful, as the expression in the original is peculiar and only occurs here.*

* Η κυριακὴ ἡμέρα, not as elsewhere, ἡμέρα τοῦ Κυριού. See the argument in favour of the latter view in Dr. Todd's "Discourses on the Apocalypse, preached before the University of Dublin, at the Donnellan Lecture, 1841."

"And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a "trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first "and the last: and, what thou seest, write in a book, "and send it unto the seven churches which are in "Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto "Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and "unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea." Having already said that though the epistles in the two next chapters are immediately addressed to the Seven Churches, we should not confine their application to them, I would only add one other observation on an opinion lately advanced as to the way in which they apply to the church at large. It has been suggested that these seven epistles not only apply to the church generally, but that they are delineations of seven successive states through which the church should pass :—viz. 1st, the Ephesus-state, or decline of love, extending through the reign of Nero: 2nd, the Smyrna-state, or persecution to death, from Nero to Constantine: 3rd, the Pergamos-state, or amalgamation with the world, from Constantine to Charlemagne: 4th, the Thyatirastate, or spiritual fornication, during the time of the Papacy 5th, the Sardis-state, or the formality of a name, our own times: 6th, the Philadelphia-state, or "a little strength," and much opposition from false brethren, times just now approaching: 7th, the Laodicean-state, or self-sufficiency and lukewarmness, the last state, upon which the Lord descends in judgment: in which view the epistles to the churches are inter

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preted as a continuous prophetic history.* For my own. part, I do not think that there is evidence upon which to ground so systematic an application of them as this; or to assert for them a prophetic character in this sense. I, however, think them prophetical in another sense. I think that they present us with all the forms of declension in the church, and all the positions in which Christianity should be placed, not indeed successively, but as they should exist, some or all of them together, at all times of the church's history, in various localities, or in different members of it in the same locality: and that these seven churches were selected by the Lord to address on this account, as affording in their then state occasion for all the warning that should be necessary for his church until his coming, whatever state or states it might be in, and at whatever time. And, therefore, instead of seeking a description and portraiture of our own times in only one of those addresses, I would rather say that they every one apply to the church at present in its different states and conditions, and that we should read and study them constantly as warnings against various evils and temptations, to all of which every church in every locality may be exposed. To proceed

II. In connexion with this commission a VISION is granted to the Apostle of Him who gave it; ver. 12–20. "And I turned to see the voice that spake to me, and "being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks." verse 20, these are explained by the Lord himself to be the seven churches: "The seven candlesticks which

* So Irving on the Apocalypse.

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