Section 4

The representative writers of this state were particularly Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus.

Ignatius was an elder of the ecclesia at Antioch, but possessed of a fanatical desire for martyrdom, which was contrary to the instruction of the Lord Jesus, who said, “when they persecute you in one city, flee to another.” But instead of this, when the Emperor Trajan came to Antioch, about A.D. 107, in his way to the Parthian war, Ignatius voluntarily delivered himself up to Trajan, into whose presence he was introduced.

The spiritual condition of the ecclesias in this state of things may be learned from the writings of the apostles and others as extant in the New Testament. Their faith in the “things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” was unmixed with Nikolaitanism, or “philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, and the ele­ments of the world;” and it worked by love and purified the heart— Gal.

Thus, having brought to a conclusion the particulars of the primary vision of the Apocalypse, and of the epistles, therein dictated by the

Lord Jesus the Spirit to the seven ecclesias of the Proconsular Asia, which we have found, as Mr. Elliot remarks in his apology for not un­dertaking the exposition of them, “of matter sufficient in itself to con­stitute a volume”—I shall proceed to consider briefly, the import of the seven moral sketches of these seven ecclesias.

The Morning Star is also promised to him that overcomes,—“1 will give to him the Morning Star,” saith the Spirit. To appreciate the importance and value of this great promise we must know what is sig¬nified by the phrase.

While the Jezebel, or clerical party, which had obtained a footing in the Thyatiran ecclesia, was denounced by the Spirit, and threatened with great tribulation and death; “the Rest in Thyatira” were encour¬aged to perseverance in their opposition to the clergy by exceeding great and precious promises.

But all among the Thyatirans were not impressible by the arts and blandishments of Jezebel and her children.

As we have shown in our exposition of the apocalyptic “Balaam” and “Nikolaitans,” there existed a class of teachers calling themselves “Christians,” contemporary with the apostles, who taught “another gospel,” and set forth a Jesus, which Paul styled “another Jesus;” both of which, that is, the Jesus and their gospel, were different from the real Jesus and the true gospel, proclaimed by the apostles; and subversive of

The Christian faith was, doubtless, introduced into Thyatira by Lydia, whom Paul and his companions first became acquainted with at Philippi, a city of Macedonia. She was “a worshipper of God” belonging to Thyatira, but for the time being sojourning at Philippi as “a seller of purple.” Paul met her at the proseuche, by the river side, beyond the city walls. She had gone there with other devout women to offer prayer to the living and true Deity.