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the kings of the earth;" while, in connection with the Man of Sin, she becomes an adulteress, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," Rev. xvii. 2-5, &c. If this view of the name Jezebel, as applied in this instance, be correct-if it denote no particular individual, but a party of heretical seducers in the church of Thyatira, the language of the subsequent verses, in reference to this charge preferred against the "angel" by the Divine Inspector, must be viewed as altogether figurative. He says of this metaphorical Jezebel, that he "will cast her into a bed," which evidently means that the chief leader or leaders of this party will be severely punished; those who "commit adultery with her" are to be brought into "great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds," the meaning of which is sufficiently obvious; her "children" are to be "killed with death," that is, the followers and adherents of the party are to be cut off-a Hebrew mode of expression, denoting the certainty of the threat denounced; "and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." Then follows a declaration that none of these denunciations have any application to the members of the church of Thyatira who have resisted the obnoxious tenets so peremptorily condemned, and who are enjoined to "hold fast" that which they "have already," until the Divine Inspector comes. "This command," says Mr Daubuz (Commentary on the Revelation), "to keep in the same faith till Christ's coming, plainly proves that these Churches (the whole Seven Churches) are symbolical, that is, that the exhortations made to them are to serve for the whole Catholic Church through its unsettled and persecuted state."

"From a relation in Epiphanius," observes a writer already quoted, "it appears that the seducers obtained a temporary triumph over the faithful in Thyatira, and that for a time one of the

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seven golden lamps was nearly extinguished. Speaking of the sect of the Alogi, he observes that they rejected. the Revelation as fabulous, because, as one reason, in their times there was no Christian Church in the city. But it follows not,' says Epiphanius, although in their days there was no church there, that therefore there was none in John's time; the Spirit of God did foreshow the defection of this church, by prophesying of the false prophetess Jezebel, that is, of certain women who deceived many, falsely boasting of a prophetic character, as Priscilla, Maximilla, and Quintilla, harlots of Montanus, who taught the heresy of the Cataphrygians.-But now, by the grace of God, there is a church in that place which flourishes, and some others thereabout, although formerly the whole church was fallen away, and had embraced the foresaid heresy. The Spirit of God did reveal, that soon after the Apos tles and their successors, the church should fall into many errors.' It seems from this that Epiphanius interpreted the woman Jezebel as prophetically referring to the Montanists, Priscilla and Maximilla, women of depraved morals, who assisted Montanus in the propagation of his doctrines. But this heresy did not arise until the second century, whereas the language of the Epistle plainly indicates that the evils reprehended existed then in Thyatira. It is not, however, improbable but that the corrupters designated by this appellation might have some female teachers among them of a similar character to the prophetesses of Montanus. The disciples of Montanus, commonly desig nated Phrygians from the country of their master, introduced themselves into most of the churches of Asia Minor, and Eusebius represents them as diffused like venomous serpents over the whole surface of the Peninsula. Montanus professed to be the Paraclete or Comforter which the Saviour had promised unto his followers; and, according to the testimony of Epiphanius, by his agents the faith was corrupted in Thyatira, and the purity of the church destroyed. But

at the close of the fourth century, when he wrote, the Thyatirans were again flourishing in the light and truth of the gospel, the tide of heresy which had flowed upon them had been stemmed, the threatened punishment had probably been inflicted upon Jezebel and her children; and Epiphanius describes the Christians in Thyatira and its neighbourhood as reclaimed in his day from the foul errors which they had embraced, and consequently restored to the communion of the orthodox churches."

The threatenings of the Divine Inspector, however, have now been carried into effect, and the delightful district of Thyatira is no longer the undisputed domain of the Church. In modern Thyatira, or Ak-hissar, which is a considerable place, there are about three hundred and fifty Greek houses, and from twenty to thirty belonging to the Armenian Christians. The former, who have a church, and four or five priests, are under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Ephesus; the Armenians have one priest. What is at present called Christianity in Thyatira is described as little better than a scene of insignificant and absurd ceremonials. See THYATIRA.

5. SARDIS. Leaving Thyatira in its present melancholy condition, we proceed to Sardis, once the celebrated capital of Croesus and the Lydian kings, now no longer worthy of being termed a city, but a miserable village, containing a few wretched mud-built cottages, and a solitary mosque which was formerly a Christian church. The great extent and grandeur of the ruins bear abundant testimony to its former magnificence. "Sardis," exclaims Mr Arundell, on beholding the scene of desolation, "the capital of Lydia, identified with the names of Croesus, and Cyrus, and Alexander, and covering the plain with her thousands of inhabitants, and tens of thousands of men of war-great even in the days of Augustus, ruined by earthquakes, and restored to its importance by the munificence of Tiberius:-Christian Sardis, offering her hymns of thanksgiving for deliverance from Pagan persecution in

the magnificent temples of the Virgin and Apostle-Sardis, again fallen under the yoke of a false religion, but still retaining her numerous population and powerful defence only five hundred years ago— what is Sardis Now? Her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down?'

She sits silent in darkness, and is no longer called the lady of kingdoms.' 'How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!' A few mud huts inhabited by Turkish herdsmen, and a mill or two, contain all the present populatior of Sardis. The only members of the church of Sardis are two Greeks, servants to the Turkish miller." Mr Arundell visited Sardis a second time in 1833, and thus observes, "If I should be asked what impresses the mind most strongly on beholding Sardis, I should say, its indescribable solitude, like the darkness in Egypt, darkness that could be felt. So the deep solitude of the lady of kingdoms produces a corresponding feeling of desolate abandonment in the mind which can never be forgotten. Connect this feeling with the message of the Apocalypse to the church of Sardis, Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead; I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee;' and then look around and ask, where are the churches, where are the Christians of Sardis? The tumuli beyond the Hermus replies, All dead!-suffering the infliction of the threatened judgment of God for the abuse of their privileges. Let the unbeliever then be asked, Is there no truth in prophecy-no reality in religion?"

Sardis, now called Sart, is distant from Thyatira thirty miles south, at the foot of Mount Tmolus, on the banks of the Pactolus-a river famous for quantities of gold found in its sands, which, according to Varro and St Chrysostom, was the chief source of the wealth of Croesus. It rises in Mount Tmolus, and falls into the Hermus, after watering the ancient ruins of the now depopulated city. At the time when Sardis was addressed by the Divine Inspector, it was under the

government of the Romans, and was recovering from the devastation caused by a fearful earthquake, which involved twelve of the principal cities of Asia Minor, Sardis included, in destruction. "The calamity," says Tacitus, "happened in the night, and was for that reason the more disastrous, no warning being given, and by consequence no time to escape. Hills are said to have sunk, and valleys rose to mountains. Quick flashes of lightning showed all the horrors of the scene." Sardis was restored by the munificence of the Emperor Tiberius, who made liberal grants to it and the other injured cities. It is unknown who first planted the faith in Sardis, or in what manner it was introduced, and no notice of this city is taken in sacred history except in the Apocalypse. The name of the "angel" of the church in Sardis is also unknown. When St John addressed to him the Apocalyptic epistle, it is evident that the church had been flourishing, and its members numerous, and that it had declined from active piety to spiritual supineness and religious indifference.

The believers of Thyatira were commended for their last works being better or "more" than "the first," but at Sardis the case was exactly reversed, and the last works of the church there were worse than the first. The whole epistle discloses to us a remarkable decline in fervour, devotion, and duty; a complete apathy seems to have pervaded the believers, with few exceptions, at Sardis; the gospel was indeed professed, but its influence was almost extinguished. The Christians at Sardis are told that their "works" are "known," and that they have a name to "live" while they are "dead." By a metaphor used frequently in Scripture, those in whom the spiritual life has little or no vigour are said to be "dead" while they "live." They are enjoined to "be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die;" that is, to bethink themselves in time, and confirm those principles and dispositions which

had become so weak as to be nearly obliterated, for their works had not been found "perfect before God." Heresy, or corruption of doctrine, is no part of the charge against Sardis; the believers there knew their Master's will, but did it not; they are therefore called upon to remember the doctrines they had received, and which they professed to maintain; to "hold fast, and repent," with a positive assurance that if they do not "watch," they would be visited suddenly and unexpectedly, or by sudden and unanticipated judgments; the Inspector is to come upon them "as a thief," and they would not "know in what hour he would come upon them." Nevertheless, all of them were not in this dangerous and deplorable condition; there were a few names even in Sardis which had not defiled their garments," who stood apart from that sinful intercourse with which the world had infected the others, and those persons are to be raised to great honour

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they are to "walk" with their Divine Master in "white," the emblem of purity, worn by priests under the Law, and in the courts of the Eastern sovereigns, "for they are worthy." summed up by a general declaration that he who continues, as St Paul expresses it, faithful unto death, shall be "clothed in white raiment," his name will be preserved in "the book of life," and his Divine Master will "confess his name before his Father and before his angels," concluding with the form which is appended to each of the Apocalyptie epistles, and which was frequently used by our Saviour, at least language similar to it, when during his personal ministry he addressed his hearers in figurative language, "He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches."

What effect this epistle produced on the lethargic and callous Christians of Sardis it is impossible to ascertain. It may have been salutary at the time, for we find them in the following century, about A.D. 177, under the government of Melito, a pastor pious, learned, and

eloquent, a voluminous writer, although his numerous works are unfortunately now lost, and an exemplary Christian -one of the great pillars of the Asian Churches when they were again menaced with persecution. An attempt was made, which was unsuccessful, during the reign of Julian the Apostate, to restore the rites of the ancient Roman mythology at Sardis; the altars which had been destroyed were rebuilt, and hymns were again sung to Cybele and Apollo. But the death of Julian terminated this impious idolatry, and the church regained the ascendancy without, it is to be feared, remembering the solemn warning which it had received, to "hold fast, and repent;" and during the inroads of the Tartars and Turks, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the predicted punishment of its supineness was consummated, and the Inspector came upon it as "a thief in the night."—"Every thing," it has been observed, "seems as if God had cursed the place, and left it to the dominion of Satan. Sardians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, have all been swept away. The final banishment of Christianity from Sardis, or, according to its modern appellation, Sart, was effected by the tyranny of a Turkish chief, Osman Oglou. About twenty years ago (dating from 1831 or 1832), a few Christians resided in the place, and in the plain in its immediate vicinity, who wished to erect a church, to enable them to worship in a spot hallowed by the early triumphs of their faith. The Turkish governor of the district prohibited the design, and the persecuted remnant were obliged to forsake their ancient home, and retire beyond the jurisdiction of Oglou. About three miles from their beloved Sardis, and within view of its ruins, they fixed their residence, and celebrated in peace the services of their religion. This spot is now the little village of Tatar-keuy, and a congregation of a hundred souls may attest a few names' still in Sardis. Mr Lindsay, chaplain to the British Embassy at Constantinople in the year 1816, gave a copy

of the New Testament to their priest, and several of the Greeks crowded around him to hear it read upon the spot." See SARDIS.

6. PHILADELPHIA.-About twentyeight miles east of Sardis, on the high road between Sardis and Laodicea, situated on a declivity of Mount Tmolus, on the banks of the river Cogamus, is Philadelphia, founded by Attalus Philadelphus, brother of Eumenes of Pergamos, from whom it received its name. It was one of the twelve cities of Asia, including Sardis, which was overwhelmed by the dreadful earthquake in the reign of Tiberius. The city is now proudly called by the Turks Allah-Shehr, or the "City of God."

At a considerable distance from the sea, and in the immediate vicinity of the volcanic district called the “Katakekaumene," the earthquakes were constant; its walls are said to have been shaken almost daily, and the whole adjacent country retains marks of the action of subterranean fires which appear now to be extinct. The inhabitants of Philadelphia, thus living in a constant state of apprehension, were consequently few in number. In this remarkable region the Christian faith found a stronghold; and while the other Apocalyptic Churches were either infected with heresy, or enervated by indifference, that of Philadelphia flourished in primitive lustre and purity. No tradition has been preserved of the person who introduced the gospel into Philadelphia, nor can we ascertain who the "angel" was who received the Apocalyptic epistle. The message conveyed in it is most encouraging and commending. The Philadelphians are told that their "works" are known, that an open door" is "set before them" which "no man can shut," because they have a "little strength,” had "kept the word" of the Divine Inspector, “and had not denied his name." It appears that the Philadelphians were also troubled with "them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie;" and a complete triumph over these pretended saints is promised

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to this humble church, which probably took place in those early times, although history has not recorded the circumstances. They are told that they will be preserved in the "hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth," because they had "kept the word" of their Saviour's "patience." This promise would also be fulfilled in some subsequent persecution of which we have no special account. It has also been supposed that this "hour of temptation which was to come upon all the world" may have a reference to the persecution under Trajan, which was greater and more extensive than the persecutions under Nero and Domitian. They are advised to "hold fast that which they have, that no man take their crown;" and the epistle concludes with a beautiful peroration expressed in the glowing and poetical language of the East:"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 from heaven; and I will write upon him my new name." The subsequent history of Philadelphia proves that this promise of safety was amply verified. It survived to a modern era the repeated shocks of earthquakes, and the attacks of Pagan malignity; and it was even formidable enough to resist strenuously the Ottoman invasion. It still retains the distinction of a city, with some little trade. It is the residence of a bishop, possesses some churches, and some hundreds of Christians; and thus the "candlestick" is not removed, although it is not so visibly distinguished as the venerable Philadelphian church of the Apocalyptic age.

About ten years after the date of the Apocalyptic epistle, the church in Philadelphia is mentioned in a letter by Ignatius, who acknowledges a visit which its bishop made to him at Troas, when that venerable apostolical Father was on his journey from Antioch to Rome as a pri

soner, where he was torn to pieces by wild beasts. In this epistle Ignatius commends the Philadelphians, and expresses his regard and esteem for their bishop, who had "obtained the ministry not by any selfish or worldly means, but for the common good of saints." He warns them of those "evil herbs which are not of the planting of the Fathers," referring particularly to the Judaizing disturbers of the churches. "If any one," says he, "shall preach the Jewish law unto you, hearken not unto him, for it is better to receive the doctrine of Christ from one who has been circumcised, than Judaism from one who has not. But if either the one or the other do not speak concerning Christ Jesus, they seem to me to be but as monuments and sepulchres of the dead, upon which are written only the names of men. Flee, therefore, the wick ed arts and snares of the prince of this world, lest at any time, being oppressed by his cunning, ye grow cold in your love." This epistle introduces us to Philo, a deacon of Cilicia, and Agathopes, who followed the condemned bishop to assist him on his journey. There is little farther notice of Philadelphia in the subsequent ecclesiastical annals. When Polycarp was consigned to the flames at Smyrna, it is recorded that eleven Philadelphians were the companions of his martyrdom—an admirable proof of their determination to "hold fast," that no man should "take their crown." The bishops of Philadelphia were sent to the Councils of the Church, and they occupied an important station among the churches of the East, until the decline of the Greek Empire. After the fall of that Empire, Philadelphia received the Ottoman yoke; yet it was "kept" from extinction when the whole Christian empire of the East was annihilated, thus affording a striking proof of the truth of prophecy. Even Gibbon yields his unwilling testimony to its singular preservation. "At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the Emperor, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years,

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