apprehension of sober expositors, as the attempts of impious Arians and
others, to turn the historical narrative of the creation and fall of man
into an allegory!

The meaning of the "seven stars and seven candlesticks" is then
explained to John. The word, "are," is used in a figurative sense, and
not to be taken literally. It means here, _symbolize, represent_ or
_signify_. It is to be interpreted in the same sense as in the following
places of sacred Scripture:--"It _is_ the Lord's passover." (Exod. xii.
11.) "That rock _was_ Christ." (1 Cor. x. 4.) "This _is_ my body."
(Matt. xxvi. 26.) None but a Papist will have any difficulty here, or
perhaps,--a Lutheran!




CHAPTER II.


Some commentators, among whom may be mentioned the learned Dr. Gill, a
leading Antipedobaptist minister of England, have imagined, that the
seven epistles addressed to the Asiatic churches, contain a mystical
prophecy of the church general, covering the whole period of her history
from the apostolic age till the end of the world. According to this
fancy,--for it is nothing more than a fancy; the church in Smyrna, will
represent the church's condition in the second stage of her history,
when Arianism prevailed! And the Laodicean must represent her last, and
so her worst condition! How will this harmonize with the 20th chapter,
where she appears in triumph over all her antichristian foes? This is
given as a specimen of the unbridled fancy and licentious imagination