they were still owned by Christ, notwithstanding the errors, heresies
and immoralities which had crept into them; yet it is manifest that he
threatens some of them with divorce, total extinction in case of
impenitence. He has indeed fulfilled his awful threats in making them a
desolation. Is it reasonable to suppose that he would reorganize these,
or recognise others which incorporate the same or the like corruptions
in doctrine and practice for tolerating which he has "removed their
candlestick," or "spued them out of his mouth?" (_Absit blasphemia_.) To
say so, or write so, does not manifest the "charity which rejoiceth not
in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." Alas! the present condition of
the church general contains frequent evidences, that our Saviour's
affectionate counsels, solemn warnings, and awful threatenings, are
neither duly pondered nor dutifully regarded.




CHAPTER IV.


With this chapter the prophetical part of the Apocalypse begins. This is
the place where the third division of the book commences, of which
intimation had been given to John.--"Write ... the things which shall be
hereafter." (Ch. i. 19.) The third is therefore much the largest part of
the whole book, comprising all from the 4th to the 22d ch. It is also to
be noticed that the fourth and fifth chapters are properly of the nature
of an introduction to what follows, presenting to view, as it were, a
grand theatre on which are to be exhibited the dramatic characters and
events which constitute the outline of history in the church and the
world from the apostle's time till the consummation of all things.