Revelation 2

These are as it were the saints' wages; but besides, the great reward is to come, an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Christ makes all his subjects kings (Revelation 2:10): I'll give you a crown of life. This crown will be full of jewels, and it will never fade (1 P…

They are not of the world, though they live here, yet, they trade in the heavenly country. The world is a place where Satan's throne is (Revelation 2:13), a stage on which sin every day acts its part; now such as are called are in, but not of, the world. Quest. To what does God…

12. We glorify God by being zealous for his name (Numbers 25:11): Phinehas has turned my wrath away, while he was zealous for my sake. Zeal is a mixed affection, a compound of love and anger; it carries forth our love to God, and anger against sin in a most intense manner: zeal…

God will not be in any man's debt; (Malachi 1:10) Who has kindled a fire on my altar for nothing? 2. God lets men go on in sin and prosper, that he may leave them more inexcusable, (Revelation 2:21) I gave her space to repent of her fornication. God adjourns the sessions, spins…

3. You who have love to God, keep it flaming upon the altar of your heart. Love, as fire, will be ready to go out (Revelation 2:4). You have left your first love.

Therefore we must imitate Christ, who became obedient to the death (Philippians 2:8). The crown is set upon the head of perseverance (Revelation 2:26). He that keeps my works to the end, to him will I give the morning star.

This decay of grace I shall show in two particulars. 1. The lively actings of grace may be suspended (Revelation 2:4): You have left your first love. Grace may be like a sleepy habit; the godly may act faintly in religion, the pulse of their affections may beat low.

When gray hairs shine with golden virtues, this is a crown of glory. The church of Thyatira was best at last (Revelation 2:19). I know your patience and your works, and the last to be more than the first.

But the holiness of God is pure, like wine from the grape; it has not the least dash or tincture of impurity mixed with it. 2. A more unchangeable holiness: the saints though they cannot lose the habit of holiness (for the seed of God remains), yet they may lose some degrees of…

Through the bright mirror of his own essence he has a full idea and cognizance of all things; the world is to him Corpus diaphanum, a transparent body. He makes a heart-anatomy; he is [illegible] (Revelation 2:23). I am he which searches the reins and the heart.

By a lie in our words we deny the truth, by a lie in our profession we disgrace it. Not to be what we profess to God is telling a lie; and the Scripture makes it little better than blasphemy (Revelation 2:9). I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not.

Satan has a kingdom; he got his kingdom by conquest; he conquered mankind in Paradise. He has his throne (Revelation 2:13): "You dwell where Satan's throne is"; and his throne is set up in the hearts of men. He does not care for their purses but their hearts (Ephesians 2:2).

He who is truly sanctified cannot fall from that state. Indeed seeming holiness may be lost; colors may wash off; Sanctification may suffer an eclipse (Revelation 2:4): You have left your first love; but true Sanctification is a blossom of eternity (1 John 2:27): The anointing w…

And (verse 10). He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. God has deferred his wrath, and given us space to repent (Revelation 2:21). God is not like a hasty creditor, that requires the debt, and gives no time for the payment.

Thus you see how the meditation of Heaven would be a means to bring us there. 18. The last means for obtaining the Heavenly Kingdom is, perseverance in holiness (Revelation 2:10). Be you faithful to death, and you shall receive the Crown of Life.

Where God pardons he purifies. As in the inauguration of kings, with the crown there is the oil to anoint: so when God crowns a man with forgiveness, there he gives the anointing oil of grace to sanctify (Revelation 2:17): "I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new n…

And by this his long experience and observation he has his set and composed machinations (2 Corinthians 2:11), his methods of temptations (Ephesians 6:11) which are studied and artificially molded and ordered — even such systems and methods of them as tutors and professors of ar…

As in the sacraments, the bread conveys whole Christ and the wine also whole Christ, so in the word every promise conveys whole Christ. And if you can say as the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:6, 'This thing I have — that I hate sin, and every sin as God hates it, and because…

But his own, God gives up to him but as prisoners to a jailer, as a magistrate may do his child to commit him; who has not a power over his prisoner to do anything with him, but only by appointment, for a time, with a limited commission, and therefore cannot put him on the rack…

Which shows us clearly the truth of Gods word, which says of Christ, that he reigns in the middle among his enemies. Howsoever they rage, and seek to blot out his name, and to root out his kingdom, yet despite their throats, he will rule in the middle of their kingdoms, and ther…

Who makes reckoning of corn that sheds before harvest? It was the glory of the church of Thyatira, her last works were more than her first (Revelation 2:19). Perseverance carries away the garland; a true Christian does not only set out in the race, but hold out; The righteous al…

In the evangelical covenant, the promises that are made are not made to any work or virtue in man, but to the worker: not for any merit of his own person or work, but for the person and merit of Christ. For example, it is a promise of the Gospel (Revelation 2:10): Be faithful to…

Remember the place where you are is the place of his feet (Isaiah 60:13). Act faith upon the omniscience of God: 'All the churches shall know that I am he that searches the heart and tries the minds, and will give to everyone according to their works' (Revelation 2:23). 'All thi…

Oh then what manner of persons ought you to be! You have many eyes over you: the omniscient eye of God that searches the heart and minds (Revelation 2:23); the vigilant eye of Satan (Job 1:7-8); the envious eyes of enemies that curiously observe you (Psalm 5:8); the quick and ob…

5. Apostacy. Jer. 6. 28. They are all grievous revolters, Reprobate silver shall one call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. This made God remove his golden Candlestick from the Church of Ephesus, because she had left her first Love, Rev. 2. 4. And if apostacy will make…

And, O, what massive consolation have such words as these, in them; and what confidence may believing sinners have to come to this Mediator; that is a mother, a father, a brother, and a parent, that has begotten us out of His own bowels; and in some respect, (as we are believers…

And though the godly do steadfastly believe their salvation is in a castle, above losing; yet in reason, sin bringing broken bones, (Psalm 51:10), a sad cloud, the damming up of a spring of Christ's love spread abroad in the heart, a temporary hell in the soul, it must be sorrow…

No man whatever mettle he be of, the finest of men can come, or has power to come to me, and to believe on the only begotten Son of God, except the Father who sent me draw him. We know Christ was much to extol his Father, his Father was ever in his esteem an eminent one, as (Mat…

He that does the will of my heavenly Father, the same is my brother, etc. (1 Corinthians 9:24). So run, that you may obtain (Revelation 2:2). I know your works and your labor (1 Thessalonians 1:3).

I know not better how to express it, than from (Revelation 1:14-15), in the description of our blessed Savior, His eyes were as a flame of fire. It is true, the eye is lightsome, but it does not burn, they are not hot, but the eyes of Christ is as a flaming heat; and the meaning…

Fifthly, faith had need to grow, even that faith which accompanies salvation, by which we believe on the name of Christ, not only thus far as has been said, but had need to grow in the fruits of it, for many times though faith may have some strength and comfort, and put forth it…

It is sometimes the case of a Christian, as David speaks (Psalm 39, last verse), Oh spare a little that I may recover any strength; so a Christian man if he find himself in a decay, that he is dead and heartless in every spiritual performance, oh then spare a little, that I may…

And we read that once he took the habit and guise of a prophet (1 Samuel 28:18), and indeed he deceives more by the voice of Samuel than by the voice of the Dragon. We read of the depths of Satan (Revelation 2:24). Here he comes like a divine, with a Bible in his hand, and turns…

3. With respect to the devil and his instruments, to whose malice he sets bounds, who otherwise would know no measure. (1.) For the devil see (Revelation 2:10). Fear none of those things which you shall suffer, behold! the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may b…

Lastly, aged persons that have begun in the spirit, must look that they grow up in the graces of the spirit more than others, that they may end in the spirit. It is said of the angel of Thyatira, that his love, service, and works, were more at the last, than at the first (Revela…

I permit not a woman to teach (1 Timothy 2:12). Let women keep silence in the Churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak (1 Corinthians 14:34; Revelation 2:20). This condemns the fantastical opinion of the Anabaptists, that all men may speak publicly without any differen…

This Notion, of certainly discerning another's State, by Love flowing out, is not only not founded on Reason or Scripture, but it is antiscriptural, it is against the Rules of Scripture; which say not a Word of any such Way of judging the State of others as this, but direct us t…

And therefore undoubtedly the Seal of the great King of Heaven and Earth enstamped on the Heart, is something high and holy in its own Nature, some excellent Communication from the infinite Fountain of divine Beauty and Glory; and not merely a making known a secret Fact by Revel…

Remember from where you are fallen, and repent and do your first works. Till then, he has this against you, that you have left your first love (Revelation 2). And consider, Is it not a grievous thing to you?

In Song of Solomon 2:1 he is compared to a rose and lily, sweet and beautiful flowers; in the very next verse he is compared to a tree bearing sweet fruit. In Isaiah 53:2 he is called a root out of dry ground; but elsewhere, instead of that, he is called the Tree of Life, that g…

What ever Creature be instrumental for any good to you, it's your Lord Jesus Christ that gave the orders and commands to that Creature to do it; and without it they could have done nothing for you: It's your head in Heaven that consults your peace and comfort on Earth: these be…

And truly thus it is; and my own eyes have seen it, in that noble Manuscript, written by the hand of Tecla (as is probably supposed) some 1300 years ago, as Cyril, the late renowned Patriarch of Constantinople avows; your goodly proof therefore is in the suds. But to meet with y…

Touch his flesh and his bone, or touch his flesh to the bone, strike as hard, wound as deep as you can. It is said (Revelation 2:10), that Satan should cast some of them, that is, of the servants of God, into prison. God gave up their bodies to irons, and fetters, to the stocks…

If upon the eruption of new lusts or corruptions; if upon the return of old temptations, or the Assaults of new ones; if upon a revived perplexing sense of guilt, or on the tediousness of working and labouring so much and so long in the dark, the soul begins to say in it self, I…

It remains therefore, 4. That it must be spoken to Christ's Ministers, and Officers in the Church, called rulers in the Scripture, and in this Song, watchmen and keepers of this Vineyard, as by office, contradistinguished from professors (Song of Solomon 3:3; Song of Solomon 5:7…

And (Proverbs 5:21), "The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord" — he knows them, as if he were looking on them with eyes, all things are so naked and discernible to him. This agrees also with that (Revelation 2:18), where Christ is said to have eyes as a flame of fire: wh…

3. The Vineyard is said to be the Bride's, verse 12 and Chapter 1:6, in respect of the believer's particular trust, with oversight of, and interest in, these things that Christ has purchased for them, and bestowed on them, which they are to improve and trade with; In which respe…

For, 1. That distinction of the church in visible and invisible, is not a distribution of a whole into distinct parts, as, suppose one would divide a heap of chaff and corn, into corn and chaff; but this is a distinct uptaking of the same whole, (to wit, the church) under two di…

These mysterious marrow-rich truths are like that song that none could learn but the 144,000 that are redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14:4). Or like that new name which no man knows, saving he that receives it (Revelation 2:17). Such truths are better felt than spoken, soone…

Sit down then and reckon the charges in building the tower of religion, and whether you have armor of proof to carry you through an army of dangers and difficulties. Stock yourselves for a storm, frame your backs for a burden, melt your wills into God's will, as you desire to ho…