and ** making our profiting to appear unto all men^?" Have we reason to hope that, on a comparison of our present state with that in which we were at any former period, our " cha- rity" is more fervent, our " service" more abundant, our *' faith" more stedfast, our " patience" more invincible, and our " works " altogether more consonant with our obligations and professions ? ]
Nevertheless this was not the character of all in that Church ; on which account our Lord proceeds to state,
II. The guilt and danger in which some of her Mem- bers were involved —
A most fatal imposture was tolerated among them —
[Who it was that is here designated by the name " Jeze- bel," or whether there were more than one, we cannot say : it is not improbable that several were engaged in seducing otliers : at all events, whether one or many, they were justly called ** Jezebel," because of their resemblance to that abandoned woman. She, though married to Ahab, retained her zeal for idolatry, and used every device to support and propagate it. Thus at Thyatira, some, who professed themselves Christians, were idolaters in heart, and exerted themselves in the most subtle methods to disseminate their principles ; yea, they even pretended to a Divine commission, to draw others to a com- pliance with their idolatrous practices, which in Scripture language is " fornication" and " adultery." These persons had " space given them to repent ; but they repented not :" and their obstinacy in sin greatly heightened both their own guilt, and the blame attaching to those who tolerated them in the Church. It is true, the Members of the Church were not invested with any civil authority, and therefore could not pu- nish the ofi'enders with the sword. But they should have united in condemning the sentiments and conduct of these impostors, and, by a sentence of excommunication, have purged out this leaven from among them.]
Against those who had thus sanctioned the impos- ture, God denounced the heaviest judgments —
[In these threatenings there is a striking reference to what had been accomplished towards Jezebel, and her family. She had shed the blood of Naboth in Jezreel; and both her husband's blood and her son's blood were licked by dogs, in the very same place where dogs had before licked the blood
of
* iTim. iv. 15.