These Epistles
contain admonitions against the approaching Apostacy, and therefore relate
to the times when the Apostacy began to work strongly, and before it
prevailed. It began to work in the Apostles days, and was to continue
working _till the man of sin should be revealed_. It began to work in the
disciples of _Simon_, _Menander_, _Carpocrates_, _Cerinthas_, and such
sorts of men as had imbibed the metaphysical philosophy of the _Gentiles_
and _Cabalistical Jews_, and were thence called _Gnosticks_. _John_ calls
them _Antichrists_, saying that in his days there were many _Antichrists_.
But these being condemned by the Apostles, and their immediate disciples,
put the Churches in no danger during the opening of the first four seals.
The visions at the opening of these seals relate only to the civil affairs
of the heathen _Roman_ Empire. So long the Apostolic traditions prevailed,
and preserved the Church in its purity: and therefore the affairs of the
Church do not begin to be considered in this Prophecy before the opening of
the fifth seal. She began then to decline, and to want admonitions; and
therefore is admonished by these Epistles, till the Apostacy prevailed and
took place, which was at the opening of the seventh seal. The admonitions
therefore in these seven Epistles relate to the state of the Church in the
times of the fifth and sixth seals. At the opening of the fifth seal, the
Church is purged from hypocrites by a great persecution.
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