The _Nicolaitans_ are complained of also in [3] the third Epistle, as men
that _held the doctrine of _Balaam_, who taught _Balac_ to cast a
stumbling-block before the children of _Israel_, to eat things sacrificed
to Idols, and [4] to commit_ spiritual _fornication_. For _Balaam_ taught
the _Moabites_ and _Midianites_ to tempt and invite _Israel_ by their women
to commit fornication, and to feast with them at the sacrifices of their
Gods. The Dragon therefore began now to come down among the inhabitants of
the earth and sea.
The _Nicolaitans_ are also complained of in the fourth Epistle, under the
name of the _woman _Jezabel_, who calleth herself a Prophetess, to teach
and to seduce the servants of _Christ_ to commit fornication, and to eat
things sacrificed to Idols_. The woman therefore began now to fly into the
wilderness.
The reign of _Constantine_ the great from the time of his conquering
_Licinius_, was monarchical over the whole _Roman_ Empire. Then the Empire
became divided between the sons of _Constantine_: and afterwards it was
again united under _Constantius_, by his victory over _Magnentius_. To the
affairs of the Church in these three successive periods of time, the third,
fourth, and fifth Epistles, that is, those to the Angels of the Churches in
_Pergamus_, _Thyatira_, and _Sardis_, seem to relate. The next Emperor was
_Julian_ the Apostate.
In the sixth Epistle, [5] to the Angel of the Church in _Philadelphia_,
_Christ_ saith: _Because_ in the reign of the heathen Emperor _Julian_,
_thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the
hour of temptation, which_ by the woman's flying into the wilderness, and
the Dragon's making war with the remnant of her seed, and the killing of
all who will not worship the Image of the Beast, _shall come upon all the
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth_, and to distinguish them by
sealing the one with the name of God in their foreheads, and marking the
other with the mark of the Beast.
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