1841 William Miller Evidence from Scripture & History - A2Z.org

134 LECTURE IS
church into the next, which would be a state of trial,
. persecution, and poverty.
Gth verse, " But this thou hast, that thou hatest the
deeds of the Nicolaitans, which 1 also hate." What the
deeds of the Nicolaitans were, we are not able, from the
word of God, to determine ; but from some things hinted
at by some ancient authors, we have good nason to belicve
that Nicolas, one of the seven deacons, departed
from the doctrine which the apostles taught, and preached
a doctrine which mas repugnant to the gospel of Christ,
viz, a colnmunity or plurality of wives, which led Paul
in his instructions to say, Let the deacons be the hueband
of one wife," 1 Tim. iii 12 uHe that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit sBth to the churcli~s.~
Ilerc we llave another evidence, that the branch of the
clr~rrch ut Ephesus was not the only church addressed
in this epistle and prophecy; for, if so, what propriety
in using tho word churchw, in the plural, when only one
church in Asia was spoken of No, it could not be
proper, neither would it have been, as it is 80 used in
every epistle through the whole seven, had not Chri.
designed it for all the churches in a certain age. There
is also an admonition contained in these lastquoted
words, to read, hear, and observe the propl~ecy now
given by the Spirit to John, tlle inspired servant of Chrin;
~tnd for all the churches of tlie age spoken of, to be curefill
to upply to tliel~lselves tl~c ad~~ronitions, desianed hy
the Iioly Spirit for their ir~lmediate benefit u71'o 1ii111
that overcometh mill I give to eat of the tree of life,
\vlric.li is in tlie ~nitlst of the parndisc of God." Ilow
precious is this pro~nme to the fnitllfiil and trictl sor~l,
wlro ])li~cc~ ull Iris hope, and strc~~l,
nnd de ndenrc,
on olle who is iiligllty to save, and on one who Y'- lnr pnniised
to brin r him off conqueror over all the crie~nirs
of grace, alrk the powers of hell ! Yes, and, r.on dwn
nll, he liw ovcrcoine and cnterctl within the veil, nn II
forcr~innrr for us wlro bclicvc. Alny we all, 11v fi~itll,
have a right to this trcc of life, thin pnmdis of (>od.
I will now cxa~ninc the propliery to tlle sccond cl11in.11,
whicli I ~~ndemtaiid to comnicncc ubout tllc close of the
b t century, and larted about two hundred yuarm, until
the daya of Conatantine, A D. 312