1828.] L 
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MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN, 
A Visit to the Seven Churches of Asia, 
§c., by the Rev. F. V. J. Arundell, 
British Chaplain -at Smyrna; 1828.— 
The Seven Churches of Asia—to the an- 
gels of which—that is, according to the 
interpretation which has, we believe, al- 
ways been admitted, the chiefs or bishops— 
especial messages were addressed in the 
Apocalypse—have at all times drawn the 
attention of ecclesiastical readers, and such 
as looked in their subsequent history for the 
completion of what they understood to be 
prophecies. From the establishments of the 
Levant Company at Constantinople and 
Smyrna, the latter the seat of one of the seven 
churches, opportunities in abundance have 
been offered to the chaplains and consuls of 
visiting those places ; nor have such oppor- 
tunities been neglected. The earliest visit, 
of which we have any account, was Dr. 
Smith's, the chaplain at Constantinople, in 
1671, who mentions that, a few years be- 
fore, some gentlemen from Smyrna had been 
the first who made the journey. This Dr. 
Smith seems to have had the credit of dis- 
covering Thyatira and Laodicea. In 1678, 
Sir Paul Ricaut, a consul, well known by 
his work on the Greek and Armenian 
Churches, and his Survey of the Turkish 
Empire—visited the Seven Churchess, if 
we are still to call them seven, when three 
of them are no longer in existence—in com- 
pany with Dr. John Luke; and, like Dr. 
Smith, lays claim to the discovery of Thya- 
tira and Laodicea. In 1699, Edmund Chis- 
hall, the author of Antiquitates Asiatice, 
and chaplain at Smyma, visited Ephesus, 
Sardis, and Thyatira, but did not publish 
his observations. In 1702, Sir William 
Sherard, consul at Smyrna, accompanied by 
the chaplain and others, made a tour to some 
or all of them, and his account also is still 
in MS. In 1740, Pococke visited three of 
them. In 1775, Dr. Chandler published 
his travels in Asia Minor, and describes all 
but Pergamus and Thyatira. Since the 
_ days of Chandler, Dr. Dallaway, chaplain 
and physician to the embassy at Constan- 
tinople, has described Smyrna, Ephesus, 
and Pergamus ; and so lately as 1817, the 
Rey. H. Lindsey examined the whole, and 
published the results in the Missionary Re- 
gister; and now, finally, Mr. Arundell, the 
chaplain of Smyrna, has also visited the 
whole, and, in the volume before us, has, 
with the aid of very liberal borrowing from 
his precursors, given us a full account—not 
yery luminous certainly—of the existing 
state of six of them—for, curiously enough, 
residing at Smyrna as he did, he has for- 
gotten what was close at hand. 
Before westate the present condition of these 
churches, ~~ of them, we must have a word 
or two on the messages in the Apocalypse. 
~ ¥n these addresses, which she eral was 
M.M. New Series.—Vou.VI. No, 31. 
commanded to make, St. John is usually 
understood to have given utterance to pro- 
phecies ; and the writer before us, though 
he does not dwell much upon the matter, 
takes the same view, and occasionally starts 
an evidence of fulfilment. Yet, to an unpreju- 
diced reader—to one, we mean, who trusts. 
to the convictions ofhis own understanding, 
on what comes fairly within its cognizance 
—the addresses—distinctly made to the 
angels—the chiefs, or bishops, as we said— 
consist of commendations for particular 
qualities and conduct, and of censures for 
particular errors and neglects—with corre- 
sponding encouragements and warnings. 
They have not at all the characters of pro- 
phecies, but are plainly authoritative mes- 
sages respecting the official conduct of su- 
perintendents, who are addressed as per- 
sons responsible for the practices of those 
who are under their guidance and care. 
Of the actual history of these conspicuous 
persons we know nothing; but the absence 
of such information is of the less import- 
ance, as the declarations are all conditional, 
and so cannot, in the strict sense, be re- 
garded as prophecies, for the fulfilment of 
which we look with confidence. And to 
apply these messages to the after ages of 
the church, seems quite gratuitous ; for the 
offences charged concern the conduct of par- 
ticular “officers” towards particular per- 
sons; and it must be the very extreme of 
improbability to suppose that a succession of 
officers, in the same station, should have 
precisely the same qualities, and act in pre- 
cisely the same manner towards a succession 
of individuals entertaining successively the 
same sentiments. Besides, facts do not 
correspond; though the chief of Laodicea 
was the worst of the seven—“ neither hot 
nor cold”——and met with the sharpest re- 
proofs and the severest threats, and Lao« 
dicea, it may be said, lies accordingly ut- 
terly in ruins—yet so, we may add, does 
Ephesus, whose chief, though he had fallen 
from his “first love” —which probably means 
that he had disregarded the orders of the 
apostle—the first converter—yet had ree 
sisted the seductions of false teachers—had 
hated the Nicolaitanes—had laboured—and 
fainted not. And even Thyatira, whose 
chief, though censured for suffering the wo- 
man Jezebel to seduce Christ’s servants, is 
distinctly attested to have had works—cha- 
rity, faith, and patience—and, moreover, 
that the last were better than the first—that 
is, he had been good, and was now better— 
even Thyatira, though still existing in com- 
paratively considerable numbers, is in a 
state far too deplorable to correspond with 
the strong expressions of triumph in the 
message. ‘The truth apparently is, the ad- 
dresses apply to the chiefs, and by impli- 
cation, and, once or twice, expressly, to their 
