21.  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

22.  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

23.  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts:  and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

24.  But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, (as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak;) I will put upon you none other burden: 

25.  But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come.

26.  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 

27.  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father.

28.  And I will give him the morning-star.

29.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Vs. 18-29.—­The most lengthy epistle is sent to the church in Thyatira.  He who is the “Son of God,” a divine person, possessing the essential attributes of omniscience and immutability, has more to say to this church than to any of the rest.  Commending, as usual, whatever was commendable,—­their “works, charity, service,” etc.; “and the last to be more than the first:”  he has, nevertheless, “a few things against them,”—­especially “suffering that woman Jezebel to teach.”  Is this “woman Jezebel” to be taken in a literal or figurative sense?  Analogy seems to require a metaphorical sense.  If, in the preceding epistle, “Balaam” is not to be understood literally and personally, but figuratively and representatively, so Jezebel represents an individual, or rather as that other woman, (ch. xvii. 4.) a faction or sect, who propagated destructive heresy.  Jezebel was daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians, whom Ahab married contrary to the express law of God. (1 Kings xvi. 31; Deut. vii. 3.) She was a violent persecutor of the Lord’s people, because she was given to idolatry; and she was an instigator of all the cruelty perpetrated by that wicked king, “whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.”  As Ahab suffered his wife to control his policy, “giving him the vineyard of Naboth,” etc., so it appears, the rulers in this church are blamed for permitting “a woman to teach,” contrary to the law of Christ.” (1 Tim. ii. 12.) She “called herself a prophetess,”—­why not then require her to show her credentials?  Permitted to usurp the functions of a public teacher, she “seduced Christ’s servants” to join in the abominable rites of the heathen.  Spiritual fornication, especially when conducted by female agency, has always issued in that which is literal.  This may be verified from the time of Noah and Balaam till the erection of nunneries under the sanction of the “man