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The mystery of the seven stars, and the seven golden candlesticks: see Rev_1:12,16.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; that is, they signify the angels of the seven churches. By angels he means God’s messengers and ambassadors to the seven churches, called angels, both in respect of their office, being the ambassadors of Christ, 2Co_5:20, and of that holiness which they should show forth in their doctrine and life. To interpret the term of angels by nature, seems not agreeable to what we shall hereafter meet with said to some of them; Christ would never have ordered John to have charged them with a loss of their first love, or to admonish them to be faithful unto death, or to repent. Whether the term angel denoteth any particular superior minister or bishop in those churches, or is to be taken collectively for all the ministers in those churches, I shall not dispute. Certain it is, aggelov signifieth no more than is common to all ministers, viz. to be God’s messengers, and move upon his errand.
And the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches; the seven churches mentioned Rev_1:11: or else, seven being the number of perfection, all the churches, which are fitly represented by candlesticks, in the same sense as they are called pillars of truth in Paul’s Epistle to Timothy, because they have not the light they show from themselves, only hold it forth from Christ. But it is the opinion of very learned writers upon this book, that our Lord, by these seven churches, signifies all the churches of Christ to the end of the world; and by what he saith to them, designs to show what shall be the state of the churches in all ages, and what their duty is. That by the church of Ephesus, was represented the purest state of all the Christian churches, which determined thirty years before this book was written. By the church of Smyrna, the state of all Christian churches till the year 300. By the church of Pergamos, all the Christian churches till antichrist got up into the saddle, and the Albigenses and Waldenses were so persecuted. By the church of Thyatira, the state of the churches from that time till our Reformation. By the other three, the state of all churches for one hundred and fifty years last past, and which shall be to the end of the world. See Dr. More, Mr. Mede, Cocceius, and Forbes, as learned and diligent inquirers into the sense of this book as any have been, who give many reasons for this:
1. Because no reason else can be given, why epistles should not be written to other churches as well as these.
2. He doth not call them the seven churches of Asia, but seven churches.
3. The number seven is a number used to signify perfection.
4. What is said of Christ’s walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, having the stars in his right hand, &c., agreeth to him with reference to all churches, not to these seven only.
5. His calling ministers angels, speaks this a prophecy, for that is a prophetical style.
6. The mentioning the same number of churches and ministers, as of the seals, speaks this part of the Revelation as comprehensive, with respect to time, as the other.
7. It is not probable that these epistles would have been ushered in with such a vision, if they had been merely historical and didactic, not prophetical also.
8. They argue from Rev_1:19, where John is bid to write not only what is, but what shall come to pass.
9. They argue from the matter of the epistles.—Let the curious reader see more of this in the authors themselves, as also in Mr. Brightman.