On the first day of that month, in the morning, the High-Priest dressed the lamps:  and in allusion hereunto, this Prophecy begins with a vision of one like the Son of man in the High-Priest’s habit, appearing as it were in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, or over against the midst of them, dressing the lamps, which appeared like a rod of seven stars in his right hand:  and this dressing was perform’d by the sending seven Epistles to the Angels or Bishops of the seven Churches of Asia, which in the primitive times illuminated the Temple or Church Catholick.  These Epistles contain admonitions against the approaching Apostacy, and therefore relate to the times when the Apostacy began to work strongly, and before it prevailed.  It began to work in the Apostles days, and was to continue working till the man of sin should be revealed.  It began to work in the disciples of Simon, Menander, Carpocrates, Cerinthas, and such sorts of men as had imbibed the metaphysical philosophy of the Gentiles and Cabalistical Jews, and were thence called Gnosticks. John calls them Antichrists, saying that in his days there were many Antichrists.  But these being condemned by the Apostles, and their immediate disciples, put the Churches in no danger during the opening of the first four seals.  The visions at the opening of these seals relate only to the civil affairs of the heathen Roman Empire.  So long the Apostolic traditions prevailed, and preserved the Church in its purity:  and therefore the affairs of the Church do not begin to be considered in this Prophecy before the opening of the fifth seal.  She began then to decline, and to want admonitions; and therefore is admonished by these Epistles, till the Apostacy prevailed and took place, which was at the opening of the seventh seal.  The admonitions therefore in these seven Epistles relate to the state of the Church in the times of the fifth and sixth seals.  At the opening of the fifth seal, the Church is purged from hypocrites by a great persecution.  At the opening of the sixth, that which letted is taken out of the way, namely the heathen Roman Empire.  At the opening of the seventh, the man of sin is revealed.  And to these times the seven Epistles relate.

The seven Angels, to whom these Epistles were written, answer to the seven Amarc-holim, who were Priests and chief Officers of the Temple, and had jointly the keys of the gates of the Temple, with those of the Treasuries, and the direction, appointment and oversight of all things in the Temple.