Matthew Poole and continuators on Revelation 1:11

11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first, and the last : and, What thou seest, write in a book , and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia ; unto Ephesus , and unto Smyrna , and unto Pergamos , and unto Thyatira , and unto Sardis , and unto Philadelphia , and unto Laodicea .

I, who speak unto thee, am the Eternal, Immutable God.

What thou shalt presently see, write in a Book, not in loose Papers. Whence we may observe, that this Book is not only the Revelation of the Will of Christ, but written by his Direction.

Not to all that lived within the Jurisdiction, or Compass of these Cities, but only to those Christians who lived▪ in or near these places, which are all Cities in the [illegible: 1 letter]esser Asia.

Ephesus was the most famous where Paul preached, Acts 19.10. &c. and stayed three years, chap. 20.31. It was a noble City in that part of Greece, which was called Ionia.

Smyrna was a Sea-port City in the same Country.

Pergamos was a City of Troas, or Phrygia.

Thyatira was a City in Lydia, or Mysia.

Sardis also was a City in Lydia, near the Mountain Timolus.

Philadelphia was a City in Lydia, next Mysia.

Laodicea was a City in Asia near the River Lycus. In all these Cities there were Congregations of Christians formed into Churches, to whom God here ordereth St. Iohn to send these Visions, when he had wrote them in a Book. Our Countryman, Mr. Bright[illegible: 3 letters] asks▪ Where Rome was all this while? and how it came to pass God directed not these Mysteries to be sent, and kept in their Archieves, especially if (as the Papists say) the Bishop there be Christ's successive Vicar? and considering too, how great Friends Peter and Iohn were wont to be? But the fore-mentioned Author tartly replies to his own Question, That that Church, it seems, could never err, and therefore needed not any Correptory, or monitory Epistle.