096. Chapter I (Revelation 13:6-18, Revelation 14:6-20)

CHAPTER I The 13th chapter explained, from the 6th verse to the end

Now having ordered and cast these chapters, remaining to be expounded, into this mould, I begin this exposition here, where the story of the church’s first separation from Antichrist doth indeed begin, where also I brake off the First Part of this exposition. In which my ranking of these chapters was shewed, that as the 13th chapter does throughout set forth the condition of the false antichristian church, and the several sorts of that company which shall cleave to the beast, so that this 14th chapter does in like manner set forth the company of true believers, which shall apart by themselves cleave unto the Lamb, and that in those several conditions which they are to run through. As—

1. The condition of the church in the dark times of Popery, from his first rising until the gospel’s light did break forth more clearly, and a separation was made from the church of Antichrist. And this, as I have opened it, you have from the 1st verse unto the 6th (Revelation 13:1-6). Or—

2. The condition of the church from that first separation from Popery, and believers erecting churches and assemblies by themselves, from Revelation 13:6 to the end. Which now begins to be expounded. And the scope of the Holy Ghost in this remainder of Revelation 14 is but to shew by what degrees the gospel should first break forth, and how churches should at first be erected and a glorious reformation made. And so it reacheth no further than till the times of that prevailing again of the beast, which after this great reformation he should a second time obtain to have over these churches, about the times of the fourth vial, which is executed by the angel that hath power over fire, who is mentioned Revelation 14:18. Which prevailing of his, the 11th chapter (the scope whereof is to shew how the beast’s reign is to end) does more fully shew forth.

Now when as the Holy Ghost had in this 14th chapter given the story of that first separation and reformation, as being sufficient to shew the foundation and progress of this new temple and true church, erected in opposition to the false, he then breaks off, and presents the general and common condition and station of believers in this new erected temple, separate from the church of the beast and from its doctrine and worship, and shews the judgments to be executed upon the false church all that while, until the kingdom of Christ, entirely together in one view, in the 15th and 16th chapters.

Now this state and condition of the church, as first breaking forth from under Antichrist, and so coming out of Babylon and Egypt, laid forth in this 14th chapter, until Antichrist’s second prevailing, spoken of Revelation 11, hath two parts:—

1. Their first separation, in the dark and elder times of the gospel, before the Reformation.

2. The Reformation itself, made by Calvin and others.

1. The first separation, made and continued in the elder times before Luther, hath three degrees of it orderly set forth, as light increased in the church, from Revelation 11:6-14.

2. The Reformation itself, from the 14th verse to the end.

First, Of that first separation:—

It hath three degrees, as was said, set forth by three angels, as by whose ministry all the great things done in the church and world throughout this book are still said to be effected, who in their voice and cry rise higher and higher, and louder and louder, against Antichrist and his company. The first angel, who lays the foundation of all, is said to have the ‘everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and tongue, and people,’ and so to ‘fly into the midst of heaven,’ as reaching his voice to all. And he also calls upon men to fear and worship God alone, who made heaven and earth, Revelation 14:7. So that the matter of his preaching is the gospel, which brings to light the free grace of God in Christ for the justification of a sinner, and also the true worship of this God alone; withdrawing men from idolatry and false worship of saints and angels, which the world was then overwhelmed with: which because in those times it was called the New Gospel, therefore, in opposition to that calumny, the Holy Ghost calls it the, Everlasting Gospel, which was now restored and brought to light. And by the preaching of these two things to all nations, was the foundation of that whole separation from the Pope that followed first laid.

Now this first angel’s preaching doth most lively set forth the first proceedings of Waldus and his followers, who first began to make separation from Popish doctrine and worship. This Waldus, an alderman of Lyons in France, about the year of Christ 1100, being converted by occasion of the sudden death of a friend of his, as they were walking abroad together,—which mightily terrified and amazed him, God using that as a means to humble him and bring him to Christ,—fell a-preaching in that city, and converted many others to the saving knowledge of Christ. And he being a man learned also, as even Popish writers say of him, opened the Scriptures, and turned them into the vulgar French. And he and his followers, thinking it their duty to preach this gospel unto others, as did the apostles, they forthwith sent abroad some of their company a-preaching. Which when it came to the ears of the Pope, they were prohibited, as being laymen. But they, affirming it was better to obey God than men, and it being an article of their faith, unicuique licere verbum Dei libere prædicare,—that it was lawful for any man to preach the gospel,—they went on in the course they had begun, though they were persecuted for it. And look, as in the primitive times, when persecution arose after the death of Stephen, and that the church of Jerusalem was dispersed, it was an occasion of further spreading the gospel unto other nations: so Waldus, being himself excommunicated, came into Picardy, and so into the Low Countries, and there, by his preaching, made many disciples, and then went into Germany, and last of all into Bohemia; and his followers were dispersed into Savoy, Lombardy, and the countries on this side the Alps; and Arnoldus, his companion, went into Spain. Insomuch that Poplinerius the historian gives this testimony of them, that these Waldenses, maugre the power of all Christian princes, about the year 1100, did broach a doctrine little differing from what the Protestants now hold; and not only dispersed it through France, but over all the parts of Europe. Of these things you may read at large in the English History of the Waldenses, and in Bishop Ussher’s book, De Successione Ecclesiæ. Thus you see they preached, as hers; yea, it was their profession; and they preached to all nations, and the doctrine they preached was only the gospel, and to call men from idolatry to worship God aright, (as you may read at large in those books mentioned,) as the angel is here said to do, Revelation 14:7.

Revelation 14:8.—But in an age or two following, their number increasing in all kingdoms, and their light growing more clear, there follows out of this company a second angel, who with open mouth proclaims that Rome was Babylon, and the Pope that beast, and that Antichrist, in this Revelation described, and ordained to ruin. Which thing Waldus did at the first but begin to mutter; for in one more ancient breviary of the articles of their opinions, (as you have them in that forenamed book, De Successione Ecclesiæ, cap.vi., n. 16,) this is the first, concerning the church of Rome, in these modest words only, Romanum Præsulem reliquis parem esse episcopis,—that the Pope of Rome was but equal to all other bishops. But afterwards in the following ages, their followers grew more bold; and in another edition of their articles, in the same chapter, n. 17, you find this, Romanam ecclesiam esse meretricem Babylonicam,—that the church of Rome was the whore of Babylon. Which thing the professors in those next ages did inculcate, and insist on, and made it the eminent article of their profession and confession. But this was especially done by Wickliff and his followers, beginning about the year 1371, in England; and after him by John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and their followers, anno 1400. But then follows a third angel, more vehement than the rest,—and that was Luther and his followers,—and he proceeds further, and says, that not only Rome is Babylon, but that all those who cleave unto her doctrine and superstitions ‘shall drink of the wrath of God for ever;’ that is, be certainly damned, and go to hell. He shewing that her worship and doctrine, the image of the beast, was a damned doctrine, and laying open the falsehoods and errors of it so manifestly, that now under so clear a light of the gospel as this age held forth, it could never stand with salvation to live therein. And so he urged a separation from Rome under pain of damnation. The voice of this angel is from Revelation 14:9-12.

Then follows an intimation, once for all, of those martyrdoms and bloody persecutions of all those three angels and their followers, as the effect of this their preaching, and as a trial of the truth of their doctrine, and their own sincerity. So, Revelation 14:12-13, ‘Here is the patience of the saints;’ that is, here comes in matter for the trial of it. And for their encouragement, there is a comfortable acclamation subjoined, ‘Blessed are those that die in the Lord.’ Now how, upon the preaching of all those angels, persecutions were raised,—which from the times of the heathenish and Arian persecutions, for the space of eight hundred years past before, in the dark times of Popery, the church was free from,—and there followed the martyrdoms of the followers of Waldus, Wickliff, Huss, and Luther, and of those that embraced their doctrine, especially upon and after this third angel’s preaching; this the Book of Martyrs will inform you. In the second place comes the time of the Reformation, after Luther; the state of which is presented to us under a double vision: the one of a harvest, the other of a vintage, which useth to come after harvest. The first betokens that glorious peace and sunshine of the gospel which followed after those persecutions in Germany, England, &c., for sixty years and upwards, and this from Revelation 14:14-17. By a harvest, in Scripture, is meant the conversion and gathering in of the elect by the preaching of the gospel. ‘So in the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesying of the conversion of the Jews in Egypt and Assyria, Isaiah 27:12-13, he useth this expression, that God would thresh or ‘beat off,’ all along from the river Euphrates unto Egypt, those his elect people, that, as corn, should grow upon the shores thereof; and that he would thresh so clean, that they should be gathered ‘one by one;’ not leaving one grain of election behind, nor one ear of corn standing unreaped. It is an allusion to a harvest, and having in of corn, and threshing it. Like unto which is that speech of Christ, when he sent out his disciples: ‘Lo, the regions are white, and ripe for the harvest,’ and ‘the harvest is great.’ Which he spake when there were multitudes of people ripe and ready to receive the gospel. And since the preaching of the gospel by the third angel, what multitudes of such hungry souls have there been in these kingdoms? And what a glorious time of summer and harvest have we had? And this preaching of the gospel, that hath reaped this corn, hath been authorised by the chief magistrates, and by kingly power, even whole kingdoms professing it. And therefore he who in this vision hath the sickle given him to reap is presented ‘crowned with a golden crown;’ which, according to the analogy with the other contents of this book, Revelation 12:5, is when Jesus Christ, the Son of man, is visibly set in the throne, ruling by Christian magistrates, they using their power for him; as when the emperors turned Christians, you find the like expression used, Revelation 10. The other vision is of a vintage, from Revelation 14:17 to the end; which, as a vintage comes after harvest, so this falls out in the end of this summer, and after the harvest of the Reformation, and so shuts up the story of it. Wherein God, after he hath had in his corn, falls upon the grapes, the wild grapes, and cuts them down; but with another manner of sickle than he had done his own corn. He had reaped them with a sickle of conversion, but these he cuts down with the ‘sharp sickle’—twice so called—of vengeance; and therefore, it is said that they are ‘cast into the wine-press of God’s wrath.’ And these grapes are those carnal Protestants and professors of religion, who, together with the elect, have enjoyed the heat of this fair long summer, and hung like to grapes in the sun, but retaining their sourness, have been ripened indeed, but only for wrath and vengeance. And lo, how this sharp sickle hath gone up and down in Germany for well-nigh these twenty years, being such a wine-press of fierce wrath, and such a, treading down to an overflowing of blood and misery, as hath scarce been paralleled in any age! For it is the vengeance of the temple, not so much destroyed, as defiled and dishonoured by their mixture; which as much provokes God unto wrath as the persecution of his temple would have done. And therefore, the angel that is the executioner of it is provoked unto it by the cries of an angel that comes from the altar, as one who is zealous of God’s worship, and disdains as much that the temple and altar (the ordinances of worship) should be pestered and defiled with such as call themselves the church, saying, ‘We are the temple of God,’ and so cause God’s name to be blasphemed, as that the idolatrous Papists, whom this book calls the Gentiles, Revelation 11:1, should tread down this holy city and sanctuary. For even these are no better than Gentiles also, who ‘say they are Jews, but are not.’ And that this vengeance should be meant of this execution of it upon the Protestant party seems evident unto me by this, that the wine-press is said to be ‘trodden without the city;’ that is, without the jurisdiction or reach of the power of the city of Rome,—for so that word city, according to the style of this book, doth still import, as Revelation 11:8, Revelation 16:19, &c.,—and so is on purpose added to shew that it befalls even such kingdoms and places as had cast off the Pope’s supremacy. And it appears also by this, that it is mentioned apart from the vials which follow, which are all the judgments that fall upon the Popish and Turkish enemies of the church; but this upon a third sort of enemies within the church itself. And although it be true, that so far as there hath befallen, through these German wars, a plague upon the Popish party in Germany, (as upon the emperor, and those Popish princes under him,) so far indeed as upon them, it is to be reduced to one of the vials, which do contain all the last plagues on the Popish party, and particularly comes under the fourth vial; yet so far as these wars have brought miseries and desolation on the Protestant party, so far in that respect it is presented in this vintage. And therefore you may observe, that the angel, who it is said hath ‘power over fire,’—who is indeed the angel of the fourth vial, as the angel of the third is called the ‘angel of the waters,’—because he hath ‘power to scorch men with fire,’ Revelation 16:8, that angel it is that incites and provokes this angel here, with the ‘sharp sickle, to cut down and tread these grapes.’ So that this vintage is a distinct execution from that of the fourth vial, and yet contemporaneous with it. In a word, these wars, so far as they hurt the Popish party, are the fourth vial; and so far as they hurt the Protestant party, they are the vintage here meant. That horses are mentioned as treaders of this wine-press most fitly carries it to these German wars; the German horses being the most approved war-horses in Europe, and these wars having been chiefly maintained and acted by them. And then also this allusion of grapes trodden in a wine-press was is suitable to express the miseries befallen those countries; which are famous for vines and vintages, as the Palatinate and other places in Germany are. And for the like reason the judgments upon Edom and Bozrah are expressed by a vintage, Isaiah 63:1, because it was a country famous for vines. And then again, haply the space of 1600 furlongs here mentioned, which some make more miles, some less, may, for the length, be found as fitly to agree unto the chief seat of these wars and wine-press; which, take the length of the Protestant part of Germany trodden down, and here only intended, may not every way extend much further. But the computation and measuring of this I leave unto others. And whether or no God will bring this wine-press into any other of his vineyards, as England, Scotland, &c., and by bloody wars tread down the grapes there, as he hath done in Germany, keeping still to the same proportion of 1600 furlongs, as our Brightman reckons the length of England to be, and fulfilling it over and over in other several Protestant kingdoms and dominions, He only knows who is the Lord both of this harvest and vintage. Only this may be more confidently affirmed, that the rest of those carnal Protestants in England and other places, who, like the outward court, have been laid and joined to the people of God, shall yet, before the expiration and ending of the beast’s kingdom and number, be more or less given up to the Papists, and to the jurisdiction of the city of Rome, and be trodden down, and made to veil to them, if not all of them by bloody wars and conquests, yet by some base and unworthy yielding to them, as a just punishment of their carnal profession of the gospel. And this in England, we see, they begin to do; and this, I take it, Revelation 11:1 doth foretell and prophesy of. Which chapter being intended to give a signal or forerunner of the beast’s ruin, and the expiration of his 1260 years and period of his kingdom, which now is approaching, doth present the state of the church, and what shall befall it, not long before his ruin; and so withal that face of the church just before is presented there, Revelation 11:1. And the setting down what should befall it, Revelation 14:7-14, must necessarily belong to these times, and so is to be subjoined unto this 14th chapter, (though it comes in there as a common signal of the ending of both prophecies, and therefore between both,) to make the story of the church complete. And this I shall handle and make to appear when I have first opened the meaning of the vials, especially of the four first of them: which though for order’s sake are, by the Holy Ghost, put (as in this book things of a sort use to be) with the rest after this 14th chapter, yet they have been a-pouring forth upon the beast and his company from that first preaching of the gospel until now, as will further appear. And the reason why I would open these four first vials, ere I open the 11th chapter, is, because they synchronise with this 14th chapter; and because four vials are mentioned as poured out, Revelation 11, ere the witnesses are slain, which cannot be understood till these be first explained.