097. Chapter II (Revelation 15)
CHAPTER II The exposition of the 15th chapter The Holy Ghost having thus first of all shewn how the reformation from Popery was to be brought about and churches erected, he here beginneth to set before us the uniform state of believers in this temple, and the several degrees of their ruining the false church, by several vials; and this, as set together in one continued view throughout all these times, from the first separation from Popery until Christ’s kingdom. Concerning which, in general, I shall premise three things.
First, The difference between their condition here and the condition of the churches under the dark times of Popery, as is uniformly described Revelation 14:1-6. And observe this difference in these four particulars:—
1. Those, Revelation 14, were virgins, but not separate; but these here stand alone in a temple by themselves, washing themselves from the defilement of Popery, as being separated therefrom.
2. Those sung a new song confusedly; but these sing the song of Moses and the Lamb—that is, the law and the gospel—distinctly.
3. Those there stood naked upon the hill of Sion, as it was ere a temple was reared upon it; but these here are gathered into a temple, and roofed over their heads.
4. Those sung their song in Egypt; but these are come out of Egypt, and so sing Moses’s song. The second thing to be premised is, that these seven angels and their vials, and this company here, are in the general description of them, or in that preface to their description prefixed, Revelation 15:1, called ‘a sign, great and marvellous,’ and ‘another sign.’
1. It is called a sign. A sign is always a forerunner of something to come. Now, what it is that is here pointed at as to come, Revelation 15:5 tells us; namely, that ‘after these things,’—that is, after these vials,—‘the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony was opened in heaven.’ So then, these vials, they are the sign of that glorious holy of holies which John saw was to come after them; or they are the sign of the New Jerusalem,—for by that ‘temple of the tabernacle of the testimony’ is that state meant,—and also of Christ’s coming; and so they are that ‘sign of the Son of man’ spoken of Matthew 24. And these plagues do here go before him, as in like manner the prophets use to describe his progress with plagues and pestilence before him. And therefore, if you observe it, just when the last vial approacheth, Revelation 16:15, then warning is given, ‘Behold, I come as a thief,’ &c.
2. It is called another sign: for that sign, Revelation 12, was the sign of the devil’s being thrown down in heathenism; but this, of the devil’s throwing down out of Popery, and Christ’s coming to set up his kingdom. So that we of this age do indeed stand in the midst of the times of these vials, and so may see how much of Christ’s train is gone before, and what is to come hereafter, himself being to come in the rear of all. The third thing to be premised and observed is, that they are called the ‘last plagues.’
Christ had three sorts of enemies to subdue, by three several sorts of plagues:—
1. Satan and his false worship, together with the heathenish empire; which he despatched by the six seals, Revelation 6.
2. The Roman empire; which he ruined by the six trumpets.
3. The Pope in the west, and the Turk in the east, who succeeded in the place of the Roman (both eastern and western) empire; and for these he hath prepared seven vials. And because these are the last enemies, therefore these vials are called the last plagues.
Thus much in general; now more particularly to descend to the several contents of this chapter.
There are two things which are more eminently presented to our view in this 15th chapter:—
First, The church or company of believers standing in the temple, described Revelation 15:2-5, and Revelation 15:8.
Secondly, The angels, who are executioners of the vials out of that temple, described Revelation 15:6-8.
First, For the company from among whom the angels come:—
1. They have a temple over their heads, as Revelation 15:8, ‘continually filled with smoke;’ as at the first dedication of Moses’s tabernacle, Exodus 40:34-35; and at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, which was a larger edition of that which Moses had given the pattern of, 1 Kings 8:16. To shew that during the vials there should be new erections, and editions, and reformations of the temple; unto all which God still gives the testimony of his presence. As—
(1.) When that first separation from Popery was made, and true churches were set up by the Waldenses, and smoke filled their temples.
(2.) In the Reformation made by Luther and Calvin there was a further edition of the temple, and smoke did afresh fill it also.
(3.) In the 11th chapter, Revelation 11:1, you will meet with another reformation, and casting away the outward court; and smoke will afresh fill those new-measured temples also: God still giving new testimonies of his presence, as new editions of purer churches do come forth.
2. Their station in this temple is upon a sea of glass; which, as you heard out of the 4th chapter, was an allusion to that brazen sea in which the priests washed themselves: to shew that this company of believers, from out of which the vials do come, should be such as should still more and more purify themselves afresh in their several ages from those defilements of doctrine and worship which Antichrist had brought into the church. And they, in their several successions, discovering new and further defilements, are therefore still presented as coming forth fresh and anew out of the sea of glass; and accordingly are presented standing upon the brim, as being new come out from washing themselves, and so growing purer and purer, until they become a bride fully prepared for their Lord and King.
3. They are also presented as victors and conquerors,—for such, through pouring forth these vials, they do become,—and in the end shall fully prevail over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name; which are several degrees of Popery and antichristianism, whereof some are more gross and some more refined. All which they in like manner do by degrees, in their several successions, go on to discover and to overcome; until by that time that these vials are all poured out, they have got a full and perfect conquest over all. And therefore, in this general description, they are set forth as those that had such a full conquest; for that, take them first and last, they shall have a perfect and complete victory over all these. The meaning is not, as Mr. Brightman understands it, that this company had first got a complete victory over all these before the vials began; but this is spoken of the whole company and succession of them first and last conjunctively, the intendment being to give a general description of them, and to set down what they should do and accomplish by that time their whole time is expired, and to shew how, by that time they shall have poured out their vials, they shall obtain the victory. Thus, in like manner of speech, it is said, Revelation 15:1, that ‘in them is filled up,’ or fulfilled, ‘the wrath of God;’ expleta est ira Dei. Which is spoken as if it were already accomplished and fulfilled; but the meaning is, that by that time they are all emptied, the wrath of God will be thoroughly exercised and fulfilled through them and by them. And so doth this here note out, not a full victory before the vials, but a complete victory in and through the pouring out of these vials; and that this company, ere the time of the vials is fully expired, obtains it. For the vials are themselves the means by which they do overcome; and for each degree of which victory they sing a triumphant song.
4. These ‘sing the song of Moses:’ for the former of the vials are allusions to the plagues of Egypt; and by that time that the fifth vial comes they will have drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and so will sing that song, Exodus 15. And after that they will sing the song of the Lamb, even his marriage-song, as in the 19th chapter, (which comes in after the funeral-song of the city of Rome, or the fifth vial in Revelation 18,) Revelation 19:6-7, ‘Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come;’ that is, is approaching. Or this song may refer to the doctrine of the gospel, which now began to be taught among them more clearly; for Moses’s song, Deuteronomy 32, was doctrinal; and so in the Old Testament it was ordinary to utter matters of doctrine in songs. And thus in this book the doctrine of the church is still expressed, and is called a song. And so whereas, during the dark times of Popery, they sung as it were a new song, differing from Popish doctrine, yet so confusedly that none could learn it, as Revelation 14:3 : now they have the everlasting gospel to preach, as Revelation 14:6, and they sing Moses’s song and the Lamb’s distinctly; they preach the law and the gospel clearly and rightly, and make manifest his
And, moreover, these do also set up Christ, both in himself and in his relations to his church; as calling him—
1. The Lord Almighty; 2. King of Saints; 3. The only Holy One. And so—
1. As the only ruler and lord of his church; 2. And king that must give laws unto it; 3. As the fountain of all grace and holiness: in a word, as a God only to be believed in and worshipped, as being only and alone holy. They magnify nor saints, nor temples, nor the Pope; no, nor any creature whatsoever. For so, Jeremiah 10:7, the like speech is uttered in opposition to all false gods; and therefore, say they, ‘Who will not fear thee?’ or worship thee, and that according to thine own ways prescribed in thy word, and not according to men’s inventions. ‘Just, and true, and righteous are thy ways,’ that is part of their song, and all superstitions and human inventions in worship are false. So says David, ‘I hate every evil way, but thy law do I love,’ as being only true and righteous, Psalms 119.—Thus much for their song.
Secondly, The description of these angels, and their preparations to pour out their vials, you have from Revelation 15:6 of this 15th chapter to the end, as you have the execution and pouring out of their vials in the 16th chapter. The angels are described as ‘clothed in white,’ as priests, and ‘girt with a golden girdle’ of alacrity, strength, sincerity, and truth; for in Scripture men are said to be girt with all these. And ‘one of the four beasts’—that it, of the officers of the churches, whose mouths in praying the officers still are—is said to ‘give these vials unto these angels,’ in that theirs and the church’s prayers do fill up these vials in their several successions. And the plagues they execute are said to be in vials, both because the prayers of the saints do fill up the wrath poured out,—for, chap. 5, the vials are interpreted the prayers of the saints,—and also in allusion to the expression in the Old Testament, where God’s wrath is described by a cup or vial in the hand of the Lord; as often in the Psalms you have it. And Rome’s sin being expressed by ‘a cup of abomination in her hands,’ her plagues are therefore fitly expressed by vials and cups of wrath, irresistibly poured out upon their heads from heaven. And they are said to be ‘filled with the wrath of God, that liveth for ever and ever,’ for that these plagues are spiritual as well as corporal, as I shall shew, and are but the beginnings of an everlasting wrath, as that fire from heaven upon the Sodomites is said to be ‘an everlasting fire,’ and so called by Jude.
Again, these vials are said to come ‘out of the temple;’ that is, out of the church or churches then erected. Which because it follows the mention of the ‘opening the temple of the tabernacle in heaven,’ therefore some have mistaken it, as if these angels had come out of the ‘temple of the testimony,’ mentioned Revelation 15:5 : whereas that temple there is, by way of distinction, called the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony, even the holy of holies; and the opening of that temple, not spoken in relation unto the angels coming out, as opening upon their coming forth, but for the discovery of the ark, as you have it interpreted under the seventh trumpet, Revelation 11:19, in allusion to the holy of holies, which was kept veiled. Now, by that 11th chapter, it evidently appears that the vials are poured out before the opening of this tabernacle of the testimony in heaven. For, Revelation 11:5-6, you read of four vials before the killing of the witnesses; and the fifth vial is after their rising; and the passing away of the second woe is the sixth vial; and then the seventh vial and the seventh trumpet are all one, as hath been oftentimes shewed; and then comes the tabernacle of the testimony, or holy of holies, to be opened, and the ark to be discovered and seen in it, Revelation 11:19 of that chapter. And in like manner here also, the opening of this tabernacle is said to be
1. Of God’s presence in these churches; so, Isaiah 4:5, under the allusion to the smoke in the temple, God’s presence in his assemblies under the New Testament is there spoken of. And here it is interpreted the glory of the Lord: for so it follows, ‘the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of the Lord;’ that is, his glorious presence, which, Isaiah 6:1, is said to fill the temple.
2. Of God’s defence and protection of his church; and therefore it is here also added, ‘and from the power of the Lord.’ So that none can enter in to hurt them within the temple. And thus also, Isaiah 4:5, the smoke is interpreted ‘a defence;’ and, Isaiah 4:6, there is said to be ‘a covert and a refuge from the storm,’ &c.
3. Of offence also to their enemies. So in the 18th Psalm, smoke is made a sign of God’s anger and wrath; ‘a smoke ascended in his anger.’ And so, whereas it is said, that ‘no man was able to enter into the temple,’ one probable meaning of that expression, to me, is, that whereas God poured forth upon the enemies of his church vials of wrath, and these plagues were rained abroad upon them,—against which this temple, as was said, was the only refuge and covert, men still using to fly unto the temple, and to the horns of the altar, as being their sanctuary,—God in his just judgment hardeneth, and so keepeth those his enemies of the Popish party from joining themselves to this his temple; so that they, through the obdurateness of their hearts, of which you may still read in the vials, are not able to enter into it, and so perish, and are destroyed by these plagues. And whereas it is said, ‘they entered not in till the seven plagues were fulfilled,’ the meaning is, that they never entered; as, Genesis 8:7, and Psalms 112:8, and Acts 3:21,[10]until is put for never.