14 1 The Lamb standeth on mount Zion: 4 with his chaste worshippers. 6 One Angel preacheth the Gospel. 8 Another foretelleth the fall of Babylon: 9 the third warneth that the beast be avoided. 13 A voice from heaven pronounceth them happy who die in the Lord. 16 The Lord’s sickle thrust into the harvest, 18 and into the vintage.
1 Then I looked, and lo, a Lamb [a]stood on mount Zion, and with him an [b]hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s [c]Name written in their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps.
3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the Elders: and no man could learn that song, but the hundred, forty and four thousand, which were bought from the earth.
4 These are they which are not defiled with women: for they are virgins: these follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth: these are bought from men, being the firstfruits unto God, and unto the Lamb.
5 And in their mouths was found no guile: for they are without spot before the throne of God.
6 ¶ [d]Then I saw [e]another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having an everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7 [f](A)Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made (B)heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters.
8 And there followed another Angel, saying, (C)Babylon that great city is fallen, it is fallen: for she made all nations to drink of the wine of the [g]wrath of her fornication.
9 ¶ And the third Angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, [h]If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or on his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, yea, of the pure wine, which is poured into the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy Angels, and before the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment shall ascend evermore: and they shall have no rest day nor night, which worship the beast and his name.
12 [i]Here is the patience of Saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, The dead which die [j]in the Lord, are fully blessed. Even so saith the Spirit: for they rest from their labors, and their [k]works follow them.
14 ¶ [l]And I looked, and behold, [m]a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sitting like unto the Son of man, [n]having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a [o]sharp sickle.
15 [p]And another Angel came out of the Temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, (D)Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come to reap: for the (E)harvest of the earth is ripe.
16 And he that sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 [q]Then another Angel came out of the Temple, which is in heaven, having also a sharp sickle.
18 And another Angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, and said, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vineyard of the earth: for her grapes are ripe.
19 And the Angel thrust in his sharp sickle on the earth, and cut down the vines of the vineyard of the earth, and cast them into that great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, [r]and blood came out of the winepress, unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Footnotes
- Revelation 14:1 The history of the Church of Christ being finished for more than a thousand and three hundred years, at which time Boniface the eighth lived as before hath been said, there remaineth the rest of the history of the conflicting or militant Church, from thence unto the time of the last victory in three chapters. For first of all, as the foundation of the whole history, is described the standing of the lamb with his army and retinue in five verses, after his worthy acts which he hath done, and yet doth in most mighty manner, whilst he overthroweth Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth, in the rest of this chapter, and in the two following. Unto the description of the Lamb, are propounded three things: his situation, place and attendance: for the rest are expounded in the former visions, especially upon the fifth chapter.
- Revelation 14:1 As ready girt to do his office (as Acts 6:56) in the midst of the Church which aforetime mount Zion did prefigure.
- Revelation 14:1 As before 7:2. This retinue of the Lamb is described first by divine mark (as before 7:2) in this verse. Then by divine occupation, in that all and every one in his retinue most vehemently and sweetly (verse 2) do glorify the Lamb with a special song before God and his elect Angels: which song flesh and blood cannot hear, nor understand, verse 3. Lastly by their deeds done before, and their sanctification in that they were virgins, pure from spiritual and bodily fornication that is, from impiety and unrighteousness, that they followed the Lamb as a guide unto all goodness, and cleaved unto him that they are holy unto him as of grace redeemed by him: that in truth and in simplicity of Christ, they have exercised all these things, sanctimony of life, the direction of the Lamb, a thankful remembrance of the redemption by him: finally (to conclude in a word) that they are blameless before the Lord, verses 4, 5.
- Revelation 14:6 The other part (as I said in the first verse) is of the acts of the Lamb, the manner whereof is delivered in two sorts, of his speech, and of his facts. His speeches are set forth unto verse 13 of this chapter, and his facts unto chapter 16. In the speech of the Lamb, which is the word of the Gospel, are taught in this place, these things: The service of the godly consisting inwardly of reverence towards God, and outwardly of the glorifying of him: the visible sign of which is adoration, verse 7. The overthrowing of wicked Babylon, verse 8, and the fall of every one of the ungodly which worship the beast, verses 9, 10, 11. Finally, the state of the holy servants of God both present, verse 11, and to come, most blessed, according to the promise of God, verse 15.
- Revelation 14:6 This Angel is a type or figure of the good and faithful servants of God, whom God especially from that time of Boniface the eighth, hath raised up to the publishing of the Gospel of Christ, both by preaching and by writing. So God first, near unto the time of the same Boniface, used Peter Cassiodorus an Italian: after, Arnold de villa nova, a Frenchman, then Occam, Dante, Petrarch, after that Johannes de rupe casa, a Franciscan: after again, John Wycliff an Englishman, and so continually one or another unto the restoring of the truth and enlarging of his Church.
- Revelation 14:7 That is, Babylon is destroyed by the sentence and judgment of God: the execution whereof S. John described, chap. 18. And this voice of the ministers of Christ hath continued since the time that Babylon (which is Rome) hath by deliberate counsel and manifest malice oppugned the light of the Gospel offered from God.
- Revelation 14:8 Of her fornication, whereby God was provoked to wrath.
- Revelation 14:9 That is, shall not worship God alone, but shall transfer his divine honor unto this beast, whether he doeth it with his heart or counterfeiting in show. For he (saith Christ) that denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father, and his Angels, Matt. 10:32. And this is that voice of the holy ministry; which at this time is very much used of the holy and faithful servants of God. For having now sufficiently found out the public obstinacy of Babylon they labor not any longer to thunder out as against the same but to save some particular members by terror (as S. Jude speaketh) and to pluck them out of the public flame, or else by a vehement commiseration of their state to lead them away, they set before them eternal death, into which they rush unawares, unless in good time they return unto God, but the godly which are of their own flock, they exhort unto patience, obedience, and faith in the Lord Jesus, and charge them to give light by their good example, of good life unto others.
- Revelation 14:12 The patience, sanctification and justification by faith: the consequence whereof are rest, felicity, and glory eternal, in the heavenly fellowship of God and his Angels.
- Revelation 14:13 That is for the Lord.
- Revelation 14:13 By works, is meant the reward which followeth good works.
- Revelation 14:14 The second part of this Chapter, as I said, verse 1. Of the acts and doings of Christ in overthrowing of Antichrist and his Church by the Spirit of his divine mouth: seeing that having been called back by word both publicly and privately unto his duty, and admonished of his most certain ruin: he yet ceaseth not to maintain and protect his own adherents, that they may do him service: and to afflict the godly with most barbarous persecutions. Of those things which Christ doeth, there are two kinds: one common or general in the rest of this chapter, another particular against that savage and rebellious beast and his worshippers in chapters 15 and 16. That common kind, is the calamity of wars spread abroad through the whole earth, and filling all things with blood, and that without respect of any person. This is figured or shadowed out in two types, of the harvest and vintage. Since the time that the light of the Gospel began to shine out, and since prophecy or preaching by the grace of God was raised up again, how horrible wars have been kindled in the world? how much human flesh hath been thrown to the earth by this divine reaping? how much blood (alas for woe) hath overflown for these hundred years almost? all history do cry out, and this our age (if ever before) is now in horror, by reason of the rage of the sickle which Antichrist calleth for. In this place is the first type, that is of the harvest.
- Revelation 14:14 Declaring his fierceness by his color, like unto that which is in the white or milk circle of heaven.
- Revelation 14:14 As one that shall reign from God, and occupy place of Christ in this miserable execution.
- Revelation 14:14 That is, a most fit and commodious instrument of Execution, destroyed all by hewing and thrusting through, for who may stand against God?
- Revelation 14:15 Christ giveth a commandment in this verse. And the Angel executeth in the next verse.
- Revelation 14:17 The other type (as I said, verse14) is the vintage: the manner whereof is one with that which went before, if thou except this, that the grape gathering is more exact in seeking out everything, than is the harvest labor. This is therefore a more grievous judgment, both because it succeedeth the other, and because it is understood to be executed with great diligence.
- Revelation 14:20 That is, it overflowed very deep, and very far and wide: the speech is by hyperbole or excessive, to signify the greatness of the slaughter. And these be those pleasant fruits forsooth, of the contempt of Christ, and desiring of Antichrist rather than him, which the miserable, mad, and blind world doth at this time reap.