Revelation 14:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I heard a voice from heaven This is most seasonably heard when the beast is in his highest power and fury; saying unto me, Write He was at first commanded to write the whole book. Whenever this is repeated, it denotes something peculiarly observable. Blessed Μακαριοι, happy, are the dead which die in the Lord In the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ; and, in consequence of that faith, in a state of vital union with him, he being thereby made of God unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and thereby imparting unto them, 1st, A satisfactory knowledge of the nature and greatness of their future felicity, in their illumination; 2d, A title to it, in their justification; 3d, A meetness for it, in their sanctification; and, 4th, Bringing them to the enjoyment of it, in their complete redemption from all the consequences of the fall; from henceforth Particularly, 1st, Because they escape the approaching calamities, or are taken away from the evil to come, as the expression is, Isaiah 57:1-2, to which passage there seems to be an allusion here; 2d, Because they already enjoy so near an approach to, and indeed an anticipation of, glory the glory to be conferred at the second coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead; for they rest No pain, no purgatory follows; but pure and unmixed happiness; from their labours And the more laborious their life was, the sweeter is their rest. How different is this state from that of those (Rev 14:11) who have no rest day nor night! Reader, which wilt thou choose? And their works Each one's peculiar works, done from a principle of faith and love, with a single eye to the glory of God, and in a spirit of humility before God, resignation to his will, and patience under all trials and sufferings; and in meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering toward those who oppose them in their Christian course of cheerfully doing good, and patiently suffering ill; follow them And will be produced as evidences of their faith and love; or of the genuineness of their religion at the day of judgment. But the words, τα εργα αυτων ακολουθει μετ ' αυτων, properly signify, their works follow with them, or follow them immediately; that is, the fruit of their works; they reap this, in some measure, immediately on their admission into paradise. Observe, reader, their works do not go before, to procure for them admittance into the mansions of joy and glory, but they follow or attend them when admitted. Bishop Newton accounts for the expression, From henceforth, blessed are the dead, &c., by observing, that though from the time of the Reformation, “the blessedness of the dead who die in the Lord hath not been enlarged, yet it hath been much better understood, more clearly written and promulgated than it was before, and the contrary doctrine of purgatory hath been exploded and banished from the belief of all reasonable men. This truth,” adds he, “was moreover one of the leading principles of the Reformation. What first provoked Luther's spirit was the scandalous sale of indulgences; and the doctrine of indulgences having a close connection with the doctrine of purgatory, the refutation of the one naturally leads to the refutation of the other; and his first work of reformation was his ninety-five theses, or positions, against indulgences, purgatory, and the dependent doctrines. So that he may be said literally to have fulfilled the command from heaven, of writing, Blessed are the dead, &c., and from that time to this, this truth hath been so clearly asserted, and so solemnly established, that it is likely to prevail for ever.” But though what the bishop here states might be one reason of the expression, from henceforth blessed, &c., yet the principal reason of its being used seems evidently to have been that above suggested, namely, to intimate that the sufferings which the people of God would be exposed to at this period, from the persecutions of the antichristian power, would be so great that those individuals who escaped them by being taken out of the world by death before they came, would have reason to think themselves happy.