Revelation 4

Who would not be willing to serve a prince that is given to mercy and clemency? God is represented with a rainbow round about him (Revelation 4:3), an emblem of his mercy. Acts of severity are rather forced from God; justice is his strange work (Isaiah 28:21).

To make sinners tremble, let them think of these three things: The torments of the damned are without intermission, without mixture, and eternal. 1. Without intermission; their pains shall be acute and sharp, and no relaxation; the fire shall not be slackened, or abated (Revelat…

Use 3. Of Exhortation. Let us hallow and sanctify God's name: did we but see a glimpse of God's glory, as Moses did in the rock; the sight of this would draw adoration and praise from us; could we see God face to face, as the angels in heaven do, could we behold him sitting on h…

Psalm 57:10: God's mercy is great above the heavens. Psalm 108:4: God is represented as a king, and a rainbow was about his throne (Revelation 4:2-3). The rainbow was an emblem of mercy.

Nothing he commands but is for our interest and benefit: O then kiss the Son! Why do the elders throw down their crowns at the feet of Christ, and fall down before the Lamb (Revelation 4:10-11), but to testify their subjection, and to profess their readiness to serve and obey hi…

So when a gracious soul has done any duty, he desires that the glory of all may be given to God (1 Peter 4:11): That in all things God may be glorified. This is to do God's will as the angels, when we not only advance God's glory, but design his glory; the angels are said to cas…

Thirdly, we must give God glory in all his creatures, because he is the creator of them all. So in the Revelation the twenty-four elders fall down before him, and say, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, and power: giving this reason, for you have created all thi…

When Abraham is willing that glory to the Lord should be written with the ink of his son Isaac's blood; and the Martyrs, that their pain may praise God, they then level at the right end; for that must be the most perfect intention, that comes nearest to the most perfect. This is…

3. This beauty to men and angels is a high beauty. Angels have eyes within and without (Revelation 4:6), to behold the beauty of the Lord, and it takes up their eyes always to behold his face; and there is no beauty of truth they desire more to behold — [in non-Latin alphabet] (…

First, the word "all" is, in materiâ necessariâ, in a necessary matter, taken for all and every one: "God made all nations of one blood" (Acts 17:26); "He knows the hearts of all men" (Acts 1:24); "All have sinned" (Romans 3:12; Romans 5:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Timothy 4:10; J…

Now love is seen in admiring the excellencies of that glorious being whom we love, and ascribing all to him, as being deeply affected with his goodness. (Revelation 4:10) The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that lives for ever…

The making therefore of all things depends on a mere Soveraign Acts of the will and pleasure of God. So the whole creation makes its acknowledgement, Revelation 4:11. Chap.

II. These words are a notable forme of giving thanks and praise to God: for when the heauenly creatures are said to give thanks to God, they doe it to this effect, Rev. 4. 9. 11. you are worthie, O Lord, to receiuehonour, and glorie, and power. Againe, Phil. 4. 6.

Nor shall there be any envying one another's happiness, (though one star differ from another in glory) but everyone shall bear his part in the lower or higher praises of God, (as one says) with a harmonious variety in perfect symphony: certainly that unfading crown of glory shal…

8. This holy violence brings rest; motion tends to rest (Hebrews 4:9): There remains a rest for the people of God. Indeed, there is a motion which does not tend to rest: they who are violent in a way of sin, shall never have rest (Revelation 4:8): They rest not day and night. Su…

But God's workmen have a much harder task than they. Hence they are set forth in Scripture by the laborious ox (1 Corinthians 9:9; Revelation 4:7). Some derive the word deacon from a word that signifies dust, to show the laboriousness of their employment, laboring till evening,…

Man was made for two ends; to glorify God, and to enjoy him. Now our crown of glory must be laid at God's feet; as the elders, (Revelation 4:10) saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power. All our desires must give place to this, that he may be glorif…

1. With his goodness. The creation is nothing else but an effusion of the bounty and goodness of God, he made the world not that he might be happy, but that he might be liberal, he made the world not by necessity, but at his pleasure (Revelation 4:11). You have created all thing…

Oh what a good master have we! When the saints are crowned, they cast their crowns at the Lamb's feet (Revelation 4:10). We hold all by his mercy (Luke 17:10).

2. Wherein God expresses his mercy to them in creation and providence. 1. In creating them: it was great mercy, that being infinitely perfect in himself from all eternity, and so not needing anything, he took the creatures out of nothing, which therefore could merit nothing, and…

Whenever the grace of Christ is wrought in the heart as a principle of duty, you shall find the soul, when it is most carried out, with a "yet not I" in the mouth of it: "I live, yet not I"; "I labored more abundantly than all, yet not I" — self is disclaimed, and Christ most ad…

Answ. Self-searching is a reflect act upon the state (and such acts are more spiritual than direct acts) and therefore it should be the work of all, to try, under what reign they are, whether of the first or second Adam. And whereas Angels cover their faces and their feet with w…

Third, God must defend all his glory with the same necessity, except the Scripture make some exception of some glory which he must preserve, as dearer to him than some other glory, which is unwarrantable to say, and if God must, by necessity of nature, and as God, because natura…

But who lives for God, who sleeps, who wakes, who eats for God and his Glory? And they who make themselves their last end, idolatrously put self in the room of God, who only is the last end of all (Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:11; Proverbs 16:4), and as good make self the first Au…

Ephesians 1:9, 11. Revelation 4:11. The being, existence, and natural circumstances of all creatures, being an effect of the free counsel and pleasure of God, all that belongs unto them must be ultimately resolved thereinto.

And where there is perfect satisfaction without satiety, there is blessedness forever. So the Holy Spirit affirms of the four living creatures in the Revelation: they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty (Revelation 4:8). They are continually exerc…

The Philosopher says, Motion tends to rest. Indeed there is a motion which does not tend to rest; they who walk with their sins shall never have rest, Revelation 4. 8. They rest not day and night: But they that walk with God, shall sit down in the Kingdom of God, Luke 13. 29. As…

There is no sleep in Hell. What would the damned give for one hour's sleep, Revelation 4.8. They rest not day nor night.

There also you shall meet with thousands and ten thousands that have gone before us to that place; none of them are hurtful, but loving and holy; every one walking in the sight of God, and standing in his presence with acceptance for ever. In a word, there we shall see the elder…

The humble soul knows no landlord but Christ, and is only Grace's humble tenant: there is none to him but the Lord Jesus with his rich ransom of blood (1 Timothy 1:16, 17). So there is much humility in heaven: if it were possible that tears could be in heaven, the humble saints…

First, it gives us to understand them very clearly, not only believe that they are true, but we understand plainly the meaning of them; by faith we understand the world was made (Hebrews 11:3), and faith is the evidence of things not seen: by faith Abraham saw Christ's day; we k…