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…

Quest. 53. What are the ends of all this dispensation and order of things in the Church? Answ. The glory of God, the honor of Jesus Christ the Mediator, the furtherance of the Gospel, the edification and consolation of believers here; with their eternal salvation hereafter (Reve…

Q. Had this world a beginning by creation, or was it from everlasting? A. The scripture in many places, and especially in the first of Genesis does declare that the world was not from everlasting, but had a beginning by the Lord's creating of it (Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11; P…

What solemn outward and as it were visible transactions of worship are required thereunto, we know not. And, it may be, the representation of God's Throne, and his worship (Revelation 4, 5), wherein the Lamb in the midst of the Throne has the principal part, may not belong only…

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…

For the first, see (1 John 3:8): the Devil sins from the beginning, Satan is still a sinning, and his whole life a continued act of apostasy. So the good Angels, are always doing, they rest not day and night (Revelation 4:8). Surely 'twill be a matter of great advantage to exerc…

The passage mentioned by the Doctor, concerning the Epistle of Dionysius to the Church of [reconstructed: Gortyna] in Crete, is very little to his purpose: neither does he call [reconstructed: Philip] the Bishop of that Church, the Bishop of all the other Churches in Crete, as t…

All creatures therefore, as such, and each according to the capacity and disposition with which they are endowed, celebrate the Creator and serve Him (Psalm 145:10): "All Your works shall praise You, O Lord;" and therefore, by personification (kata prosopopoiian), the Psalmist m…

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…

And the words themselves have that affinity in signification, which is frequently seen among the Hebrew Roots, differing only in the transposition of one letter. And the description of him who sat above the Cherubims of Providence, Ezek. 1:10. is the same with that of John (Reve…

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,…

Ib. 51. Revelation 4:4. A Presbyter, according to the proper meaning of the New Testament, is he to whom our Savior Christ has communicated the power of spiritual procreation. Out of twelve patriarchs issued the whole multitude of Israel according to the flesh.

There are no passions in the glorified and perfectly meekened ones, who stand before the throne, but such as are pure and unmixed fire for the everlasting praises of God. Hence showers of influences eternally rain on them night and day without ceasing (Isaiah 6:2, 3, 4; Revelati…

2. Our righteousness from the time forward shall not only be inherent; for the righteousness of God is an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24), and how that robe of Christ's surety-righteousness shall in the state of glory, be laid by as an old useless garment, and the robe o…

Does not David bless the Lord who sent Abigail to meet him with a counsel of peace? Then must these confluences and co-existences of things be written in the Lord's book, and so decreed (Psalms 139:16), and from the Creator God, as the efficient, and for God and his glory, as th…

Hence that (wise as an Angel of God) and also the fulness of God in their affections teaches us that wideness of heart is expressed in continual acting, and so in multiplied breathings of God: and Angels do not walk and run only, but fly with wings, cheerfully to do the Lord's w…

And where there is perfect satisfaction without satiety, there is blessedness for ever. So the Holy Spirit affirms of the four living creatures in the Revelation; They rest not day nor night, saying, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty (Revelation 4:8). They are continually exerc…

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…

And this is that which is mentioned in Zechariah 4, which has the two Olive Trees, or the two anointed Churches of Jews and Gentiles, standing by it, receiving light from it, to communicate to others: they empty the golden oil out of themselves, which they receive from the Candl…

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…

Those which declare all things to be equally easy to him, and nothing difficult; There is nothing too hard for you (Jeremiah 32:17; 2 Chronicles 14:11; 1 Samuel 14:6). Those which ascribe all power to him, by the titles of Almighty, All-sufficient (Genesis 17:1; Revelation 4:8,…

1. With humility and thankfulness to own and acknowledge, and admire and bless God as the author and original of our being, as the spring and fountain of all the blessings and good things that we enjoy. If we do but consider what these words signifie, that God is the first cause…

You are therefore not to cast off the duties, but your resting in these duties. You are not to cast them away, but to cast them down at the feet of Jesus Christ, as they did their crowns (Revelation 4:10-11). Saying, if there be any good or graces in these duties, it's yours, Lo…

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…

There is nothing which that book of Psalms more tumbles up and down (repeating it very often again, and again) than this clause, Praise the Lord: indeed his Psalms of humiliation, which he begins with sobs and tears, he ends with praise. A worthy pattern to follow: the more freq…

Yet some understand it of the souls both of believers and unbelievers, which are both sentenced by God, as supreme judge, immediately when a man dies, every man to his place — the souls of believers to heaven, of unbelievers to hell. (3) Because the saints departed, together wit…