The Fourth Chapter

Verse I. — John is called up from the earth into the air, or “heaven” the place of his vision, where a door seemed to open; on entering which he sees as follows:

VERSE n. — “And immediately I was in the Spirit;” denoting such a repletion or filling with the Spirit as possessed all the powers of his soul to attend to the vision; (the phrase is as when we say a man is in love or in liquor; or as a mill is in the wind: ) it filled all; it carried all in him to the thing in hand, and wholly acted his faculties by a supernatural motion of the Spirit on his understanding and sense; for it was to an extraordinary purpose, even to see and write these visions of the Holy Ghost: yet to us it should be ordinary so far as to our being,

2 o

554 THE VISION of [REV. iv. 2, 3.

au J vvalkiug, in the Spirit; giving up ourselves, our powers and faculties to the Spirit’s rule and guidance, to move all wheels in us. N,B. From this “immediately” we observe, That a believing soul may presently be in the Spirit, who soon and suddenly comes upon a man.

The following is a vision of the church, which is made the scene of all things prophesied of in this book; for all things are done either ybr or concerning it; the judgments on the world are recorded for the church’s sake, as executed by God out from the church. Now this vision of the throne, beasts, and elders, is a representation of the church, wherein God hath his throne. i. — It is a church, for 1, There only is God worshipped, (v. 8 — 10,) and known and glorified, Ps. lxxvi. 1; xxix. 9. 2, The throne here is evidently God’s seat in his temple, the church; as in c. xvi. 17. 3, The allusion here is to the tabernacle and to the temple, with their ornaments and utensils, as types of the New Testament church; where the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies is “the throne,” and the candlestick is “the seven golden lamps,” and the sea of brass is “the sea of glass.” n. — It is a church of men, not of angels; For, 1, The elders and beasts sing their redemption by Christ’s blood; from whom, 2, The angels are distinguished as being “round about” them; see c. v. 9, 11. in. — It is a Church on earth; For, 1, It alludes to the marshalling of the Jews about the tabernacle. 2, Here are “seven spirits,” or that variety of the gifts of the Holy Ghost which ceases in heaven. 3, Here is “a sea of glass” for the priests and worshippers to wash in, so that their feet at least still contract defilement, as in John xiii. 10. 4, The distinction of beasts and elders, (i. e. officers and brethren,) also ceaseth in heaven, iv. — It is a church universal; For, 1, Being in all a yes, it is placed in the beginning here, and after introduced as spectators. 2, It is in all places, c. v. 9. v. — It is the true pattern of a church, according to the rules of the squaring-measure of the word, the mould into which all churches are cast; though in c. xi. 1, John is bid to measure the temple of that age, as having swerved from the original form in Antichrist’s apostacy. So that here is the church, consisting of three states, (Christ the head; the four beasts its officers; and the twenty-four elders are the brethren J with its appurtenances of lamps, laver, &c. or the Spirit and blood of Christ, &c. “/ saw a throne” alludes to the mercy-seat, as in Isa. vi. 1; Ezek. xliii. 4, 5, 7, Jer. xvii. 12. N.B. To set up a church is to set up God and Christ a throne; the church being their only visible throne on earth, till the kingdoms of the world become theirs visibly. “He who sitteth on the throne” is God in Christ, in whom God is reconciled to his church, and by whom he rules it, c. iii. 21; xii. v; vii. 10: Isa. vi. 1; Ezek. i. 26.

VKRSE in. — “There was a rainbow roundabout the throne;” as the memorial of the covenant of grace, being a sign of the

REV. IV. 4 — 6.] THE THRONE, BEASTS, AND ELDERS. 555

covenant of nature, Isa. liv. 9; and it is “round about the throne,” that iw whatever way God goes forth in his dispensations towards his church, he may be still reminded of mercy; and that his church also, in all her intercourse with him, may remember to trust in the covenant of grace; her prayers passing to the throne through the same rainbow.

VERSE iv. — The situation of the church, whose elders and beasts are “about the throne,’’1 (see v. 5,6,) is after the quartering of Israel about the tabernacle, Num. ii. where the Levites were next the tabernacle, and the tribes about the Levites; as here the offi cers’ station is between the throne and those elders, which Beza interprets in the midst, so Gen. xxiii. 6. “The beasts,” though their place is nearest the throne, are mentioned after the elders, as being but servants of the church and elders, in whom is the radical power. “The elders,” 1st, Arc so called because the New Testament church is adult, and no longer under age, (Gal. iv. 1, &c.) and as being grave in all her assemblies, proceedings, and administration. 2dly, They are “twenty-four,” in allusion to the heads of those orders of Levites who were porters and singers, 1 Chron. xxiv. xxv.; and are double the heads of the twelve tribes, to shew the increase of the church. 3dly, They are “cloathed in white raiment” as priests; and 4thly, “On their heads were crowns of gold,” to shew their rule in judicial matters concerning the church, as in 1 Cor. v. 12. 5thly, They are “round about the throne,” (like the round table, in Cant. i. 12,) the meanest soul being as near and dear to God as the greatest, and all equal, where Christ is “the tree in the midst of the paradise of God,” c. ii. 7.

VERSE v. — “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices” meaning God’s judgments, (Ps. xviii. 13, 14; xxix. 3,) as he sits in his church, and as these are exercised for his church’s sake, Ps. lxviii. 35: Amos i. 2. “Voices” also extends more generally to promises and answers to prayer. By “The seven lamps which are the seven spirits of God” the Holy Ghost, and his various gifts and operations and manifestations of himself in the church, is noted out, (c. i. 4; 1 Cor. xii. 11,) who gives both light and heat, as did the candlestick in the temple.

VERSE vi. — “There was a sea of glass like tinto crystal;” in allusion to Solomon’s sea, and purer than that of brass, in Ex. xxx. 17 — 20, typical of Christ’s blood to wash in, for justification of person and sanctification of life, (Heb. x. 22: 1 Cor. xi. 11: Titus iii. 5;) especially that we may wash before we worship. “And there were four beasts full of eyes before and behind;” meaning church-officers, who being between the throne and the elders, are as leaders of the praise, being the mouth of the con-, v. 0, 10. Tliosr are called ZOOA, or living ones, having

2 o 2

556 THE FOUR BEASTS. [REV. IV. 7 — 11.

in them life, and being means of quickening others: being four also, and the throne four-square, they are in the midst between each angle, as complete for number, and looking every way to all the necessities of the church, both for soul and body; and “they are full of eyes” as overseers; “within.’’’ to see to their own hearts, as well as “without” to see to others.

VERSK vn. — “And the first beast was like a lion” being the ruling elder, who needs courage to deal with men’s spirits in case ‘of sins calling for the church’s notice and admonition. “The second beast was like a calf” or ox; being the laborious pastor, who takes pains in “treading out the corn,” 1 Tim. v. 18. “The third beast had a face like a man;” or the deacons, whose humane hearts disposed and inclined them to mercifulness and pitifnlness. “And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle:” or the teacher, whose eyes quickly spy out all errors, and who soars aloft into all mysteries.

VERSES vm — xi. “They had each of them six wings apiece;” to shew the aptness and readiness of the four beasts to fly and act all manner of ways; and “They rest not day nor night, (but labour continually,) crying Holy, Holy, Holy” worshipping God in Trinity; (see Isa. vi. 2, 3,) and as the mouth of the congregation; for, “When those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.”