Throne

Use in the book

IV.71 introduces sitting in God’s throne as the highest estate available to a creature and observes how little the promise is understood. IV.72 explains it through indwelling, knowledge, delight, and the union of wills. To reign is to be pleased in divine works as if one possessed their sovereign disposal. The qualifying comparison matters: participation in God’s delight does not make the creature an independent rival governor.

The argument depends on fitting the throne to the sitter. Bodily persons use bodily thrones; spirits require an invisible scope. God’s omnipresence and eternity provide the appropriate field, bounded not by walls but by the divine love encountered everywhere. Christ already sits there, and the scriptural language of his glory and the Church’s fulness permits believers to understand their participation.

The image therefore joins royal dignity with receptive communion. Reigning consists in a will conformed to divine goodness and in enjoyment of an inheritance too great for a private enclosure. It is neither literal spatial furniture nor permission to dominate other people. Its strongest claim is that enjoyment in Christ can exceed what an isolated self could possess in itself.

Places to read

1. IV.71Introduces the promise of sharing God’s throne as a supreme creaturely estate.
2. IV.72Defines the throne through omnipresence and eternity, and reigning through shared delight and united will.

In this edition

The 2026 notes identify Revelation 3:21 and the further scriptural chain. Traherne himself supplies the interpretation; the royal image should be read through his definitions of spiritual participation.