we must improve them, to the sight of him that is invisible.

Let us then, to the unspeakable comfort of our souls, enquire and learn, how we may here upon earth, see the invisible God.

(1.) And, surely, as it was wisely said of him of old, that it is more easy to know what God is not, than what he is; so it may be justly said also, of the vision of God, it is more obvious to say how God is not seen, than how he is. Let us, if you please, begin with the negative.

[1] We may not, therefore, think to see God, by any fancied representation. He will admit of no image of himself; no, not in thought. All possibly conceivable ideas and similitudes, as they are infinitely too low; so they are clean contrary to his spiritual nature, and his express charge and the very entertainment of any of them is no other than a mental idolatry. In the very holy of holies, where he would most manifest his presence, there was nothing to be seen, but a cloud of smoke; as the poet,* scoffingly; and, as that great king+ professed to see there: to teach his people, that he would not be conceived any way, but in an absolute immunity from all forms. [2.] Secondly, we may not hope to see God, by the working of our improved reason: for, as intelligible things are above the apprehension of sense; so divine matters are no less above the capacity of understanding. Justly is Durand exploded here; who held, that a created understanding was, of itself, sufficient for the vision of God, without supernatural aid; for, whatever our soul understands here, it doth it by the way of those phantasms which are represented unto it; by which it is not possible, there should be any comprehension of this infinite essence. Every power works within the compass of its own sphere; even from the lowest of sense, to the highest of faith. If the eye should encroach upon the ear, in affecting to discern the delicate air of pleasant sounds; and the ear should usurp upon the eye, in professing to judge of a curious picture or pleasant prospect; it were an absurd ambition of both. It is all one, for a beast to take upon him to judge of + Alex. Mag.

* Nil præter nubes. Juv.

matter of discourse; and for a philosopher to determine of matters of faith. Reason was not given to man for nought: even that can impart unto us something concerning God; but, not enough. I remember Gerson,* a great master of contemplation, professes that he knew one, (which is, in St. Paul's phrase, himself) who, after many temptations of doubt, concerning a main article of faith, was suddenly brought into so clear a light of truth and certitude; that there remained no relics at all of dubitation; nothing but confidence and serenity: which, saith he, was wrought by a hearty humiliation, and captivation of the understanding to the obedience of faith: neither could any reason be given of that quiet, and firm peace in believing, but his own feeling and experience. And, surely, so it is, in this great business of seeing God: the less we search, and the more we believe, the clearer vision do we attain of him that is invisible.

[3.] Neither, thirdly, may we hope here to aspire to a perfect sight, or a full comprehension of this blessed object. The best of all earthly eyes doth but look through a scarf, at this glorious sight; and complains of its own weakness and obscurity: and what hope can we have, to compass this infinite prospect? The clearest eye cannot, at once, see any round body, if it be but of a small bullet or ring and, when we say we see a man, we mean, that we see but his outside; for, surely, his heart, or lungs, or brain, are out of our sight: much less can we see his soul, by which he is. What speak I of the poor narrow conceit of us mortals? I need not fear to say, that the glorified saints and glorious angels of heaven, being but of a finite though spiritual nature, hold it no disparagement, to disclaim the capacity of this infinite object; much less may we think to drain this ocean with our egg-shell.

[4.] Lastly, we may not make account here, to see the face of God in his divine essence, or in the height of the resplendence of his glory. This, even Moses himself did not: he desired it indeed, but it might not be yielded: Exodus xxxiii. 18, 20: and God tells him, this was no

Jo. Gerson de Distinctione Verarum Visionum à Falsis.

object for mortal eyes. A man must die to see it; as Austin well remarks. Indeed, it is said, Moses spake to God, face to face; the word in the original is, OD OD, "faces to faces:" but ye never read, that he saw God face to face: he still conferred with that oracle, which was ever invisible. It is a poor conceit of Cornelius à Lapide, that Moses longed so much to see the face of God in some assumed form; for then that face should not have been his: and, if God should have been pleased to assume such a form, it had been no less easy for him, to have made the face aspectable, as the back. In this sense, old Jacob calls his altar Penu-el, the face of God, and professes to have seen God, face to face; Gen. xxxii. 30: his face saw that face, which God had, for the present, assumed, without a present death.

Doubtless, Moses, having seen divers veils of God's presence, that is, sensible testimonies of his being there, desires now to see that glorious Majesty of God openfaced; without those masks of outward representation. So he interprets himself, while he expresses "thy face," by a "thy glory:" Exod. xxxiii. 18. The desire was zealously ambitious: too high, even for him that had been twice blessed with forty days' conference with the God whom he longed to see. Much less may we think of aspiring to this sight; who must know our distance, even from the foot of the mount. It is abundantly enough for us, if, out of some small loop hole of the rock, we may be allowed, in his passage, to see some after glimpses of that incomprehensible majesty: to see him, both as we can be capable, and as he will be visible; that is, as he hath revealed himself to us in his word, in his works, in his wonderful attributes: in his word, as a most glorious spiritual substance, in three equally glorious subsistencies: in his works, as the most mighty Creator, and munificent Preserver; as the most merciful Redeemer of the world; as the most gracious Comforter and Sanctifier of the world of his elect: in his attributes, as the God of spirits; whose infinite power, wisdom, mercy, justice, truth, goodness, is essential; so as he is all these abstractedly, uncompoundedly, really, infinitely...

Shortly, therefore, we may not look here to him by the eye of fancy, or by the eye of reason, or in a full view, or in the height of his glory.

(2.) Let us then, in the next place, see how we may must see him.

Would we therefore see him that is invisible?

and

[1.] In the first place, we must have our eyes cleared from the natural indisposition to which they are subject. We have all, in nature, many both inward and ambient hinderances of the sight. There is a kind of earthliness in the best eye whereby it is gouled up; that it cannot so much as open itself, to see spiritual things: these are our carnal affections. There is a dimness and duskiness in the body of the eye, when it is opened; which is our natural ignorance of heavenly things. There is, besides these, a film, which is apt to grow over our eye, of natural infidelity; which makes it incapable of this divine vision. And, after all these, when it is at the clearest, the moats and dust of worldly thoughts, are apt to trouble our sight. Lastly, every known sin, wherein a man willingly continues, is a beam in the eye, that bars all sight of God. "In malevolam animam," &c. "Wisdom enters not into an ill-doing soul:"and" Malitia occæcat intellectum;" Wickedness blinds the understanding: as the wise man of old.

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There must be a removal and remedy of all these, ere we can attain to a comfortable vision of the Invisible. The goule of our eyes must be washed off: and, if we cannot, by our utmost endeavours, lift up our eye-lids, as we ought, we must sue to him that can do it, Open thou mine eyes, that I may see the wonderful things of thy law." The dimness and duskiness of our eyes must be cleared, by that eye-salve of the Spirit; Rev. iii. 18. The film of our infidelity must be scoured off by the cleansing waters of Siloam; the fountain of divine truth, welling out of the holy scriptures. The moats and dust of worldly cares must be wiped out, by a contemptuous and holy resolution. The beam of sin, lastly, must be pulled out by a serious repentance.

So then, if there be any of us that makes account to see God, while he is taken up with sensual affections, while he is blinded with his natural ignorance and infidelity,

while he is seized upon by worldly cares and distractions, while he harbours any known sin in his bosom, he doth but deceive his own soul. Away with all these impediments, that we may be capable of the vision of God.

[2.] In the second place, we must set this blessed object before our eyes; resolving of the certainty of his presence with us. Or, rather, we must set ourselves before him, who is ever unremovably before us, with us, in us: acknowledging him, with no less assurance of our faith; than we acknowledge the presence of our own bodies, by the assurance of sense. For, how shall we suppose we can see him that is absent from us? No man will say, he sees the sun, when it is out of our hemisphere.

That infinite God therefore, who cannot but be every where, must be acknowledged to be ever, in a glorious manner, present with us: manifesting his presence most eminently, in the high heavens; and yet, filling both heaven and earth with the majesty of his glory. In him it is, that "we live, and move, and have our being." He comprehends the whole world: himself only being incomprehensible secluded from no place, included in no place: nearer to us than our own souls; when we die, we part from them; from him we cannot part, with whom remoteness of place can make no difference, time no change.

When the heart is thus thoroughly assured, it is in a fair way to see the Invisible: for now, after all the former impediments, the hinderance of distance is taken away; and nothing remaineth, but that the eye be so affected and employed hereabouts, as it ought.

[3.] To which purpose, in the third place, there must be an exaltation and a fortification of our sight: an exaltation, raising it above our wonted pitch; for our heart is so inured and confined to bodily objects, that, except it be somewhat raised above itself, it is not capable of spiritual things: a fortification of our sight, so raised; for our visive beams are, at our best, so weak that they are not able to look upon a sight so spiritually glorious. Alas, we cannot so much as look upon the sun-beams, but we are dazzled and blinded with that which gives us opportunity of sight: how shall we be able to behold the infinite resplendence of him that made it?