Chapter 13. Speak No Peace to the Heart Until God Speaks It

The ninth direction: when the heart is disquieted by sin, speak no peace to it, until God speaks it. Peace without detestation of sin is unsound; so is peace measured out to ourselves. How we may know when we measure our peace to ourselves; directions as to that inquiry. The vanity of speaking peace slightly; also of doing it on one singular account, not universally.

In case God disquiets the heart about the guilt of its distempers either in respect of its root and indwelling, or in respect of any eruptions of it, take heed you speak not peace to yourself before God speaks it; but hearken what he says to your soul: this is the next direction, without the observation whereof, the heart will be exceedingly exposed to the deceitfulness of sin.

This is a business of great importance. It is a sad thing for a man to deceive his own soul herein. All the warnings God gives us in tenderness to our souls, to try and examine ourselves, do tend to the preventing of this great evil of speaking peace groundlessly to ourselves, which is upon the issue to bless ourselves in an opposition to God.

To manage this direction aright, observe:

(1) That as it is the great prerogative and sovereignty of God to give grace to whom he pleases (he has mercy on whom he will, Romans 9:16; and among all the sons of men, he calls whom he will, and sanctifies whom he will) so among those so called and justified, and whom he will save, he yet reserves this privilege to himself, to speak peace to whom he pleases, and in what degree he pleases, even among them on whom he has bestowed grace. He is the God of all consolation, in an especial manner in his dealing with believers: that is, of the good things that he keeps locked up in his family, and gives out of it to all his children at his pleasure. This the Lord insists on (Isaiah 57:16-19): it is the case under consideration that is there insisted on. When God says he will heal their breaches and disconsolations, he assumes this privilege to himself in an especial manner: I create it (verse 19) — even in respect of these poor wounded creatures, I create it, and according to my sovereignty make it out as I please.

Hence as it is with the collation of grace in reference to them that are in the state of nature; God does it in great sovereignty, and his proceedings therein, in taking and leaving, as to outward appearances, quite besides, and contrary oftentimes to all probable expectations; so is it in his communication of peace and joy in reference unto them that are in the state of grace; he gives them out oftentimes quite besides our expectation, as to any appearing grounds of his dispensations.

(2) As God creates it for whom he pleases, so it is the prerogative of Christ, to speak it home to the conscience. Speaking to the church of Laodicea, who had healed her wounds falsely, and spoke peace to herself when she ought not, he takes to himself that title: I am the Amen; the faithful witness (Revelation 3:14). He bears testimony concerning our condition as it is indeed; we may possibly mistake, and trouble ourselves in vain, or flatter ourselves upon false grounds, but he is the Amen, the faithful witness, and what he speaks of our state and condition, that it is indeed. He is said not to judge according to the sight of the eye, not according to any outward appearance, or any thing that may be subject to a mistake, as we are apt to do; but he shall judge and determine every cause as it is indeed (Isaiah 11:3).

Taking these two previous observations, some rules may be given whereby men may know whether God speaks peace to them, or whether they speak peace to themselves only.

(1) Men certainly speak peace to themselves, when their so doing is not attended with the greatest detestation imaginable of that sin in reference to which they speak peace to themselves, and abhorrence of themselves for it. When men are wounded by sin, disquieted and perplexed, and knowing that there is no remedy for them, but only in the mercies of God through the blood of Christ, do therefore look to him, and to the promises of the covenant in him, and thereupon quiet their hearts that it shall be well with them, and that God will be exalted that he may be gracious to them, and yet their souls are not wrought to the greatest detestation of the sin or sins upon the account whereof they are disquieted; this is to heal themselves, and not to be healed of God. This is but a great and strong wind, that the Lord is near unto, but the Lord is not in the wind. When men do truly look upon Christ whom they have pierced (without which there is no healing or peace), they will mourn (Zechariah 12:10); they will mourn for him even upon this account, and detest the sin that pierced him. When we go to Christ for healing, faith eyes him peculiarly as one pierced. Faith takes several views of Christ according to the occasions of address to him, and communion with him that it has. Sometimes it views his holiness, sometimes his power, sometimes his love, his favor with his Father. And when it goes for healing and peace, it looks especially on the blood of the covenant, on his sufferings; for by his stripes are we healed, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him (Isaiah 53:5): when we look for healing, his stripes are to be eyed; not in the outward story of them, which is the course of Popish devotionists, but in the love, kindness, mystery and design of the cross. And when we look for peace, his chastisements must be in our eye. Now this I say, if it be done according to the mind of God, and in the strength of that Spirit which is poured out on believers, it will beget a detestation of that sin or sins, for which healing and peace is sought. So (Ezekiel 16:60-61): nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant — and what then? then thou shall remember your ways and be ashamed. When God comes home to speak peace in a sure covenant of it, it fills the soul with shame for all the ways whereby it has been alienated from him. And one of the things that the Apostle mentions as attending that godly sorrow which is accompanied with repentance unto salvation never to be repented of, is revenge, yea what revenge (2 Corinthians 7:11) — they reflected on their miscarriages with indignation and revenge for their folly in them. When Job comes up to a thorough healing, he cries, Now I abhor myself (Job 42:6); and until he did so, he had no abiding peace. He might perhaps have made up himself with that doctrine of free grace which was so excellently preached by Elihu (chapter 33, from verse 14 to the 29th), but he had then but skinned his wounds; he must come to self-abhorrence, if he comes to healing. Let a man make what application he will for healing and peace, let him do it to the true physician, let him do it the right way, let him quiet his heart in the promises of the covenant; yet when peace is spoken, if it be not attended with the detestation and abhorrence of that sin which was the wound, and caused the disquiet, this is no peace of God's creating, but of our own purchasing. It is but a skinning over the wound, while the core lies at the bottom, which will putrefy and corrupt, and corrode, until it break out again with noisomness, vexation and danger. Let not poor souls that walk in such a path as this (they are more sensible of the trouble of sin, than of the pollution or uncleanness that attends it; they address themselves for mercy, yea to the Lord in Christ they address themselves for mercy, but yet will keep the sweet morsel of their sin under their tongue) — let them never think to have true and solid peace. For instance, you find your heart running out after the world, and it disturbs you in your communion with God; the Spirit speaks expressly to you (1 John 2:15): He that loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This puts you on dealing with God in Christ for the healing of your soul, the quieting of your conscience; but yet withal a thorough detestation of the evil itself abides not upon you; yea perhaps that is liked well enough, but only in respect of the consequences of it — perhaps you may be saved, yet as through fire; and God will have some work with you before he has done, but you will have little peace in this life; you will be sick and fainting all your days (Isaiah 57:17). This is a deceit that lies at the root of the peace of many professors, and wastes it; they deal with all their strength about mercy and pardon; and seem to have great communion with God in their so doing; they lie before him, bewail their sins and follies, that any one would think (yea they think themselves) that surely they and their sins are now parted, and so receive in mercy that satisfies their hearts for a little season; but when a thorough search comes to be made, there has been some secret reserve for the folly or follies treated about; at least there has not been that thorough abhorrence of it which is necessary; and their whole peace is quickly discovered to be weak and rotten; scarce abiding any longer than the words of begging it are in their mouths.

(2) When men measure out peace to themselves upon the conclusions that their convictions and rational principles will carry them out unto; this is a false peace, and will not abide. A man has got a wound by sin, he has a conviction of some sin upon his conscience, he has not walked uprightly as becomes the Gospel; all is not well and right between God and his soul. He considers now what is to be done; light he has, and knows what path he must take, and how his soul has been formerly healed. Considering that the promises of God are the outward means of application for the healing of his sores, and quieting of his heart, he goes to them, searches them out, finds out some one or more of them, whose literal expressions are directly suited to his condition: says he to himself, God speaks in this promise, here I will take myself a plaster as long and broad as my wound, and so brings the word of the promise to his condition, and sets him down in peace. This is another appearance upon the mount, the Lord is near, but the Lord is not in it. It has not been the work of the Spirit (who alone can convince us of sin and righteousness and judgment, John 16:8), but the mere actings of the intelligent rational soul. In this case that I speak of, he acts merely upon the principle of conviction and illumination, whereby his first naturals are heightened; but the Spirit breathes not at all upon all these waters. Take an instance; suppose the wound and disquiet of the soul to be upon the account of relapses, which whatever the evil or folly be, though for the matter of it never so small, yet there are no wounds deeper than those that are given the soul on that account, nor disquietments greater. In the perturbation of his mind, he finds out that promise (Isaiah 55:7): The Lord will have mercy, and our God will abundantly pardon — he will multiply or add to pardon; he will do it again and again; or that in Hosea 14:4: I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. This the man considers, and thereupon concludes peace to himself; whether the Spirit of God makes the application or no, whether that gives life and power to the letter or no, that he regards not. He does not hearken whether God the Lord speaks peace. He does not wait upon God, who perhaps yet hides his face, and sees the poor creature stealing peace and running away with it, knowing that the time will come when he will deal with him again, and call him to a new reckoning (Hosea 11:3); when he shall see that it is in vain to go one step where God does not take him by the hand.

I see here indeed sundry other questions upon this arising and interposing themselves: I cannot apply myself to them all: one I shall a little speak to.

It may be said then, seeing that this seems to be the path that the Holy Spirit leads us in, for the healing of our wounds, and quieting of our hearts, how shall we know when we go alone ourselves, and when the Spirit also does accompany us?

1. If any of you are out of the way upon this account, God will speedily let you know it; for besides that you have his promise, that the meek he will guide in judgment, and teach them his way (Psalm 25:9), he will not let you always err. He will not suffer your nakedness to be covered with fig-leaves, but take them away, and all the peace you have in them, and will not suffer you to settle on such dregs; you shall quickly know your wound is not healed. That is, you shall speedily know whether or no it be thus with you by the event; the peace you thus get and obtain, will not abide. While the mind is overpowered by its own convictions, there is no hold for disquietments to fix upon; stay a little and all these reasonings will grow cold, and vanish before the face of the first temptation that arises.

2. This course is commonly taken without waiting; which is the grace, and that peculiar acting of faith which God calls for to be exercised in such a condition. I know God does sometimes come in upon the soul instantly, in a moment as it were, wounding and healing it; as I am persuaded it was in the case of David when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment. But ordinarily in such a case God calls for waiting and laboring, attending as the eye of a servant upon his master (Psalm 123:2; Psalm 130:6). Says the prophet Isaiah (chapter 8:17): I will wait upon the Lord, who hides his face from Jacob. God will have his children lie a while at his door, when they have run from his house, and not instantly rush in upon him; unless he take them by the hand, and draw them in, when they are so ashamed that they dare not come to him. Now self-healers, or men that speak peace to themselves, do commonly make haste, they will not tarry; they do not hearken what God speaks (Isaiah 28:16), but on they will go to be healed.

3. Such a course, though it may quiet the conscience and the mind, the rational concluding part of the soul, yet it does not sweeten the heart with rest and gracious contention. The answer it receives is much like that Elisha gave Naaman, Go in peace (2 Kings 5:19); it quieted his mind, but it gave little of that sweetness to his heart which God speaks with his peace. Do not my words do good, says the Lord (Micah 2:7). When God speaks, there is not only truth in his words, that may answer the conviction of our understanding, but also they do good, they bring that which is sweet and good and desirable to the will and affections: by them the soul returns unto its rest (Psalm 116:7).

4. Which is worst of all, it amends not the life, it heals not the evil, it cures not the distemper. When God speaks peace, it guides and keeps the soul that it turn not again to folly (Psalm 85:8). When we speak it ourselves, the heart is not taken off the evil. Nay it is the readiest course in the world to bring a soul into a trade of backsliding. If upon your plastering yourself, you find yourself rather animated to the battle again, than utterly weaned from it, it is too palpable that you have been at work with your own soul, but Jesus Christ and his Spirit were not there. And oftentimes nature having done its work, will ere a few days are over come for its reward; and having been active in the work of healing, will be ready to reason for a new wounding. In God's speaking peace there comes along so much sweetness and such a discovery of his love, as is a strong obligation on the soul no more to deal perversely (Luke 22:32).

(3) We speak peace to ourselves, when we do it slightly. This the prophet complains of in some teachers (Jeremiah 6:14): They have healed the wound of the daughter of my people slightly. And it is so with some persons, they make the healing of their wounds a slight work, a look, a glance of faith to the promises does it, and so the matter is ended. The Apostle tells us, that the word did not profit some, because it was not mixed with faith (Hebrews 4:2); it was not well tempered and mingled with faith. It is not a mere look to the word of mercy in the promise, but it must be mingled with faith until it is incorporated into the very nature of it; and then indeed it does good unto the soul. If you have had a wound upon your conscience, which was attended with weakness and disquietness, which now you are freed of — how came you so? I looked to the promises of pardon and healing, and so found peace — yea but perhaps you have made too much haste, you have done it overly, you have not fed upon the promise, so as to mix it with faith, to have got all the virtue of it diffused into your soul; only you have done it slightly; you will find your wound ere it be long breaking out again, and you shall know that you are not cured.

(4) Whoever speaks peace to himself upon any one account, and at the same time has another evil of no less importance lying upon his spirit, about which he has had no dealing with God, that man cries peace when there is none. A man has neglected a duty again and again, perhaps when in all righteousness it was due from him; his conscience is perplexed, his soul wounded, he has no quiet in his bones by reason of his sin; he applies himself for healing, and finds peace. Yet in the mean time perhaps worldliness, or pride, or some other folly wherewith the Spirit of God is exceedingly grieved, may lie in the bosom of that man, and they neither disturb him, nor he them. Let not that man think that any of his peace is from God.

Then shall it be well with men when they have an equal respect to all God's commandments. God will justify us from our sins, but he will not justify the least sin in us; he is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.

(5) When men of themselves speak peace to their consciences, it is seldom that God speaks humiliation to their souls. God's peace is humbling peace, melting peace, as it was in the case of David (Psalm 51:1); never such deep humiliation as when Nathan brought him the tidings of his pardon.

Question: But when may we take the comfort of a promise as our own, in relation to some peculiar wound for the quieting of the heart?

1. In general, when God speaks it, be it when it will, sooner or later. He may do it in the very instant of the sin itself, and that with such irresistible power, that the soul must needs receive his mind in it. Sometimes he will make us wait longer; but when he speaks, be it sooner or later, be it when we are sinning or repenting, be the condition of our souls what they please, if God speaks he must be received. There is not any thing that in our communion with him the Lord is more troubled with us for, than our unbelieving fears that keep us off from receiving that strong consolation which he is so willing to give to us.

But you will say, we are where we were; when God speaks it, we must receive it; that is true, but how shall we know when he speaks?

I would we could all practically come up to this, to receive peace when we are convinced that God speaks it, and that it is our duty to receive it.

2. There is (if I may so say) a secret instinct in faith, whereby it knows the voice of Christ, when he speaks indeed; as the babe leaped in the womb when the blessed Virgin came to Elizabeth; faith leaps in the heart when Christ indeed draws near to it. My sheep (says Christ) know my voice (John 10:14); they know my voice, they are used to the sound of it, and they know when his lips are opened to them, and are full of grace. The spouse was in a sad condition (Song of Solomon 5:2), asleep in security; but yet as soon as Christ speaks she cries, It is the voice of my beloved that speaks; she knew his voice, and was so acquainted with communion with him that instantly she discovers him. And so will you also: if you exercise yourselves to acquaintance and communion with him, you will easily discern between his voice and the voice of a stranger. And take this with you; when he does speak he speaks as never man spoke; he speaks with power, and one way or other will make your hearts burn within you, as he did to the disciples (Luke 22); he does it by putting in his hand at the hole of the door (Song of Solomon 5:4), his Spirit into your hearts to seize on you.

He that has his senses exercised to discern good or evil, being increased in judgment and experience, by a constant observation of the ways of Christ's intercourse, the manner of the operations of the Spirit, and the effects it usually produces, is the best judge for himself in this case.

2. If the word of the Lord does good to your souls, he speaks it. If it humbles, if it cleanses and is useful for those ends for which promises are given: (1) to endear, (2) to cleanse.

To melt and bind to obedience, to self-emptiness, and so on. But this is not my business, nor shall I further divert in the pursuit of this direction; without the observation of it, sin will have great advantages towards the hardening of the heart.

The eighth direction: thoughts about the greatness and majesty of God; our lack of genuine knowledge of Him, proposed and considered.

Eighth, make use of meditations that will at all times fill you with self-humbling and a sense of your own unworthiness before God.

1. Give much thought to the majesty and greatness of God and to the infinite, inconceivable distance at which you stand from Him. Many such thoughts cannot but fill you with a sense of your own unworthiness — and that strikes deep at the root of any indwelling sin. When Job came to a clear view of the greatness and excellency of God, he was filled with self-abhorrence and was pressed to humiliation (Job 42:5-6). And in what condition does the prophet Habakkuk describe himself when he grasped the majesty of God? (Habakkuk 3:16). Job says, 'With God is awesome majesty' (Job 37:22). This is why people in ancient times thought that to see God was to die. Scripture is full of this self-humbling comparison — placing human beings alongside grasshoppers, compared to nothing, like dust on scales, before God (Isaiah 40:13-15). Give much thought to things like this to humble the pride of your heart and keep your soul low before God. Nothing will leave you less open to sin's deceits than a heart in this frame. Think greatly of the greatness of God.

2. Think much about how little you actually know of Him. Though you know enough to keep you humble and low, how small a portion of Him do you actually grasp! The contemplation of this drove the wise man to the astonishing assessment of himself expressed in Proverbs 30:2-4: 'Surely I am more stupid than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son's name, if you know?' Work with this as well, to bring down the pride of your heart. What do you actually know of God? How small a portion is it? How immeasurable is He in His nature? Can you look without terror into the abyss of eternity? You cannot even bear the rays of His glorious being.

Because this consideration is greatly useful in our walk with God — insofar as it can be held alongside the confident access we have in Jesus Christ to draw near to the throne of grace — dwelling on it at some length will leave a lasting impression on those who desire to walk humbly with God.

Consider then, to keep your heart in continual awe of God's majesty, that even the most highly advanced people — those with the nearest and most intimate communion with God — know in this life only a very little of Him and His glory. God reveals His name to Moses — the most glorious attributes He has manifested in the covenant of grace (Exodus 34:5-6). Yet all of it is only 'the back parts' of God. Everything Moses learns through it is still small and low compared to the perfection of God's glory.

Hence it is said with particular reference to Moses: 'No one has seen God at any time' (John 1:18). The apostle speaks of Moses in comparison with Christ (verse 17), and it is said of Moses: 'No one' — not even Moses, the most eminent among them — 'has seen God at any time.' We speak much of God; we can talk about Him, His ways, His works, and His purposes all day long. The truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, meditations, and expressions about Him are limited — many unworthy of His glory, none reaching His perfections.

You may say that Moses was under the old covenant, when God wrapped Himself in darkness and concealed His mind in types, shadows, and obscure forms of worship. Under the glorious light of the Gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light — with God now revealing Himself from His own heart — we know Him far more clearly, as He truly is. We see His face now, not merely His back parts as Moses did.

I acknowledge a vast and nearly inconceivable difference between the knowledge of God we now have, after His speaking to us through His own Son, and what the generality of saints had under the old covenant. Although their eyes were as sharp and clear as ours, their faith and spiritual understanding no less than ours, and the object of revelation as glorious to them as to us — our day is far clearer than theirs was. The clouds have blown away and scattered, the shadows of night have gone and fled, the sun has risen, and the means of sight are more clear and prominent than they once were. Yet:

2. That particular sight of God which Moses had (Exodus 34) was a Gospel-sight — a sight of God as gracious. And yet it is called only His 'back parts' — that is, low and small in comparison with His excellencies and perfections.

3. The apostle, exalting to the utmost the glory of Gospel light above that of the old covenant — showing that now the veil causing darkness has been removed, so that with unveiled faces we behold the glory of the Lord — tells us how we behold it: 'As in a mirror' (2 Corinthians 3:18). In a mirror — what does that mean? Clearly and perfectly? Alas, no. He tells us what that means (1 Corinthians 13:12): 'We see through a mirror dimly.' He alludes to a looking glass, in which only dim images and reflections of things appear — not the things themselves — and to our sight in that glass, which he compares to our knowledge of God. He also tells us that everything we do see through this glass appears as in a riddle, in darkness and obscurity. Speaking of himself — who was surely far more clear-sighted than anyone now living — he says he saw only in part, only the 'back parts' of heavenly things (verse 12). He compares all the knowledge he had attained of God to a child's understanding (verse 11). We know what weak, vague, uncertain thoughts and ideas children have about anything complex or abstract — and how, when they grow up and their understanding develops, those early notions vanish and they are ashamed of them. It is fitting for a child to love, honor, trust, and obey his father. But as for his understanding and notions, his father knows how childish and mistaken they are. Despite all our confidence about high spiritual attainments, all our notions of God are childish compared to His infinite perfections. We stammer and stumble — saying we know not what, for the most part — even in our most careful and precise (as we think) thoughts and ideas about God. We may love, honor, trust, and obey our Father — and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are only childish. We see only His back parts; we know but little of Him. Hence that promise on which we so often rest and are comforted in distress: we shall see Him as He is; we shall see Him face to face; we shall know even as we are known; we shall comprehend that for which we are comprehended (1 Corinthians 15:12; 1 John 3:2). And positively stated: now we do not see Him — all of this confirming that here we see only His back parts, not as He is, but in a dim and obscure representation, not in the perfection of His glory.

The queen of Sheba had heard much about Solomon and formed grand thoughts of his magnificence accordingly — but when she came and saw his glory, she was forced to confess that not even half the truth had been told her. We may suppose we have arrived at great knowledge here — clear and elevated thoughts of God — but when He brings us into His presence, we will cry out that we never knew Him as He is. Not even a thousandth part of His glory, perfection, and blessedness had ever entered our hearts.

The apostle tells us (1 John 3:2) that we do not yet know what we ourselves will be — what we will find ourselves to be in the end. How much less will it enter our hearts to conceive what God is and what we will find Him to be.

First, we know so little of God because He is the One who is to be known — that is, the One who has in large part described Himself to us precisely by the fact that we cannot know Him. What else does He mean when He calls Himself invisible, incomprehensible, and the like? He is the One we do not and cannot know as He is. Our progress in knowing Him consists more in knowing what He is not than what He is. So He is described as immortal and infinite — meaning He is not as we are: mortal, finite, and limited. Hence this glorious description (1 Timothy 6:16): 'Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.' His light is such that no creature can approach it. He is not seen — not because He cannot be seen in Himself, but because we cannot bear the sight of Him. The light of God — in whom there is no darkness at all — makes access to Him impossible for any creature whatever. We, who cannot even look directly at the sun in its brightness, are far too weak to bear the beams of infinite brightness.

On this basis — as was noted — the wise man confesses himself a brute rather than a man, not possessing human understanding (Proverbs 30:2). That is, he knew nothing in comparison with God — his very understanding seemed to vanish once he came to contemplate God, His works, and His ways. In this consideration, let our souls descend to some particulars.

1. As for God's being: we are so far from knowing it in a way that would allow us to instruct one another through words and expressions, that to form any conception in our minds about it — using the mental images and impressions through which we know all other things — is to make an idol for ourselves, to worship a god of our own making rather than the God who made us. We might as well carve Him out of wood or stone as fashion a conception of His being in our minds suited to our own capacities.

The best and highest thought we can have about God's being is that we can have no real thought of it. It is a very limited kind of knowledge that rises no higher than knowing we do not actually know it.

2. There are certain things about God that He Himself has taught us to speak of and has given us language to express them with — but even when we speak in these God-given terms, we do not see the realities themselves or truly know them. Believing and marveling is all we attain. We profess — as we are taught — that God is infinite, omnipotent, and eternal. And we know how many debates and ideas there are about omnipresence, immensity, infiniteness, and eternity. We have words and concepts about these things, but as for the things themselves — what do we actually know? What do we actually comprehend? Can the human mind do anything more than swallow itself up in an infinite abyss that is as nothing to it — surrender itself to what it cannot conceive, let alone express? Is our understanding not reduced to nothing in contemplating such things? Is it not as if it had no understanding at all? Indeed, the perfection of our understanding at this point is not to understand — and to rest there. We catch only the faintest glimpse of the back parts of eternity and infiniteness. What shall I say of the Trinity — or the existence of distinct persons in one individual essence? A mystery denied by many because understood by none. A mystery whose every letter is itself a mystery.

Who can explain the eternal generation of the Son, the procession of the Spirit, or the distinction between Them? The infinite and inconceivable distance that exists between Him and us keeps us in the dark as to any clear sight of His face or any full comprehension of His perfections.

We know Him more through what He does than through what He is — more through His acts of goodness toward us than through His essential goodness itself. And as Job says, how small a portion of Him is even discovered through this?

Second, we know so little of God because it is only by faith that we know Him here. I will not at this point discuss the residual impressions about the existence of God that remain naturally in all human hearts, or what can be rationally known about God from the works of creation and providence that people observe. It is universally acknowledged — and painfully confirmed by the experience of every age — that this knowledge is so weak, dim, confused, and incomplete that no one has ever truly glorified God on its basis. Despite all their knowledge of God, people have been, in effect, without God in the world.

The main — and practically the only — knowledge we have of God and His ways of making Himself known comes through faith. 'He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him' (Hebrews 11:6). Our knowledge of Him, and of His rewarding of those who seek Him — the very foundation of our obedience and our coming to Him — is belief. 'We walk by faith, not by sight' (2 Corinthians 5:7). 'Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen' (Hebrews 11:1). As to its source, faith rests purely on the testimony of the One it has not seen. As the apostle implies: how can you love the One you have not seen? — meaning, the One you know exists only by faith. Faith receives everything on His testimony and receives Him as real on His own testimony alone. As to its nature, faith is an assent based on testimony, not a certainty based on direct evidence. And its object, as was said, is above us. Hence our faith is described as a seeing dimly as in a glass. Everything we know this way — and everything we know of God we know this way — is dim, dark, and incomplete.

But you may say: all this may be true for those who do not know God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ. For those who do know Him this way, it is different. It is true: 'No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him' (John 1:17-18). And 'The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true' (1 John 5:20).

The light of the glorious Gospel of Christ — who is the image of God — shines upon believers (2 Corinthians 4:4). Indeed, God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give us the knowledge of His glory in the face of His Son (verse 6). Though we were once darkness, we are now light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). The apostle says, 'We all, with unveiled face, are beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror' (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are now so far from living in darkness or at a great distance from God that our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son (1 John 1:3). The light of the Gospel by which God is now revealed is glorious. Not a star but the sun in its beauty has risen upon us, and the veil has been removed from our faces. So even though unbelievers — and perhaps some weak believers — may remain in some degree of spiritual darkness, those of any maturity or significant growth have a clear sight of the face of God in Jesus Christ.

1. The truth is, all of us know enough of God to love Him more than we do, to delight in Him and serve Him, to believe, obey, and trust in Him far beyond what any of us has yet attained.

Our darkness and weakness is no excuse for our negligence and disobedience. Who among us has lived up to the knowledge he has had of God's perfections, excellencies, and will? God's goal in giving us any knowledge of Himself here is that we would glorify Him as God — that is, love Him, serve Him, believe and obey Him, and give Him all the honor and glory that is due from poor sinful creatures to a sin-pardoning God and Creator. We must all admit that we have never been fully transformed by the image of the knowledge we have received. And had we used our talents well, we might have been trusted with more.

2. Relatively speaking, the knowledge of God that we have through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Gospel is extraordinarily great and glorious. It is so in comparison with any knowledge of God that could otherwise be obtained, or that was delivered under the old covenant, which had only the shadow of good things, not the clear image of them. The apostle develops this at length (2 Corinthians 3). Christ has now in these last days revealed the Father from His own heart, declared His name, and made known His mind, will, and purposes in a far clearer, more prominent, and more distinct way than He did previously, when He kept His people under the instruction of the law. This is what is chiefly meant in the passages cited earlier: the clear, plain declaration and revelation of God and His will in the Gospel is expressly exalted in comparison with every other mode of revelation.

3. The difference between believers and unbelievers in knowledge lies not so much in the content of what they know as in the manner in which they know it. Unbelievers may in some cases know more about God, His perfections, and His will than many believers — yet they know nothing as they ought. They know nothing in the right way, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing in a holy and heavenly light. The excellence of a believer lies not in having a large grasp of things, but in this: what he does grasp — which may be very little — he sees in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving and soul-transforming light. It is this that gives us communion with God, not wide-ranging thoughts or intricate raised notions.

4. Jesus Christ, by His word and Spirit, reveals to the hearts of all His people God as a Father, as a God in covenant, as a rewarder — fully sufficient to teach us to obey Him here and to lead us to His heart, to rest there in the enjoyment of Him for eternity. But even so:

5. Despite all this, what we know of Him is but a small portion. We see only His back parts. For:

(1) The purpose of all Gospel revelation is not to unveil God's essential glory so that we should see Him as He is, but merely to declare as much of Himself as He judges sufficient to ground our faith, love, obedience, and coming to Him — the faith He expects from us in this life, and the service fitting for poor creatures in the midst of temptations. But when He calls us into eternal wonder and contemplation without interruption, He will make a new kind of discovery of Himself, and the entire shape of things as they now stand before us will pass away like a shadow.

(2) We are dull and slow of heart to receive even the things that are already revealed in the word. God, by our weakness and limitations, keeps us in continual dependence on Him for fresh understanding and revelation of Himself from His word — never in this life bringing any soul to the fullest extent of what could be drawn out and discovered from the word. So although the way of revelation in the Gospel is clear and plain, we still know very little of the things themselves that are revealed.

Let us then return to the purpose and use of this consideration. Will not a right sense of God's inconceivable greatness and of the infinite distance at which we stand from Him fill the soul with a holy and reverent fear of Him — keeping it in a frame that is incompatible with the thriving or flourishing of any lust whatsoever? Let the soul be continually accustomed to reverent thoughts of God's greatness and omnipresence, and it will be much more alert against any unworthy behavior. Consider the One with whom you have to do — even our God is a consuming fire. In all your deepest humility before His presence and all-seeing eye, know that your very nature is too narrow to hold thoughts adequate to His essential glory.