CHAP. XIII. The second Difference between our beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in this World, and by Sight in Heaven.

Faith is the light in which we behold the glory of Christ in this world. And this in its own nature, as to this great end, is weak and imperfect — like weak eyes that cannot behold the sun in its beauty. Hence our sight of it differs greatly from what we shall enjoy in glory, as has been declared. But this is not all; it is frequently hindered and interrupted in its operations, or it loses the view of its object by one means or other. As he who sees anything at a great distance sees it imperfectly, and the least interposition or movement takes it quite out of his sight, so is it with our faith in this matter. From which it is that sometimes we can have little, sometimes no sight at all of the glory of Christ by it. And this gives us, as we shall see, another difference between faith and sight.

Now although the consideration of this may seem a kind of digression from our present argument, yet I choose to dwell on it, that I may show the reasons why many have so little experience of the things we have treated of, and find so little reality or power in the exercise of this grace or the performance of this duty. For it will appear in the end that the whole defect is in themselves; the truth itself insisted on is great and efficacious.

1. While we are in this life, the Lord Christ is pleased in his sovereign wisdom sometimes to withdraw, and as it were to hide himself from us. Then our minds fall into clouds and darkness; faith is at a loss, we cannot behold his glory; indeed, we may seek him but cannot find him. So Job complains as we observed before: "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand where he works, but I cannot behold him; he hides himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him" (Job 23:8–9). Whichever way I turn myself, whatever my endeavors, in whatever way or work of his own I seek him, I cannot find him, I cannot see him, I cannot behold his glory. So the church also complains: "Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior" (Isaiah 45:15). And the psalmist: "How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?" (Psalm 89:46). This hiding of the face of God is the hiding of the shining of his glory in the face of Christ Jesus, and therefore of the glory of Christ himself — for it is the glory of Christ to be the representative of the glory of God. The bride in the Song of Solomon is often at a loss in this, bemoaning herself that her beloved had withdrawn, that she could neither find him nor see him (Song of Solomon 3:1–2; 5:6).

Men may retain their notions concerning Christ, his person, and his glory. These cannot be blotted out of their minds but by heresy or obdurate stupidity. They may have the same doctrinal knowledge of him as others; but the sight of his glory does not consist in this. They may continue in the outward performance of duties toward him as before; but all this while, as to the special gracious communications of himself to their souls and a cheerful, refreshing view of his glory, he may withdraw and hide himself from them.

As under the same outward dispensations of the word he does manifest himself to some and not to others — "How is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" (John 14:22) — whereupon those to whom he does so manifest himself see him to be beautiful, glorious, and lovely (for to those who believe he is precious), while the others see nothing of it, but wonder at those by whom he is admired (Song of Solomon 5:9). So in the same dispensation of the word he sometimes hides his face, turns away the light of his countenance, and clouds the beams of his glory from some, while others are cherished and warmed by them.

Two things we must speak to here.

1. Why does the Lord Christ at any time thus hide himself in his glory from the faith of believers, so that they cannot behold him?

2. How we may perceive and know that he does so withdraw himself from us, so that however we may satisfy ourselves, we do not in fact behold his glory.

As to the first of these, though what he does is an act of sovereign and inscrutable wisdom, yet there are many holy ends of it and consequently reasons for it. I shall mention only one. He does it to stir us up in an eminent manner to a diligent search and inquiry after him. Woeful sloth and negligence are apt to prevail in us in our meditations on heavenly things. Though our hearts wake — as the bride speaks (Song of Solomon 5:2) — in a valuation of Christ, his love and his grace, yet we sleep as to the due exercise of faith and love toward him. Who is it that can justify himself in this? That can say, "My heart is pure, I am clean from this sin"? Indeed, it is so far otherwise with many of us that he is forever to be admired in his patience — that on account of our unkindness and woeful negligence in this, he has not only withdrawn himself at seasons, but has not utterly departed from us. Now he knows that those with whom he has been graciously present, who have had views of his glory — though they have not valued the mercy and privilege of it as they ought — yet cannot bear a sense of his absence and his hiding himself from them. By this therefore he will awaken them to a diligent inquiry after him. Upon the discovery of his absence and such a distance of his glory from them as their faith cannot reach, they become like the doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity, and they stir themselves up to seek him early and with diligence (Hosea 5:15). So wherever the bride mentions this withdrawing of Christ from her, she immediately gives an account of her restless diligence and endeavors in her search after him, until she has found him (Song of Solomon 3:1–5; 5:2–8). And in these inquiries there is such an exercise of faith and love — though it may be acting itself mostly in sighs and groans — as is acceptable and well-pleasing to him.

We are like the man in the parable of the prophet who spoke to Ahab — who, having been committed someone to keep, affirms that while he was busy here and there, the prisoner was gone. Christ commits himself to us, and we ought carefully to keep his presence. "I held him," says the church, "and would not let him go" (Song of Solomon 3:4). But while we are busy here and there, while our minds are overfilled with other things, he withdraws himself and we cannot find him. But even this rebuke is a sanctified ordinance for our recovery and his return to us.

2. Our second inquiry is: how we may know when Christ does so withdraw himself from us that we do not, that we cannot behold his glory.

I speak here to them alone who make the observation of the lively actings of faith and love in and toward Jesus Christ their chief concern in all their private times, and indeed in their whole walk before God. Concerning these, our inquiry is: how they may know when Christ does in any degree or measure withdraw from them so that they cannot in a due manner behold his glory?

And the first discovery of this is by the consequences of such withdrawings. And what the consequences of it are, we can know no otherwise than by the effects of his presence with us and the manifestation of himself to us, which as to some degrees must necessarily cease when he withdraws.

Now the first of these effects is the life, vigor, and effectual acting of all grace in us. This is an inseparable consequence and effect of a view of his glory. While we enjoy it, we live — yet not we, but Christ lives in us, stirring and acting all his graces in us.

This is what the apostle instructs us in: while we behold his glory as in a mirror, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). That is, while by faith we contemplate the glory of Christ as revealed in the gospel, all grace will thrive and flourish in us toward a perfect conformity to him. For while we abide in this view and contemplation, our souls will be preserved in holy frames and in a continual exercise of love and delight, with all other spiritual affections toward him. It is impossible while Christ is in the eye of our faith as proposed in the gospel that we should not labor to be like him and greatly love him. Nor is there any way for us to attain either of these — which are the great concerns of our souls, namely to be like Christ and to love him — except by a constant view of him and his glory by faith, which powerfully and effectually works them in us. All the doctrinal knowledge we have of him is useless; all the view we have of his glory is but fancy, imagination, or superstition, if not accompanied by this transforming power. And what is wrought by it is the increase and vigor of all grace, for therein alone our conformity to him consists. Growth in grace, holiness, and obedience is a growing like Christ, and nothing else is so.

I cannot refrain here from a brief necessary digression. This transforming efficacy from a spiritual view of Christ as proposed in the gospel, being lost as to any experience of it in the minds of men who are carnal and ignorant of the mystery of believing — as it is at present derided by many, though it is the life of religion — fancy and superstition provided various substitutes in its place. For they found out crucifixes and images with paintings to represent him in his sufferings and glory. By these things, their carnal affections being stirred by their outward senses, they suppose themselves to be affected with him, and to be made like him. Indeed, some have gone so far, either by diabolical arts or by other means, as to make an appearance of wounds on their hands, feet, and sides, pretending thereby to be like him — to be wholly transformed into his image. But what is produced by an image is but an image; an imaginary Christ will effect nothing in the minds of men but imaginary grace.

Thus religion was lost and died. When men could not obtain any experience in their minds of the spiritual mysteries of the gospel, nor be sensible of any spiritual change or benefit from them, they substituted some outward duties and observances in their place — as I shall show, God willing, elsewhere at greater length. These produced some kind of effects on their minds and affections, but quite of another nature than those which are the real effects of true evangelical grace. This is openly evident in this substitution of images in place of the representation of Christ and his glory made in the gospel.

However, there is a general assumption conceded on all sides: namely, that there must be a view of Christ and his glory to cause us to love him, and thereby to make us conformable or like to him. But here lies the difference: those of the Church of Rome say that this must be done by beholding crucifixes with other images and pictures of him, and that with our bodily eyes. We say it is by our beholding his glory by faith as revealed in the gospel, and in no other way. And to confess the truth, we have some who, as they reject the use of images, so they despise that spiritual view of the glory of Christ which we inquire after. Such persons will at the first occasion fall to the other side, for anything is better than nothing.

But as we have a sure word of prophecy to secure us from these abominations by an express prohibition of such images for all purposes whatever, so our stability in the profession of the truth and experience of the efficacy of this spiritual view of Christ transforming our souls into his own likeness is absolutely necessary. For if an idolater should plead, as they all do, that in beholding the image of Christ or of a crucifix — especially if they are diligent and constant therein — they find their affections toward him greatly stirred, increased, and inflamed (as they will be, Isaiah 57:5), and that thereupon they endeavor to be like him, what shall we have to set against this? For it is certain that such images are apt to make impressions on the minds of men — partly from the readiness of the senses and imagination to give them admittance into their thoughts, and partly from their natural inclinations to superstition, their aversion from things spiritual and invisible, with an inclination toward things present and visible. Hence, among those who are persuaded that they ought not to be adored with any religious veneration, yet some are apt upon the sight of them to entertain a thoughtful reverence, as they would if they were to enter a pagan temple full of idols; and others are continually making approaches toward their use and veneration in paintings and altars and such outward postures of worship as are used in their religious service. But that they do sensibly affect the minds of carnal and superstitious men cannot be denied, and as they suppose, it is a love toward Christ himself. However, it is certain in general, and confessed on all sides, that the beholding of Christ is the most blessed means of stirring all our graces, spiritualizing all our affections, and transforming our minds into his likeness. And if we have not another and more excellent way of beholding him than those have who behold him, as they suppose, in images and crucifixes, they would seem to have the advantage of us. For their minds will really be affected with something, ours with nothing at all. And by the pretense of this they entangle the carnal affections of men ignorant of the power of the gospel to become their followers. For having lived, perhaps, a long time without the least experience of a sensible impression on their minds or a transforming power from the representation of Christ in the gospel, upon their very first religious and devout application to these images, they find their thoughts exercised, their minds affected, and some present change made upon them.

But there was a difference between the person of David and an image with a bolster of goat's hair, though the one was laid in the room and place of the other. And so there is between Christ and an image, though the one be put into the place of the other. Neither do these things serve any other end but to divert the minds of men from faith and love to Christ, giving them some such satisfactions in their place as cause their carnal affections to cleave to their idols. And indeed it belongs to the wisdom of faith — or we stand in need of spiritual light — to discern and judge between the working of natural affections toward spiritual objects on undue motives, by undue means, with indirect ends (which is what all papal devotion consists in), and the spiritual exercise of grace in those affections duly fixed on spiritual objects.

But as was said, it is a real experience of the efficacy there is in the spiritual beholding of the glory of Christ by faith as proposed in the gospel — to strengthen, increase, and stir all grace to its proper exercise, so gradually changing and transforming the soul into his likeness — which must secure us against all those pretenses. And so I return from this digression.

By this we may understand whether the Lord Christ does so withdraw himself that we do not, that we cannot behold his glory by faith in a due manner — which is the thing inquired after. For if we grow weak in our graces, unspiritual in our frames, cold in our affections, or negligent in the exercise of them by holy meditation, it is evident that he is at a great distance from us, so that we do not behold his glory as we ought. If the weather grows cold, herbs and plants wither, and the frost begins to bind up the earth — all men grant that the sun has withdrawn and does not make its usual approach to us. And if it is so with our hearts — that they grow cold, frozen, withered, lifeless in and toward spiritual duties — it is certain that the Lord Christ is in some sense withdrawn, and that we do not behold his glory. We retain notions of truth concerning his person, office, and grace; but faith is not in constant exercise as to real views of him and his glory. For there is nothing more certain in Christian experience than this: that while we do really by faith behold the glory of Christ as proposed in the gospel — the glory of his person and office as before described — and so abide in holy thoughts and meditations on it, especially in our private duties and times of retirement, all grace will live and thrive in us in some measure, especially love toward his person, and therein toward all that belongs to him. Let us but put it to the test and we shall infallibly find the promised result.

Do any of us find decays of grace prevailing in us — deadness, coldness, lukewarmness, a kind of spiritual stupidity and insensibility coming upon us? Do we find an unreadiness to exercise grace in its proper season and a lack of the vigorous actings of it in duties of communion with God? And would we have our souls recovered from these dangerous diseases? Let us assure ourselves there is no better way for our healing and deliverance — indeed no other way at all — but this alone: obtaining a fresh view of the glory of Christ by faith and a steady abiding in it. Constant contemplation of Christ and his glory, putting forth its transforming power to the revival of all grace, is the only relief in this case, as shall further be shown afterward.

Some will say that this must be effected by fresh supplies and renewed communications of the Holy Spirit. Unless he falls as dew and showers on our dry and barren hearts, unless he causes our graces to spring, thrive, and bring forth fruit, unless he revives and increases faith, love, and holiness in our souls, our backslidings will not be healed, nor our spiritual state recovered. To this end he is prayed for and promised in the Scripture (Song of Solomon 4:16; Isaiah 44:3–4; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; Hosea 14:5–6). And so it is — the immediate efficiency of the revival of our souls is from and by the Holy Spirit. But the inquiry is: in what way, or by what means, may we obtain the supplies and communications of him to this end? This the apostle declares in the place insisted on: "We beholding the glory of Christ in a mirror are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord." It is in the exercise of faith on Christ in the way before described that the Holy Spirit puts forth his renewing, transforming power in and upon our souls. This therefore is that alone which will recover Christians from their present decays and deadness.

Some complain greatly of their state and condition — none so dead, so dull, so stupefied as they. They do not know whether any spark of heavenly life remains in them. Some make weak and faint attempts at recovery, which are like the efforts of a man in a dream where he seems to exert great effort but achieves nothing. Some put themselves to multiplied duties. Yet the generality of professors seem to be in a wasting, fruitless condition. And the reason is that they will not sincerely and constantly make use of the only remedy and relief — like a man who would rather waste away in his sickness with some useless, passing refreshments, than apply himself to a known and approved remedy, perhaps because its use is unsuitable to some of his present occasions. Now this remedy is to live in the exercise of faith in Christ Jesus. This he himself assures us of (John 15:4–5): "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

There is a twofold coming to Christ by believing. The first is that we may have life — that is, a spring and principle of spiritual life communicated to us from him, for he is our life (Colossians 3:3), and because he lives, we also live (John 14:19). Indeed, it is not so much we who live as Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:19–20). And unbelief is a not coming to him that we may have life (John 5:40). But secondly, there is also a coming to him by believers in the actual exercise of faith, that they may have this life more abundantly (John 10:10) — that is, such supplies of grace as may keep their souls in a healthy, vigorous exercise of all the powers of spiritual life. And as he rebukes some for not coming to him that they might have life, so he may justly reprove us all that we do not come to him in the actual exercise of faith so as to have this life more abundantly.

Second, when the Lord Christ is near us and we do behold his glory, he will frequently communicate spiritual refreshment in peace, consolation, and joy to our souls. We shall not only have our graces stirred with respect to him as their object, but be made sensible of his actings toward us in the communications of himself and his love to us. When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon any soul, or makes any near approach to it, that soul shall find healing under his wings; his beams of grace shall convey by his Spirit holy spiritual refreshment to it. For he is present with us by his Spirit, and these are his fruits and effects as he is the Comforter, suited to his office as he is promised to us.

Many love to walk in a very careless and unwise profession. So long as they can continue in the performance of outward duties, they are very indifferent to the greatest evangelical privileges — those things which are the marrow of divine promises, all real endeavors of vital communion with Christ. Such are spiritual peace, refreshing consolations, ineffable joys, and the blessed composure of assurance. Without some taste and experience of these things, profession is heartless, lifeless, useless; and religion itself is a dead carcass without an animating soul. The peace which some enjoy is a mere stupidity. They do not judge these things to be real — things which are the substance of Christ's present reward, and the renunciation of which would deprive the church of its principal supports and encouragements in all its sufferings. It is a great evidence of the power of unbelief when we can satisfy ourselves without an experience in our own hearts of the great things of this kind — joy, peace, consolation, assurance — that are promised in the gospel. For how can it be supposed that we do indeed believe the promises of things future — of heaven, immortality, and glory, the faith of which is the foundation of all religion — when we do not believe the promises of the present reward in these spiritual privileges? And how shall we be thought to believe them when we do not endeavor after an experience of the things themselves in our own souls, but are even contented without them? But in this men deceive themselves. They would very much like to have evangelical joy, peace, and assurance to countenance them in their evil frames and careless walking. And some have attempted to reconcile these things, to the ruin of their souls. But it will not be. Without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we shall never enjoy the grace of consolation. But we must speak somewhat of these things afterward.

It is peculiarly in the view of the glory of Christ, in his approaches to us and abiding with us, that we are made partakers of evangelical peace, consolation, joy, and assurance. These are a part of the royal train of his graces, of the reward with which he is accompanied — "his reward is with him." Wherever he is graciously present with any, these things are never lacking in due measure and degree, unless it be through their own fault or for their trial. In these things he gives to the church of his beloved (Song of Solomon 7:12). For "if any man loves me," he says, "I will love him and manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). "Yes, I and the Father will come to him and make our home with him" (verse 23), and that so as to dine with him (Revelation 3:20) — which on his part can be only by the communication of those spiritual refreshments. The only inquiry is: by what way and means do we receive them? Now I say this is in and by our beholding the glory of Christ by faith (1 Peter 1:8–9). Let that glory be rightly apprehended as before laid down — the glory of his person, his office, his condescension, exaltation, love, and grace; let faith be fixed in a view and contemplation of it, let it mingle with it as represented in the mirror of the gospel, meditate upon it, embrace it — and virtue will proceed from Christ, communicating spiritual, supernatural refreshment and joy to our souls. Indeed, in ordinary cases it is impossible that believers should have a real prospect of this glory at any time without it in some measure affecting their hearts with a sense of his love, which is the spring of all consolation in them. In the exercise of faith on the discoveries of the glory of Christ made to us in the gospel, no man shall ever altogether lack such intimations of his love — indeed such outpourings of it in his heart — as shall be a living spring of those spiritual refreshments (John 4:14; Romans 5:5). When therefore we lose these things as to a sense of them in our souls, it is evident that the Lord Christ has withdrawn, and that we do not behold his glory.

But I cannot here avoid another brief digression. There are those by whom all these things are derided as disordered fancies and imaginations. Indeed, such things have been spoken and written of them as contain a virtual renunciation of the gospel, the powers of the world to come, and the whole work of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter of the church. And by this all real intercourse between the person of Christ and the souls of those who believe is utterly overthrown, reducing all religion to an outward show and a pageantry, fitter for a stage than that temple of God which is in the minds of men. According to the sentiments of these profane scoffers, there is no such thing as the outpouring of the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; no such thing as the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, from which these spiritual joys and refreshments are inseparable as their necessary effects; no such thing as the lifting up of the light of God's countenance upon us, which puts gladness into our hearts; no such thing as rejoicing in believing with joy unspeakable and full of glory; no such thing as Christ's showing and manifesting himself to us, dining with us, and giving us of his love; and the divine promises of a feast of rich food and well-refined wine in gospel mercies are empty and insignificant words. According to them, all those ravishing joys and exultations of spirit that multitudes of faithful martyrs in ancient times and in later ages have enjoyed by a view of the glory of God in Christ and a sense of his love — to which they testified to their last moments in the midst of their torments — were but fancies and imaginations. But it is the height of impudence in these profane scoffers that they proclaim their own ignorance of those things which are the real powers of our religion.

There are others who will not deny the truth of these things. They dare not rise up in contradiction to those express testimonies of Scripture by which they are confirmed. And they do suppose that some are partakers of them — at least they were formerly; but as for themselves, they have no experience of them, nor do they judge it their duty to endeavor after it. They can make do with hopes of heaven and future glory. As to what is present, they desire no more than to be found in the performance of some duties in response to their convictions, which gives them that sorry peace they enjoy. So do many excuse themselves in their spiritual sloth and unbelief, keeping themselves at liberty to seek refreshment and satisfaction in other things while those of the gospel are despised. And these things are inconsistent. While men look for their chief refreshment and satisfaction in temporal things, it is impossible that they should seek after those that are spiritual in a due manner. And it must be confessed that when we have a due regard to spiritual, evangelical consolations and joys, it will abate and take off our affections toward and satisfaction in present enjoyments (Philippians 3:8–9).

But there is no more sacred truth than this: that where Christ is present with believers, where he has not withdrawn from them for a season, where they live in the view of his glory by faith as it is proposed to them in the gospel, he will give to them at his own seasons such intimations of his love, such supplies of his Spirit, such holy joys and rejoicings, such repose of soul in assurance, as shall refresh their souls, fill them with joy, satisfy them with spiritual delight, and quicken them to all acts of holy communion with himself.

Let no such dishonor be reflected on the gospel as that while the faith of it and obedience to it are usually accompanied with outward troubles, afflictions, persecution, and reproaches — as we are foretold they should be — it does not by its inward consolations and divine refreshments more than outweigh all those evils we may undergo on its account. To suppose this is expressly contrary to the promise of Christ himself, who has assured us that even now in this life, in this world, distinct from eternal life in the world to come, we shall receive a hundredfold recompense for all that we can lose or suffer for his sake (Matthew 10:30), and also contrary to the experience of those who in all ages have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves — by the experience they have of its firstfruits — that they have in heaven a better and more enduring substance (Hebrews 10:34). If we fall short in a participation of these things, if we are strangers to them, the blame is to be laid on ourselves alone, as shall be immediately declared.

Now the design of the Lord Christ in thus withdrawing himself from us and hiding his glory from our view, being the exercise of our graces and to stir us up to diligence in our inquiries after him, here lies our guidance and direction in this case. Do we find ourselves lifeless in the spiritual duties of religion? Are we strangers to the heavenly visits of consolation and joys, those visitations of God by which he preserves our souls? Do we seldom enjoy a sense of the outpouring of his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit? We have no way of recovery but this alone. To this strong tower must we turn ourselves as prisoners of hope; to Christ must we look that we may be saved. It is a steady view or contemplation of his glory by faith alone that will bring all these things in a living experience into our hearts and souls.

Again, in the second place, it is principally from ourselves if we lose the views of the glory of Christ and the exercise of faith is obstructed in this. All our spiritual disadvantages arise from ourselves. It is the remnants of lusts and corruptions in us — either indulged by sloth and negligence, or stirred and inflamed by Satan's temptations — that obstruct us in this duty. While they are in any disorder or disturbance, it is in vain for us to expect any clear view of this glory.

That view of the glory of Christ of which we treat consists in two things: namely its special nature, and its necessary accompaniment or effect. The first is a spiritual perception or understanding of it as revealed in the Scriptures, for the revelation of the glory of his person, office, and grace is the principal subject of them and the principal object of our faith. And the other consists in multiplied thoughts about him, with actings of faith in love, trust, delight, and longing after the full enjoyment of him (1 Peter 1:8). If we satisfy ourselves in mere notions and speculations about the glory of Christ as doctrinally revealed to us, we shall find no transforming power or efficacy communicated to us thereby. But when under the guidance of that spiritual light our affections cleave to him with full purpose of heart, our minds are filled with thoughts of him and delight in him, and faith is kept up to its constant exercise in trust and dependence on him, virtue will proceed from him to purify our hearts, increase our holiness, strengthen our graces, and fill us sometimes with joy unspeakable and full of glory. This is the right condition of a state of spiritual health: when our knowledge of the glory of God in Christ corresponds to the means of it we enjoy, and when our affections toward Christ bear proportion to that knowledge, according to the various degrees of it — for some have more and some have less. Where knowledge leaves the affections behind, it ends in formality or atheism; and where affections outrun knowledge, they sink in the bog of superstition, doting on images and pictures and the like. But where things do not go to these extremes, it is better that our affections exceed our knowledge — from the defect of our understandings — than that our knowledge exceed our affections from the corruption of our wills. In both of these, the exercise of faith is frequently interrupted and obstructed by the remains of corruption in us, especially if not kept constantly under the discipline of mortification but in some way indulged. For,

1. The fume of their disorder will cloud and darken the understanding, so that it shall not be able clearly to discern any spiritual object, least of all the greatest of them. There is nothing more acknowledged even in natural and moral matters than that the disorder of the passions and affections will blind, darken, and deceive the mind in its operations. And it is much more so in spiritual things, where that disorder is an immediate rebellion against its proper guiding light — that is, against the light and rule of grace.

There are three sorts of those to whom the gospel is preached, in whom there are various obstructions of this view.

1. In obstinate unbelievers there is a darkness that is an effect of the power of Satan on their minds in blinding them, which makes it impossible for them to behold anything of the glory of Christ. So the apostle declares it: "If our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Of these we do not speak.

2. There is in all men a corrupt, natural darkness — or such a deprivation of their minds by nature — that they cannot discern the glory of Christ in a due manner. Hence the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it (John 1:5). For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). Hence it is that although Christ is preached among us continually, yet there are very few who discern any glory or beauty in him for which he should be desired, as the prophet complains (Isaiah 53:1–2). But I do not speak of this natural darkness in general. For even these persons have their minds filled with prejudices against the gospel and darkened as to the glory of Christ, in proportion as corrupt lusts and affections are prevalent in them (John 1:44; 12:43). Hence is the difference that exists among the common hearers of the word. For although no man can do anything of himself for the receiving of Christ and the beholding of his glory, without the special aid of the grace of God (Matthew 11:24; John 6:44–45), yet some may make more opposition to believing, and lay more hindrances in their own way, than others — which is done by their lusts and corruptions.

3. There are those in whom both these evils are cured by faith, in which the eyes of our understanding are enlightened to perceive and discern spiritual things (Ephesians 1:16–18). But this cure is effected in this life only in part (1 Corinthians 13:12). And in this cure, by the supply of a principle of saving light to our minds, there are many degrees — for some have a clearer light than others, and thereby a more clear discerning of the mystery of the wisdom of God and of the glory of Christ in it. But whatever our attainments in this, that which obstructs this light, that hinders it from shining in a due manner, that obstructs and hinders faith in its view of the glory of Christ — this is done by the remainders of corrupted nature in us when they act in any prevalent degree. For they darken the mind and weaken it in its spiritual operations. That is, where any corrupt and inordinate affections — as love of the world, cares about it, inclinations to sensuality, or the like spiritual disorders — prevail, faith is weakened in its spiritual actings, especially in discerning and beholding the glory of Christ. For the mind is rendered unsteady in its inquiries after him, being continually distracted and diverted with vain thoughts and imaginations.

Persons under the power of such distempers may have the same doctrinal knowledge of the person of Christ, his office, and his grace as other men, and the same evidence of its truth fixed on their minds; but when they endeavor a real looking into the things themselves, all things are dark and confused to them from the uncertainty and instability of their own minds.

This is the sum of what I intend. We have by faith a view of the glory of Christ. This view is weak and unsteady from the nature of faith itself, and from the way of its proposal to us as in a mirror, in comparison of what by sight we shall attain. But moreover, where corrupt lusts or inordinate affections are indulged, where they are not continually mortified, where any one sin has a perplexing dominance in the mind, faith will be so far weakened thereby that it can neither see nor meditate upon the glory of Christ in a due manner. This is the reason why most people are so weak and unstable in the performance of this duty — indeed almost utterly unacquainted with it. The light of faith in the minds of men being impaired, clouded, and darkened by the prevalency of unmortified lusts, it cannot make such discoveries of this glory as otherwise it would. And this is what makes the preaching of Christ so unprofitable to many.

Second, the view of the glory of Christ which we have by faith will fill the mind with thoughts and meditations about him, and the affections will thereupon cleave to him with delight. This, as was said, is inseparable from a spiritual view of his glory in its due exercise. Everyone who has it must and will have many thoughts about him and great affections toward him (Philippians 3:8, 10). It is not possible, I say, that we should behold the glory of his person, office, and grace, with a due conviction of our concern and interest in them, without our minds being greatly affected by it and filled with contemplations about it. Where this is not the case with anyone, it is to be feared that they have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form, whatever they profess. A spiritual sight of Christ will assuredly produce love toward him, and if any man does not love him, he has never seen him and does not know him at all. And that is no love which does not produce in us many thoughts of the object loved. He therefore who is a partaker of this grace will think much of what Christ is in himself, of what he has done for us, of his love and condescension, of the manifestation of all the glorious excellencies of the divine nature in him, put forth in a way of infinite wisdom and goodness for the salvation of the church. Thoughts and meditations on these things will abound in us if we are not lacking in the due exercise of faith, and intense, fervent affections toward him will follow — or at least they will be active to our own refreshing experience. And where these things are not present in reality — though in some they may be only in a low degree — men do but deceive their own souls in any hopes of benefit from Christ or the gospel.

This therefore is the present situation. Where there are prevailing sinful distempers or inordinate affections in the mind — such as those mentioned before: self-love, love of the world, cares and fears about it, with an excessive valuation of relationships and earthly enjoyments — they will so encumber and perplex the mind with a multitude of thoughts about their own objects as to leave no room for quiet meditations on Christ and his glory. And where the thoughts are thus engaged, the affections which partly excite them and are partly led by them will be fixed in the same direction (Colossians 3:1–2).

This is what in most greatly promotes that imperfection which is in our view of the glory of Christ by faith in this life. According to the proportion and degree of the prevalency of affections — corrupt, earthly, selfish, or sensual — filling the heads and hearts of men with a multitude of thoughts about what they are fixed on or inclined to, so is faith obstructed and weakened in this work and duty.

Therefore, since there is a remainder of these lusts — as to the seeds of them — in all of us, though more mortified in some than in others, yet having the same effects in the minds of all according to the degree of their remaining power, it follows as from an effective cause that our view of the glory of Christ by faith is in many persons so weak, imperfect, and unsteady.

Third, we have interruption given to the work of faith in this by the temptations of Satan. His original great design, wherever the gospel is preached, is to blind the eyes of men so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine into them or irradiate their minds (2 Corinthians 4:4). And in this he prevails to an astonishing degree. Let the light of the gospel in the preaching of the word be ever so glorious, yet by various means and artifices he blinds the minds of most so that they shall not behold anything of the glory of Christ therein. By this means he continues his rule in the children of disobedience. With respect to the elect, God overpowers him in this — he shines into their hearts to give them the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ Jesus (verse 6). Yet Satan will not so give over. He will endeavor by all ways and means to trouble, discompose, and darken the minds even of those who believe, so that they shall not be able to retain clear and distinct views of this glory. And this he does in two ways.

1. With some he employs all his engines, uses all his methods of serpentine subtlety, and casts in his fiery darts so as to disquiet, discompose, and cast them down, so that they can retain no comfortable views of Christ or his glory. Hence arise fears, doubts, disputes, uncertainties, and various kinds of discouragement. Hereupon they cannot apprehend the love of Christ, nor be sensible of any interest they have in it, or any refreshing persuasion that they are accepted with him. If such things sometimes shine and beam into their minds, yet they quickly vanish and disappear. Fears that they are rejected and cast off by him, that he will not receive them here nor hereafter, come in their place; hence are they filled with anxieties and despondencies, under which it is impossible they should have any clear view of his glory.

I know that ignorance, atheism, and obstinate security in sensual sins combine to despise all these things. But it is no new thing in the world that men outwardly professing the Christian religion, when they find gain in that godliness, should speak evil of the things they do not know, and corrupt themselves in what they know naturally, like irrational animals.

2. With others Satan deals after a different manner. By various means he seduces them into a careless security in which they promise peace to themselves without any diligent inquiry into these things. Thereupon they live in a general presumption that they shall be saved by Christ, though they do not know how. This makes the apostle so earnest in pressing the duty of self-examination on all Christians: "Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith; test yourselves — do you not know that Christ Jesus is in you, unless you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5). The rule of self-judgment he prescribes is whether Christ is in us or not; and in us he cannot be unless he is received by that faith by which we behold his glory. For by faith we receive him, and by faith he dwells in our hearts (John 1:12; Ephesians 3:17).

This is the principal way of his prevailing in the world. Multitudes by his seduction live in great security with the utmost neglect of these things. Security is acknowledged to be an evil destructive to the souls of men; but it is supposed to consist only in impenitence for great and open sins. But to be neglectful of endeavoring after an experience of the power and grace of the gospel in our own souls, under a profession of religion, is no less destructive and pernicious than impenitence in any course of sin.

These and like obstructions to faith in its operations, being added to its own imperfections, are another cause why our view of the glory of Christ in this world is so weak and unsteady — so that for the most part it only transiently affects our minds, and does not so fully transform them into his likeness as otherwise it would.

It is now time to consider that sight which we shall have of the glory of Christ in heaven, in comparison with what we have here below. Now this sight is equal, stable, and always the same without interruption or diversion. And this is evident both in the causes or means of it, and also in our perfect deliverance from everything that might be a hindrance or obstruction to it.

1. We may consider the state of our minds in glory. The faculties of our souls shall then be made perfect (Hebrews 12 — the spirits of just men made perfect): first, freed from all the clogs of the flesh and all its influence upon them and restraint of their powers in their operations; and second, perfectly purified from all principles of instability and variability, from all inclinations to the sensual and carnal, and from all contrivances of self-preservation or self-advancement, being wholly transformed into the image of God in spirituality and holiness. And to take in the state of our bodies after the resurrection: even they also, in all their powers and senses, shall be made entirely subservient to the most spiritual actings of our minds in their highest elevation by the light of glory. By this we shall be enabled and fitted to abide eternally in the contemplation of the glory of Christ with joy and satisfaction. The understanding shall always be perfected with the vision of God, and the affections shall cleave inseparably to him — and this is blessedness.

The very essential faculties of our souls, in that way and manner of working to which their union with our bodies confines them, are not able to comprehend and abide constantly in the contemplation of this glory. So that, though our sight of it here is dim and imperfect, and the proposal of it obscure, yet from the weakness of our minds we are forced sometimes to turn aside from what we do discern — as we turn our bodily eyes from the beams of the sun when it shines in its brightness. But in the perfect state they shall be able to behold and delight in this glory constantly, with eternal satisfaction.

"But as for me," says David, "I will behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness" (Psalm 17:15). It is Christ alone who is the likeness and image of God. When we awake in the other world with our minds purified and restored, the beholding of him shall always be satisfying to us. There will be then no satiety, no weariness, no indisposition; but the mind being made perfect in all its faculties, powers, and operations with respect to its highest end — which is the enjoyment of God — is satisfied in beholding him forevermore. 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 exercised in the admiration and praise of God in Christ, without weariness or interruption. In this we shall be made like the angels.

2. As our minds in their essential powers and faculties shall be enabled to comprehend and rest in this glory of Christ, so the means or instrument of beholding it is much more excellent than faith, and in its kind absolutely perfect, as has in part been declared before. This is vision or sight. Here we walk by faith; there by sight. And this sight is not an external aid like a glass helping the weakness of the visual faculty to see things afar off, but it is an internal power — an act of the internal power of our minds — with which they are endowed in the glorified state. By it we shall be able to see him face to face, to see him as he is, in a direct comprehension of his glory; for this sight or visive power shall be given us for this very end, namely, to enable us to do so. To this sight the whole glory of Christ is clear, perspicuous, and evident, which will give us eternal rest in him. Hence our sight of the glory of Christ shall be invariable and always the same.

2. The Lord Christ will never in any one instance, on any occasion, so much as one moment withdraw himself from us or eclipse the manifestation of himself to our sight. This he does sometimes in this life, and it is needful for us that he should. "We shall be ever with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17) — without end, without interruption. This is the center of good and evil as to the future different states of men. They shall be forever. Eternity makes one state absolutely good and the other absolutely evil. To be in hell under the wrath of God is in itself the greatest penal evil; but to be there forever, without any intermission of misery or termination of time, is what renders it the greatest evil to those who shall be in that condition. So is eternity the life of future blessedness. We shall be ever with the Lord, without limitation of time, without interruption of enjoyment.

There are no vicissitudes in the heavenly state. The New Jerusalem has no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Revelation 21:22–24). There is no need of instituted means of worship or ordinances of divine service, for we shall need neither increase of grace nor encouragements to its exercise. The constant, immediate, uninterrupted enjoyment of God and the Lamb supplies all. And it has no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God enlightens it and the Lamb is its light. The light of the sun is excellent; yet it has its seasons — after shining in its brightest luster it gives place to night and darkness. So is the light of the moon of great use in the night, but it too has its seasons. Such is the light we have of the glory of God and the Lamb in this world — sometimes as the light of the sun, which under the gospel is sevenfold as the light of seven days in one compared with the law (Isaiah 30:26); sometimes as the light of the moon, giving relief in the night of temptations and trials. But it is not constant; we are under a vicissitude of light and darkness, views of Christ and a loss of him. But in heaven the perpetual presence of Christ with his saints makes it always one noon of light and glory.

3. This vision is not in the least liable to any weakenings from internal defects, nor to any assaults from temptations, as is the sight of faith in this life. No doubts or fears, no disturbing darts or injections shall have any place there. There shall remain no habit, quality, inclination, or disposition in our souls but what shall eternally lead us to the contemplation of the glory of Christ with delight and satisfaction. Nor will there be any defect in the gracious powers of our souls as to their perpetual exercise. And as to all other opposing enemies, we shall be in a perpetual triumph over them (1 Corinthians 15:55–57). The mouth of iniquity shall be stopped forever, and the voice of the self-avenger shall be heard no more.

Therefore, the vision we shall have in heaven of the glory of Christ is serene — always the same, always new, and unfailing — in which nothing can disturb the mind in the most perfect operations of a blessed life. And when all the faculties of the soul can, without any internal weakness or external hindrances, exercise their most perfect operations on the most perfect object, therein lies all the blessedness of which our nature is capable.

Therefore, whenever in this life we attain any comforting and refreshing view of the glory of Christ by the exercise of faith on the revelation of it, with a sense of our interest in him, we cannot but long for and desire to come to this more perfect, abiding, and invariable sight of him.

Faith is the light in which we behold the glory of Christ in this world. And in its own nature, for this great purpose, it is weak and imperfect — like weak eyes that cannot look at the sun in its full brightness. Hence our sight of His glory differs greatly from what we will enjoy in glory, as has been described. But that is not all — faith is frequently hindered and interrupted in its workings, or it loses sight of its object by one means or another. As a person who sees something at a great distance sees it imperfectly, and the slightest obstruction or movement removes it entirely from view, so it is with our faith in this matter. Sometimes we can have little, sometimes no sight at all of the glory of Christ by it. This gives us, as we shall see, another difference between faith and sight.

Although this may seem somewhat removed from our main argument, I choose to dwell on it — to show why many people have so little experience of the things we have been discussing, and find so little reality or power in this exercise of grace or performance of this duty. For in the end it will appear that the whole deficiency is in themselves; the truth itself, as we have set it out, is great and powerful.

First, while we are in this life, the Lord Christ is pleased in His sovereign wisdom sometimes to withdraw and, as it were, to hide Himself from us. When He does, our minds fall into clouds and darkness; faith loses its footing; we cannot behold His glory — indeed, we may seek Him and cannot find Him. So Job complains, as we noted earlier: 'Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him' (Job 23:8-9). Whichever way I turn, whatever my efforts, whatever way or work of His own I search for Him in — I cannot find Him, I cannot see Him, I cannot behold His glory. So the church complains: 'Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!' (Isaiah 45:15). And the psalmist: 'How long, O Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever?' (Psalm 89:46). This hiding of God's face is the hiding of the shining of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and therefore of the glory of Christ Himself — for it is the glory of Christ to be the representative of the glory of God. The bride in Song of Solomon is often at a loss in this, lamenting that her beloved had withdrawn, that she could neither find Him nor see Him (Song of Solomon 3:1-2; 5:6).

People may retain their ideas about Christ, His person, and His glory. These cannot be erased from their minds except by heresy or stubborn dullness. They may have the same doctrinal knowledge of Him as others; but the sight of His glory does not consist in that. They may continue in the outward performance of duties toward Him as before — but all the while, as to His special gracious communications to their souls and a cheerful, refreshing view of His glory, He may withdraw and hide Himself from them.

Under the same outward ministry of the Word He may manifest Himself to some and not to others — 'How is it that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?' (John 14:22) — so that those to whom He does manifest Himself see Him as beautiful, glorious, and lovely (for to those who believe He is precious), while others see nothing of it and marvel at those who admire Him (Song of Solomon 5:9). In the same way, under the same ministry of the Word He sometimes hides His face, withdraws the light of His countenance, and clouds the beams of His glory from some, while others are warmed and nourished by them.

There are two things we need to address here.

First, why does the Lord Christ at any time hide Himself and His glory from the faith of believers so that they cannot behold Him?

Second, how can we perceive and recognize that He has withdrawn from us — so that however content we may feel with ourselves, we are in fact not beholding His glory?

As to the first: although what He does is an act of sovereign and unfathomable wisdom, there are many holy purposes in it and therefore good reasons for it. I will mention only one. He does it to stir us up in a powerful way to diligent searching and seeking after Him. Terrible sloth and negligence tend to gain the upper hand in our meditations on heavenly things. Though our hearts may remain awake — as the bride says (Song of Solomon 5:2) — in their high regard for Christ, His love and His grace, yet we sleep in the due exercise of faith and love toward Him. Who can justify himself in this? Who can say, 'My heart is pure; I am clean from this sin'? Indeed, it is so far the other way with many of us that He is forever to be admired in His patience — that on account of our coldness and terrible negligence in this, He has not only withdrawn at times, but has not utterly departed from us. He knows that those with whom He has been graciously present — who have had views of His glory, though they have not valued that mercy and privilege as they should — cannot bear the sense of His absence and His hiding from them. By this He will therefore awaken them to diligent searching after Him. When they discover His absence and feel His glory at a distance their faith cannot reach, they become like mourning doves in the valleys, each grieving over his own sin, and they stir themselves to seek Him early and earnestly (Hosea 5:15). So wherever the bride mentions Christ's withdrawing from her, she immediately describes her restless diligence in searching for Him until she finds Him (Song of Solomon 3:1-5; 5:2-8). And in these searches there is such an exercise of faith and love — though it may express itself mostly in sighs and groaning — as is acceptable and pleasing to Him.

We are like the man in the prophet's parable to Ahab — a man who was given someone to guard and who confesses that while he was busy here and there, the prisoner escaped. Christ commits Himself to us, and we ought to carefully keep His presence. 'I held him,' says the church, 'and would not let him go' (Song of Solomon 3:4). But while we are busy here and there, while our minds are crowded with other things, He withdraws and we cannot find Him. Even this rebuke, however, is a grace-filled means of drawing us back and bringing about His return.

Our second question is this: how can we know when Christ has withdrawn from us in such a way that we do not — and cannot — behold His glory?

I speak here only to those who regard the living exercise of faith and love in and toward Jesus Christ as their chief concern — in all their private time, and indeed in their whole walk before God. The question for these people is: how can they recognize when Christ has withdrawn from them to any degree, so that they cannot behold His glory as they should?

The first way to discover this is through the consequences of such withdrawals. What those consequences are, we can only know by contrast — by the effects of His presence with us and the manifestation of Himself to us, which must cease to some degree when He withdraws.

The first of these effects is the life, energy, and effective working of all grace in us. This is an inseparable consequence and fruit of beholding His glory. While we enjoy it, we live — yet not we, but Christ lives in us, stirring and bringing to life all His graces within us.

The apostle teaches us this: while we behold His glory as in a mirror, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). That is, while by faith we contemplate the glory of Christ as revealed in the gospel, all grace will thrive and flourish in us toward a perfect conformity to Him. While we maintain this vision and contemplation, our souls will be kept in holy frames and in a continual exercise of love and delight — along with all other spiritual affections toward Him. It is impossible, while Christ is in the eye of our faith as presented in the gospel, for us not to labor to be like Him and to love Him deeply. And there is no other way for us to attain either — which are the great concerns of our souls: to be like Christ and to love Him — except by a constant sight of Him and His glory by faith, which powerfully and effectively works these things in us. All our doctrinal knowledge of Him is useless; every view we have of His glory is mere imagination, fantasy, or superstition, if not accompanied by this transforming power. What is produced by that power is growth and vitality in all grace — for in this alone does our conformity to Christ consist. Growth in grace, holiness, and obedience is a growing into likeness with Christ — and nothing else is.

I cannot refrain from a brief but necessary digression here. When this transforming power — which comes from a spiritual vision of Christ as presented in the gospel — is lost on people who are spiritually unformed and unfamiliar with the mystery of believing, fancy and superstition step in with various substitutes. This power, though it is the very life of true religion, is at present ridiculed by many. So people invented crucifixes and painted images to represent Christ in His sufferings and glory. Through these things, their outward senses stirred up their fleshly emotions, and they supposed themselves to be moved by Him and made like Him. Some went so far — whether by occult means or otherwise — as to produce the appearance of wounds on their hands, feet, and sides, claiming thereby to be conformed to His image, wholly transformed into it. But what is produced by an image is only an image; an imaginary Christ will produce nothing in the minds of people but imaginary grace.

In this way true religion was lost and died. When people could not obtain any experience in their minds of the spiritual mysteries of the gospel, nor sense any genuine spiritual change or benefit from them, they substituted various outward duties and observances in their place — as I hope to show at greater length elsewhere, God willing. These substitutes produced some kind of effects on their minds and emotions, but of an entirely different nature from the real effects of true gospel grace. This is openly evident in the substitution of images for the representation of Christ and His glory as given in the gospel.

However, there is a general premise that all sides concede: that there must be a vision of Christ and His glory in order for us to love Him, and through that love to be made conformable to Him. Here lies the difference: those in the Church of Rome say this must happen by beholding crucifixes and other images and pictures of Him — and with our physical eyes. We say it happens by beholding His glory by faith as revealed in the gospel, and in no other way. To be honest, there are some among us who, while they rightly reject images, also despise this spiritual view of the glory of Christ that we are exploring. Such people will at the first opportunity drift to the other side — for almost anything feels better than nothing.

We have a reliable prophetic word that guards us from these abominations through an explicit prohibition of images for all purposes — and our stability in holding to the truth and experiencing the power of this spiritual sight of Christ transforming us into His likeness is absolutely essential. For if an idolater should argue, as they all do, that in beholding an image of Christ or a crucifix — especially with diligence and consistency — he finds his affections toward Christ greatly stirred, increased, and inflamed (as they will be, Isaiah 57:5), and that he thereby endeavors to be like Christ — what will we have to set against this claim? It is certainly true that such images are apt to make impressions on people's minds — partly from the readiness of the senses and imagination to give them access to thought, and partly from people's natural inclination toward superstition, their aversion to things spiritual and invisible, and their draw toward things present and visible. Hence even among those who are convinced that images should not be given religious veneration, some find themselves upon seeing them naturally inclined to a kind of thoughtful reverence — as they might feel entering a pagan temple full of idols; and others are constantly drifting toward their use and veneration in paintings and altars and the outward postures of worship found in that religious tradition. That such images do sensibly affect the minds of carnal and superstitious people cannot be denied — and those people suppose this to be genuine love toward Christ Himself. Yet it is universally acknowledged that beholding Christ is the most powerful means of awakening all our graces, spiritualizing all our affections, and transforming our minds into His likeness. And if we do not have a better and more excellent way of beholding Him than those who behold Him — as they suppose — in images and crucifixes, they would appear to have the advantage over us. Their minds would genuinely be affected with something; ours with nothing at all. By this pretense they attract the fleshly affections of people ignorant of the gospel's power, drawing them as followers. For having perhaps lived a long time without the least experience of any real impression on their minds or transforming power from the representation of Christ in the gospel, upon their very first devout application to these images they find their thoughts engaged, their minds stirred, and some immediate change worked upon them.

But there was a difference between the person of David and an image stuffed with goat's hair, though the one was laid in the bed in place of the other. And so there is between Christ and an image, though the one is put in the place of the other. These images serve no other purpose than to divert people's minds from faith and love toward Christ, giving them some kind of substitute satisfaction that causes their fleshly affections to cling to their idols. It belongs to the wisdom of faith — or we need spiritual discernment — to distinguish between the working of natural emotions toward spiritual objects on wrong motives, by wrong means, and with indirect ends (which is what all Roman Catholic devotion consists of), and the genuine spiritual exercise of grace in those affections properly fixed on spiritual objects.

But as was said, it is a real experience of the power that lies in the spiritual beholding of Christ's glory by faith — as presented in the gospel — to strengthen, increase, and stir all grace to its proper exercise, and so gradually to change and transform the soul into His likeness, that must guard us against all those false claims. And so I return from this digression.

By this we can understand whether the Lord Christ has withdrawn in such a way that we do not, and cannot, behold His glory by faith as we should — which is the question we were examining. If we grow weak in our graces, unspiritual in our inner frame, cold in our affections, or negligent in their exercise through holy meditation, it is clear that He is at a great distance from us and that we are not beholding His glory as we ought. When the weather grows cold, herbs and plants wither, and frost begins to harden the ground — everyone acknowledges that the sun has withdrawn and is not making its usual approach. And if it is so with our hearts — that they grow cold, frozen, withered, and lifeless in and toward spiritual duties — then it is certain that the Lord Christ has in some sense withdrawn and that we are not beholding His glory. We may retain correct ideas about His person, office, and grace; but faith is not in constant exercise in genuinely seeing Him and His glory. For nothing in Christian experience is more certain than this: while we really do by faith behold the glory of Christ as presented in the gospel — the glory of His person and office as described above — and abide in holy thoughts and meditations on it, especially in our private times and quiet moments alone, all grace will live and grow in us to some degree — particularly love toward His person, and through that, love toward everything that belongs to Him. Let us put it to the test and we will unfailingly find the promised result.

Do any of us find spiritual decline gaining ground in us — deadness, coldness, lukewarmness, a kind of spiritual dullness and numbness settling in? Do we find ourselves reluctant to exercise grace when it is needed, lacking the vigorous workings of it in communion with God? And do we want our souls to be healed of these dangerous conditions? Let us be sure of this: there is no better way — indeed, there is no other way at all — except this one: obtaining a fresh sight of the glory of Christ by faith and steadily abiding in it. Sustained contemplation of Christ and His glory, releasing its transforming power to revive all grace, is the only remedy in this case, as will be further shown later.

Some will say that this recovery must come through fresh supplies and renewed communications of the Holy Spirit. Unless He falls as dew and rain on our dry and barren hearts, unless He causes our graces to spring, thrive, and bear fruit, unless He revives and increases faith, love, and holiness in our souls, our backsliding will not be healed and our spiritual condition will not be restored. To this end He is prayed for and promised in Scripture (Song of Solomon 4:16; Isaiah 44:3-4; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; Hosea 14:5-6). And so it is — the immediate power behind the revival of our souls is from and through the Holy Spirit. But the question is: in what way, or by what means, may we receive those supplies and communications of the Spirit for this purpose? The apostle declares this in the passage we have been considering: 'We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit' (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is in the exercise of faith in Christ in the way described above that the Holy Spirit puts forth His renewing, transforming power in and upon our souls. This therefore is the one thing that will bring Christians back from their present decline and deadness.

Some complain greatly of their condition — no one is as dead, as dull, as numb as they. They do not know whether any spark of heavenly life remains in them. Some make weak, halfhearted attempts at recovery — like the efforts of a man in a dream who seems to exert great force but accomplishes nothing. Some pile up duties upon themselves. Yet the general run of professing Christians seems to be in a wasting, fruitless state. The reason is that they will not sincerely and consistently make use of the only remedy and means of relief — like a person who would rather waste away in his sickness with passing and useless comforts than apply himself to a known and proven cure, perhaps because doing so is inconvenient to some of his current habits. The remedy is to live in the active exercise of faith in Christ Jesus. He Himself assures us of this: 'Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing' (John 15:4-5).

There is a twofold coming to Christ through believing. The first is that we may have life — that is, that a spring and principle of spiritual life may be communicated to us from Him, for He is our life (Colossians 3:3), and because He lives, we also live (John 14:19). In fact, it is not so much we who live as Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:19-20). And unbelief is a refusal to come to Him so as to have life (John 5:40). The second is a coming to Christ by believers in the actual exercise of faith, so that they may have this life more abundantly (John 10:10) — that is, such supplies of grace as keep their souls in a healthy, vigorous exercise of all the powers of spiritual life. And just as He rebukes some for not coming to Him to have life, so He may rightly rebuke us all for not coming to Him in active faith so as to have this life more abundantly.

Second, when the Lord Christ is near us and we do behold His glory, He will frequently communicate spiritual refreshment — peace, consolation, and joy — to our souls. We will not only have our graces stirred with respect to Him as their object, but become aware of His movements toward us in His communications of Himself and His love to us. When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon any soul, or draws near to it, that soul will find healing under His wings; His beams of grace will convey through His Spirit a holy, spiritual refreshment to it. For He is present with us through His Spirit, and these are His fruits and effects as the Comforter, suited to the office in which He is promised to us.

Many people live in a very careless and unwise profession of faith. As long as they can keep up their outward duties, they are largely indifferent to the greatest gospel privileges — those things that are the very substance of divine promises and all genuine pursuit of vital communion with Christ. Such things are spiritual peace, refreshing consolations, inexpressible joys, and the blessed settled rest of assurance. Without some taste and experience of these, profession is empty, lifeless, and useless; and religion itself is a lifeless body without an animating soul. The peace some enjoy is nothing but numbness. They do not regard these things as real — things that are the substance of Christ's present reward to His people, and the surrender of which would rob the church of its chief supports and encouragements in all its sufferings. It is a powerful evidence of unbelief when we can satisfy ourselves without experiencing in our own hearts the great gospel gifts of this kind — joy, peace, consolation, assurance. How can we be said to believe the promises of future things — heaven, immortality, glory, the faith of which is the foundation of all true religion — when we do not believe the promises of present reward in these spiritual privileges? And how shall we be thought to believe them when we do not seek to experience these things in our own souls — and are even content without them? In this people deceive themselves. They would very much like to have evangelical joy, peace, and assurance to cover over their poor inner condition and careless walk. Some have tried to combine these things — to their own ruin. But it will not work. Without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we will never enjoy the grace of consolation. But we must speak more of these things later.

It is particularly in the sight of Christ's glory — in His drawing near to us and abiding with us — that we are made partakers of gospel peace, consolation, joy, and assurance. These are part of the royal train of His graces, part of the reward that accompanies Him — 'His reward is with Him.' Wherever He is graciously present with anyone, these things are never lacking in proper measure and degree — unless it be through their own fault or for the purpose of their testing. In these things He gives to His beloved church (Song of Solomon 7:12). 'Whoever loves Me,' He says, 'will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him' (John 14:21). 'We will come to him and make Our abode with him' (John 14:23), in a way that includes dining with him (Revelation 3:20) — which on His part can only mean the communication of these spiritual refreshments. The only question is: by what way and means do we receive them? I say it is in and through our beholding the glory of Christ by faith (1 Peter 1:8-9). Let that glory be rightly grasped as laid out earlier — the glory of His person, His office, His condescension, His exaltation, His love, and His grace; let faith be fixed in a vision and contemplation of it, let it mingle with it as reflected in the mirror of the gospel, meditate on it, embrace it — and power will proceed from Christ, communicating spiritual, supernatural refreshment and joy to our souls. In ordinary circumstances it is impossible for believers to have a genuine sight of this glory at any time without it to some degree affecting their hearts with a sense of His love — which is the source of all consolation in them. In the exercise of faith on the disclosures of Christ's glory given to us in the gospel, no one will ever be entirely without such intimations of His love — indeed, such outpourings of it in his heart — as will be a living spring of those spiritual refreshments (John 4:14; Romans 5:5). Therefore, when we lose our sense of these things in our souls, it is clear that the Lord Christ has withdrawn and that we are not beholding His glory.

I cannot avoid another brief digression here. There are those by whom all these things are mocked as disordered fancies and imaginations. Indeed, things have been said and written about them that amount to a practical rejection of the gospel, the powers of the world to come, and the whole work of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter of the church. By this all genuine intercourse between the person of Christ and the souls of believers is utterly dismantled, reducing all religion to an outward performance and spectacle — more suited to a stage than the temple of God that exists in the human mind. According to these contemptuous scoffers, there is no such thing as the love of God being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; no such thing as the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of God, from which these spiritual joys and refreshments follow as necessary effects; no such thing as the lifting up of God's face upon us that puts gladness into our hearts; no such thing as rejoicing in believing with joy that is inexpressible and full of glory; no such thing as Christ's showing and manifesting Himself to us, dining with us, and giving us of His love; and the divine promises of a feast of rich food and well-aged wine in gospel mercies are empty, meaningless words. According to them, all the overwhelming joys and exultations of spirit that countless faithful martyrs in ancient times and in later ages experienced through a sight of God's glory in Christ and a sense of His love — joys they testified to in their dying moments in the midst of torment — were mere fancies and imaginations. But it is the height of shamelessness in these profane scoffers that they advertise their own ignorance of the real powers of true religion.

There are others who will not deny the truth of these things outright. They dare not contradict the clear scriptural testimonies that confirm them. They suppose that some people do experience them — at least they once did — but as for themselves, they have no experience of them and do not regard it as their duty to seek after them. They are content with hopes of heaven and future glory. As for the present, they desire no more than to be found performing some duties in response to their convictions, which gives them the poor sort of peace they enjoy. In this way many excuse themselves in their spiritual laziness and unbelief, keeping themselves free to find refreshment and satisfaction in other things while the refreshments of the gospel are despised. These two things are incompatible. While people look for their chief refreshment and satisfaction in earthly things, it is impossible for them to pursue spiritual things as they should. And it must be admitted that when we rightly prize spiritual and gospel consolations and joys, that will reduce our affections toward and satisfaction in present earthly enjoyments (Philippians 3:8-9).

But there is no more certain truth than this: where Christ is present with believers — where He has not withdrawn from them for a season — where they live in the sight of His glory by faith as presented in the gospel, He will give them at His own appointed times such intimations of His love, such supplies of His Spirit, such holy joys and rejoicing, such rest of soul in assurance, as will refresh their souls, fill them with joy, satisfy them with spiritual delight, and stir them to all acts of holy communion with Himself.

Let no such dishonor be cast on the gospel as the suggestion that while faith in it and obedience to it are ordinarily accompanied by outward troubles, afflictions, persecution, and reproach — as we are forewarned they will be — it does not by its inward consolations and divine refreshments more than outweigh all those evils we may suffer for its sake. To suppose otherwise is directly contrary to Christ's own promise, which assures us that even now in this life — distinct from eternal life in the world to come — we will receive a hundredfold return for everything we may lose or suffer for His sake (Matthew 19:30), and also contrary to the experience of those who in every age have joyfully accepted the plundering of their possessions, knowing in themselves — through their experience of the firstfruits — that they have in heaven a better and more lasting possession (Hebrews 10:34). If we fall short of participating in these things, if we are strangers to them, the blame rests on ourselves alone, as will be immediately declared.

Since the Lord Christ's purpose in withdrawing from us and hiding His glory from our sight is to exercise our graces and stir us to diligence in seeking Him, here is our direction for this situation. Do we find ourselves lifeless in the spiritual duties of religion? Are we strangers to the heavenly visits of consolation and joy — those visitations of God by which He preserves our souls? Do we rarely experience a sense of His love being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit? There is only one way of recovery. To this strong tower we must turn as prisoners of hope; we must look to Christ that we may be saved. A steady sight and contemplation of His glory by faith alone is what will bring all these things in living experience into our hearts and souls.

Again, second, the loss of our sight of Christ's glory and the hindrance to the exercise of faith in this largely comes from ourselves. All our spiritual disadvantages arise from within us. It is the remaining lusts and corruptions in us — either indulged through laziness and negligence, or stirred and inflamed by Satan's temptations — that block us in this duty. While these are in any state of disorder or agitation, it is vain to expect any clear sight of this glory.

The sight of Christ's glory that we are describing consists of two things: its essential nature, and its necessary accompaniment or effect. The first is a spiritual perception or understanding of it as revealed in Scripture — for the revelation of the glory of His person, office, and grace is their principal subject and the principal object of our faith. The second consists of extended, multiplied thoughts about Him, with the active exercise of faith in love, trust, delight, and longing for the full enjoyment of Him (1 Peter 1:8). If we content ourselves with mere ideas and reflections about Christ's glory as doctrinally set out for us, we will find no transforming power communicated to us by it. But when under the guidance of that spiritual light our affections cleave to Him with wholehearted commitment, our minds are filled with thoughts of Him and delight in Him, and faith is sustained in its constant exercise of trust and dependence on Him — then power will go out from Him to purify our hearts, increase our holiness, strengthen our graces, and fill us at times with joy that is inexpressible and full of glory. This is the right condition of spiritual health: when our knowledge of the glory of God in Christ corresponds to the means of grace we enjoy, and when our affections toward Christ are proportioned to that knowledge — in its various degrees, for some have more and some have less. Where knowledge leaves affection behind, it ends in formality or atheism; where affection outruns knowledge, it sinks into the swamp of superstition, doting on images, pictures, and the like. But where things do not go to these extremes, it is better that our affections exceed our knowledge — arising from the limits of our understanding — than that our knowledge exceed our affections, arising from the corruption of our wills. In both respects, the exercise of faith is frequently interrupted and hindered by the remaining corruption in us — especially if it is not consistently held under the discipline of mortification but in some way allowed to run freely. For,

First, the vapors of that disorder will cloud and darken the understanding, so that it cannot clearly perceive any spiritual object — least of all the greatest of them. Nothing is more universally recognized, even in natural and moral matters, than that disordered passions and affections blind, darken, and deceive the mind in its operations. It is all the more so in spiritual things, where that disorder is a direct rebellion against its proper guiding light — that is, against the light and rule of grace.

There are three kinds of people who hear the gospel preached, in each of whom different obstacles to this sight arise.

First, in obstinate unbelievers there is a darkness that is an effect of Satan's power over their minds, blinding them, which makes it impossible for them to see anything of the glory of Christ. The apostle declares it: 'And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God' (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). These are not those we are speaking to.

Second, in all people there is a corrupt, natural darkness — a deprivation of the mind by nature — that prevents them from discerning the glory of Christ as they should. Hence the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it (John 1:5). The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is why, although Christ is preached among us continually, very few perceive any glory or beauty in Him worth desiring — as the prophet laments (Isaiah 53:1-2). But I am not speaking of this natural darkness in general here. Even these people have their minds filled with prejudices against the gospel and darkened as to Christ's glory in proportion to how much corrupt lusts and desires reign in them (John 12:43). This accounts for the differences among ordinary hearers of the Word. Although no person can do anything on his own to receive Christ and behold His glory without the special aid of God's grace (Matthew 11:24; John 6:44-45), yet some may put up more resistance to believing and lay more obstacles in their own way than others — and they do so through their lusts and corruptions.

Third, there are those in whom both of these evils are healed by faith — through which the eyes of our understanding are enlightened to perceive and discern spiritual things (Ephesians 1:16-18). But this healing is accomplished in this life only in part (1 Corinthians 13:12). And in this healing — through the supply of a principle of saving light to our minds — there are many degrees, for some have a clearer light than others and thereby a more distinct discernment of the mystery of God's wisdom and of the glory of Christ within it. But whatever our attainments, what obstructs this light — what prevents it from shining as it should, and hinders faith in its sight of Christ's glory — is the remains of corrupted nature in us when they gain any significant force. They darken the mind and weaken it in its spiritual workings. That is, where any corrupt and disordered affections — such as love of the world, anxiety about it, tendencies toward sensuality, or similar spiritual disorders — gain the upper hand, faith is weakened in its spiritual workings — especially in perceiving and beholding the glory of Christ. The mind is rendered unsteady in its seeking after Him, being continually pulled away and distracted by vain thoughts and imaginations.

People under the power of such disorders may have the same doctrinal knowledge of the person of Christ, His office, and His grace as other people — and the same conviction of its truth fixed on their minds — but when they try to look into these realities themselves, everything is dark and confused to them because of the instability and unsteadiness of their own minds.

This is the substance of what I am saying. By faith we have a sight of Christ's glory. This sight is weak and unsteady — by the nature of faith itself, and by the way it is presented to us as in a mirror — compared to what we will attain by sight. But beyond this, where corrupt lusts or disordered affections are indulged, where they are not consistently mortified, where any sin holds a troubling dominance in the mind, faith will be so weakened that it can neither see nor meditate on the glory of Christ as it should. This is why most people are so weak and inconsistent in performing this duty — and in many cases, almost entirely unacquainted with it. The light of faith in their minds being impaired, clouded, and darkened by the strength of unmortified lusts, it cannot make such discoveries of this glory as it otherwise would. And this is what makes the preaching of Christ so unprofitable to so many.

Second, the sight of Christ's glory that we have by faith will fill the mind with thoughts and meditations about Him, and the affections will thereby cleave to Him with delight. This, as noted, is inseparable from a genuine spiritual sight of His glory in its due exercise. Everyone who has it must and will have many thoughts about Him and deep affections toward Him (Philippians 3:8, 10). It is not possible, I say, to behold the glory of His person, office, and grace — with a true sense of our stake and interest in them — without our minds being greatly moved by it and filled with contemplation of it. Where this is not true of someone, it is to be feared they have never heard His voice or seen His form — whatever they profess. A genuine spiritual sight of Christ will assuredly produce love toward Him, and if anyone does not love Him, he has never truly seen Him and does not know Him at all. And no love is real that does not produce many thoughts of the one who is loved. Therefore, those who share in this grace will think deeply about what Christ is in Himself, what He has done for us, His love and condescension, and the manifestation of all the glorious perfections of the divine nature in Him — expressed in a way of infinite wisdom and goodness for the salvation of the church. Thoughts and meditations on these things will overflow in us if we are not deficient in the due exercise of faith, and deep, fervent affections toward Him will follow — or at least will be actively present to our own refreshing experience. Where these things are absent in reality — though in some they may be only at a low level — people are only deceiving their own souls in any hope of benefit from Christ or the gospel.

This then is the present situation. Where there are prevailing sinful disorders or disordered affections in the mind — such as those mentioned: self-love, love of the world, anxieties and fears about it, and an excessive valuing of relationships and earthly enjoyments — they will so crowd and distract the mind with a flood of thoughts about their own objects as to leave no room for quiet meditation on Christ and His glory. And where thoughts are thus engaged, the affections — which partly prompt those thoughts and are partly led by them — will be fixed in the same direction (Colossians 3:1-2).

This is what most greatly increases the imperfection in our sight of Christ's glory by faith in this life. In proportion to the degree that corrupt, earthly, selfish, or sensual affections fill the minds and hearts of people with a flood of thoughts about whatever they are fixed on or drawn toward, faith is correspondingly blocked and weakened in this work and duty.

Since the seeds of these lusts remain in all of us — more mortified in some than in others, yet having the same effects in all minds according to the remaining strength they carry — it follows, as an effective cause, that our sight of Christ's glory by faith is in many people so weak, imperfect, and unsteady.

Third, faith in this work is also interrupted by the temptations of Satan. His primary aim wherever the gospel is preached is to blind people's eyes so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, will not shine into them or illuminate their minds (2 Corinthians 4:4). And in this he succeeds to an astonishing degree. However brilliantly the light of the gospel shines in the preaching of the Word, by various means and devices he blinds the minds of most so that they see nothing of the glory of Christ in it. By this he maintains his rule over the children of disobedience. With regard to the elect, God overrules him — He shines into their hearts to give them the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6). Yet Satan will not so easily give up. He endeavors by every possible means to trouble, disturb, and darken the minds even of believers, so that they cannot retain clear and distinct views of this glory. He does this in two ways.

First, with some he brings all his weapons to bear, employs all his methods of subtle cunning, and hurls his fiery darts so as to agitate, unsettle, and cast them down — so that they can hold no comforting sight of Christ or His glory. From this arise fears, doubts, disputes, uncertainties, and various forms of discouragement. They cannot grasp the love of Christ, nor sense any claim they have on it, nor feel any refreshing assurance that they are accepted by Him. If anything of this does shine and break into their minds, it quickly vanishes and disappears. In its place come fears of being rejected and cast off by Him — that He will not receive them here or hereafter — and they are filled with anxiety and despondency, under which it is impossible to have any clear sight of His glory.

I know that ignorance, atheism, and stubborn contentment in sensual sin combine to mock all these things. But it is nothing new that people outwardly professing the Christian faith, when they find personal gain in that outward religion, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and like irrational animals corrupt themselves in what they know by instinct.

Second, with others Satan works differently. By various means he seduces them into a careless complacency in which they promise themselves peace without any diligent examination of these things. The result is that they live in a general presumption that they will be saved by Christ — though they do not know how. This is why the apostle presses the duty of self-examination so earnestly on all Christians: 'Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?' (2 Corinthians 13:5). The standard for self-judgment he sets is whether Christ is in us or not; and He cannot be in us unless He is received by that faith through which we behold His glory. For by faith we receive Him, and by faith He dwells in our hearts (John 1:12; Ephesians 3:17).

This is Satan's most successful method in the world. Multitudes, led astray by him, live in deep complacency with complete neglect of these things. Complacency is acknowledged as a destructive evil to the souls of people — but it is thought to consist only in impenitence for great and open sins. But to be neglectful of seeking an experience of the power and grace of the gospel in one's own soul, while professing religion, is no less destructive and ruinous than impenitence in any ongoing pattern of sin.

These and similar obstructions to faith in its workings — added to faith's own imperfections — are another reason why our sight of Christ's glory in this world is so weak and unsteady, so that for the most part it only briefly affects our minds and does not transform them into His likeness as fully as it otherwise would.

It is time now to consider the sight of Christ's glory that we will have in heaven, compared with what we have here below. That heavenly sight is steady, stable, and always the same — without interruption or distraction. This is evident both in the causes and means of it, and in our perfect deliverance from everything that might obstruct or hinder it.

First, we may consider the state of our minds in glory. The faculties of our souls will be made perfect there (Hebrews 12 — the spirits of righteous people made perfect): first, freed from all the weight of the flesh and its influence and restraint on their powers; and second, perfectly purified from all tendencies toward instability and changeability, from all inclinations toward the sensual and fleshly, and from all schemes of self-preservation or self-advancement — being wholly transformed into the image of God in spirituality and holiness. And including the state of our bodies after the resurrection: even they, in all their powers and senses, will be made entirely responsive to the most spiritual workings of our minds in their highest elevation by the light of glory. By this we will be enabled and fitted to abide eternally in the contemplation of Christ's glory with joy and satisfaction. The understanding will always be fulfilled in the vision of God, and the affections will cleave to Him inseparably — and this is blessedness.

The very essential faculties of our souls — in the mode of operation that their union with our bodies confines them to — are not capable of comprehending and abiding constantly in the contemplation of this glory. So though our present sight of it is dim and imperfect, and the way it is presented to us is obscure, yet from sheer weakness of mind we are at times forced to turn away from even what little we do perceive — as we turn our bodily eyes from the rays of the sun when it shines at full brightness. But in the perfect state, our minds will be able to behold and delight in this glory constantly, with eternal satisfaction.

'As for me,' says David, 'I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake' (Psalm 17:15). It is Christ alone who is the likeness and image of God. When we awake in the other world with our minds purified and restored, the beholding of Him will be endlessly satisfying. There will be no satiety, no weariness, no reluctance — but the mind, made perfect in all its faculties, powers, and workings with respect to its highest end — which is the enjoyment of God — will be satisfied in beholding Him forevermore. 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 do not rest day and night, saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty' (Revelation 4:8). They are continually engaged in wonder and praise of God in Christ, without weariness or interruption. In this we will be made like the angels.

Second, as our minds in their essential powers and faculties will be enabled to take in and rest in this glory of Christ, so the means or instrument for beholding it is far more excellent than faith — and in its kind absolutely perfect, as has been partly noted before. This means is vision — sight itself. Here we walk by faith; there by sight. And this sight is not an external aid like a lens helping weak eyes to see things at a distance — it is an internal power, an act of the inner capacity of our minds with which they are endowed in the glorified state. By it we will be able to see Him face to face, to see Him as He is, in a direct grasping of His glory — for this power of sight will be given to us for this very purpose: to enable us to do so. To this sight the whole glory of Christ is clear, open, and evident — which will give us eternal rest in Him. Therefore our sight of the glory of Christ will be unchanging and always the same.

Second, the Lord Christ will never, on any occasion, for even a single moment, withdraw Himself from us or eclipse the manifestation of Himself to our sight. He does this sometimes in this life, and it is needful for us that He does. But in heaven, 'we will always be with the Lord' (1 Thessalonians 4:17) — without end, without interruption. This is the center of good and evil as to the different future states of people. They will both last forever. Eternity is what makes one state absolutely good and the other absolutely evil. To be in hell under the wrath of God is in itself the greatest punishing evil; but to be there forever, without any relief from misery or end of time, is what makes it the ultimate evil for those in that condition. So too eternity is the life of future blessedness. We will always be with the Lord — without limit of time, without interruption of enjoyment.

There are no seasons of change in the heavenly state. The New Jerusalem has no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Revelation 21:22-24). There is no need of appointed means of worship or ordinances of divine service, for we will need neither growth in grace nor encouragement to its exercise. The constant, direct, unbroken enjoyment of God and the Lamb supplies all. And it has no need of the sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp. The light of the sun is excellent — yet it has its seasons; after shining in its greatest brightness it gives way to night and darkness. So the moon gives welcome light in the night — but it too has its seasons. Such is the light we have of the glory of God and the Lamb in this world — sometimes like the light of the sun, which under the gospel is sevenfold compared to the law (Isaiah 30:26); sometimes like the light of the moon, giving relief in the night of temptations and trials. But it is not constant; we move through cycles of light and darkness, of seeing Christ and losing sight of Him. But in heaven, the unceasing presence of Christ with His saints makes it always one glorious noon of light and glory.

Third, this heavenly vision is not in the least susceptible to weakening from internal defects, nor to any assault from temptation, as the sight of faith is in this life. No doubts or fears, no disturbing darts or intrusions will have any place there. No habit, quality, inclination, or disposition will remain in our souls except what leads us eternally to the contemplation of Christ's glory with delight and satisfaction. Nor will there be any defect in the gracious powers of our souls as to their unceasing exercise. And as for all other opposing enemies, we will live in perpetual triumph over them (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The mouth of iniquity will be stopped forever, and the voice of the accuser will be heard no more.

The vision of Christ's glory that we will have in heaven is therefore serene — always the same, always new, and unfailing — in which nothing can disturb the mind in its most perfect workings in a life of blessedness. And when all the faculties of the soul can, without any internal weakness or external hindrance, exercise their most perfect operations on the most perfect object — there lies all the blessedness of which our nature is capable.

Therefore, whenever in this life we attain any comforting and refreshing sight of the glory of Christ through the exercise of faith in its revelation — with a sense of our interest in Him — we cannot help but long for and desire to come to this more perfect, abiding, and unchanging sight of Him.