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the highest saint or the brightest seraph in heaven, as well as to the meanest believer on earth; for as that which is finite can never comprehend that which is infinite, neither human nor angelic intelligences will ever know fully the nature and the glories of the uncreated and infinite One. It is certain, at the same time, that the mode in which we now obtain our knowledge of God is indirect and circuitous, that our knowledge is exceedingly circumscribed, and that the saint hereafter will be conscious of an immense superiority both as to the mode and to the extent of his knowledge, not only of the nature, but of the counsels and ways of God. On the disparity between his present and his future condition, in reference to the mode and the extent of his knowledge, it is proper to dwell a little, as that disparity is dwelt on in the context, and seems to have suggested the assertion in the text.

The difference between the present and future knowledge of the saint in extent and clearness, is compared to the difference between the immature conceptions. and feeble reasonings of a child, on the one hand, and the profound ratiocinations and extended views of the man, on the other. The difference in the mode of obtaining knowledge in the present and future state, is illustrated by the mode in which the Almighty revealed himself to other prophets, as contrasted with the mode in which he revealed himself to Moses. To other prophets the Lord imparted his will by "dreams and visions," but to Moses " he spake face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend."* Similar in kind, though, doubtless, far greater in degree, is the difference between the manner in which the "Father of

*Exod. xxxiii. 11.

lights" reveals himself to his saints on earth, and that in which he will manifest himself to them in heaven.

So low are our loftiest conceptions of the Divine grandeur, such is our present incapacity for the perception of spiritual things, that here we dream rather than think of God; "now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know perfectly, even as also I am perfectly known." Now, it is one of the characteristics of God that "he hideth himself," and that he is "invisible," but hereafter, "the pure in heart shall see God;" they shall "behold his face in righteousness, and be satisfied with his likeness." These expressions have been thought by some to refer to a manifestation of the divine glory made to the bodily senses. There seems to be nothing extravagant or improbable in the supposition, that in heaven the glorified body of the believer will feel the impressions of the Divine presence sensibly and immediately, and that it will be influenced and actuated by that presence in a manner not less powerful or pleasing than by its own soul. These expressions, however, seem rather to refer to a manifestation addressed to the mental faculties; and they intimate that the character and perfections of God will be discerned in heaven, not by that indirect and inferential process by which "his invisible things are now seen," but by an immediate and intuitive act, similar to that by which the bodily eye discerns the forms and colours of material objects.

The intimations given in Scripture respecting the immeasurable superiority of the future privileges and attainments of the saint, are not the only evidence, my friends, which may convince you of the imperfection

* Isa. xlv. 15; Heb. xi. 27; Matth. v. 8; Psal. xvii. 15.
+ Rom. i. 20.

of your present knowledge of the divine nature and the divine attributes. A little attentive reflection on that nature and these attributes, will serve to impress on you, perhaps still more emphatically, the same conviction. Consider, then, the mode of the divine existence, and the nature of the divine essence, and you will soon feel yourselves perplexed and bewildered. What an impenetrable mystery is it that there are three distinct persons, or personal subsistences, in the one undivided and indivisible Godhead? Try to measure the greatness of the Most High, or to understand thoroughly any one of his perfections, and your feeble faculties will speedily be foiled and baffled in the attempt. Endeavour to penetrate to the commencement of his being, or to ascend to that era in a past eternity at which he formed his irreversible decrees. After traversing through millions of ages, you find yourselves at as incalculable a distance as at the outset from the object of your inquiry; and you are compelled to say, with Elihu, "Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out."* Do you not feel overwhelmed, also, when you try to stretch your conceptions to his immensity; when you consider that he who is present in this house of prayer, in the entire possession of all his attributes, is equally present in every part of a universe which to us is absolutely immeasurable, while yet, compared with the immensity of God, even the immeasurable universe dwindles into a point? The divine attributes of which you have some knowledge, are those chiefly of which you have some faint resemblance in yourselves; but even of these your conceptions are exceedingly inadequate; and, doubtless, there

*Job xxxvi. 26.

are many other excellencies belonging to the Almighty of which you have not, nor can have, the remotest idea. You see the effects of divine agency in the visible creation, but he whose wisdom arranged all the magnificent machinery of nature, and whose power superintends or conducts all their operations, from the most minute to the most stupendous, sits himself "enthroned high above all height," and concealed amid the splendours of that "light which is unapproachable and full of glory." The variegated globe, and the over-arching heavens; the earthquake, the volcano, and the inundation; the refreshing breeze, and the desolating blast, "lo, these are outlines of his ways, but it is only the whisper of him that you hear; and the thunder of his power who can understand?" *

II. We have only a partial knowledge of the extent of God's works, and of the plans of his government.

From the discoveries of human science, we have reason to believe that the terraqueous globe, vast as it seems to us, is only like a speck or an atom amid the magnitude of the universe; but human science has not ascertained, and probably never will ascertain, the extent of the creation, and it is not the design of divine revelation to impart information on the subject.

If we are ignorant of the magnitude and the multiplicity of the works of God, we are equally ignorant of their relations, though it is probable that they are connected by moral as well as physical ties, and that the various orders of intelligent beings which may be presumed to people the various systems composing the universe, stand to each other in a relation somewhat similar to that which unites the families of the same city, or the inhabitants of the same empire.

*Job xxvi. 14.

That we are unacquainted with the more distant parts of the creation need not surprise us, when we consider how imperfect is our knowledge of the objects and inhabitants of the globe in which we dwell. If the telescope, on the one hand, has discovered to us innumerable suns and worlds invisible to the naked eye, the microscope, on the other, has given us reason to conclude, that in "every leaf of the vegetable, and in every drop of every rivulet," there are worlds teeming with life which no created eye can reach, no numbers calculate. Infinity appears thus, as it were, to be stamped, not only on the universe taken as a whole, but on all the productions of the infinite Creator, on the most minute as well as the most magnificent; so that there is scarcely an object, however small, not a flower nor an insect, but it contains proofs of the power, and wisdom, and benignity of God, inaccessible alike to our bodily senses and our intellectual faculties. "He does great things, there is no exploring; he does marvellous things, there is no numbering.'

Direct your thoughts to these arrangements and operations of the Almighty which immediately concern yourselves, and you find that you know but imperfectly the plans and principles even of this department of his government. "He holdeth back the face of his throne. and spreadeth his cloud upon it." "His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known."† How often does it happen that the dispensations of his providence are most perplexing and inexplicable, and that his procedure appears utterly irreconcilable with his perfections. If there be any one conclusion which we should have thought may be certainly deduced from the attributes of Deity, it is

* Job v. 9.

† Job xxvi. 9; Psal. lxxvii. 19.

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