Christ ; the position of these words and the sense require that they should be connected with the word glory^ notwith- standing the omission in the Greek of the connecting article (t^s). It is the glory of God as revealed in Christ that men are by the illumination of the Holy Ghost enabled to see. There are two important truths involved in this statement. First, that God becomes in Christ the object of knowledge. The clearest revelation of the fact that God is, and what he is, is made in the person of Christ, so that those who refuse to see God in Christ lose all true knowledge of him. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," John 1, 18. '* Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him," Matt. 11, 27. '' "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father," 1 John 2, 23. 2 John 9. John 15, 23. Insignis locus, says Calvin, unde discimus Deum in sua altitudine non esse investi- gandum (habitat enim lucem inaccessibilem), sed cognoscen- dum quatenus se in Christo patefacit. Proinde quicquid extra Christum de Deo cognoscere appetunt homines, evanidum est, vagantur enim extra viam. . . . Nobis utiUus est Deum con- spicere, qualis apparet in Filio unigenito, quam arcanam ejus essentiam investigare. The other truth here taught is, that this knowledge of God in Christ is not a mere matter of intel- lectual apprehension, which one man may communicate to an- other. It is a spiritual discernment, to be derived only from the Spirit of God. God must shine into our hearts to give us this knowledge. Matt. 16, 17. Gal. 1, 16. 1 Cor. 2, 10. 14. As the glory of God is spiritual, it must be spiritually dis- cerned. It is therefore easy to see why the Scriptures make true religion to consist in the knowledge of Christ, and why they make the denial of Christ, or want of faith in him as God manifest in the flesh, a soul-destroying sin. If Christ is God, to know him, is to know God ; and to deny him, is to deny God.
7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
This treasure is not the light or inward illumination spoken of in V. 6, but the ministry of the gospel which Paul had re-