God puts a spiritual eje by his Spirit into all true believers, whereby they behold this excellent glory, this glorious grace, that God moy have the glory, and we the comfort. Those are the two main ends. God intends his own glory and our salvation. There must be a ' beholding.' How Bhould he have glory and we comfort, unless all were conveyed by spiritual sight! Well then the Spirit creates and works in us spiritual senses. With spiritual life there are spiritual senses, sight, and taste, and feeling. Sight is here put for all, * We behold.'
* Misprinted ' and.' — G.
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There are manj' degrees of sight. It is good to know them. Therefore I will uamo some of them.
[1.] We see God in his creatures, for ' the heavens declare the glory of God.' They are a book in folio (tf). There God is laid open in his crea- tures. That is a goodly sight. IBut what is this to the knowledge of him in his will to us, what he moans to us ? The creatures discover not what he means to us.
[2.] Besides therefore the sight of God in the creatures, there is a sight of God ill his will, in /(/.s uoid aiul promises. There we see what he is. His grace is revealed in Christ, and what his good will to us is, and his will from us, what he will do to us, and what he will have from us again. There we see him as a spouse sees her husbaud in a loving letter which concerns herself. AVe see him as the heir sees a deed made to him with an inheri- tance. He sees with application. It is not a bare sight, but a sight with feeling and discovery of a favour. So the sight in the word and sacraments, it is a higher sight.
[3. J There vas a sif/ht of Christ ichen he teas in the Jlcsh. When he was covered with the veil of our flesh upon earth, it was a sweet sight. Abraham desired to see it, John viii. 56, and Simeon, when he saw it, was willing to be dissolved and to depart, Luke ii. 29. He had enough. But that out- ward sight is nothing without another inward sight of faith.
[4.] There is a sir/ht therefore of faith, and other sights are to no purpose if they be without this, a sight of God shining in Christ. And this is perfected in heaven, in the sight of glory, when we see him as he is. Now there is a comfort in all these sights, to see him in his word and works. It was a glorious thing to see him in his bodily presence ; and by faith to see God in Christ, to see his face in Christ. Oh it is a sweet and lovely sight to see God shining in Christ ! Oh but what is all this to the sight of him after in glory ! Now this beholding meant here especially, is the beholding of faith, in the ordinances, in the word and sacraments. ' We all behold,' as in the glass of the word and sacraments, by the eye of faith. Faith is expressed by beholding, by knowledge ; for indeed faith is nothing but knowledge with application. Therefore faith includes knowledge. What is faith, but to know God and Christ, and the promises as mine ? Christ in the sacrament as mine, as verily as the outward things are mine : Ivnow- ledge with application is faith. Therefore, when I say»faith, I include knowledge, ' We behold.'
The knowledge of the mind is compared to the eye of the body. Know- ledge and faith is compared to seeing and beholding, for many reasons.
First, Because sight is the most glorious and noble sense. It is the highest in situation, and the quickest in apprehension, for in a moment, presently sight apprehends its object in the highest heavens. So it is with faith. It is the most noble sight of all, and it is quick as sight is ; for faith is that eagle in the cloud. It breaks through all, and sees in a moment Christ in heaven : it looks backward, and sees Christ upon the cross ; it looks for- ward, and seeth Christ to come in glory. Faith is so quick a grace, that it presents things past, things above, things to come, and all in a moment, so quick is this eagle- eye of faith.
Second, Again, it is the largest sense ; for we can see almost the whole hemisphere at one view. That a little thing in the eye should apprehend so much in a moment, as it is quick in apprehension, so it is large in comprehension.
Third, Again, it is the most sure sense — sight more than hearing ; therefore
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that divine act of knowledge is compared to seeing ; believing is compared to beholding. When faith looks upon God in the glass of the word and promises, it is as certain as the object is certain. Now, how certain is the object ? The mercy and love of God in Christ, who is truth itself, is most certain.
Fourth, Then it is that sense that vorks most upon the soul, sight ; for what the body seeth, the soul is atl'ected and moved with. The aflbctions of desire and love rise out of sight. It works upon the afi'ections most. Therefore the knowledge that stirs up the affections, and works upon the heart, is compared to sight. It affects us marvellously, for, answerable to our faith, we love, and joy, and delight. It alters the frame of the whole man. Therefore it is expressed here by beholding. Divine, spiritual knowledge, it works upon the heart. So we see why this beholding spi- ritually] of the understanding and soul, is compared to outward sight. It is called beholding, because it is a most noble spiritual act of the soul ; and it is most certain and sure. ' Faith is the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1 ; and it works upon the heart and soul.