That the best tilings in tJtis world are not seen; the meanest things are those that are seen. The best things are to come ; the meanest things are present. The best things are such as are eternal ; the meanest things are temporal.
480 COMMENTARY ON
And \vlien I luivo unfolJccl Ibcsc, then I will shew 3'ou a wise and gracious use the sanctified soul makes of looking upon things that are not seen, and how his sight worketh, what use we are to make of it.
Dod. The observation is, tliat a Christian is to look to the thiiir/s not seen, for thinr/s seen are not the object of a Christian's eije. The best things are not seen ; the meanest things are such as are seen, I will not stand to unfold the negative ])art much, because I have spoken of that before.
But to speak e.s)iecially, What are the things that arc not seen ?
Beloved, if you labour to be good Christians, you shall better feel them than I can tell you what they are ; you shall better know them by experience than by discourse here.
(1.) We cannot see God face to face. "We have not immediate communion with God here. We have it in the word and sacraments ; but in heaven we shall see all things that are good. Here we may see God in everything ; there we shall see everything in God. There we shall see health, and strength, and comfort in God.
(2.) The things not seen here is Christ in our flesh. The heavens are between us and him now. The sight of him is the happiness of a Christi'.m, for the head and members to be together, husband and wife together. Ay, but here we are severed. Here is a spiritual communion ; but that is not that that the soul looks for.
(3.) Neither have we full communion of saints; for here is a mixture of good and bad, and here the best have tlieir imperfections. If here an holy joining together of two or three wise Christians be so sweet, what shall it be when we all meet together in heaven ? Now we see not God, and Christ, and the blessed souls in heaven.
(4.) Here we see not our perfect liherti/.
(5.) Here we see not that eternal Scthhath ice shall have there.
(6.) Here we see not that j)erfection of f/ race.
(7.) Here we see not that comfort ire shall hare there. Here we have a ' taste and the beginning, but what is this to that there ? Therefore let us think of what is not seen.
Ohj.. But why do we not see them here ?
licason 1. You may as irell ask vie, Why is not heaven iqion earth ? God irill have a differeuce between Jieaven. and earth; he will have us to walk by faith and not by sight. Heaven is a place for sight : if we will have happi- ness in sight, it is in heaven. But here we have hope, and faith, and some feeling of comfort ; and therefore, considering our condition is by faith, therefore God preserveth matter of sight for another world.
Eeason 2. Again, the best things are not seen, because ice have not pro- portionable parts. Our parts are not fitted for that glory, Peter, James, and John, they were as it were drunken with this sight, so that Peter speaks he knows not what. Mat. ix. 33. And Moses, when he came from God, he was fain to cover his face, 2 Cor. iii. 13. If these glimpses were such as people could not endure them, how could we endure a full manifestation of glor}', when Christ saith, ' No man can see God and live ' ? Exod. xxxiii. 20. Therefore let us be content to die to have this sight. Our understandings here are too shallow, our hearts too narrow, our imperfections too many : darkness cannot conceive of light. So no soul can see what is in heaven.
And so here we cannot tell what happiness there is, till we be there. That is the reason why the best things are not seen. And these are the proper objects of a Christian. For things seen are exposed to the outward man ; they are not fitting for the soul. The soul will soon spend all the
2 CORINTHIANS CUAP. IV, VER. lG-18. 481
pood that arc in things seen. Take all the beauty, and all tho riches, and all the honour that can be, and the soul will bo quickly weary of it. The soul will draw out all the good. We' see those that are in great place, within a little while grow weary of them.
But there is an everlasting s^jring of comfort and contentment in things not seen. They ai-e larger than the soul. The more we see of them, the more we may see ; the communion with God, joys in heaven, and such things. Alas ! the soul is a very capacious thing, yet the joys in heaven are larger than it ; therefore things seen are not the object of the soul.
Quest. But doth the soul never look upon things that are seen '?
Ans. Yes ; but if the soul look upon them, it looks also beyond them.