(1.) We know so little of God, because it is God who is thus to be known, — that is, he who hath described himself to us very much by this, that we cannot know him. What else doth he intend where he calls himself invisible, incomprehensible, and the like? — that is, he whom we do not, cannot, know as he is. And our farther progi'ess consists more in knowing what he is not, than what he is. Thus is he described to be immortal, infinite, — that is, he is not, as we are, mortal, finite, and limited. Hence is that glorious description of him, 1 Tim. vi. 1 6, " Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." His light is such as no creature can approach unto. He is not seen, not because he cannot be seen, but because Ave cannot bear the sight of him. The light of God, in whom is no darkness, forbids all access to him by any creature whatever. We who cannot behold the sun in its glory are too weak to bear the beams of infinite brightness. On this consideration, as was said, the wise man professcth himself " a very beast, and not to have the understanding of a man," Prov. XXX. 2 ; — that is, he knew nothing in comparison of God ; so that he seemed to have lost all his understanding when once he came to the consideration of him, his work, and his ways.
In this consideration let our souls descend to some particulars: —
[1.] For the being of God; we are so far from a knowledge of it, so as to be able to instruct one another therein by words and expres- sions of it, as that to frame any conceptions in our mind, with such species and impressions of things as we receive the knowledge of all other things by, is to make an idol to ourselves, and so to worship a god of our own making, and not the God that made us. We may as well and as laAvfuUy hew him out of wood or stone as form him a being in our minds, suited to our apprehensions. The utmost of the best of our thoughts of the being of God is, that we can have no thoughts of it. Our knowledge of a being is but low when it mounts no higher but only to know that we know it not.
[2.] There be some things of God which he himself hath taught us to speak of, and to regulate our expressions of them ; but when we have so done, we see not the things themselves; we know them not. To believe and admire is all that we attain to. We profess, as we are taught, that God is infinite, omnipotent, eternal; and we know what disputes and notions there are about omnipresence, immensity, in- finiteness, and eternity. We have, I say, words and notions about
SELF-ABASEMENT BEFORE THE MAJESTY OF GOD. 67
these things; but as to the things themselves what do we know? what do Ave comiDrehend of them? Can the mind of man do any more but swallow itself up in an infinite abyss, which is as nothing; give itself up to Avhat it cannot conceive, much less express? Is not our understanding " brutish" in the contemplation of such things, and is as if it were not? Yea, the perfection of our understanding is, not to understand, and to rest there. They are but the back parts of eter- nity and infiniteness that we have a glimpse of. What shall I say of the Trinity, or the subsistence of distinct persons in the same in- dividual essence, — a mystery by many denied, because by none un- derstood,— a mystery, whose every letter is mysterious? Who can declare the generation of the Son, the procession of the Spirit, or the difference of the one from the other? But I shall not farther instance in particulars. That infinite and inconceivable distance that is between him and us keeps us in the dark as to any sight of his face or clear apprehension of his perfections.
We knoAV him rather by what he does than by what he is, — by his doing us good than by his essential goodness; and how little a por- tion of him, as Job speaks, is hereby discovered !
(2.) We know little of God, because it is faith alone whereby here we know him. I shall not now discourse about the remaining im- pressions on the hearts of all men by natm'e that there is a God, nor what they may rationally be taught concerning that God from the works of his creation and providence, which they see and behold. It is confessedly, and that upon the woful experience of all ages, so weak, low, dark, confused, that none ever on that account glorified God as they ought, but, notwithstanding all their knowledge of God, were indeed " without God in the world.''
The chief, and, upon the matter, almost only acquaintance we have with God, and his dispensations of himself, is by faith. " He that Cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," Heb. xi. 6. Our knowledge of him and his rewarding (the bottom of our obedience or coming to him), is believing. " We walk by faith, and not by sight," 2 Cor. v. 7; — A/a TriffTiojg ou dia, s'/oovg' by faith, and so by faith as not to have any express idea, image, or species of that which we believe. Faith is all the argument we have of " things not seen," Heb. xi. 1. I might here insist upon the nature of it; and from all its concomitants and concernments manifest tliat we know but the back parts of what we know by faith only. As to its rise, it is built purely upon the testimony of Him whom we have not seen : as the apostle speaks, " How can ye love him whom ye have not seen?" — that is, whom you know riot but by faith that he is. Faith receives all upon his testimony, whom it receives to be only on liis ov>rn testimony. As to its nature, it is an assent upon testi-