purer, and more beautiful than the Light: So there is no visible Creature that reprefents fo well, this great God, who is a Being most pure, most beautiful and perfect, the Father of Lights, and the true Sun of our Souls.

Secondly, God discovers himself by all the Workings of his wonderful Providence, and chiefly in his extraordinary and miraculous Operations. For when Men perceive Works which exceed all the ordinary Strength of Nature, they are forced to acknowledge, that they come immediately from an infinite Power. As Pharoah's Magicians, when they found by their magick Art, that they were not able to counterfeit Mofes's Miracle,confeffed,That it was the Finger of God.

Thirdly, God discovers himself in his holy and divine Word, which is to us a perfect and divine Looking-Glafs, where we may fee his Image and Brightness of his Glory; that was St. Paul's Judgment, when he faith, That all we that bebold, as in a Glafs, the Glory of the Lord, with open Face, are changed into the fame Image, from Glory to Glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. 18.

Fourthly, God revealed himself to the Church of Ifrael, in the Ark,the Sign and ordinary Token of his gracious Prefence. He fpoke to his People from the Midft of the two golden Cherubims, and published his divine Oracles. There he was pleased to discover himfelf in divers Reprefentations, chiefly in the Cloud and Fire which came down from Heaven. Therefore the Sign, bearing the Name of the Thing fignified, is fometimes ftyled the Lord; as in that Paffage, where David faith, my Soul is a-thirst for God, for the mighty and living God; O when shall I go and appear in the Prefence of God! Pfal. xlii.

Fifthly, God manifefted himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets in Dreams and Visions, by divine Raptures, and prophetical Elevations. In this manner he appeared to the Patriarch Jacob in Bethel; for when 'tis faid that God was at the End of the mystical Lad

der,

der, which reach'd up to Heaven, without doubt, he gave fome Sign and Teftimony there of his Prefence. And when the Prophet Ifaiah mentions his glorious Throne, he makes no difficulty to fay, Ifaw the Lord fitting upon a Throne, high and lifted up, and bis Train filled the Temple; above it ftood the Seraphims, each one bad fix Wings,with two be covered his Face,and with two be covered his Feet,and with two be did fly; and one cried to another and faid, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hofts, and the whole Earth is full of his Glory, and the Pofts of the Door moved at the Voice of him that cried,and the Houfe was filled with Smoak, Ifa. vi. And the Prophet Micah, when he speaks of his Vision, he faith, I bave feen the Lord fitting upon his Throne, and all the Hoft of Heaven, ftanding at his right Hand and at his left, 1 Kings xxii. And the Prophet Daniel defcribing one of his Vifions, fpeaks in this Manner; I beheld, till the Thrones were caft down, and the ancient of Days did fit, whofe Garment was white as Snow, and the Hair of bis Head like the pure Wool, his Throne was like the fiery Flame, and his Wheels as burning Fire, a fiery Stream iffued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands miniftred unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ftood before him.

Sixthly, God fhewed himself to Mofes in a particular Manner, not only when he appeared to him in Horeb, and spoke to him out of the flaming Bufh, but efpecially when God appeared to him in the holy Mountain, and for the Space of forty Days and forty Nights, difcourfed with him familiarly, as with a Friend. For at that Time, he fet before him fuch glorious and magnificent Tokens of his divine Prefence, that it was almoft the fame Thing, as if he had feen God himself. God gave him more Light and Knowledge of his Glory, than any other of his Prophets, and revealed himfelf to him in a more familiar Manner than to any other living Perfon. Because of these glorious and extraordinary Appearances of God's Prefence, and of the Brightnefs of his Light, which

fhined fo clear in the Soul of Mofes, because of that holy Familiarity which he had with God, that he fpeaks of it in fuch a Manner, in the xiith Chapter of the Book of Numbers, for we cannot understand that Place in a literal Senfe; that Mofes did really fee God himself, and that with the Eyes of the Body, he beheld his Being, which is altogether invifible. But we must thus understand it, that never any Man beheld fuch glorious Expreffions of the Godhead with the Eyes of the Body, That never any Man difcourfed fo familiarly with God as Mofes ; never any Man hath ever had fo clear and plain a Knowledge of his great Glory and divine Majefty.

Seventhly, God hath often appeared to Men in hu- . man Shapes, and hath given them fuch vifible Expreffions of his holy Prefence, that such as have seen thofe Images, tell us, that they have feen God. "Tis in this Manner that Jacob speaks, when he had wrestled with an human Body, moved, not only by an affifting Angel, but alfo by God himself, who difcovers there his divine Virtue; I have feen, faith he, God Face to Face, and my Soul bath been faved, Gen. xxxii. Manoab, the Father of Sampfon, tells as much, when he had seen the human Shape in which God was pleased to appear, when he afcended up into Heaven in the Flames of his Sacrifice, For certain we fhall die, for we have feen God, Judg. xiii. In like manner,when God appeared to Abraham in the Shape of a Man, this Man is called the Lord, and Abrabam bowed himself before him, and worshipped. And at another Time this holy Patriarch faw no less than three human Shapes which appeared to him at once. Some think that God was vifible but in one of these Shapes, and the two others were Angels. That which confirms this Opinion is, that of these three Perfons, there is but one that fpeaks as God, and receives Abraham's Adoration, and then he appears no more; the two others are stiled Angels, in the Beginning of the xixth Chapter. But others believe with fome an

cient Doctors of the Church, that these three human Shapes were a true Image, and living Reprefentation of the most holy, moft glorious, and most wonderful Trinity. In this Opinion there is nothing contrary to the Analogy of Faith.

Finally, God hath discovered himself by his Son in a particular manner; he is nam'd therefore, The Image of God, the Image of the invifible God, and God manifefted in Flefh. God hath not only imprinted in him, fome Tokens of his Godhead, and Marks of his Divine Power; he caused him not to walk and move as the borrowed Bodies of the Old Teftament: He hath not only engraven in him, the perfect Image of all his Divine Perfections; God is not in him in a Shadow, or a Figure, as he was in the Ark, and in Solomon's Temple; but he hath dwelt in him bodily, and by his eternal Godhead, as St. Paul informs us, That in him dwelleth bodily, that is to fay, really, and effentially, all the Fulness of the Godhead; therefore our Saviour tells St.Philip, That be that bath seen him, bath feen the Father, John xiv.

This being granted, let us now confider how we fee God now here below, and how we shall see him hereafter in Heaven. At prefent we see him with the Eyes of the Body in his vifible Works; and we fee his Being alfo with the Eye of our Understanding, but in a weak and imperfect Manner; we know him with a very obfcure and clouded Knowledge. For this Caufe St. Paul faith very well and truly, That we know in part, and we propbefy in part. We fee God alfo with the Eye of Faith; 'tis with this Eye that we fee him, as Mofes did, who is invifible, and that we behold our Lord Jefus Chrift, fitting at the Right Hand of God the Father above all the Principalities and Powers, worshipped and adored by all the glorified Church in Heaven. In Paradife we hope to fee with the Eyes of our glorified Body, the Images and Marks of the Divinity, fo glorious, and magnificent, fo beautiful and full of Majesty, that in Comparison

Comparison of that, whatfoever appeared to the Prophets and Patriarchs in their illuftrious Vifions, was nothing but Obfcurity and Darkness. And with the fame Eyes of the Body we fhall fee God in the Perfon of our Saviour, who is the Brightness of his Glory, and the exprefs Image of his Perfon; fo that we may well fay with Joy, in a full Affurance of Faith, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that be fball ftand at the laft Day upon the Earth; and tho' after my Skins, Worms destroy this Body, I fhall fee God in my Flesh, whom I fhall fee for myself, and my Eyes Shall bebold, and not another, Job xix. But for the Effence of God, and for the eternal Godhead, we shall not, nor cannot fee it with the Eyes of the Body, let them become never fo glorious, incorruptible, and immortal. We fhall neither fee it with the Eye of Faith; for then Faith fhall be totally abolifhed, and we fhall not walk any more by Faith, but by Sight: But we fhall fee God with the Eye of the Understanding, enlightened with a divine Glory. Now, as we have taken notice, there are two Sorts of Contemplations and Knowledges; the one perfect, proportioned to the Object, which we behold and look upon; the other imperfect, fuitable to the Subject that looks and fees. Our future Knowledge of God, fhall not be of the firft, but of the latter Sort, that is to fay, that we shall never fee into the Bottom of the Mysteries of God's divine Majefty, and of his Glory. We fhall never know perfectly this highest Perfection, this infinite Being, this incomprehenfible and glorious Godhead. For Things are in their Actions as they are in their Beings, and in their Abilities: Now in the moft glorious State of Heaven, our Beings and Abilities fhall be limited and circumfcribed Therefore it fhall be abfolutely impoffible for us to comprehend perfectly the Being of God, which is infinite in itself, and in all its wonderful Perfections. The Holy Angels themfelves, the Cherubins, and Seraphins, these Creatures of Light

and