Beloved, now we are the Sons of God, 1that were dignity enough for a poor sinner (one would think) I but that's not all; it is well, and it shall be better. God hath laid out much upon us; but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive; it doth not yet appear what we shall be! This only we know, that when he shall appear we shall be like him! That's infinite honour indeed! But how doth he prove it? Why, he proves our conformity from our vision, we shall be like him, for we shall see him: Him, ver. 3. God in Christ; the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ, even while he was here in the days of his flesh; the flesh of Christ was a, veil, 2through which the deity of Christ did appear, [Greek or Hebrew], God was conspicuous in the humane nature; 3the invisible God was, as it were, made visible in a body of flesh: We beheld his glory (says the Evangelist) if it were so upon earth, how much more will it be verified in heaven? The glorified body of our Lord will be as transparent ⟨p. 78⟩glass, through which the glorious beams of Divinity will display themselves to the eye of the blessed beholders: And in the beholding whereof there will go forth a transforming virtue which will change them into the same Image; if it were so, I say, in the Gospel vision, how much more will it be so in the beatifical? 4The sight of God hath a conforming power in it to assimilate the beholder into the likeness of God, he converts all into its own nature; God as he is a consuming fire to the wicked, so he is a purifying refining fire to the Saints, by purifying out their dross to make them partakers of his holiness, Heb. 12.10. It was the design of their correction in this world, and the perfecting of that conformity is the ultimate and supreme design of the facial vision: we shall be like him, for we shall see him; we shall be as he is, when we shall see him as he is: we shall be like him:
Beloved, now we are the Sons of God, 1that were dignity enough for a poor sinner (one would think) I but that's not all; it is well, and it shall be better. God hath laid out much upon us; but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive; it doth not yet appear what we shall be! This only we know, that when he shall appear we shall be like him! That's infinite honour indeed! But how doth he prove it? Why, he proves our conformity from our vision, we shall be like him, for we shall see him: Him, ver. 3. God in Christ; the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ, even while he was here in the dayes of his flesh; the flesh of Christ was a, veil, 2through which the deity of Christ did appear, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, God was conspicuous in the humane nature; 3the invisible God was, as it were, made visible in a body of flesh: We beheld his glory (sayes the Evangelist) if it were so upon earth, how much more will it be verified in heaven? The glorified body of our Lord will be as transparent ⟨p. 78⟩glass, through which the glorious beams of Divinity will display themselves to the eye of the blessed beholders: And in the beholding whereof there will go forth a transforming vertue which will change them into the same Image; if it were so, I say, in the Gospel vision, how much more will it be so in the beatifical? 4The sight of God hath a conforming power in it to assimilate the beholder into the likeness of God, he converts all into its own nature; God as he is a consuming fire to the wicked, so he is a purifying refining fire to the Saints, by purifying out their dross to make them partakers of his holiness, Heb. 12.10. It was the design of their correction in this world, and the perfecting of that conformity is the ultimate and supreme design of the facial vision: we shall be like him, for we shall see him; we shall be as he is, when we shall see him as he is: we shall be like him:
- 11 John 3 2.
- 21 Tim. 3.1•.
- 3John 1.14.
- 4The Soul by enjoying God cometh nearer to the pleasure of God himself.
