A35583:910
Mount Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter…Movnt Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter…
Mount Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, from the 13th verse, to the end of the chapter, divided into three parts / by Tho. Case ...Movnt Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, from the 13th verse, to the end of the chapter, divided into three parts / by Tho. Case ...
London: printed by Thomas Milbourn for Dorman Newman, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A fourth Conclusion is this, 1The expressions of Scripture do not necessarily infer an intuitive immediate vision of the divine essence; This can be proved only by examination of the particular places that are brought by the assertors of this Vision. They are either of the old or of the new Testament.
- 14 Conclusion
In the old. The Lords answer to Moses is much insisted on; Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see my face and live. All that these words intimate, will be, must be granted, and it is no more than this, That such a full sight of Gods glory as Moses desired, is not to be expected till the dust of mortality be blown out of our eyes; the eyes of our mind now can no more endure to see the ⟨p. 29⟩face of God, than the eyes of an Owl can behold the Sun in its noon-day glory; this although it were a gross mistake of the Jews, to infer natural death presently to befall any person, that should have a sight of God, under any visible representation, yet it might well give occasion to Augustine to make that quick reply, Lord, if I may not see thy face and live, let me dye to see thy face. But how an Argument should from thence be formed, to conclude an immediate, intuitive vision of God in glory, I cannot easily conceive; more colour there is in the Apostles phrase, Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; 1now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. These truly are wonderful expressions, and such as afford unto us the greatest security, that all privative imperfection shall be done away, and that we shall have as full a sight of God, as our natures are capable of, we shall have as full a knowledge of the Divinity as we can rationally wish for, such as shall leave no room for complaint, much less for envy. Greater things then this I find not are said of the Theology, of the blessed Angels, their happiness is but this, They are ever beholding the face of God: