The child's portion, or, The unseen glory of the children of God asserted and…

Our Doctrine treats of the Beatifical Vision, […] as whiles we are in this body we are incapable of enjoying, so are we no less incapable of knowing what it is. Many curious wits have beat their brains, and tentered their invention about it, to no purpose, but to darken counsel with words without knowledge. The School-Men have taken a great deal of pains in it and all but to show their ignorance. Interpreters generally agree that the expression of John's is synonymous to that of Paul's, of seeing him face to face, 1 Cor. 13. 12. Where there is also ⟨p. 129⟩an Ellipsis of the Object as well as in our Text: It is sometime called a seeing of God, and is promised, Mat. 5. 8. Sometimes a seeing of Christ, who is God, Rev. 21. 4. Joh. 19. 26. There is a seeing of God here in this life, and there is a sight which shall be had of him in Glory: For happiness is here inchoated, it shall there be perfected: Now the great matter of inquiry is about the difference which is between these two Sights: The Apostle, in 1 Cor. 13. 12. makes a very great difference, and so indeed there is beyond our present imagination; but in what things it lies is hard to tell, the words are (like our present knowledge) Enigmatical, a Riddle not easily •ead, and Augustine's counsel is here good, That we beware lest whiles we quarrel about the way of seeing God, we forget and miss of Sanctification, by which only he is to be seen.

Our Doctrine treats of the Beatifical Vision, 〈…〉 as whiles we are in this body we are incapable of enjoying, so are we no less incapable of knowing what it is. Many curious wits have beat their brains, and tentered their inventio• about it, to no purpose, but to darken counsel with words without knowledge. The School-Men have taken a great deal of pains in it and all but to shew their ignorance. Interpreters generally agree that the expression of John's is synonymous to that of Paul's, of seeing him face to face,