fuch Books, to underftand and do fuch things as others do. They think the time long till they have attained what they fee others have attained. And in this alfo fhould we imitate them. We fhould be ever prefling forward, and earnestly reaching out after further degrees of Grace and Knowledge. We fhould be ever longing after that time, when we shall all come to a perfect Man to the Measure of the Stature of the fulnefs of Christ.

And so I come to the Apostles fecond Illustration of the difference that is be tween our Knowledge here and hereafter, in the 12th Verfe. For now we fee through a Glafs darkly, but then Face to Face: Now I know in part, but then fhall I know even as alfo I am known. In thefe words the Apostle compares our imperfect Knowledge here to the fight we have of a thing through á Glafs, and our perfect Knowledge in Heaven to the immediate Vifion of any thing, without the interpofition of a Glafs between our Eye and the Object. Then he adds an explication of the comparifon: Now we know in part, but then shall I know as alfo I am known. Through a Glafs,

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Glass, fo our Tranflators have render'd it, and not in a Glass as fome others. I shall not take upon me to contradict thofe Learned Men who were imployed in that Translation: efpecially seeing their rendring the words in that manner is very agreeable to the Scope of the Apostle, and feeing alfo the Original will fairly admit of it. As for the comparison, that we may the better underftand the import of it, we must confider the parts of it feverally, and enquire both what our feeing through a Glafs implies, and what our feeing Face to Face.

Concerning the former of these. What we fee through a Glass, we fee not fo clearly and exactly as when we fee a thing without the interpofition of a Glafs. Thus when we fee a thing thro' a Glafs Window, or through a Glass drawn over it, as Jewellers and Goldfmiths have a Glafs drawn over their precious things to keep them bright and clean. I fay in this cafe we have a more dark, imperfect and obfcure vifion of the thing, than when the Glafs is removed, and the object is immediately prefented to the Eye of the beholder. And the like difference there is between

our

our Knowledge of God and Heavenly things here and hereafter. We may think we see these things in this Life pretty clearly and diftinctly; but when we come to Heaven and have an immediate fight of them, without the intervention of a Glass, through which we here behold them, we shall acknowledge that we never faw them to the purpose before, and that while we were here, we saw little better than the Man in the Gofpel immediately after that Chrift had opened his Eyes, who faw Men fo confufedly that he could hardly distinguish them from Trees. The Impreffions that are made on the Mind by what is feen through a Glafs are eafily loft and forgotten; the reason whereof is because the Impreffions are weaker. And fo it is alfo in Spiritual things, they being feen only as through a Glafs, they make not fuch strong and lafting Impreffions upon the Mind as they fhall make hereafter. And hence it is that after we have in fome good meafure understood them, we come again within a little while either to queftion the Truth of them, or to lofe much of our former apprehenfions of them. The things which now feem to be clear and mani

fest to us, after fome Time appear dark and doubtful.

To apply this briefly.

Ufe. Though we fee Heavenly things while we are here as through a Glafs, yet let us not defpife the Day of small things, let us not undervalue these darker and more imperfect difcoveries of Heavenly things, which God affords us in this Life.

1. 'Tis a great and juft matter of Thankfulness that God lets us fee these things though but as through a Glass. He might have denyed us the Knowledge of them altogether; he might have left us in the Condition of Heathens who fet in darkness and in the shadow of Death. He might have refufed to afford us as much as any one glimpse of Heavenly things."

2. As 'tis his Mercy that we fee any thing at all of the things of another World, fo 'tis Mercy that in the dif covery of them God condefcends to our weakness, fhewing them us as through a Glafs, becaufe we could not bear the immediate and full fight of them while we are here. When God would caufe

his Glory to pass before Mofes, Exodus 33. 20, 21, 22, 23. he told him, he Could not fee his Face, for no Man could fee that and Live; and therefore he is put in a clift of a Rock, and God covers him with his hand while he paffeth by, and then takes away his hand and lets him fee his back parts only.Our frail Nature could not endure to fee God as he is in himself, and therefore God fhews himself to us here as through a Glass, referving the immediate vifion of himself, and the clearer manifeftations of his Glory till we come to be rendred capable thereof, as hereafter we fhall be.

3. 'Tis also just matter of Thankfulnefs that we know that this lower way of knowing God is but for a while the time is haftening when we shall no longer fee as through a Glafs, but fee God Face to Face.

And this brings me to the fecond part of the comparison: Now we fee thro' a Glafs darkly, but then Face to Face. We often Read in Scripture of the Face of God, but in all fuch paffages of Scripture, the word Face, when attributed to God, is not to be taken properly as Y 4

when