“We walk” here “by faith, and not by sight,” 2 Cor. v. 7; that is, in the life of God, in our walking before him, in the whole of our obedience therein, we are under the conduct and influence of faith, and not of sight. Those are the two spiritual powers of our souls; — by the one whereof we are made partakers of grace, holiness, and obedience in this life; and by the other, of eternal blessedness and glory.
Both these — namely, faith and sight, the one in this life, the other in that which is to come — have the same immediate object. For they are the abilities of the soul to go forth unto, and to embrace their object. Now, this object of them both is the glory of Christ, as has been declared, as also what that glory is, and wherein it does consist; wherefore my present design is to inquire into the difference that is between our beholding of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, and the vision which we shall have of the same glory hereafter.
The latter of these is peculiarly intended in that prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ for his disciples, John xvii. 24, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.” But I shall not distinctly insist upon it, my design being another way, respecting principally the work of God in this life, and the privileges which we enjoy thereby. Yet I shall now take a short prospect of that also; not absolutely, but in the differences that are between faith and sight, or the view which we have of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, and that which they enjoy by vision who are above; — the object of them both being adequately the same.
But herein, also, I shall have respect only unto some of those things which concern our practice, or the present immediate exercise of faith. For I have elsewhere handled at large the state of the church above, or that of present glory, giving an account of the administration of the office of Christ in heaven, his presence among the glorified souls, and the adoration of God under his conduct. I have also declared the advantage which they have by being with him, and the prospect they have of his glory. Therefore these things must here be only touched on.
These differences may be referred unto two heads:— 1. Those which arise from the different natures and acting of those means and instruments whereby we apprehend this glory of Christ, — namely, faith and vision; and, 2. Those that arise from the different effects produced by them. Instances in each kind shall be given.
1. The view which we have of the glory of Christ by faith in this world is obscure, dark, inevident, reflexive. So the apostle declares, 1 Cor. xiii. 12, “Now we see through a glass darkly,” δι’ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι; — “through” or by “a glass, in a riddle,” a parable, a dark saying. There is a double figurative limitation put upon our view of the glory of Christ, taken from the two ways of our perception of what we apprehend, — namely, the sight of things, and the hearing of words.
The first is, that we have this view not directly, but reflexively and by way of a representation, as in a glass. For I take the glass here, not to be optical or a prospective, which helps the sight, but a speculum, or a glass which reflects an image of what we do behold. It is a sight like that which we have of a man in a glass, when we see not his person or substance, but an image or representation of them only, which is imperfect.
The shadow or image of this glory of Christ is drawn in the Gospel, and therein we behold it as the likeness of a man represented unto us in a glass; and although it be obscure and imperfect in comparison of his own real, substantial glory, which is the object of vision in heaven, yet is it the only image and representation of himself which he has left, and given unto us in this world. That woeful, cursed invention of framing images of him out of stocks and stones, however adorned, or representations of him by the art of painting, are so far from presenting unto the minds of men any thing of his real glory, that nothing can be more effectual to divert their thoughts and apprehensions from it. But by this figurative expression of seeing in a glass, the apostle declares the comparative imperfection of our present view of the glory of Christ.
But the allusion may be taken from an optic glass or tube also,1 whereby the sight of the eye is helped in beholding things at a great distance. By the aid of such glasses, men will discover stars or heavenly lights, which, by reason of their distance from us, the eye of itself is no way able to discern. And those which we do see are more fully represented, though remote enough from being so perfectly. Such a glass is the Gospel, without which we can make no discovery of Christ at all; but in the use of it we are far enough from beholding him in the just dimensions of his glory.