---

I. THE PRESENT OBSCURITY OF OUR FUTURE STATE, as to the particular circumstances of that happiness which good men shall enjoy in another world. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." If one should come from a strange country, never known before, and should only tell us, in general, that it was a most delightful place, and the inhabitants a brave, and generous, and wealthy people, under the government of a wise and great king, ruling by excellent laws; and that the particular delights and advantages of it were not to be imagined by anything he knew in our own country. If we gave credit to the person that brought this relation, it would create in us a great admiration of the country described to us, and a mighty concern to see it, and live in it. But it would be a vain curiosity to reason and conjecture about the particular conveniences of it; because it would be impossible, by any discourse, to arrive at the certain knowledge of any more, than he who knew it, was pleased to tell us. This is the case as to our heavenly country.

II. Thus much we know of it in general, that IT SHALL CONSIST IN THE BLESSED VISION OF GOD. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but when He shall appear, we shall see Him as He is."

1. What is meant by seeing God. As to see the king includes the court, and all the glorious circumstances of his attendance: so to see God, does take in all that glory, and joy, and happiness, which flows from His presence.

2. What is here meant by seeing God as He is: we shall see Him as He is.

(1) Our perfect knowledge of Him. Not that we are to imagine that when we come to heaven, our understanding can or shall be raised to such a pitch as to be able perfectly to comprehend the infinite nature and perfections of God. But our knowledge shall be advanced to such degrees of perfection as a finite and created understanding is capable of.

(a) We shall then have an immediate knowledge of God, that which the Scripture calls seeing Him "face to face"; not at a distance, as we do now by faith: not by reflection, as we do now see Him in the creatures.

(b) We shall have a far clearer knowledge of God than we have now in this life (1 Corinthians 13:12). We see Him now many times as He is not; that is, we are liable to false and mistaken conceptions of Him.

(c) We shall then, likewise, have a certain knowledge of God, free from all doubts concerning Him (1 Corinthians 13:12). As God now knows us, so shall we then know Him, as to the truth and certainty of our knowledge.

(2) To see God "as He is," does imply our perfect enjoyment of Him. It can be no mean thing, which the infinite wisdom, and goodness, and power of God hath designed for the final reward of those who love Him, and of those whom He loves.

3. The fitness of this metaphor, to express to us the happiness of our future state.

(1) Sight is the noblest and most excellent of all our senses; and therefore the flame of the eye is the most curious of all other parts of the body, and the dearest to us, and that which we preserve with the greatest tenderness. It is the most comprehensive sense, hath the largest sphere, takes in the most objects, and discerns them at the greatest distance. It can in a moment pass from earth to heaven, and survey innumerable objects. It is the most pure, and spiritual, and quickest in its operations, and approacheth nearest to the nature of a spiritual faculty.

(2) The primary and proper object of this sense is the most delightful trod of the most spiritual nature of any corporeal thing, and that is light (Proverbs 15:30; Ecclesiastes 11:7). It is the purest and most spiritual of all corporeal things, and therefore God chooseth to represent Himself by it: "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

III. WHEREIN OUR LIKENESS AND CONFORMITY TO GOD SHALL CONSIST.

1. In the immortality of our nature. In this mortal state we are not capable of that happiness which consists in the vision of God; that is, in the perfect knowledge and perpetual enjoyment of Him. The imperfection of our state, and the weakness of our faculties, cannot bear the sight of so glorious and resplendent an object, as the Divine nature and perfections are; we cannot see God and live.

2. In the purity of our souls. In this world every good man does "mortify his earthly Dud corrupt affections," and in some measure "bring them into obedience and subjection to the law of God." But still there are some relics of sin, some spots and imperfections in the holiness of the best men. But upon our entrance into the other world we shall quite "put off the old man with the affections and lusts thereof"; we shall be perfectly "delivered from this body of sin and death," and, together with this mortal nature, part with all the remainders of sin and corruption which cleave to this mortal state.

IV. THE NECESSARY CONNEXION BETWEEN OUR LIKENESS AND CONFORMITY TO GOD, AND OUR SIGHT AND ENJOYMENT OF HIM. "We know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

1. Likeness to God in the immortality of our nature is necessary to make us capable of the happiness of the next life; which consists in the blessed and perpetual vision and enjoyment of God.

2. Our likeness to God in the purity of our souls is necessary to make us capable of the blessed sight and enjoyment of Him in the next life.

(1) It is necessary, as a condition of the thing to be performed on our part, before we can expect that God should make good the promise of eternal life and happiness to us.

(2) We cannot possibly love God, nor take delight in Him, unless we be like Him in the temper and disposition of our minds.

(Abp. Tillotson.)

---

---

KJV: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

WEB: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.