March 1

Whom no man hath seen, nor can see.—1 Timothy 6:16.

THE invisibility of God is comprehended in the fact that he is a Spirit:—that he is simple and not material as bodies are. And the invisibility of God should be so contemplated by us, that it may have its due effects upon us.

1. It should warn us, that we picture not God to our eyesight, or in our fancies, in any bodily shape. Saith the prophet, "To whom will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of his Father, he hath declared him;" and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared. "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father."

If you ask me, how then you should conceive of God, if not in any bodily shape? I answer, Get all the attributes and relations of God to make their proper impress upon thy soul; and then you will have the true conceiving of God.

2. This must teach us to think most highly of the things that are invisible, and more meanly of these visible things. Let it be the property of a beast, and not of a man, to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen: let it be the mark of the brutish infidels, and not of Christians, to doubt of the invisible things because they are invisible; or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure. As the senses are more ignoble than the intellect, so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the objects of the understanding, as such. The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest. It is the subtle part that is called the spirits; which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables, is most powerful, and excellent, and valued, when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth. It is that subtle part in our blood that is called the spirits, that hath more of the virtue of life, and doth more of the works, than the feculent, gross, and earthly part. The air and wind have as true a being as the earth, and a more excellent nature, though it be more gross, and they invisible. The body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible, and as suitable to our more noble, invisible part, as visible things to our fleshly, baser part.

3. The invisibility of God should teach us to live a life of faith, and to get above a sensual life; and it must teach us to value the faith of the saints, as knowing its excellency and necessity. Invisible objects have the most perfect, excellent reality; and therefore faith hath the pre-eminence above sense. Natural reason can live upon things not seen, if they have been seen, or can be known by natural evidence: subjects obey a prince that they see not, and fear a punishment that they see not; and the nature of man is afraid of the devils, though we see them not. But faith liveth upon such invisible things as mortal eye did never see, nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate, but are revealed only by the word of God: though about many of its invisible objects faith hath the consent of reason for its encouragement. Value not sight and sense too much; think not all to be mere uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense. We should not have heard that God is a Spirit, if corporeal substances had not a baser kind of being than spirits. Intellection is a more noble operation than sense. If there be any thing properly called sense in heaven, it will be as far below the pure intellective intuition of the Lord, as the glorified body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be, we cannot now understand. Fix not your minds on sensible things. Remember that your God, your home, your portion, are unseen: and therefore live in hearty affections to them, and serious prosecution of them, as if you saw them. Pray as if you saw God, and heaven, and hell. Hear, as if you saw him that sends his messenger to speak to you. Resist all the temptations to lust, and sensuality, and every sin, as you would do if you saw God stand by. Love him, and fear him, and trust him, and serve him, as you would do if you beheld him. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." Believing must be to you instead of seeing; and make you as serious about things unseen, as sensual men are about things sensible. In every thing that you see, remember that it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them. He lighteth you by the sun; he warmeth you by the fire; he beareth you by the earth. See him in all these by the eye of faith.

"Faith lends its realizing light; The clouds disperse, the shadows fly: Th' Invisible appears in sight, And God is seen by mortal eye."