The Beatitudes - Thomas Watson
The blessed privilege of seeing God explained
They shall
see God.
These words
are linked to the former and they are a great incentive to heart-purity. The
pure heart shall see the pure God. There is a double sight which the saints
have of God.
1. In this
life; that is, spiritually by the eye of faith. Faith sees God's glorious
attributes in the glass of his Word. Faith beholds him showing forth himself
through the lattice of his ordinances. Thus Moses saw him who was invisible. {Heb 11:27} Believers see God's glory
as it were veiled over. They behold his `back parts'. {Ex
33:23}
2. In the
life to come; and this glorious sight is meant in the text, `They shall see
God.' A pleasant prospect! This divines call `the beatifical vision'. At that
day the veil will be pulled off, and God will show himself in all his glory to
the soul, as a king on a day of coronation shows himself in all his royalty and
magnificence. This sight of God will be the heaven of heaven. We shall indeed
have a sight of angels and that will be sweet, but the quintessence of
happiness and the diamond in the ring will be this, `We shall see God'. If the
sun be absent it is night for all the stars. The angels are called 'stars'. {Job 38:7} But it would be night in
heaven if the Sun of Righteousness did not shine there. It is the king's
presence makes the court. Absalom counted himself half-alive unless he might
see the king's face. {2Sa 14:32} `Blessed are the pure in
heart for they shall see God'. This sight of God in glory is, first, partly
mental and intellectual. We shall see him with the eyes of our mind. If there
be not an intellectual sight of God, how do the 'spirits of just men made
perfect, see him? But second, it is partly corporeal; not that we can with bodily
eyes behold the bright essence of God. Indeed the Anthromorphites
and Vorstians erroneously held that God had a visible
shape and figure. As man was made in God's image so they thought that God was
made in man's image; but God is a Spirit, {Joh
4:24} and being a Spirit is invisible. {1Ti
1:17} He cannot be beheld by bodily eyes. `Whom no man hath seen nor
can see'. {1Ti 6:16} A sight of his glory would
overwhelm us. This wine is too strong for our weak heads.
But when I
say our seeing of God in heaven is corporeal, my meaning is that we shall with
bodily eyes behold Jesus Christ, through whom the glory of God, his wisdom,
holiness, and mercy, shall shine forth to the soul. Put a back of steel to the
glass and you may see a face in it. So the human nature of Christ is as it were
a back of steel through which we may see the glory of God. {2Co
4:6} In this sense that scripture is to be understood, `With these eyes
shall I see God'. {Job 19:26,Job
19:27}
Now
concerning this blessed sight of God, it is so sublime and sweet that I can but
draw a dark shadow of it. We shall better understand it when we come to heaven.
Only at present I shall lay down these nine aphorisms or maxims.
1. Our sight
of God in heaven shall be a transparent sight. Here we see him `through a glass
darkly'. {1Co 13:12} But through Christ we shall
behold God in a very illustrious manner. God will unveil himself and show forth
his glory so far as the soul is capable to receive. If Adam had not sinned yet
it is probable he should never have had such a clear
sight of God as the saints in glory shall have. `We shall see him as he is'. {1Jo 3:2} Now we see him as he is not.
He is not mutable, not mortal. There we shall see him `as he is' in a very
transparent manner. `Then shall I know even as also I am known', {1Co 13:12} that is, `clearly'. Does
not God know us clearly and fully? Then shall the saints know him (according to
their capacity) as they are known. As their love to God, so their sight of God
shall be perfect.
2. This sight
of God will be a transcendent sight. It will surpass in glory. Such glittering
beams shall sparkle forth from the Lord Jesus as shall infinitely amaze and
delight the eyes of the beholders. Imagine what a blessed sight it will be to
see Christ wearing the robe of our human nature and to see that nature sitting
in glory above the angels. If God be so beautiful here in his ordinances, Word,
prayer, sacraments; if there be such excellency in him when we see him by the
eye of faith through the prospective glass of a promise, O what will it be when
we shall see him `face to face'! When Christ was transfigured on the mount he was full of glory. {Mt
17:2} If his transfiguration were so glorious, what will his
inauguration be? What a glorious time will it be when (as it was said of
Mordecai) we shall see him in the presence of his Father, `arrayed in royal
apparel, and with a great crown of gold upon his head'. {Es
8:15} There will be glory beyond hyperbole. If the sun were ten
thousand times brighter than it is, it could not so much as shadow out this
glory. In the heavenly horizon we behold beauty in its first magnitude and
highest elevation. There we shall 'see the king in his glory'. {Isa 33:17} All lights are but eclipses
compared with that glorious vision. Apelles' pencil would blot, angels, tongues
would but disparage it.
3. This sight
of God will be a transforming sight. `We shall be like him'. {1Jo
3:2} The saints shall be changed into glory. As when the light
springs into a dark room, the room may be said to be changed from what it was;
the saints shall so see God as to be changed into his image. {Ps
17:15} Here God's people are blackened and sullied with infirmities,
but in heaven they shall be as the dove covered with silver wings. They shall
have some rays and beams of God's glory shining in them. As a man that rolls
himself in the snow is of a snow-like whiteness; as the crystal, by having the
sun shine on it, sparkles and looks like the sun; so the saints by beholding
the brightness of God's glory shall have a tincture of that glory upon them.
Not that they shall partake of God's very essence, for as the iron in the fire
becomes fire, yet remains iron still, so the saints by beholding the lustre of God's majesty shall be glorious creatures but yet creatures still.
4. This sight
of God will be a joyful sight: `Thou shalt make me glad with
the light of thy countenance'. {Ac 2:28}
After a sharp winter, how pleasant will it be to see the Sun of Righteousness
displaying himself in all his glory! Does faith breed joy? `In whom, though now
ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable'. {1Pe 1:8} If the joy of faith be such,
what will the joy of vision be? The sight of Christ will amaze the eye with
wonder and ravish the heart with joy. If the face of a friend whom we entirely
love so affects us and drives away sorrow, O how cheering will the sight of God
be to the saints in heaven! Then indeed it may be said, `Your heart shall
rejoice'. {Joh 16:22} And there are two things
which will make the saints' vision of God in heaven joyful.
(i) Through Jesus Christ the dread and terror of the divine
essence shall be taken away. Majesty shall appear in God to preserve reverence,
but withal majesty clothed with beauty and tempered with sweetness to excite
joy in the saints. We shall see God as a friend, not as guilty Adam did, who was
afraid, and hid himself, {Ge 3:10} but as Queen Esther looked
upon King Ahasuerus holding forth the golden sceptre.
{Es 5:2} Surely this sight of God will
not be formidable but comfortable!
(ii) The
saints shall not only have vision but fruition. They shall so see God as to
enjoy him. Aquinas and Scotus dispute the case whether the `formalis
ratio', the very formality and essence of blessedness, be an act of the
understanding or the will. Aquinas says that happiness consists in the
intellectual part, `the bare seeing of God'. Scotus says that happiness is an
act of the will, the enjoying of God. But certainly true blessedness
comprehends both. It lies partly in the understanding, by seeing the glory of
God richly displayed, and partly in the will, by a sweet delicious taste of it
and acquiescence of the soul in it. We shall so see God as to love him, and so
love him as to be filled with him. The seeing of God implies fruition. `Enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord' {Mt 25:21}
not only behold it but enter into it. `In thy light we shall see light'; {Ps 36:9} there is vision. `At thy
right hand there are pleasures for evermore'; {Ps
16:11} there is fruition. So great is the joy which flows from the
sight of God as will make the saints break forth into triumphant praises and
hallelujahs.
5. This sight
of God will be a satisfying sight. Cast three worlds into the heart and they
will not fill it, but the sight of God satisfies. `I shall be satisfied when I
awake with thy likeness'. {Ps 17:15}
Solomon says `The eye is not satisfied with seeing'. {Ec 1:8} But there the eye will
be satisfied with seeing. God and nothing but God can satisfy. The saints shall
have their heads so full of knowledge and their hearts so full of joy that they
shall find no want.
6. It will be
an unweariable sight. Let a man see the rarest sight
that is, he will soon be cloyed. When he comes into a garden and sees delicious
walks, fair arbours, pleasant flowers, within a
little while he grows weary; but it is not so in heaven. There is no surfeit.
We shall never be weary of seeing God, for the divine essence being infinite,
there shall be every moment new and fresh delights springing forth from God
into the glorified soul. The soul shall not so desire God
but it shall still be full. Nor shall it be so full
but it shall still desire. So sweet will God be that the more the saints behold
God the more they will be ravished with desire and delight.
7. It will be
a beneficial sight. It will tend to the bettering and advantaging of the soul.
Some colours, while they delight the eyes, hurt them.
But this intuition and vision of God shall better the soul and tend to its
infinite happiness. Eve's looking upon the tree of knowledge prejudiced her
sight. She afterwards grew blind upon it, but the saints can receive no
detriment from the inspection of glory. This sight will be beneficial. The soul
will never be in its perfection till it comes to see God. This will be the
crowning blessing.
8. This sight
of God shall be perpetuated. Here we see objects awhile, and then our eyes grow
dim and we need spectacles, but the saints shall always behold God. As there
shall be no cloud upon God's face, so the saints shall have no mote in their
eye. Their sight shall never grow dim, but they shall be to all eternity
looking on God, that beautiful and beatifical object. O what a soul-ravishing
sight will this be! God must make us able to bear it. We can no more endure a
sight of glory than a sight of wrath. But the saints after this life shall have
their capacities enlarged, and they shall be qualified and made fit to receive
the penetrating beams of glory.
9. It will be
a speedy sight. There are some who deny that the soul is immediately after
death admitted to the sight of God, but I shall make good this assertion that
the saints shall have an immediate transition and passage from death to glory.
As soon as death has closed their eyes they shall see
God. If the soul be not presently after death translated to the beatifical
vision, then what becomes of the soul in that juncture of time till the
resurrection?
Does the soul
go into torment? That cannot be, for the soul of a believer is a member of
Christ's body mystical, and if this soul should go to hell a member of Christ
might be for a time damned. But that is impossible.
Does the soul
sleep in the body as some drowsily imagine? How then shall we make good sense
of that scripture `We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be
present with the Lord? {2Co 5:8} If the soul at death be
absent from the body then it cannot sleep in the body.
Does the soul
die? So the Lucianists held that the soul was mortal
and died with the body, but as Scaliger observes, it is impossible that the
soul being of a spiritual uncompounded nature should be subject to
corruptibility. Such as say the soul dies, I would demand of them wherein the
soul of a man differs at death from the soul of a brute? By all which it
appears that the soul of a believer after death goes immediately to God. `This
day shalt thou be with me in paradise'. {Lu
23:43} That word `with me, shows clearly that the thief on the cross
was translated to heaven. For there Christ was. {Eph 4:10} And the word `this day,
shows that the thief on the cross had an immediate passage from the cross to
paradise, so that the souls of believers have a speedy vision of God after
death. It is but winking, and they shall see God.
See the
misery of an impure sinner. He shall not be admitted to the sight of God. `The
pure in hearts only shall see God. Such as live in sin, whose souls are dyed
black with the filth of hell, they shall never come where God is. They shall
have an affrighting vision of God, but not a beatifical vision. They shall see
the flaming sword and the burning lake, but not the mercy-seat. God in
Scripture is sometimes called a `consuming fire', sometimes the `Father of
lights'. The wicked shall feel the fire but not see the light. Impure souls
shall be covered with shame and darkness as with a mantle,
and shall never see the king's face. They who would not see God in his
ordinances shall not see him in his glory.
Is there such
a blessed privilege after this life? Then let me persuade all who hear me this
day:
1. To get
into Christ. We cannot come to God but by Christ. Moses when he was in the rock
saw God. {Ex 33:22} In this blessed rock,
Christ, we shall see God.
2. To be
purified persons. It is only the pure in heart who shall see God. It is only a
clear eye can behold a bright transparent object. Those only who have their
hearts cleansed from sin can have this blessed sight of God. Sin is such a
cloud as, if it be not removed, will for ever hinder
us from seeing the Sun of Righteousness. Christian, have you upon your heart
`holiness to the Lord'? Then you shall see God. There are many, says Augustine,
could be content to go to heaven, but they are loath to take the way that leads
thither. They would have the glorious vision but neglect the gracious union.
There are
several sorts of eyes which shall never see God the ignorant eye, the unchaste
eye, the scornful eye, the malicious eye, the covetous eye. If you would see
God when you die, you must be purified persons while you live; `We shall see
him as he is; and every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth
himself'. {1Jo 3:2,1Jo
3:3}
Let me turn
myself to the pure in heart.
1. Stand
amazed at this privilege, that you who are worms crept out of the dust should
be admitted to the blessed sight of God to all eternity. It was Moses, prayer,
`I beseech thee, show me thy glory'. {Ex
33:18} The saints shall behold God's glory. The pure in heart shall
have the same blessedness that God himself has. For what is the blessedness of
God but the contemplating his own infinite beauty!
2. Begin your
sight of God here. Let the eye of your faith be still upon God. Moses by faith
'saw him who is invisible'. {Heb 11:27}
Often look upon him with believing eyes, whom you hope to see with glorified
eyes. `Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord'. {Ps
25:15} While others are looking towards the earth as if they would
fetch all their comforts thence, let us look up to heaven. There is the best
prospect. The sight of God by faith would let in much joy to the soul. `Though
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable'. {1Pe 1:8}
3. Let this
be as cordial-water to revive the pure in heart. Be comforted with this, you
shall shortly see God. The godly have many sights here that they would not see.
They see a body of death; they see the sword unsheathed; they see rebellion
wearing the mask of religion; they see the white devil. These sights occasion
sorrow; but there is a blessed sight a-coming, `They shall see God.' And in him
are all sparkling beauties and ravishing joys to be found.
4. Be not
discouraged at sufferings. All the hurt that affliction and death can do is to
give you a sight of God. As one said to his fellow-martyr, `One half hour in
glory will make us forget our pain'. The sun arising, all the dark shadows of
the night fly away. When the pleasant beams of God's countenance shall begin to
shine upon the soul in heaven, then sorrows and sufferings shall be no more.
`The dark shadows of the night, shall fly away. The thoughts of this beatifical
vision should carry a Christian full sail with joy through the waters of
affliction. This made Job so willing to embrace death: `I know that my redeemer
liveth, and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God'. {Job 19:25,Job
19:26}