A glimpse of God, or, A treatise proving that there is a God discovering the grounds of atheism, with arguments of divers sorts against atheists : shewing also, the unity of the Godhead, and the trinity of the persons ... / by ... Mr. Thomas Byrdall ...

CHAP. III. Reasons to prove God's Invisibility.

THe Reasons to prove this Do∣ctrine, are these.

1. Because if God were visible, then we should see nothing in the world but God, because God being Omnipresent, immense and infinite, and so filling hea∣ven

and earth with his presence, then should we see nothing else but God, his immense Essence would exclude all o∣ther visible objects.

2. Because if God were visible, then God should be corporeal, and not a Spi∣rit, because there is nothing subject to bodily senses, but what is corporeal. This was our Saviours Argument to confirm his staggering Disciples, after his Resurrection, That he was truly the Christ that was crucified, and risen a∣gain, because they might feel and see him, for a spirit had not flesh and bones as he had, Luk. 24. as if he had said, Were I a spirit, you could not feel me, because spirits are not subject to sensi∣ble qualities. Now God being a spirit, and ••ot corporeal, we cannot see him with these eyes.

3. We know there are many crea∣tures that are invisible, therefore much more must God the Creatour of them be invisible. The wind, whose blustering gusts we feel, whose sound we hear, yet we cannot see, nor do we know whence it

cometh, nor whither it goeth, as our Sa∣viour tells us, John 3. 8. The Air is in∣visible; the soul of man is invisible, we cannot see the essence of it, while the soul is in the body, we see it not, when the soul at death departs from the bo∣dy, we see it not: The Angels and De∣vils are invisible, the Angels that pro∣tect and preserve us, the Devils that tempt us are invisible, these we see not, therefore God is invisible; therefore if an Heathen should upbraid us, you wor∣ship a God whom you see not, where is your God? shew him to us, that we may see him. We may answer him, Therefore we worship the true God, for the true God is invisible; a God that is visible, is not the true God; those visible stocks and stones which ye worship, are not gods: They cannot do evil, nei∣ther is it in them also to do good; but the invisible God he is the true God, the living God, and an everlasting King, Jer. 10. 10.

Here ••t may be demanded, whether God be visible in Heaven?

1. We shall in Heaven behold Christ in his Humanity, God man with these bodily eyes, as Job speaks, I know that my Redeemer liveth; and though af∣ter my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for my self, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be con∣sumed within me, Job 19. 25, 26, 27. Be∣hold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, R••v. 1. 7.

2. We shall see God, that is, we shall see his glory with the eye of the body to our intimate satisfaction, though we shall not see the Divine Essence. Philip makes this request to Christ, Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us, John 14. 8. The Saints in Heaven shall see so much of God, as shall satisfie them.

3. With the eye of the mind we shall see God more clearly; our intel∣lectual sight of God shall be much clearer than now it is, our understand∣ing and mental sight of him shall be in∣finitely beyond what now we are able to conceive of him.

4. In heaven we cannot see God com∣prehensively, as much as he is to be known; thus no man hath seen him, nor can see him, 1 Tim. 6. 16. Men and Angels shall never be able fully to comprehend him.

Seeing God is invisible, is it lawful for us to frame conceits of God, or to frame an image of God in our minds, to help us in our devotion?

1. It is unlawful, because against the second Commandment; which forbids not onely all corporeal, but also mental representations of God.

2. It is impossible to make an image of God, because we never saw him: No man hath seen God at any time, Joh. 1. 18. Christ tells the Jews (speaking of his Father) Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, Joh. 5. 37. Moses tells the Israelites (a peo∣ple very prone to Idolatry) The Lord spake to you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, or vision, onely ye heard a voice. Deut. 4. 12.

3. God is a Spirit, and no man is able to make an image or representati∣on of a spirit: all such mental conceits of God, are idolatrous.

How then may we conceive of God in Prayer?

We are so to conceive of him, as he hath revealed himself in his Word; that h•• is a Spirit, most wise, most just, most holy, most powerful, &c.

Notes

• Reas. 1.
• Reas. 2.
• Reas. 3.
• Quest. 1.
• Sol. 1.
• Quest. 2.
• Sol. 1.
• Quest. 3.
• Sol.