John i. 14. And the divine Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." where John had in his mind what he had identified in the mount of transfiguration. Grace and truth are not outward but spiritual, glories.It is a magnificent view. God accurately represents a spiritual being with understanding. The soul capable of apprehending familiar spiritual objects carefully looking through the bifocals of the moral senses. This is a way of accurate perception. We are accustomed to depend on senses. Our intellectual powers are neglected. We are prepared to conceive things with the bodily eyes, the exemplary way of apprehending. But it is not so; the eye of the soul is vastly skilled; yet not every lively apprehension of God may be properly called seeing.First, an apprehension of God merely by hearsay. If we apprehend God, educated in belief, there is a being. What sort of being he is, what he has done, gives credit to hear. Having no apprehension of God cannot be said to identify God in the text. This is not the beatific sight of God.
We express God merely by speculative reasoning. Come to apprehension of being almighty, all-wise, and good, by reincarnation, is not what the Scripture calls identifying God. It is immediate understanding called sight; such a lively apprehension as repeatedly develop the soul,