For since the very essential substance
of all the celestial joy standeth in the blessed beholding of the
glorious Godhead face to face, no man may presume or look to attain
it in this life. For God hath said so himself: "There shall no man
here living behold me." And therefore we may well know not only
that we are, for the state of this life, kept from the fruition of
the bliss of heaven, but also I think that the very best man living
here upon earth--the best man, I mean, who is no more than
man--cannot attain the right imagination of it; but those who are
very virtuous are yet (in a manner) as far from it as a man born
blind is from the right imagination of colours.
The words that St. Paul rehearseth of the prophet Isaiah,
prophesying of Christ's incarnation, may properly be verified of
the joys of heaven: _"Oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in
cor hominis adscendit, quae preparavit Deus diligentibus se."_ For
surely, for this state of this world, the joys of heaven are by
man's mouth unspeakable, to man's ears not audible, to men's hearts
uncogitable, so far excel they all that ever men have heard of, all
that ever men can speak of, and all that men can by natural
possibility think on.
And yet, whereas such be the joys of heaven that are prepared for
every saved soul, our Lord saith yet, by the mouth of St.
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