What the Thunder Said...

The choicest saints have been afraid and amazed at the beauty of an angel; and the stoutest sinners have trembled at the glory of one of those creatures in a low appearance, representing but the back parts of their glory, who yet themselves, in their highest advancement, do cover their faces at the presence of our Beloved, as conscious to themselves of their utter disability
to bear the rays of his glory, Isaiah 6:2; John 12:39-41.

He is “the fellow of the Lord, of hosts,” Zechariah 13:7. And though he once appeared in the form of a servant, yet then “he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” Philippians 2:6. In the glory of this majesty he dwells in light inaccessible. We “cannot by searching find out the Almighty unto perfection: it is as high as heaven; what can we do? deeper than hell; what can we
know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea,” Job 11:7-9.

We may all say one to another of this,

“Surely we are more brutish than any man, and have not the
understanding of a man. We neither learned wisdom, nor have the
knowledge of the holy. Who has ascended up into heaven, or
descended? who has gathered the wind in his fists? who has bound
the waters in a garment? who has established all the ends of the
earth? what is his name, and what is his Son’s name, if ye can tell,”

If any one should ask, now, with them in the Canticles, what is in the Lord Jesus, our beloved, more than in other beloveds, that should make him so desirable, and amiable, and worthy of acceptation? what is he more than others? I ask, What is a king more than a beggar? Much every way. Alas! this is nothing; they were born alike, must die alike, and after that is the
judgement. What is an angel more than a worm? A worm is a creature, and an angel is no more; he has made the one to creep in the earth, — made also the other to dwell in heaven.

There is still a proportion between these, they agree in something; but what are all the nothings of the world to the God infinitely blessed for evermore? Shall the dust of the balance, or the drop of the bucket be laid in the scale against him? This is he of whom the sinners in Zion are afraid, and cry, “Who amongst us shall dwell with thedevouring fire, who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

The Works of John Owen III.2.iii.76-77