12 Then my works will be acceptable, and I shall judge your people justly, and shall be worthy of the throne of my father. 13 For who can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills? 14 For the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail; 15 for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind. 16 We can hardly guess at what is on earth, and what is at hand we find with labor; but who has traced out what is in the heavens?

And if the apostle had not referred to the face of the inner man, he would not have said, But we, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. In the same sense we understand what the Psalmist sings, Draw near unto Him, and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed. For it is by faith we draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit, not of the body. But as we do not know what degree of perfection the spiritual body shall attain — for here we speak of a matter of which we have no experience, and upon which the authority of Scripture does not definitely pronounce — it is necessary that the words of the Book of Wisdom be illustrated in us: The thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our fore-castings uncertain.