of

tual meaning, as well as in their literal sense. There is no night fignorance or error in the mind, no night of guilt or of sorrow in the soul: But the blessed above shall dwell surrounded with the light of divine knowledge, they shall walk in the light of holiness, and they shall be for ever filled with the light of consolation and joy, as I have explained it at the beginning of this discourse.

The first Remark then is this: "When heaven, earth and hell are compared together with relation to light and darkness, or night and day," we then see them in their proper distinctions and aspects. Every thing is set in its most distinguishing situation and appearance, when it is compared with things which are most opposite. The earth, on which we dwell, during this state of trial, has neither all day nor all night belonging to it, but sometimes light appears, and again darkness, whether in a natural or a spiritual sense.

Though there be long seasons of darkness in the winter, and darkness in the summer also, in its constant returns, divides one day from another, yet the God of nature hath given us a larger portion of light than there is of darkness throughout the whole globe of the earth: And this benefit we receive by the remaining beams of the sun after its setting, and by the assistance of the moon and the stars of heaven. Blessed be God for the moon and stars, as well as for the sun-beams and the brightness of noon. Blessed be God for all the lights of nature, but we still bless him more for the light of the gospel, and for any rays from heaven, any beams of the Sun of righteousness, which diffuse, in lower measures, knowledge and holiness and comfort, among the inhabitants of this our world. God is here manifesting his love and grace in such proportions as he thinks proper. Some beams of the heavenly world break out upon us here in this dark region. God the spring of all our light, and the Lamb of God by his spirit communicates sufficient light to us, to guide us on in our way to that heavenly country.

In hell there is all night and darkness, thick darkness in every sense, for the God of glory is absent there, as to any manifestations of his face and favour. And therefore, it is often called outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. There is no holiness, there is no comfort, there are no benefits of the creation, no blessings of grace; all are forfeited and gone for ever. It is everlasting night and blackness of darkness in that world: Horror of soul without a beam of refreshment from the face of God, or the Lamb for ever. The devils are now reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day; Jude verse 6. But then their confinement shall be closer, and their darkness, guilt

and sorrow shall be more overwhelming. Is it lawful for me in this place to mention the description which Milton, our English poet, gives of their wretched habitation ?

"A dungeon horrible on all sides round

As one great furnace flam'd; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible

Serv'd only to discover sights of woe;

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell; hope never comes,
That comes to all: But torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd.
Such place eternal justice had prepar'd
For rebel-angels? here their pris'n ordain'd
In utter darkness, and their portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of heaven,
As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.
To this the Poet adds,

O how unlike the place from whence they fell!"

How unlike to that heaven, which I have been describing, in which there is no night; and all the evils of darkness, in every sense, are for ever secluded from that happy region, where knowledge, holiness and joy are all inseparable and immortal.

II." What light of every kind we are made partakers of here on earth, let us use it with holy thankfulness, with zeal and religious improvement." Hereby we may be assisted and animated to travel on through the mingled stages and scenes of light and darkness in this world, till we arrive at the inheritance of the saints in perfect light. It is a glorious blessing to this dark world, that the light of christianity is added to the light of Judaism and the light of nature; and that the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ, are set before us, in this nation, in their distinct views, on purpose to make our way to happiness more evident and easy. May the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb be sung in our land! But let us never rest satisfied till the light that is let into our minds become a spring of divine life within us, a life of knowledge, holiness and comfort. Let us not be found amongst the number of those who when light is come into the world, love darkness rather than light, lest we fall under their condemnation; John iii. 19. Let us never rest till we see the evidences of the children of God wrought in us with power; till the day spring that has visited us from on high has entered into our spirits, and refined and moulded them into the divine image; till we who are by nature all darkness are made light in the Lord.

O what a blessed change does the converting grace of Christ make in the soul of a son or daughter of Adam? It is like the beauty and pleasure which the rising morning diffuses over the face of the earth, after a night of storm and darkness: Is it so

much of heaven let into all the chambers of the soul: It is then only that we begin to know ourselves aright, and know God in his most awful and most lovely manifestations: It is in this light, we see the hateful evil of every sin, the beauty of holiness, the worth of the gospel of Christ, and of his salvation. It is a light that carries divine heat and life with it; it renews all the powers of the spirit, and introduces holiness, hope and joy, in the room of folly and guilt, sin, darkness and sorrow.

III. If God has wrought this sacred and divine change in our souls, if we are made the children of light, or if we profess to have felt this change, and hope for an interest in this bright inheritance of the saints, let us put away all the works of darkness, with hatred and detestation. Let us walk in the light of truth and holiness; Eph. v. 8. Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light. And the apostle repeats his exhortation to the Thessalonians. Ye are all children of the light and of the day, and not the sons of night or darkness; therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober;-putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 Thess. v. 59.

To animate every christian to this holy care and watchfulness, let us think what a terrible disappointment it will be, after we have made a bright profession of christianity in our lives, to lie down in death, in a state of sin and guilt, and to awake in the world of spirits, in the midst of the groans and agonies of hell, surrounded and covered with everlasting darkness. Let our public profession be as illustrious and bright as it will, yet if we indulge works of darkness in secret, night and darkness will be our eternal portion, with the anguish of conscience, and the terrors of the Almighty, without one glimpse of hope or relief. It is only those who walk in the light of holiness here, who can be fit to dwell in the presence of a God of holiness hereafter. Light is sown only for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart; Ps. xcvii. 11. and it shall break out, one day, from amongst the clouds, a glorious harvest; but only the sons and the daughters of light shall taste of the blessed fruits of it.

Think again with yourselves when you are tempted to sin and folly, what if I should be cut off, on a sudden, practising the works of darkness, and my soul be summoned into the eternal world, covered with guilt and defilement? Shall I then be fit for the world of light? Will the God of light ever receive me to his dwelling? Do I not hereby render myself unfit company for the angels of light? And what if I should be sent down, to dwell among the spirits of darkness, since I have imitated their sinful manners and obeyed their cursed influences? O may such

thoughts as these dwell upon our spirits with an awful solemnity, and be a perpetual guard against defiling our garments with any iniquity, lest our Lord should come and find us thus polluted. Let us walk onwards in the paths of light which are discovered to us in the word of God, and which are illustrated by his holy ordinances, to guide us through the clouds and shades, which attend us in this wilderness, till our Lord Jesus shall come, with all his surrounding glories, and take us to the full possession of the inheritance in light.

IV. Under our darkest nights, our most inactive and heavy hours, our most uncomfortable seasons here on earth, let us remember we are travelling to a world of light and joy." If we happen to lie awake, in midnight darkness, and count the tedious hours one after another in a mournful succession, under any of the maladies of nature, or the sorrows of this life, let us comfort ourselves, that we are not shut up in eternal night and darkness without hope, but we are still making our way towards that country, where there is no night, where there is neither sin nor pain, malady nor sorrow.

What if the blessed God is pleased to try us by the withholding of light from our eyes for a season? What if we are called to seek our duty in dark providences, or are perplexed in deep and difficult controversies, wherein we cannot find the light of truth? What if we sit in darkness and mourning, and see no light, and the beams of divine consolation are cut off, let us still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay ourselves upon our God, especially as he manifests himself in the Lamb that was slain, the blessed medium of his mercy." Is. 1. 10. Let us learn to say with the prophet Micah, in the spirit of faith; Micah vii. 8, 9. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me;-he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness.

"Blessed be God, that the night of ignorance, grief or affliction which attends us in this world, is not everlasting night. Heaven and glory are at hand; wait and watch for the morning star, for Jesus, and the resurrection. Roll on apace in your appointed course, ye suns and moons, and all ye twinkling enlighteners of the sky, carry on the changing seasons of light and darkness in this lower world with your utmost speed, till you have finished all my appointed months of continuance here. The light of faith shews me the dawning of that glorious day, which shall finish all my nights and darknesses for ever. Make haste, O delightful morning, and delay not my hopes. Let me hasten, let me arrive at that blessed inheritance, those mansions of paradise, where night is never known, but one eternal day shall make our knowledge, our holiness, and our joy eternal." Amen.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE OCTAVO EDITION."

IN the first volume of these discourses, I made an introduction to them, by

endeavouring to prove, that "at the departure of the soul from the body by death, the rewards or punishments, that is, the joys or the sorrows of the other world are appointed to commence: And I hope I have there given, from the evidence of scripture such arguments to support this doctrine, as that the faith of christians may not be staggered and confounded by different opinions, or made to wait for these events, through all the many years that may arise between death and the resurrection.

I know nothing besides this that is made a matter of controversy in that volume and I hope those sermons and these that follow by the blessing of God, will be made happily useful to christians, to awaken and warn them against the danger of being seized by death in a state unprepared for the presince of God, and the happiness of heaven, and to raise the comforts and joys of many pious souls in the lively expectation of future blessedness.

The last discourses of this second volume, especially the eternity of the punishments of hell, have been in latter and former years made a matter of dispute; and were I to pursue my enquiries into this doctrine, only by the aids of the light of nature and reason, I fear my natural tenderness might warp me aside from the rules and the demands of strict justice, and the wise and holy government of the great God. But as I confine myself almost entirely to the revelation of scripture in all my searches into things of revealed religion and christianity, I am constrained to forget or to lay aside that softness and tenderness of animal nature which might lead me astray, and to follow the unerring dictates of the word of God. The scripture frequently, and in the plainest and strongest manner asserts the everlasting punishment of sioners in hell; and that by all the methods of expression which are used in scripture to signify an everlasting continuance.

God's utter hatred and aversion to sin, in this perpetual punishment of it, are manifested many ways: 1. By the just and severe threatening of the wise and righteous Governor of the world, which are scattered up and down in his word. 2. By the veracity of God in his intimations or narratives of past events, as Jude verse 7. "Sodom and Gomorrah suffering the vengeance of

eternal fire." 2. By his express predictions; Mat. xxv. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment. 2 Thess. i. 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction; and I might add, 4. By the veracity and truth of all his holy prophets and apostles, and his Son Jesus Christ, at the head of them, whom he has sent to acquaint mankind with the rules of their duty, and the certain judgment of God in a holy correspondence therewith, and that in such words as seem to admit of no way of escape, or of hope for the condemned criminals.

I must confess here, if it were possible for the great and blessed God any other way to vindicate his own eternal and unchangeable hatred of sin, the inflexible justice of his government, the wisdom of his severe threatenings, and the veracity of his predictions; if it were also possible for him, without this