ings to the happy inhabitants on high. Yet when we consider that the saints and angels, and the whole happy creation, are gathered together in him as their head, it is certain they shall all be accounted in some sense his members;' and it is highly proba. ble he, as their head, shall be for ever active in communicating and diffusing the unknown blessings of that world, amongst all the inhabitants of it who are gathered and united in him.

I come in the last place, to make a few remarks upon the foregoing discourse, and in order to render them more effectual for our spiritual advantage, I shall consider the words of my text, there shall be no night there,' in their metaphorical or spiritual meaning, as well as in their literal sense. There is no night of ignorance 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 1st 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 Greek word ávaxɛprasow, used in Eph. i. 10. favours this meaning, and perhaps Col i, 20. includes the same thing.

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 has 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. Bles. sed 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 bell 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 "utter 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 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.

2. Remark.

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 has visited us from on high' has spirits, and refined and moulded them into the divine image; till we who are by nature all darkness are made light in the Lord.'

day-spring that entered into our

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: It is 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.

3. Remark. 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 in 1 Epist. 5th chapter and the 5th verse. '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