try where he does not fhine, is the land of darkness and the fhadow of death; and that heart which is not illuminated with the light of the knowledge of his glory, is the gloomy dungeon of infernal fpirits; but wherever he thines, there is intellectual day, the bright meridian of glory and bleffednefs. His gofpel alfo is frequently reprefented as a great light; and no metaphor was ever ufed with more emphasis and propriety. It is the medium through which we difcover the glory of the Deity, the beauties of holiness, the evil of fin, and the reality and infinite importance of eternal, invifible things. This is the light that reveals the fecrets of the heart, and difcovers ourselves to ourfelves. It is this that gives us a juft and full view of our duty to God and man, which is but imperfectly or falfly represented in every other fyftem of religion and morality in the world. It is this that discovers and afcertains a method in which rebels may be reconciled to their offended Sovereign, and exhibits a Saviour in full view to perifhing finners. Hail! facred heaven-born light! wel come to our eyes, thou brightest and faireft effulgence of the divine perfections! May this day-fpring from on high, vifit all the regions of this benighted world, and overwhelm it as with a deluge of celeftial light! Bleffed be God, its vital rays have reached to us in thefe ends of the earth: and if any of us remain ignorant of the important difcoveries it makes, it is because we love darkness rather than light! Which leads me to inquire, II. What is that darkness that is oppofed to this heavenly light? Darkness is a word of gloomy import; and there is hardly any thing difmal or deftructive, but what is expreffed by it in facred language. But the precife fenfe of the word in my text, is, a ftate of ignorance, and the abfence of the means of conviction. Men love darkness rather than light; that is, they choose to be ignorant, rather than well-informed: ignorant ignorant particularly of fuch things as will give them uneafiness to know; as their fin, and the danger to which it exposes them. They are wilfully ignorant : and hence they hate the means that would alarm them. with the mortifying difcovery. They would rather be flattered than told the honeft truth, and know their own character and condition; and hence they fhut their eyes against the light of the gofpel, that would flash the painful conviction upon them. Tho' the light of the gofpel fhines round you, yet are not fome of you involved in this darkness? This you may know by the next inquiry. III. What are the evidences of mens loving darknefs rather than light? The general evidence, which comprehends all the reft, is their avoiding the means of conviction, and ufing all the artifices in their power to render them ineffectual. you as It is not impoffible to characterize fuch of love darkness rather than light, though you may be fo much upon your guard against the difcovery, as not to perceive your own character. Though you may have a turn for fpeculation, and perhaps delight in every other branch of knowledge, yet the knowledge of yourfelves, the knowledge of difagreeable duties, the discovery of your fin and danger, of your miferable condition as under the condemnation of the divine law, this kind of selfknowledge you carefully fhun; and, when it irrefiftibly flashes upon you, you endeavour to shut up all the avenues of your mind, through which it might break upon you, and you avoid those means of conviction, from which it proceeds. You fet yourselves upon an attempt very prepofterous and abfurd in a rational being, and that is, Not to think. When the ill-boding furmife rises within," All is not well: I am not prepared for the eternal world: if I fhould die in this condition I am undone for ever:" I fay, when confcience thus whif pers pers your doom, it may make you fad and penfive for a minute or two, but you foon forget it: you defignedly labour to caft it out of your thoughts, and to recover your former negligent ferenity. The light of conviction is a painful glare to a guilty eye; and you wrap up yourselves in darkness, left it should break in upon you. When your thoughts are like to fix upon this ungrateful fubject, do you not labour to divert them into another channel? You immerse yourselves in bu finefs, you mingle in company, you indulge and cherish a thoughtless levity of mind, you break out of retirement into the wide world, that theatre of folly, trifling, and diffipation; and all this to scatter the gloom of conviction that hangs over your ill-boding minds, and filence the clamours of an exafperated confcience! You laugh, or talk, or work, or study away thefe fits of seriousness! You endeavour to prejudice yourselves against them by giving them ill names; as Melancholy, Spleen, and I know not what! whereas they are indeed the honeft ftruggles of an oppreffed confcience to obtain a fair hearing, and give you faithful warning of approaching ruin: they are the benevolent efforts of the Spirit of grace to fave a loft foul. And O! it would be happy for you if you had yielded to them, and cherished the ferious hour! For the fame reafon alfo, you love a foft reprefentation of christianity, as an eafy, indolent, inactive thing; requiring no vigorous exertion, and attended with no dubious conflict, but encouraging your hopes of heaven in a course of floth, careleffnefs, and indulgence. Those are the favourite fermons and favourite books which flatter you with fmooth things, putting the moft favourable construction upon your wickedness, and representing the way to heaven as fmooth and eafy. Or if you have an unaccountable fondness for faithful and alarming preaching, as it must be owned fome VOL. III. S s felf self-flatterers have, it is not with a view to apply it to yourselves, but to others. If you love the light, it is not that you may fee yourselves, but other objects and, whenever it forces upon you a glance of yourselves, you immediately turn from it, and hate it. Hatred of the light, perhaps, is the reason why fo many among us are fo impatient of public worship; fo fond of their own homes on the facred hours confecrated to divine fervice; and fo reluctant, so late, or fo inconftant in their attendance. It is darkness perhaps, at home; but the houfe of God is filled with light, which they do not love. This alfo is one reason why the converfation of zealous communicative chriftians, who are not ashamed to talk of what lies nearest their hearts, I mean their Religion, their Saviour, and their God, and to exprefs an abhorrence of what they fo fincerely hate, I mean the vices of mankind, and every appearance of evil; I fay, this is one reason why their converfation is fuch a heavy burden, fuch a painful restraint to many. Such men reflect the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the beauties of holinefs all around them they carry light with them whitherfoever they go, and ftrike conviction to the guilty. The ftrictness, the warm devotion and spirituality of their lives pass a sentence of condemnation upon finners; a fentence which they cannot but feel, and which therefore renders them uneafy. Hence it is that such lively and circumfpect chriftians are not at all popular in the world; but the favourites of the world are your pliable, temporizing, complaifant chriftians, that never carry their religion with them into polite company, but conform themfelves to the tafte of those they converfe with. These give no man's confcience uneafinefs, they reflect no heavenly light, but thicken the darkness of every company in which they appear; therefore they are acceptable to the lovers of darkness. Another Another expedient that has been often used, and which some of you perhaps have attempted, to avoid the light, is, to endeavour to work up yourselves to a difbelief of the christian revelation. If you could banish that heavenly light out of the world, or fubstitute darkness in its place, then you might perpe trate the works of darknefs with more confidence and licentiousness. Therefore you eagerly liften to the laughs, the jeers, the railleries and fophifms of loofe wits against it; and you are afraid to give a fair hearing to the many fatisfactory evidences in its favour. Thus you cherish that hideous monfter, Infidelity; your own offspring, not Satan's, though the father of lies; for he believes and trembles. James ii. 19. These artifices and the like, are the effects, and confequently the evidences and indications of mens loving darkness rather than light. And, instead of a larger illuftration, I fhall conclude this head with a plain honeft appeal to my hearers. As in the presence of the heart-fearching God, I folemnly appeal to your confciences, whether you do not deal partially with yourselves, and refuse purfuing thofe hints of your dangerous condition till you make a full discovery? Do not your hearts finiteyou, because you have fuppreffed evidence, when it was against you, and fhut your eyes against conviction? When the glafs of the divine law has been held up before you, and fhewn you your own hideous image, have you not gone away, and foon forgot what manner of men you were? Do you not know in your confciences, that the hopes you entertain of future happiness are not the refult of fevere repeated trial, but, on the other hand, owe their strength and even their being to a fuperficial examination, or none at all, to blind felf-flattery and exceffive felf-love, which tempt you to believe things as you would have them? Is it cenforioufnefs, or is it evidence and faithfulness, that conftrains me to cry out, O! how rare are wellgrounded, well-attefted hopes among us! Hopes that |