LECT. due order, we must begin with the crea

II.

tion; which is related in the book of Genefis, is a pattern of the new creation in Christ Jefus; and is fo applied by the apoftle: God who commanded the light to fbine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jefus Chrift*. Till this light fhines in the heart of man, he is in the fame ftate as the unformed world was, when darkness lay upon the face of the deep and when the new creation takes place, he rifes in baptifm, as the new earth did from the waters, by the Spirit of God moving upon

:

them.

The lights of heaven in their order are all applied to give us conceptions of God's power, and shew us the glory of his kingdom. In the 84th Pfalm, the Lord, is faid to be a fun and a shield; a fun to give light to his people, and a field to protect them from the power of darkness. Chrift, in the language of the prophet is the fun of righteousness, who as the natural

year,

fun revives the grafs, and renews the brings on the acceptable year of the Lord, and is the great restorer of all things in the kingdom of grace; fhining with the new light of life and immortality to those who once fat in darkness and in the shadow of death. And the church has warning to receive him under this glorious character: Arife, fhine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee. When he was manifefted to the eyes of men, he called himself the light of the world, and promised to give the fame light to those that follow him. In the absence of Chrift as the perfonal light of the world, his place is fupplied by the light of the fcripture, which is ftill a lamp to our feet and a light unto our paths. The word of prophecy is as a light shining in a dark place; and as we ftudy by the light of a lamp, fo we must give heed to this light, if we would fee things to

come.

LECT.

II.

The moon is ufed as an emblem of the

+ Isaiah lx. 1.

church;

LECT. church; which receives its light from

II.

Chrift as the moon does from the fun : therefore the renovation of the moon fignifies the renovation of the church; as a fign of which, the new moons were appointed to be observed as religious festivals under the law; and the apoftle tells us they were a shadow of things to come; and the fubftance of that fhadow is known from the nature of the cafe, and the relation which the moon bears to the fun.

The angels or ruling minifters in the feven churches of Afia are fignified in the book of Revelation by Seven Stars in the right hand of Chrift: because his ministers hold forth the word of life, and their light fhines before men in this mortal state, as the ftars give light to the world in the night season; of which light christians in general partake, and are therefore called children of light.

This natural image of the light is applied to fo many great purposes, that I

muft

must not dismiss it without making fome LECT. farther use of it.

"

You fee, our God is light; our Redeemer is light; our fcripture is light; our whole religion is light; the minifters of it are light; all christian people are children of the light, and have light within them. If fo, what an obligation is laid upon us, not to walk as if we were in darkness, but to walk uprightly as in the day, fhewing the people of this world, that we have a better rule to direct us than they have. If we who have the light walk as they do who are in darkness, the fame darkness will affuredly come upon us; we shall understand nothing, we shall care for nothing; the light that is within us will be changed into darkness; and then, vanity and confufion will be the confequence, as to those who walk in the dark through a perplexed and dangerous path: and better would it be not to have had the light, than to be answerable for the guilt of having extinguished it and turned it into darkness. This is the

moral

II.

II.

LECT. moral doctrine to be derived from the ufage of light in the facred language.

Here I would also observe, that the figures of the fcripture neceffarily introduce fomething figurative into our worship; of which I could give you several instances: but I fhall confine myself to the matter now before us. The primitive Chriftians fignified their relation to the true light, and expreffed a religious regard to it, by the outward form of worshipping with their faces toward the east; because there the light firft arises out of darkness, and there the day of true knowledge arofe, like the fun, upon fuch as lay buried in ignorance. To this day our churches, especially that part which is appropriated to the most folemn act of christian worship, is placed toward the eaft: our dead are buried with their faces to the east and when we repeat the articles of our faith, we have a custom of turning ourselves to the eaft. The primitive Christians called their baptism their illu-mination; to denote which, a light was put