Chap; 3 5. an tt pofltiott upon the look o s. Verf. ea. 73 to me than sleep. As it flieweth an excellent frame of fpiric to remember the Commandments of God in the night, which Da-: *id alCo profeffedas his praElife, ( Ppd./ t 9. 5 5. ) Ihave reinem- bred thyName,, 0 Lord, to thenight, and have kept thy Law. The name of God is anymanifeflation of God, either in his word: or works. And again, ( Pfal, t i9. 62. ) At midnight [will rife to givethanks tothee,becaufe ofthy righteous judgements.Some watch in the night togive thanks, ( Pfaff. i 34. 1. ) others give thanks when they wake at any time in the night ; both are aFks of purell love toGod, andproceed frompureaconColationin God . (Cant. 3. i.) Bynight on my bed1fought him. The SpouCe cloth not fay only., by night Ifought him, but by night on my bed, I fpend not the night in fleeping, but in feeking him whom my foul love -h. ( Pfal. i 6. 7. ) My reines inflrutl me in the night feafan ; That is, I have as it were dilcourfes and foliloquies,fec et debates about, and {Irony delires after the things of God , even in the night. Thatfoul is indeed awake to God, which is acquainted with and se- fed to thefe divine efangs in the night, the timeofsleep. Further, Take the wordnight in a metaphorical notion, as night fignifieth a t\roublefome slate ; God may be laid to give fangs in the night, when he comforts us in or at any time of. af- flietion. I need not 'lay to prove that in Scripture the night is putfor affliaion, nor need I prove, that, to give inward joy in a day of outward forrów, is to give longs in the night. The obier- vation rífingfrom this metaphorical undetflandin, of nighr,is which the Scripture and experience are full of. god finds.comfort to his people, or caofeth them torejoyce in the muff of their aß tfions. It is the Apo{Hles defcription of Cod, (2 Cor. 1. ;, 4, ) The god ofall comfort, who comforteth au in all our tribulation. What fweet fongs have filteringSaints found in the darkefl midnight of reir afïüdìion I What inward peace in (outward troubles What foul freedame in bodily reflraint ! One of the Ancients Carmen in re hash put the queflion, and anfwered it what's aprg in thenight ? Ee ell tærrt J 'Ti; joy in time of trouble. Whenever God gives a foul joy in in trihnlatióne. timeof trouble,he gives a Fong in thenight. Paul and Sylas fang Greg; in the night, in both notions of night. If we take night in a pro- per fenfe, they fang in the night, and in an improper fenfe, they L were
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