Chap. 38. anExpofition upon the Book,o fJ o s. Verf. c a. s 2 t Secondly , That light is amoll ufeful and beneficial 'creature) who candeny ? feeing without light the whole Creation were a nothing to us. What hadthe world been tous , if God had trot made light , and.fet up lights in it ? The eyeof the body (whit h is the light of the body-, Mirth. 6. 22.) were of no we to us without outward light. "fill the Sun (which is the e..,e of the great world ) fhines, the eye (which is the Sun of the little world) is noadvantage to us. There mull be light in the aire as Well aslight in the eye, elfe the moll beautiful objeas have no appearing beauty ; and therefore the Lord made light the full cay , that by it, the beauty-of the whole Creation might be Peen. Lightdicovers it fell and all other things Light ì11u fitates all the works of God , and lets them in our fight. And as all that God bath done, would benothing to us without light, fa we our felves could do nothing without light. We cannot wont at all , or very hardly, or very badly , without light ; hence that of David (Pfal. 104. 22, 23.) The Sun arifeth; man goetb forth to his work,a.nd to his labour, until the evening. (John 9. 4.) The night cometh, wherein no man can work; Night ofany fort, is not for work, becaufe'eis dark ,. and therefore theywho work in the night, get artificial light to fupply the Want of natural. When the plague of darknefs was upon the Egyptians , they fate nil', and no man moved from the placewhere he was , till chat plague was removed (Exod. r o, 22,23) And as we cannot do the work of our Civil Callings without lighr, either natural or arti1- ciad ; fo we cannot do the work of our Chrillian Calling , with- out Cpiriruallight. WhenChriFt the Sun of righteoufnefs arifeth withheálinginhis wings, then we goforth (to our fptrtrual labour as Chrillians) and grow up as the calves of the hall (Mal. 4. z.) How long foever we live in this world, we never go forth to that labour, till theSun ofrighteoufnefs, the Lord JefusChrifl , ari- feth upon us. It was Paid co thofe in the parable; that were hired at the eleventh hour (Match. rr. 6.) why /land ye all the day idle. They of the eleventhhour were perlons, poffibly, very bu- fi'e and laborious as to their Civil Callings in the world , but had flood idle all theday as to any Cpiritual work , as to any work of grace they bad not doneGod,nor their poor fouls, one flroke of work all that while , until they were called, and the light of grace (hinedupon them. Jefus Chrìfl is the light which lightened ï the
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