586 Chap{.Yo. 41taxpofttionupon the BeokofJ QB. Verf,22 language ofjob (Mat. 6. 23.) If therefore the light that is in thee 'be darkneJ.'r,howgreat is that darknefs,he had laid before,The light !'ofthe body is theeye, and ifthe eye beJingle,the wholebody is light, that is, if a man have right aims and pure ends, thefe will keep shim right in all his courfè,but ifhis eye bedark,his ends bafe,how bale will his af}ions be, how great his darknefs ? we may argue thus to the point in hand,if the light ofthe grave bedarknefs,hoe, great is that darknefs?The Prophetflmos fees forth great changes inStates and Kingdoms by prodigious changes in the air, Lo, he makes the morning darknefs,Ch.q..i 5.Again,He turneth the pedant ofdeath into the morning,andmaketh theday darkwith night,Chap.. 5.8. When either civil or morali good is turned into evil,we are pail all hope of good ; ifonce our light be dark, we muff expert no- thing but darknefs. The bell works ofhypocrites will be found wickednefs,how wicked then will theybe in their worft? if their holinefs beunclean,how unclean is their unholinefs? all their mo- rall light is as darknefs,and all their civ,1 light (hall be turned into darknefs. Same (efpecially Popifh) Interpreters understand this defcri- tion,not of the grave, but ofhell. The fame word in theHebrew ferves both hell and the grave. Dath looks like hell, and bears much ofits imagc.What is there in hcll,but the agonies and fweat of death, the pangs and palenefs ofdeath ? the chains andbn,.ds ofdeath? the (late ofthe damned in hcll,isan eternal aft of dying. And all that Job fpeaks ofthe grave, is fulfilled there to the ut- moft.Th.ere is darknefs, like darknefs it felf,called therefore utter darknefs ; there is the fhadowof death without anyorder, there the light isas darknefs. But though the text be true of Hell, yet yob had nothing todo or fufferbeyoud the grave, and I (hall car- ry his difcourfe nofurther,keeping within thofe confìnes:We may learn, That death in itfélf is noway defireable. R°firi theoto- x Is thereany beauty in darknefs, in thick darknefs, where there giza:uer ad in- is noorder, in darknefs,where the very light is dárknefs ? One of ánrJed J b the greateft plaguesupon Egypt,was three dayes darknefs ; what ad fepulcbrurn then is there in death (naturally contidered) but a plague, fee- relpexit, ing it is perpetual darknefs Mere.. Ifdeath be fuch in it fell, and fuch to thofe whodie in fin,how fhould our hearts be raí.fed up in thankfulnefs to Chrift,who hath P ut o t her terms upon death and the graveby dying for our fins 6aift hathmade the grave look 1ááe a heaven to his. Chritt hath abuli-
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