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IISCOUR.SE
VII.
NO
NIGHT
IN
HEAVEN.
itsv.
xxi.
2.5.
For
there
shall be
no
night there.
LENGTH
of
night, and
over-
spreading darkness
in
the winter
-
season,
carries
so
many
inconveniences
with
it,
that it
is
generally esteemed
a
most
uncomfortable
part of
our
time
Though
night
'and
day necessarily
succeed
each
other
all
the
year,
by
the
wise
appointment
of
God
in
the course
of
nature,
by
means
of
the revolu-
tion
of
the
heavenly
bodies,
or
rather of
this
earthly
globe,
yet the
night- season
is
neither
so
delightful,
nor
so
useful
a
part of
life,
as
the
duration of
day
-
light.
It
is
the
voice
of
all
nature,
as
well
as the word
of
Solo
-.
mon,
"
Light
is
sweet,
and
a
pleasant
thing
to enjoy
the
sun
-
beams," Eccles.
xi.
7.
Light
gives
a;
glory and
beauty
to
every
thing
that
is
visible,
and
shews
the
face
of
na
ture
in its most
agreeable
colours; but
night, as
it
covers
all the
visible
world
with one
dark
and
undistinguishing
veil,
is
less
pleasing
to all
the animal
parts
of
the
crea-
tion. Therefore
as hell,
and
the place
of
punishment,
is
called
utter
darkness
in
scripture,
so
heaven
is
repre-
sented
as a
mansion
of
glory, as
"
the
inheritance
of
the saints
in
light,"
GO.
i.
1.
And this light
is
constant,
i
ithout interruption, and
everlasting, or without end,
So my
text
expresses
it,
there
shall
be no
night
there."
Let
it
be observed,
that,
in the language
of
holy
writers, light
is
often ascribed to intellectual
beings,
and
is
used as a
metaphor
to
imply knowledge and holiness
and
joy. Knowledge,
as
the
beauty
and excellency
of
the
mind, holiness
as
the best regulation
of
the
will,
and
joy
as
the harmony
of our
best affections
in
the
posses-
sion
Of
what
we
love:
And,
in
opposition
to these,
igno-
rance, iniquity,
and
sorrow,
are represented
by
the
me-
taphor of
darkness.
Then
we
are
in
darkness,
in
a
spi-
ritual
sense, when
the
understanding
is
beclouded
or
led
into mistake,
or
when
the
will is
perverted
or
turned
away
from
God and
holiness, or when the most uncom-
1