(5.) Fifthly, As the Lord is a most absolute, needful, and necessary portion, so the Lord is a pure and unmiaxd portion. God is an un- mixed good, he hath nothing in him but goodness; he is an ocean of sweetness, without one drop of bitterness ; he is a perfect beauty, with- out the least spot or shadow of deformity, Deut. xxxii. 4, Hab. i. 13. All other portions are a bitter sweet ; but God is a rose without prickles ; he is a good, in which there is not the least evil : 1 John i. 5, * God is light, and in him is no darkness at all' There are no mixtures in God. God is a most clear, bright, shining light, yea, he is all light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is all light and all love, all sweetness and all goodness, all kindness and all graciousness, and there is no un- comeliness, no unloveliness, no bitterness, nor no darkness at all in God. The moon when it shines brightest hath her dark spots and specks ; but God is a light that shines most gloriously without the least spot or ^ See Wisdom v. 1-8. All these verses are worth their weight in gold.
Lam. III. 21'.] an ark for all god's noahs. 19
speck ; God is a most pure, clear, splendid light. It is very observable, that the apostle, to illustrate the perfect purity of God, adds a negative to his affirmative, * in him is no darkness at all;' that is, God is so pure, that not the least spot, the smallest speck of vanity or folly, can cleave to him. God is a pure, a most pure act, without the least potentiality, defectibility, or mutability, and therefore in the highest sense he ' is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' By this metaphorical descrip- tion of God the apostle would not have us think that the nature of God is changed into the nature of light ; but by this similitude the apostle would represent something of the purity and excellency of God to us. The sun is light, the moon is light, and the stars are light ; but it would be blasphemy for us to imagine that the essence of God is the same with this of the creatures ; but this, sirs ! you must remember, that there are many excellent properties of light, for which God is often in the Scripture resembled to light. As
[1.] First, Light is pure, and so is God : Hab. i. 13, ' Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.' There are four things that God cannot do :
(3.) He cannot deny himself, nor
(4.) He cannot look with a favourable eye upon iniquity. He is a God of that infinite purity, that he cannot look upon iniquity but w^ith an hateful eye, an angry eye, a revengeful eye, and with a vindictive eye.
[2 ] Secondly, All things are conspicuous to the light, and so tliey are to God :^ Heb. iv. 13, ' Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight : but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' The Greek word nr^a-xriKisiLha, is a metaphor, say some, that is taken from the priests under the law, who when they killed the beasts for sacrifice, all things that were within the beasts were laid naked and bare before the priest, that so he might see what was sound and what was corrupted. Others say, the apostle alludes to the anatomising of such creatures, wherein men are very cautious and curious to find out every little vein or muscle, though they lie never so close. Others say, that it is a metaphor taken from those that lie with their faces upwards, that all passengers may see who they are. All agree in this, that all men's insides and outsides are anato- mised, dissected, quartered, and laid naked to the eye of God : Job xxxiv. 21, 22, ' For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.' ' If thou canst not hide thy- self from the sun, which is God's minister of light, how impossible will it be to hide thyself from him whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun,' saith Ambrose. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Without light nothing can he seen; so without the beams of heavenly light no heavenly things can he seen. A man cannot see God, but in that light that comes down from above ; a man cannot see
> Ps. xli. 12 ; 1 Sam. ii. 1, 3 ; Ps. zvi. 8 ; cxix. 168. God is totut oeulut, all eye Athenodonis, an heathen, could say, that God was everywhere, and beheld all that was dorse.. [This Athenodorus was surnamed Cananites — G.]
20 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD's NOAHS. [LaM. III. 24.
Christ without he be first enhghtened by Christ ; a man cannot see heaven, but in that light that comes from heaven, James i. 17, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12, 14-16. Were it not for the sun, it would be perpetual night in the world, notwithstanding all the torches that could be lighted, yea, notwithstanding all the light of the moon and stars ; so it would be perpetual night with poor souls, notwithstanding all the torchlight of natural parts, and creature comforts, and notwithstanding all the star- light of civil honesty and common gifts, and notwithstanding all the moonlight of temporary faith and formal profession, did not the Sun of righteousness arise and shine upon them. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Tltere is nothing more vleaeant than the light : Eccles. xi. 7, 'Truly the light is sweet, and it is a very pleasant thing to behold the sun.' A philosopher being asked whether it were not a pleasant thing to behold the sun ? answered, that that was a blind man's question, because life without light is but a lifeless life. Now, as there is nothing more pleasant and delightful to the eye than light, so there is nothing more pleasant and delightful to the soul than God. The poor northern nations, in Strabo, that want the light of the sun for some months together, when the term of his return approaches, they climb up into the highest mountains to spy it; and he that spies it first was accounted the best and most beloved of God, they chose him king almost, as the Tyrians did Strato.^ Now the return of the sun is not more pleasant and delightful to those poor northern nations, than God is pleasant and delightful to all gracious souls. But,
[5.] Fifthly, The light shines and scatters its rays over all the world, over east, west, noHh, and south, and so doth the "presence and good- Qtess of God, Ps. exxxix. But,
[6.] Sixthly, The light is a creature of a most resplendent beauty, lustre, and glory; it dazzles the eyes of the beholders ; and so God is a God of that transcendent beauty, majesty, and glory, that the very eyes of the angels are dazzled, as not being able to behold the bnght- ness of his glory : Isa. vi. 2, ' God dwells in that light which no man can approach unto.' But,