d
to all this, add that singular property of it, that it is not capable of
infection, it is of such absolute purity, that it can communicate itself
to the dunghill, as well as to the garden, without receiving any mixture
from it. In all the impurities it meets withal, it remains unmixed and
untainted, and preserves its own nature entire. Now you may perceive, that
there is nothing visible that is fitter to resemble the invisible God,
than this glorious, beautiful, pure, and universally communicable
creature, light.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

"Then add unto this, to make up the resemblance fuller, the bounty and
benignity of his influence upon the world, the flowings forth of his
infinite goodness, that enrich the whole earth. Look, as the sun is the
greatest and most universal benefactor,--his influence and heat is the very
renovation of the world. It makes all new, and green, and flourishing; it
puts a youth upon the world, and so is the very spring and fountain of
life to all sublunary things. How much is that true of the true light, of
the substantial, of whom this sun is but a shadow!{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

"And to complete the resemblance more, there may be something of the
infallibility and incomprehensibility of the divine majesty here
represented. For though nothing be clearer than the light, yet there is
nothing in its own nature darker than light, that which is so manifest to
the eyes, how obscure is it to the understanding. Many debates and
inquiries have been about it, but yet it is not known what that is by
which we know all things. Certainly such is the divine light. It is
inconceivable and inexpressible, therefore is he said to dwell in light
inaccessible and full of glory, 1 Tim. vi. 16. There is a twofold darkness
that hinders us to see God, a darkness of ignorance in us, and a darkness
of inaccessible light in him. The one is a vail upon our hearts, which
blinds and darkens the souls of men, that they do not see that which is
manifest of God even in his works. O that cloud of unbelief that is spread
over our souls, which hinders the glorious rays of that divine light to
shine into them. This darkness Satan contributes much to, who is the
prince of darkness, 2 Cor. iv. 4. This makes the most part of souls like
dungeons within, when the glorious light of the gospel surrounds them
without. This earthliness and carnality of our hearts makes them like the
earth, receive only the light in the upper and outward