V. There are Degrees of Darkness; Darkness, and thick Darkness, and the Blackness of Darkness, &c. One degree of Darkness may attend the Day; a Day may be dark, but not like the Darkness of the Night; and some Nights are darker than others, as Experience shows. And hence we read of Darkness, and of the Shadow of Death:1 Tho I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no Evil, &c. That is, the greatest Darkness and Evil that can befall a godly Man. The Shadow of a Thing in Scripture (saith Mr. Caryl) denotes the Power of a Thing; and to be under the Shadow of a Thing, is to be under the Power of it: To be under the Shadow of the Almighty, is to be under the Power of the Almighty, &c. To be under the shadow of Death, is to be under the power and reach of it: Tho I may be so near Death, that it may seem to others to be really Death, and that it is impossible to escape Death, yet I will fear no Evil. Some Afflictions threaten Death upon God's People, and upon his Concerns and Interest in the World, and Christians may seem to be under the Influence of Death. The Influences of Death are those Fears and Doubtings, Divisions, Distractions, and Vexations of Heart and Mind, Cries and Confusions, which usually accompany or prepare the Way for Death,2 Let Darkness, and the Shadow of Death stain it, &c. That is, such Darkness as dwells with Death, such Darkness as fills the House of Death, the Grave. Such Darkness as this, Heman complained of: I am accounted with them that go down into the Pit, &c, free among the Dead, 3like the slain in the Grave, wh•m thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off by thy Hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit, in Darkness, in the Deep: Thy Wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves. Selah. He seemed to be under the greatest Darkness, so sorely deserted, that he saw no Light, he sate in the very Shadow of Death,4 viz deadly Darkness, thick Darkness, stifling Darkness, such as is in deep Pits and Mines under the Earth, where Vapours and noisome Damps do many times strike Men with Death, in the most deplorable State and Condition imaginable. 'Tis one thing to have some Afflictions, ⟨p. 384⟩and some Doubtings of Mind and Spirit; and another thing, to be in these great Deeps of Affliction and Desertion.
V. There are Degrees of Darkness; Darkness, and thick Darkness, and the Blackness of Darkness, &c. One degree of Darkness may attend the Day; a Day may be dark, but not like the Darkness of the Night; and some Nights are darker than others, as Experience shews. And hence we read of Darkness, and of the Shadow of Death:1 Tho I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no Evil, &c. That is, the greatest Darkness and Evil that can befall a godly Man. The Shadow of a Thing in Scripture (saith Mr. Caryl) denotes the Power of a Thing; and to be under the Shadow of a Thing, is to be under the Power of it: To be under the Shadow of the Almighty, is to be under the Power of the Almighty, &c. To be under the shadow of Death, is to be under the power and reach of it: Tho I may be so near Death, that it may seem to others to be really Death, and that it is impossible to escape Death, yet I will fear no Evil. Some Afflictions threaten Death upon God's People, and upon his Concerns and Interest in the World, and Christians may seem to be under the Influence of Death. The Influences of Death are those Fears and Doubtings, Divisions, Distractions, and Vexations of Heart and Mind, Cries and Confusions, which usually accompany or prepare the Way for Death,2 Let Darkness, and the Shadow of Death stain it, &c. That is, such Darkness as dwells with Death, such Darkness as fills the House of Death, the Grave. Such Darkness as this, Heman complained of: I am accounted with them that go down into the Pit, &c, free among the Dead, 3like the slain in the Grave, wh•m thou remembrest no more, and they are cut off by thy Hand. Thou hast layed me in the lowest Pit, in Darkness, in the Deep: Thy Wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves. Selah. He seemed to be under the greatest Darkness, so sorely deserted, that he saw no Light, he sate in the very Shadow of Death,4 viz deadly Darkness, thick Darkness, stifling Darkness, such as is in deep Pits and Mines under the Earth, where Vapors and noisom Damps do many times strike Men with Death, in the most deplorable State and Condition imaginable. 'Tis one thing to have some Afflictions, ⟨p. 384⟩and some Doubtings of Mind and Spirit; and another thing, to be in these great Deeps of Affliction and Desertion.
- 1Psal. 23.4.
- 2Job 3.5.
- 3Psal. 88.4, 5, 6, 7.
- 4Caryl.
