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the light of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

III. But the way of the wicked is as darkness.

So says the Proverbialist; yet how should that be? Are not the powers of reason and intelligence equally enjoyed by the wicked as by the righteous, and doth not God make his sun to shine both on the just and on the unjust? How then should the way of the wicked be as darkness? And yet it must be so too, since the wise prince, who pronounced it to be such, could not affirm it without conviction.

A state of wickedness is always denominated, by the sacred writers, a state of darkness. That terrible image seemed to be most expressive of the unhappy condition of those, who walked in the blindness of their mind, alienated from the life of God. Death is another image by which their state is described. Thus the wicked are said to be dead in trespasses and sins; and the apostle gives them a solemn summons, as it were from the grave. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.. But what is still more express to the present purpose is the language of Christ him

self: When thine eye is evil, says he, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness! This is as St. Luke relates the passage. St. Matthew has it more emphatically; If the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is THAT darkness.

The propriety of these Scripture images will appear more clearly, if we consider the tendency which vice has to darken the understanding. It is necessary that the power of reason should be in a great degree suspended, before a man can implicitly give himself up to the dominion of wickedness: for though the heart has a natural propensity to vice, it is guarded by a moral sense of right and wrong; and this sense must necessarily be extinguished or suspended, before any man can become indiscriminately wicked.

It is the suspension of this sense, and the perversion of the understanding, which constitutes the moral darkness that is mentioned in the text.

When the heart is devoted to wickedness, and involved in guilt, the understanding is generally perverted by the passions. A man may rest contented without the approbation of others, but he cannot be satisfied without his own; he therefore seeks for arguments,

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however fallacious, to persuade himself that he is in the right, and makes his understanding the dupe of his heart.

But, compared to the shining path of the righteous, the way of the wicked is as darkness in many other respects. For what are his prospects either present or future? What but a melancholy passage through this region of sorrow, terminating at best in an insensible grave! Where are the hopes that should comfort him under the anguish of affliction? Where is the faith that should support him in the moments of anxiety? Where is the conscience that might encourage him in the hour of reflection? Alas! his hope ends with that life, of whose miseries he complains; and, to use the language of the Apostle, instead of holding faith and a good conscience, concerning faith he has made shipwreck.

IV, In this miserable and hopeless situation, this more than Egyptian darkness, no wonder if the wicked know not at what they stumble. While the mind is in a state of perplexing uncertainty, without any determinate principle of faith, or any rule of action, dissatisfaction and confusion must be unavoidable.

It is impossible for any man, however

wicked, wholly to divest himself of the apprehensions of futurity. These will attack him at certain times, unhinge his resolutions, and destroy his confidence. Nay, though he holds himself the avowed enemy of superstition, he will often be more superstitious than those whose faith is the subject of his ridicule; he will often be haunted with groundless fears, and become the slave of childish timidity.

This is agreeable to the character that is given of him in another part of the book of Proverbs, viz. that he fleeth when no one pursues; which has the same sense as the expression in the text, they stumble at they know not what.

Such and so different are the characters and conditions of the wicked and the righteous. The life of the one, directed by the Divine wisdom and goodness, is serene, and cheerful, and comfortable as the light: that of the other, guided by no principle of reason, no laws of that Being who gave it, is gloomy, and perplexing, and uncomfortable as darkness.

The righteous, supported by faith and hope, finds his happiness increase with his piety, and sees the journey of life grow brighter, and more inviting towards its end: while the

wicked, destitute of every hope that might reconcile him to futurity, wanders miserably forward in darkness and uncertainty; perplexed both with fears that are, and with apprehensions that are not vain.

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Behold here, my friends, two different lots! choose which shall be your own. not between two opinions. If the Lord be God, worship him; but if Baal, then worship him. If the ways of wickedness delight you, pursue them; but remember they lead through darkness to death. If the path of the just be your choice, enter into it, and may God prosper you on your way.

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