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 superfice, and not
suffer it to be transmitted into our hearts to change them. But when it
pleaseth him, who at the first, by a word of power, "commanded light to
shine out of darkness," he can scatter that cloud of ignorance, and draw
away the vail of unbelief, and can by his power and art, so transform the
soul, as to remove its earthly quality, and make it transparent and pure,
and then the light will shine into the heart, and get free access into the
soul. But though this darkness were wholly removed, there is another
darkness, that ariseth not from the want of light, but from the excessive
superabundance of light--_caligo lucis nimiae_,(240) that is, a divine
darkness, a darkness of glory, such an infinite excess and superplus of
light and glory, above all created capacities, that it dazzles and
confounds all mortal or created understandings. We see some shadows of
this, if we look up to the clear sun. We are able to see nothing for too
much light. There is such an infinite disproportion here between the eye
of our mind, and this divine light of glory, that if we curiously pry into
it, it is rather confounding and astonishing, and therefore it fills the
souls of saints with continual silent admiration and adoration.

Sermon XI.

1 John i. 5.--"This then is the message which we have heard of him,
and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all."

True religion consists not only in the knowledge of God, but especially in
conformity