Wherefore to conclude, that which God hath called and fealed up to be good, let no man prefume to call and count to be evill, 4. 10.15. For a work belongeth to fach, which call that is good evill, and evill things good, and darkneffe light, Efay 5.20. But if we love the light of nature, and praise God for it, Pfalm. 148. 5,6. And if we love the fpirituall light of grace in his word, and glorific and praise God for it, 1 Pet. 2. 9. that hath called us out of darknesse into his marveilous light, then God will at last reward us with his light of glory, and bring us to that inacceffible light, wherein he dwelleth, which is the father of lights, unto which no man can attain unleffe Chrift, the light of the World, bring him, and therefore let us pray, that the father for his fonnes fake, will make a way for us by his fpirit of light, to which three perfons in Amen. unity, be all praise and glory for ever.

Et diftinctionem fecit Deus inter hanc lucem & tenebras.

T

Here was in the fift verfe nothing before God made fome- Gen 14. thing of nothing, after which, at the firft we faw it to be a verse. duordered dark heap, without any good form or ability to receive any better: But after followed the impregnation and indowment which God gave, by which the things firft created had a faculty and power given, to receive this form which now they have. Fourthly, enfued the effence and being of all creatures, they were prepared by the Spirit, and perfected by the word of God: where we confidered, firft, the effence and being of light, and then the nature of it: And lastly, of all the goodneffe of the light, both in regard of the presence of God, who in his counfell thought it to be good, and also after the creation by his approbation, allowed the ule and continuance of it unto us.

Now followeth, the diftinction and dividing, which giveth yet a degree of perfection to the former light,more than it had before ; for at the firft, he gave light fuch a being, which fhould prodire in actum, and not every being, but a fpeciall good being, which is a degree further, of order and diftinction, against disorder and confufion, to be in all refpe&ts laudible, and that not every good being, but that which is more, an ordered, and distinguished, and comely good being, which work of all other is the perfection of Creation, as we shall fee in the reft: for things though they be never so good in them felves, as St. Paul faith, I Cor. 14. 7. of another thing in the like cafe, yet they cannot be discerned of men to be so, neither are they meet for any good use of men, unleffe they have a certain diftin&tion and order.

Therefore order is, as fome fay, very goodneffe of goodneffe it Order. self, for there are many good things, which doe cease from being good to us, yea become hurtfull being without the rank, order and degree, either of their fet and distinct place or time: As fire though it be good in the Chimney, yet it is not good, nay it is very evill in D the

Bonum & ma

Creator & materia corum

erat.

the top of the house. Fire is very good in the Winter to warm us, but in the Summer it is not fo good, but fhunned of men: So the light not being tempered and proportioned orderly, but being any degree too-bright, it hurteth and blindeth our eyes, that we cannot fee, Act. 22. 6, 11. Excellens objectum corrumpit fenfum: So the fire being in any degree too fierce,and too hot in the Chimney (and Winter, that is,not moderated,and ordered in a good degree,it doth us no good. Wherefore we fee, that a set and a diftin&t order must be obferved in good things, both touching the place, time, and degree; And that the contrarie, inordination, deordination, or want of order in these things, which is called Babell hereafter, that is a confufion, maketh things to cease from being good to us, which in their own nature are very good. It was neceffary therefore, that God should proceed to this work of diftinction, as he in wisdome doth: This then is as if Mofes had faid, the light was good; for elfe extingueret, non diftingueret Deus fi non effet bonum, he would not elfe have diftinguished it, but dashed it in peeces and deftroyed it again.

Therefore because it was good he feparated it and fet it apart from darkneffe, by it felf: Which thing doth teach us, that all things created, be they never fo good, they carry in them, as well a mark and figne of the matter whereof they were made, as of the lum in Creatu- Creator who made them, that is, as by fome goodneffe in them, va arguit quid they fhew the excellencie of their maker, in fome part, fo by fome ill and vicious quality in them, they bewray the imperfection and rudencffe of the matter of which they came. As for example, Corn hath his chaff with it, Light hath adjoyned his contrarie,darkneffe, Honey bringeth his unfavory wax, Metals have their droffe, and Liquors and Wines their lees and dreggs, the one fheweth the goodnefs of the maker, the other the rudeneffe, deformity, and emptineffe of the matter. Now then we fee, that untill there be a diftinЯtion and feparation between the lees, grounds or droffe of the Wine or Beer, and untill a tryal be made to refine and put apart and try the droffe from the pure Metal, and fift the chaff and sever it from the Wheat and Corne, we can have no good and fit ufe profitable for us and convenient. Even fo we fay of the Light; for according to the course of this mixt world, light was brought forth in his mixture, that is, in darkneffe, John 1. 5. Therefore as God doth here try and discover, and feparate light from darknesse, so in Math. 3. 12. he is a Fanner and Winnower of the chaff from the Wheat, and by feparation cleanfeth his floare, leaving there only the Children of light.

Ob.

But touching this action let us confider this firft, Wherefore he left any darknesse at all; and why he did not clean cut off all darknesse, confidering that it is oppofite to the light,which is good? Where first ariteth this queWhether dark. ftion to be difcuffed, Whether Darknesse be evill, fecing it is opponefle be evill? fite to light, which is good.

Touching which I have told you before, That darknes is but a defect, absence,and want of the light,and mere privation, and no fub

ftantial

stantial thing of it felf: And therefore it is faid, when God created
darkneffe,we must understand it to be fpoken in this fense and phrase
of fpeech, That when God created no light at the beginning, there-
fore he is faid to create darkneffe, for God caufed it by withholding
light. Wherefore, as emptineffe is nothing but a want and defect
of stuffing and fullneffe; and nakedneffe is nothing but a want of
cloaths and covering; and as filence is nothing but a withholding of
words and speech: So darkneffe, being no fubftance, and nothing
but a mere and bare privation, and that not privatio moralis, but na-
turals, not a want or defect of virtue, which indeed is vitious, but of ne
light, which hath a ufe commodious: Therefore, in that regard, it
cannot be faid to be evill, but in regard of the morality, as we say,
1. as it hath a resemblance, fimilitude and proportion to that which
is moral, as knowledge and ignorance, in that refpect it is blanched
among evill and vitious things.

bra

But it may be obje&ted, That if natural darknesse be not evill, why Ob. then did not God fay before also, that it was good?

I anfwer, That light is an effence,and hath an effential goodneffe in it, but darkneffe being nothing, no effence of it felf, therefore it could have no effential goodneffe to commend it felf; but it hath, as we say in the Schools an ordinate goodneffe ratione fua, for this rule we hold in divinity, that Deus bona & perfecta facit &ordinat: So that things have either Bonum effentiale, as the light, or Bonum ordinatum, as the darkneffe. And God fuffereth many things which have no effential goodneffe in them, because by his ordination difpofing them, he can and doth bring them to our great good use and commodity, As filence hath a great good ufe even in Mufick, and sometime holding a part gives a great grace to the Arte. Ignorance hath this use, that it is a fpurre to prick men forward to the knowledge of liberal Sciences. So darkneffe,in the Art of Painting, hath a great neceffarie ule for fhadows and the darknefs of parts, give it greater grace and beauty: Afflictions have a good ufe by Gods ordination; So hath adverfity, for it is made good for our inftruction and amendment : So this darknesse and absence of the light, hath bonum ordinatum given it, for God in wifdome and mercy difpofeth and ordereth it to be a Cabbin and Chamber in which men can beft fleep and take their reft, Pfal. 104. 20. and in Justice he ordeineth it to a good use and end,namely, to be the Dungeon and place of torment & punishment to the wicked, in the world to come. You fee then why he made not fuch a light which should compaffe and overspread all the world with his bright beams, without admitting any fhadow at all, Fob. 38. 27. And you fee the reason why God fuffered not the light to be mingled confufedly with darkneffe, but diftinguished the one from the other without taking either clean away.

Natu ralis. Mora

Lis.

Now in the second place we will confider firft the things divided 2a part. and distinguished here, and then the divifion and separation it self. Touching the first, we must as, St. Paul fạith, Phil. 1. 10. discern

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between

Diftin&tion.

1

1.

2.

3.

4.

between things different and oppofed, which we call, membra dividentia, and we must not conjoyn and confound them together, for God doth confound fuch, which make a feparation and breach in Gods things, which should not be divided, Math. 23.37. as the Chickens which separated themselves from the Hens call, and alio he confoundeth those, which agree and joyn together in evill things, from which they should be feparated and divided, Gen. 11. 8. they have a woe which confounds these membra dividentia calling good evill, and light darkneffe, for God will and doth divide things that are noble, from things unnoble, and good things from that which is bad, and he will have no agreement between them, but the Divils art of dividing is contrary, for it is his study to glew and mash together ill things with good, Nahum 1. 10. and to divide and separate good things one from another, and therefore never leaveth untill he maketh Gods Church regnum divifum, Mat. 12.26. So the Divell fhuffleth good things to bad, that there may be an equality between them, which should have no coherence, which is mater confufionis, as he is author and pater confufionu. Wherefore this must teach us to divide, as God doth things of different and Contrary nature.

As for the divifion it self, the manner of it is after four forts : For, firft, he devided them in cause, for the bright and fair, clean, bodies, as fire have their fulgorum, Ezech. 1. 4. and is the cause of it, the firmament hath his fplendorum, and is the caufe of it. So he divided them, that fo he might appoint these to be the causes of light to the World. So e contra he did it, that these corpora opaca, thefe thick and compact bodies should give a fhaddow, and to be the cause of darkneffe: fo God divided them first that they might be divers causes of these.

Secondly, he hath divided them in places; when the light is in the upper Hemisphere with us, the darkneffe is by divifion caft into the lower Hemisphere with the Antipodes: And fo God hath fet his horizon Circle, as a girdle about the middeft of the Earth, Fob 28.20. which is a lymit and bound of this "divifion, to leave darkneffe, that it come no nearer the light, then that.

Thirdly, in time; For as this very, part of time with us is light,fo to fome in the afternoon at this very hour, it will be darkneffe and night, for as now by Gods feparation, light doth drive out darkneffe, fo then the light fhall give place to the dark; and so shall the course of times continue.

Fourthly, in regard of the ufe, of which we fpake before, Pfal. 104.23. For he divided them thus, in the one we might have time to labour and work, and in the other to reft and fleep and therefore the light is called the window, by which we see what to doc, and night the curtain to draw over it, when we are weary and would take reft; and as this is the temporall ufe, of this alteration of light and darkneffe, which God hath made fo there is an eternall ufe for which he did it, and that is, he separated the one from

:

the

the other, that the light might be the inheritance of his Saints in light, in regard of which God feeth darkneffe in the Starrs, that now give us light, Job 25 5. But that light which God dwelleth in, and we fhall, is fuch which hath no darkneffe at all, John 1.5. And this is our reward, which are the Children that walk in light; but for the wicked, he hath reserved another eternall ufe of darkneffe, even Caliginem tenebrarum, which groffe part of darkneffe, is in this distincuon caft down into the bottomleffe deep of Hell, for the punishment of the wicked, as that is Begov to the good, fo is this se to the wicked. And indeed, God being willing to fend back none of his creatures which he had made to nothing again, therefore the worst thing in this work of diftinction, he fendeth to the place which is next nothing, that is, to the lowest and bafeft place of the depth, Therefore Hell is faid to be in that place of emptineffe or below, Rev. 9. 1. Hell. And Tohu is the bottomleffe place. Efay 30.10. So that place of Hell is Tobu, Tobobu, emptineffe of all good, bottomleffe and infinite in all ill, difordered with all confufion, utter darkneffe without light: So it is a place of all horror and defolation for ever, which place of darkneffe is evill indeed to the fufferer, but to the good for the justice of the righteous, and just God which is bleffed and glorified by his judgment therein.

Now that we may make better ufe of the knowledge of this, than the Heathen doe of their Philofophy, for the framing in us of good and honeft motions, this may we learn for our uses.

Firft, that God is the authour of all order, place, time, and all things r. else, which doe obferve a comely courfe and order of times and feafons: He ordeined first night, then day by course of place, he orderly diftinguished furfum & deorfum, and fo of other things as we shall fee hearafter: wherefore he is not the author of diforder and confufion, as it is plainly faid, I Cor. 14. 33. which also is taught of fhaddow and figure, Deut. 22.9. he will not have us make a mixture, and confufion of things divided; as not to mingle feeds of divers natures, not to make Cloath of Wooll and Flax, not to plow with an Oxe and an Affe, for fuch things are abomination in Gods eyes which type doth lead us, to fee the deformity of fpirituall confufion and diforder, which is fet down in the 2 Cor. 6. 14. 15. Our faith must not be coupled with infidelity, for what agreement can there be by yoking these oppofite and unequall things together: fo that God did not only make order, but also made it to this end, that it should continue, and be kept of every man, yet there is and ever will be, confufion and diforder both in particular men, and in Common-wealths contrary to Gods ordination, but the end of it is the confufion, and overthrow both of Common-wealths and us, if we continue fo: in private men there is no danger or great hurt to be feared, by fuch in whom there is meer ignorance of fimplicity; but when there is a mixture of knowledge with it, as when men know their ignorance and yet will be wilfull, when we think that we know fomthing, and yet know nothing, as we should, and when we seeing, will be wilfully blind, this is very dangerous :

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