THE ETERNAL SETTING OF THE SUN IN HIS MERIDIAN, AND THE TOTAL AND ENDLESS ECLIPSE OF THE EARTH IN THE CLEAR DAY. A SERMON PREACHED AT PROVIDENCE CHAPEL, ON SUNDAY, JULY 26, 1807. YE ARE ALL THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DAY: WE ARE NOT OF THE NIGHT, NOR OF DARKNESS. 1 THESS. V. 5. ETERNAL SETTING OF THE SUN, &c. &c. AMOS VIII. 9. "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day." WHATEVER this dark and ambiguous text may mean, it appears to me that it never had, or will have its accomplishment in a literal sense. The sun stood still in the days of Joshua: but standing still is not going down. "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. So the sun stood still in the' midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day," Joshua x. 12, 13. In this passage we have an account of the sun and moon standing; and of the sun standing still in the midst of heaven, hasting not to go down about a whole day. But the sun standing still a whole day, and then going down, cannot agree with my text, which is expressed not of his standing still in the midst of heaven, but of his going down, so as to rise no more. We have an account of the sun going back in the days of Hezekiah, to prop up his faith in the promise of God; and the sun went back ten degrees; "So the sun returned ten degress, by which degrees it was gone down," Isaiah xxxviii. 8. But the sun returning ten degrees backward, diffeis widely from the full expressions and meaning of my text, which is, that the sun shall go down at noon, and the earth shall be darkened in the clear day. Moreover, we read of darkness overshadowing the land until the ninth hour, at our Lord's cruci, fixion; but then, after the ninth hour matters returned again as they were before; for, although this darkness spread itself at twelve o'clock at noon, and continued three hours, which was a preternatural eclipse, the moon being at the same time at the full, as it always was at the passover feasts, yet this cannot be the meaning of my text; for, although the sun hid his face, and did not shine for three hours, yet he did not go down, but broke out again at three o'clock in the afternoon, and shone forth as before, Nor can the darkening of the earth in the clear day be understood in a literal sense, seeing God hath said that, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease," Genesis viii. 22. And it is plain that this covenant of day and night stands as firm as the covenant of roy alty with David, or the covenant of grace with God's elect; for so it is written, "Thus saith the Lord, If you can break my covenant of the day, 1. What we are to understand by the sun. 3. The time of his setting, namely, at noon. 5. What by darkening the earth. 6. What by this darkness coming on in the clear day. And, lastly, treat of that day when all this is to be done. 1st. What we are to understand by the sun. It appears to me that the Lord God Almighty himself is meant by the sun; for he is the fountain of light, life, love and heat, to all his own people. "For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly," Psalm lxxxiv. 11. This sun, and this only, was |