DISCOURSE XIV.

THE SINNER CALLED.

EPHESIANS V. 14.

Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and Christ shall give thee light.

We are now in the midst of that hallowed | accompanieth the voice of the church, as that season, when the church, by the voice of all sweetly accordeth to the call of the apostle, her holy services, calleth the world to re- " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from pentance, from the rising of the sun to the the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." going down thereof. And if ever there was These lively and animating words, the an institution calculated to promote the glory peculiar force and energy of which it would of God by forwarding the salvation of man, it be an affront to every understanding and is this appointment of a certain set time for every heart to point out, like the sound of all persons to consider their ways, to break that wakeful herald of the morning, which off their sins, and to return from whence once called Peter to repentance, and which, they have fallen through the infirmities of daily admonishing the world of the sun's the flesh and the prevalence of temptation. approach, calls up the inhabitants thereof For though most certain it is, that sorrow to behold the brightness of his rising and should be the constant attendant upon sin, to walk in his light, address themselves to and daily transgressions call for daily peni- the sinner, as to one fast holden in the tence, yet fatal experience convinces us of bands of sleep, exhorting him to awake and another truth no less certain, that in a body look up, because the night is far spent, the so frail, and a world so corrupt, cares and day is at hand; and seem to be an evangelpleasures soon oppress the heart, and insensi-ical paraphrase of that passage in the probly bring on the slumbers of listlessness and phet Isaiah, which is a spiritual applicanegligence as to its spiritual concerns, which, tion of the most beautiful and magnificent unless dissipated and dispersed by frequently image in nature, the rising of the sun upon repeated admonitions, will at length seal it up the earth, with its effects and consequences; in the deep sleep of a final impenitence. It" Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and was wisely foreseen, that should the sinner the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." be permitted to reserve to himself the choice The text, then, upon examination, will be of a convenient season wherein to turn from found to imply thus much, that the world, sin to righteousness, that convenient season without repentance and faith in Christ, is in would never come; and that the specious plea a state of darkness, insensibility, and delusion, of keeping every day holy alike would often for such is the state of them that sleep. We be found to cover a design of keeping none will take a view, therefore, of each of these holy at all. It seemed good, therefore, to particulars. the church to fix a stated time in which men And, first, these words plainly suppose might enter upon the great work of their re- the person to whom they are addressed to pentance. And what time could have been be in a state of darkness. For "they who selected with greater propriety than this sleep," as the apostle elsewhere observeth, Lenten, or Spring season, when universal" sleep in the night," which is the time of nature, awaking from her wintry sleep, and coming out of a state of deformity, and a course of penance imposed for the transgression of man, her lord and master, is about to rise from the dead, and, putting on her garments of glory and beauty, to give us a kind of prelude to the renovation of all things? So that the whole creation most harmoniously VOL. II. 11

darkness, and therefore the season for repose. When the shadows of the evening are stretched out, and the earth, turning away from the sun, sinketh into the shadow of death, and thereby loseth all its form and comeliness; when the veil, that is cast over the face of nature, obliterateth the variety of colors which owe their being to the light,

But, secondly, the text plainly intimates to us, that the sinner, or man of the world, to whom it addresses itself as to one sleeping, is in a state of insensibility For no sooner has sleep taken possession of any one, but forthwith all the senses are locked up, and he neither seeth, heareth, smelleth, tasteth, nor feeleth anything. Incapable of being affected with what passes in the world, regardless of every thing that relates to his real interest in life, and no longer susceptible of pleasure or pain, joy or grief, from the objects which produce those sensations in others who are awake, he becometh like unto them that are gone down to the chambers of the grave, and sleep in the dust of the earth. Wherefore the apostle saith, using sleep and death as synonymous terms, "Awake, thou that SLEEPEST, and arise from the DEAD." This address therefore to the sinner or man of the world, is founded upon a supposition that the soul, by sin and the love of the world, is cast into the same state of insensibility with regard to things heavenly, that the body is in, while sleeping, with regard to things earthly; a state in which its spiritual senses, those senses which the apostle tells us should be " cised to discern good and evil," are sealed up, and admit of no impression from their proper objects. And that this is in truth the case, a cursory view of the ideas transferred in Scripture from the bodily senses as rendered unfit for their respective uses by sleep, to the powers and operations of the mind as impeded by sin, will quickly convince us.

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and abolisheth all the distinction of objects thence arising, introducing a joyless and uncomfortable uniformity, and rendering it impossible for any to "go forth to their labor;" when "the night cometh, in which none can work ;" then it is that deep sleep falleth upon man. Here, therefore, we have, according to the text, a representation of the state into which the soul is cast by sin, and in which it continueth, till recovered out of it by repentance and faith. "Darkness," as saith the prophet Isaiah, "covereth the earth, and gross darkness the people." Midnight overwhelmeth not the earth with a grosser darkness, than that | which is superinduced upon the heart of man, when it departeth from God, and is turned away from its Maker. "He that followeth not Christ walketh in darkness," because the light of life shineth no longer upon his tabernacle. When he has lost sight of the Sun of Righteousness, wisdom soon fadeth away, and understanding perisheth, and counsel is brought to nought, and the distinctions of good and evil are confounded. And now the man, walking in darkness, and not knowing whither he goeth, presently groweth weary and faint in his mind; whence, as natural darkness bringeth on sleep, ignorance, which is the darkness of the understanding, becometh the parent of indolence and inactivity, and casteth men by degrees into that deep sleep which is a suspension of the powers and faculties of the soul from the works of the spiritual life, as natural rest is a suspension of the members of the body from the labors of the animal life. This is the night when The prophet Isaiah, describing his wretchno man can work out his salvation for lack ed countrymen in their state of apostasy. of knowledge; and the world, in this state, and obduracy of heart, says of them, "The may not unfitly be resembled to the king- Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit. dom of Egypt, during the three days of of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes." thick darkness, when it is observed, that "no Present the most finished and beautiful picone stirred from his place." Such is the ture before the eyes of a person asleep; he condition of those who, in the proper and sees no more of it than if it was not there. exact language of holy writ, are said to And how often are the pictures of our sin "SIT in darkness, and in the shadow of and the righteousness and beauty of the death," no one moving from his place to go Redeemer drawn by the pencil of the Spirit forth to his work, or to walk in the way in the Scriptures of truth, how often are that leadeth unto life. In this comfortless they offered to the understanding of men situation was the whole world at the com- who yet see neither! And why? Because ing of Christ; and every man, whom the" a spirit of deep sleep," induced by their concerns or the pleasures of this life keep from the knowledge of the Scriptures and the wisdom therein contained, and so render negligent in the business of working out his own salvation, and contributing his utmost towards forwarding that of others, every such man is so far relapsed into the same situation, and standeth in need of the apostolical call, "Awake, thou that sleepest."

attachment to something in the world, that comes in competition with the doctrines or precepts of the Gospel, "is fallen upon them," so that, "having eyes they see not." Go into the chamber of him that sleepeth, and read to him a piece of the most interesting news, play him the sweetest notes on the finest instrument, or sound the loudest and shrillest trumpet; while he

things, which has no existence but in their imaginations. And to what can the life of many a man be so fitly compared, as to a dream? What are the vain employments and amusements of multitudes, but "visions of the night?" And is not he who wasteth his time and breath in relating the history of them, "as a man telling a dream to his fellow?" Is a dream made up of illusive images, false objects and pursuits, false hopes and false fears? So is the life of a man of the world.

sleeps, he hears nothing. To as little purpose do the ministers of the Gospel preach to the obdurate worldling the "glad tidings of great joy, that unto us is born a Saviour," or the awful tidings of as great terror, that "he cometh to execute judgment on all that are ungodly." The heavenly strains of love and mercy sounded forth by the harp of David, when breathed on by the Spirit of the Holy One, or the piercing trumpet of eternal judgment, waxing louder and louder on the top of Sinai, are equally Now he exults in visionary bliss, now he unheard by him. He sleeps on still, and is racked with disquietudes created by his takes his rest; and therefore, "having ears, own fancy. Ambition strains every nerve he hears not." Offer to the nostrils of one to climb to a height that is ideal, till, with all who sleepeth the most fragrant flowers that the eagerness of desire, grasping at the sumgrow, the rose and the lily in their highest mit, she seems to feel herself half dead by a perfection, cr the richest spices produced fall that is as much so; since neither if a man in the warmest climes; the flowers have be in power, is he really and in the sight of no fragrance, the spices no odors for him. God the greater; nor if he be out of power, And are there not, who take no delight in is he the less. Avarice flies with fear and that blessed Person, from the comfort and trembling from a poverty of which there is refreshment he affordeth to the drooping no danger, and with infinite anxiety and solisoul, as well as from his matchless beauty citude heapeth up riches that have no use. and perfection, styled "the rose of Sharon, And while pleasure is incessantly shifting her the lily of the valleys :" who can perceive painted scenes before the fancies of the gay, no "sweet smelling savor of life unto life," infidelity oftentimes seduceth the imagina in that Gospel of peace, which is compared tions of the serious and contemplative into unto "myrrh and frankincense, and all the airy regions of abstraction, setting them powders of the merchant?" Open the to construct intellectual systems, without one mouth of him that sleepeth, and fill it with just idea of the spiritual world, and to delithe choicest honey; you have no thanks neate schemes of religion, exclusive of the from him, for he tasteth it not. As little true God and his dispensations. Thus doth relish hath one in a state of sin and world-man walk in a vain shadow, and disquieteth ly-mindedness for those promises, which, when the penitent believer tasteth, he crieth out in transport, "O how sweet are thy words unto my mouth; yea, sweeter than honey unto my throat!" Lastly, a person during the time of sleep feels no wounds or bruises, and passes imperceptibly into the regions of death. And this is the very apostolical description of hardened sinners, who have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness: they are said to be " past feeling, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." Awakened by the fires which burn for the impenitent, they feel at last the avenging hand of an angry God, and lift up their eyes in those torments, which will forbid the closing them any more for

ever.

Thirdly, it appears from the text before us, that the world is in a state of delusion; for such is the state of them that sleep. To all things that really concern them they are insensible but they are earnestly employed, meanwhile, in a shadowy fantastic scene of

1 Tim. iv. 2.

himself in vain, like one endeavoring to win a race in his sleep, still striving after that which he cannot attain unto, so long as he expects to find a solid, substantial, and durable comfort in anything but "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."

Again: Is a dream ever wandering from one thing to another that has no connection with it, and patched up of a thousand inconsistencies, without beginning, middle, or end? Not more so than the life of him who, being devoted to the world, and at the mercy of his passions, is now in full chase after one shadow, now after another; so continually varying and changing, and yet withal so uniformly trifling and insignificant in all his sentiments and proceedings, that were the transactions of his days noted down in a book, it may be questioned whether a dream would not appear, upon the comparison, to be a sensible and regular composition.

Once more: Is a dream fleeting and transitory, insomuch that a whole night passeth away in it as one hour, nay as one minute, since, during sleep, we have no idea of the succession of time? And what is a life of fourscore years when looked back upon! "It

But it is high time to change this gloomy scene for one that is more agreeable. Permit me, therefore, to contrast the foregoing description of the state of man, a stranger to repentance and faith in Christ, with one of the opposite state, to which we are called in the text; "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

For then it is that

is but as yesterday, seeing it is past as a watch | man who has spent his days in things perin the night." How beautifully is the fading taining to this life only; "So he awoke, and, nature of all those things on which worldly behold, it was a dream!" men place their affections, set forth to us in the holy Scriptures, under this most expressive image! "Knowest not thou this of old," says Zophar in Job, "since man was placed upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen And first, the sincere penitent, who really him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly and truly turns from sin to righteousness, and away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, from the world to Christ, passes from darkhe shall be chased away as a vision of the ness to light. He undergoes a change, like night."* "I was envious," says the Psalm- that made in man and in universal nature by ist, "at the foolish, when I saw the pros- the dawning of the morning, when there is a perity of the wicked. Their eyes stand out resurrection of both. with fatness they have more than heart man awaketh out of sleep, and ariseth as it could wish-Behold, these are the ungodly were from the dead, to behold the light lookthat prosper in the world, they increase in ing forth from the windows of the east, and riches." + The sight at first staggered his the day breaking upon the tops of the hills; faith; and he was tempted almost to distrust at which time the shadows fly away, and the the promise of God made to the righteous. clouds, parting asunder, open a passage for "Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, that life-giving luminary, whose appearance and washed my hands in innocency." But the expectation of the creature impatiently when he "went into the sanctuary of God," waiteth for. The sun, "that marvellous inand consulted the divine oracles, as we all strument of the Most High," ariseth in gloshould do, upon these matters, then he "saw rious majesty, disclosing and adorning all the end of such men," and the transient na- things in heaven and earth. And now, the ture of that wealth which had excited his darkness is past, and the light shineth, to the envy : "How are they brought into desola- end that all who are risen may go forth to tion as in a moment! they are utterly con- their work, and to their labor, until the evensumed with terrors! As a dream when one ing. So is it likewise in the repentance of a awaketh, so, O Lord, shalt thou make their sinner. At the powerful call of God, wheimage to vanish." And was the task enjoin- ther by his word read or preached, by the ed us to describe that disappointment and admonition of charitable friends, by some wretched emptiness which the miserably de- happy incident, or change of fortune, by the seived soul of him who lives and dies in car-death of others, or the sickness of the party nality and worldly-mindedness will experi- himself-for various are the methods made ence upon the moment of her separation from the body, what words could we find for the purpose, like these of the prophet Isaiah? "It shall be as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite," remaining altogether unsatisfied with the pleasures which he seemed for a while to enjoy. Such a state of delusion is the state of the world; so vain, so incoherent, so transitory, are the schemes and designs of worldly men: and, however important they may appear to the projectors of them at the time, yet most certain it is, that what the Scripture saith of Pharaoh, may be said, with equal truth, at the death of every

Job, xx. 4. et. seq. † Psal. lxxiii, 3, 7, 12.
Isa. xxix. 8.

use of by the Divine Providence for this gracious purpose-at the powerful call of God he awaketh to righteousness, and findeth himself in a new world. He perceiveth that, through the tender mercy of God, the dayspring from on high hath visited him, to give unto him the knowledge of salvation for the remission of his sins, concerning which he was before in darkness and the shadow of death. But now all the shadows of his former ignorance fly away, all his earthly prejudices and passions are overcome, and dispersing like the cloud before the morning sun, the way is prepared for the Sun of Righteousness to arise upon him. By his glorious light, all the dispensations of God, in heaven and upon earth, are made manifest; and the man, being arisen to a life of grace, goeth forth to the work of his salvation, and to his labor of love, until the evening of his day.