intent on gaining money, another wholly given to pleasure, a third, labouring after fame, and honour: see them struggling, striving, contending with each other; but all agreeing in one thing, namely, to make the world their God, to push their own interests, and to gratify their selfish inclinations. What, in the mean time, becomes of Religion, and of the love, of their souls? These things either come not at all into their thoughts; or, if they sometimes intrude, are speedily put off to a more convenient season. Or, if conscience will not be so pacified, a cheap and an easy Religion is taken up a Religion which costs nothing, and consists only in notions and forms, that differ as much from the solid principles and spiritual services of real Religion, as the wild fancies of a dreaming man differ from the sound, connected reasonings of one who is awake. Thus men sleep. Busied about trifles, they overlook the great concerns of eternity. Having their mind darkened, they see no world but the present: they live as if they were to live here for ever: and if at any time this false peace is shaken, they try all means to prevent it from being destroyed, and to lull themselves again to rest. This indeed will more fully appear from consider ing, in the next place,

How Indisposed and Unwilling men are to

t

set about the work of true Religion. This is the second particular in their aweful State as described in the text; and surely the description is most just. If men were not thus indisposed to true Religion, whence could it happen, that they should so generally resist the convictions of God's good Spirit on their hearts, and so constantly oppose every endeavour to bring them to a serious and an holy frame of mind? Yet this is notoriously the case. Men naturally dislike religious instruction. They love darkness rather than light; and will not come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. We all know what difficulty there often is in prevailing with a person to attend regularly the House of God, when yet there is no one thing which actually prevents his attendance but his own indisposition to it. Ask him whence this indisposition arises; and if he conceal not the real cause, he will often say, that it arises from a dislike of hearing the truth. The minister is too plain with him; shows him his sins too clearly; makes Religion too strict and serious a thing. Hence he is offended, and from fear of having his peace disturbed, altogether avoids the hearing of the Gospel; or, if he reluctantly attends where it is preached, only seems to hear it, and shuts his ears, and hardens his heart against it. The fact is, men

naturally love their sins too well to be induced to part with them for the sake of Religion. Having, in truth, no spiritual knowledge of God, and consequently no real desire after Him, nor any idea of finding pleasure in His service, they look upon Religion as a dull and a distasteful thing; and suppose that, by heartily embracing it, they should relinquish much present enjoyment, and receive nothing in return to compensate for their loss. To such a form of Religion, then, as will allow them still to retain their sins and to cleave to the world, they will not always object: nay, they can even find a sort of pleasure in complying with it; for it gratifies their pride, and quiets their conscience. But from true, real, scriptural Religion, a Religion which claims the heart, which requires purity in the inward parts, and enforces universal holiness in every one who professes it, they turn away with disgust; and thus say to God in their hearts, "Depart from us."Surely, this is indeed to be dead in sin it is to be without any spiritual life and feeling, which is the only true life of the soul. What a wretched State then is that described in the text; the State, in which the Gospel finds mankind; a State of sleep and death, of ignorance and unconcern about true Religion, of dislike and enmity to it! I say,

for

ment.

what a wretched State is this! For be it remembered, my brethren, that nothing but Religion can save the soul from perishing. Nothing but this very Religion, of which men are so ignorant, about which they care so little, against which they have conceived such a dislike, can in the end deliver them from everlasting shame, sorrow, and punishHere then is their extreme misery and danger. They are unconcerned about an object, which of all others ought to concern them most; and are set against the only remedy, which can be of any real service to them. They are every moment liable to fall into utter perdition: but they are not aware of their danger, and reject the only hand which is stretched out to save them. May the Lord open the eyes of all who are in this state, to see and flee from it! May He give to them ears to hear, and a heart to obey the important Call in the text! This is the second thing which I proposed to consider:

II. The Duty which the Gospel calls on them to discharge.

This Duty, as it is here expressed, is to awake out of sleep, and to arise from the dead. The admonition is given in terms answering to those in which the state is described. Let those who are asleep, awake. Let those who are dead, arise. The persons

addressed are called upon to do in their state the same thing, as it would be for a sleeping man, in his state, to awake, or for a dead man to arise. Having seen, then, what their State is, we can the more easily point out their Duty.

Their Duty is to consider their state and their danger, to break off their sins by repentance, and to seek the knowledge and the favour of God. This is the Call of the Gospel to every one who may be in the state described.

1. Consider thy state and thy danger. What is the great cause why men are so indifferent to Religion, so careless about their soul, so devoted to the world, so wholly taken up with the things of time and sense, but that they will not consider? They will not set their mind seriously to think on the subject of Religion, and the aweful concerns of Eternity. Instead of encouraging such thoughts, they wilfully put them away, and try to shut them out from the mind. They will not endure soberly to reflect on the shame, and misery, and contempt, in which a worldly, an ungodly, and- a sensual life will certainly end. They drive away reflections of this nature. Here then is the first part of the duty to which they are called. Awake, thou that sleepest."-Consider thy ways, thy state, and thy danger. — Let