Читать книгу Plain Parochial Sermons, preached in the Parish Church of Bolton-le-Moors онлайн

9 страница из 33

The text says, “Awake thou that sleepest;” it means, awake from the sleep of sin; and very fitly is the state of the sinner compared to a state of sleep: he is quite insensible of his true, his awful condition; he fears not, perceives not, the doom that is awaiting him. Satan has bound up his senses; the eyes of his understanding are closed, and his knowledge of good and evil is utterly prevented. He is to the spiritual world, what the sleeping man is to the natural, unconscious of what is going forward to his advantage or his injury. Speak to him of mercy, he hears not: “sing him one of the songs of Sion,” it is all in vain: speak to him of divine wrath, of eternal punishment; to what purpose, while his ear is closed? The whispers of conscience, the counsel of friends, “the tongues of men or of angels,” are alike unprofitable, while a deep sleep is cast upon the soul.

And there is a further resemblance: the sinner dreams, of happiness arising from worldly prosperity, from plenty and pleasure: and as the brain of a poor or disconsolate man, in a state of sleep, is often filled with ideas of such things, and he awakes and finds them sadly untrue; awakes from his pleasant dreaming to his state of drudgery and discomfort; so is the sinner often constrained to feel and confess, that his notions of happiness were no better than a dream; that they were unsubstantial and unreal, promising much and bringing little: still he is unconvinced; pursues his course of trifling, his disappointed dreamings, till at length he awakes in another world, and thoroughly perceives the wretchedness of his condition, which it is then too late, impossible to change. From this dreadful, fatal sleep of sin, the gospel is designed to rouse us: and I pray God, that our conscience may be effectually alarmed and awakened; that we may be alive and active in perceiving and following “the things that belong unto our peace!”