But the former is now under our consideration, the sleep of the carnal, not of the renewed. That sleep again is twofold — natural and judicial.
332 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XVI.
(1.) Natural, when they are careless of their souls, neglectful of heavenly things, live without God in the world. This is natural to us through the ignorance and injudiciousness of our minds : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; ' Eph. ii. 12, ' That at that time ye were ■without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.'
(2.) There is a judicial hardness, when a spirit of deep sleep falleth upon them, and they are neither awakened by the ordinances nor providences of God : Kom. xi. 8, ' God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day.' This noteth an extreme degree of security and stupidity, when God giveth men up to their wilful obstinacy, by with- drawing that light from them against which they have so often rebelled^ and then they are, as it were, intoxicated by some soporiferous potion or medicine ; do what we can, we cannot awaken them. All wicked men arrive not to this, but they are in the way to it. Here then i» their misery upon the first account, they sleep in sin ; and a great misery it is.
(Is^.) Because their insensibility and security make their other sins more dangerous. If the devil can keep men asleep in their sins, he- hath his ends upon them ; he could not make such slaves and drudges of them to their base lusts if reason and conscience were but awake ia them : 1 Cor. xv. 34, ' Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God.' It is all the reason men should rouse up themselves out of that drowsy condition of sin wherein they are got so securely and contentedly, without disturbance or remorse.
(2d) Though they sleep, their damnation sleepeth not : 2 Peter ii. 3, ' Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.' Punishment may be long suspended, yet it breaketh out at last, and surpriseth us ere we are aware. It is sad to sleep on still till we awake in flames. Death, and judgment, and eternity is at hand, and will you still live merrily and quietly, in a careless and unprepared estate, as if all were well ?
(3d) The sun is up, and shines into their windows: Rom. xiii. 11,.
* And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed ; ' 1 Thes. v. 7, ' For they that sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.' To sleep in our sins when we live in the full sunshine of the gospel is more damnable : John iii. 19,
* And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, anil men love darkness rather than light, because tlieir deeds were evil.* Deeds of darkness do not become a time of light. Will you follow Satan by daylight, and run on with open eyes to everlasting destruc~ tion ? Our sins are more excuseless and more shameless the more wilful. Every sin is double to what it was in the times of ignorance. Our security now cannot be maintained without atheism and great contempt of God, who so clearly discovereth his mind to us.
2. The next notion is spiritual death ; for we are bidden to * Arise-
YeR. 14.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 333
from the dead/ which showeth this sleep is deadly : Eph. ii. 1, * And jou hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins ; ' John V. 25, ' The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live.' We are spiritually dead till Christ help us. How are we dead ? Two ways — (1.) Dead as we are destitute of spiritual life ; (2.) Dead as we are destitute of the favour and peace of God.
[1.] Dead as we are destitute of spiritual life. To lessen our dis- ease is to slight our cure, which the scripture seeketh to magnify every- where. And therefore to be destitute of the Spirit of God is as the body when deprived of the soul. There is no principle in us to incline us to God, or to do anything that is spiritually good, yea, much to the contrary : Rom. viii. 7, * The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' As there is no inclination and ability, so there is much averseness and enmity ; ^nd therefore we cannot quicken ourselves or convert ourselves. And this incapacity and disability is increased in us by the growth of per- verse and carnal habits : 1 Tim. v. 6, ' But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.' Though alive as to the body, she is dead as to God and the heavenly life, and all the interests of it.