EPHES. v. 14.
_Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light._
IN discoursing on these words, I shall, with the help of God,
_First_, Describe the sleepers to whom they are spoken.
_Secondly_, Enforce the exhortation, _Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead_. And,
_Thirdly_, Explain the promise made to such as do _awake_ and _arise_; _Christ shall give thee light_.
I.) 1. And first, as to the sleepers here spoken to. By sleep is signified the natural state of man: that deep sleep of the soul into which the sin of _Adam_ hath cast all who spring from his loins; that supineness, indolence, and stupidity, that insensibility of his real condition, wherein every man comes into the world, and continues till the voice of God awakes him.
2. Now _they that sleep, sleep in the night_. The state of nature is a state of utter darkness; a state wherein _darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people_. The poor unawakened sinner, how much knowledge soever he may have as to other things, has no knowledge of himself: in this respect, _he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know_. He knows not that he is a fallen spirit, whose only business in the present world, is to recover from his fall, to regain that image of God wherein he was created. He sees _no necessity_ for _the one thing needful_, even that inward universal change, that _birth from above_ (figured out by baptism) which is the beginning of that total renovation, that sanctification of spirit, soul and body, _without which no man shall see the Lord_.
* 3. Full of all diseases as he is, he fancies himself in perfect health: fast bound in misery and iron, he dreams that he is at liberty. He says, Peace, peace, while the devil, _as a strong man armed_, is in full possession of his soul. He sleeps on still, and takes his rest, tho’ hell is moved from beneath to meet him; tho’ the pit, from whence there is no return, hath opened its mouth to swallow him up: a fire is kindled around him, yet he knoweth it not; yea it burns him, yet he lays it not to heart.
4. By one who sleeps we are therefore to understand (and would to God we might all understand it!) A sinner satisfied in his sins; contented to remain in his fallen state, to live and die without the image of God: one who is ignorant both of his disease, and of the only remedy for it: one who never was warned, or never regarded the warning voice of God, _to flee from the wrath to come_: one that never yet saw he was in danger of hell-fire, or cried out in the earnestness of his soul, _What must I do to be saved?_
5. If this sleeper be not outwardly vicious, his sleep is usually the deepest of all: whether he be of the _Laodicean_ spirit, _neither cold nor hot_; but a quiet, rational, inoffensive, good-natured professor of the religion of his fathers; or whether he be zealous and orthodox, and _after the most straitest sect of our religion, live a Pharisee_; that is, according to the scriptural account, one that _justifies himself_; one that labours _to establish his own righteousness_, as the ground of his acceptance with God.
6. This is he, who _having a form of godliness, denies the power thereof_; yea, and probably reviles it, wheresoever it is found, as mere extravagance and delusion. Meanwhile, the wretched self-deceiver thanks God, that he _is not as other men are; adulterers, unjust, extortioners_: no, he doth no wrong to any man. He _fasts twice in the week_, uses all the means of grace, is constant at church and sacrament: yea, and _gives tithes of all that he has_, does all the good that he can: _touching the righteousness of the law_, he is _blameless_: he wants nothing of godliness but the power; nothing of religion, but the spirit; nothing of Christianity, but the truth and the life.
7. But know ye not, that however highly esteemed among men, _such a Christian_ as this may be, he is an abomination in the sight of God, and an heir of every woe, which the Son of God yesterday, to-day, and for ever, denounces against _Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites_? He hath _made clean the outside of the cup and the platter_, but within is full of all filthiness. _An evil disease cleaveth_ still _unto him_, so that _his inward parts are very wickedness_. Our Lord fitly compares him to a _painted sepulchre_, which _appears beautiful without_; but nevertheless is _full of dead mens bones, and of all uncleanness_. The bones indeed are no longer dry; _the sinews and flesh are come upon them, and the skin covers them above_, but _there is no breath_ in them, no Spirit of the living God. And _if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Ye are Christ’s, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you._ But if not, God knoweth that ye abide in death, even until now.