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 "exercised 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.

The prophet Isaiah, describing his wretched countrymen in their state of apostasy and obduracy of heart, says of them, "The Lord hath poured out

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upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed

your eyes." Present the most finished and beautiful picture before the eyes of a person asleep; he sees no more of it than if it was not there. And how often are the pictures of our sin and deformity, and the righteousness and beauty of the Redeemer drawn by the pencil of the Spirit in the Scriptures of truth, how often are they offered to the understandings of men who yet see neither! And why? Because a spirit of deep sleep," induced by their 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

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 judgement 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 judgement, waxing louder and louder on the top of Sinai, are equally unheard by him. He sleeps on still, and takes his rest; and therefore, "having ears, he hears not." Offer to the nostrils of one who sleepeth the most fragrant flowers that grow, the rose and the lily in their highest perfection, or the richest spices produced in the warmest climes; the flowers have no fragrance, the spices no odours for him. And are there not, who take no delight in that blessed Person, from the comfort and refreshment he affordeth to the drooping soul, as well as from his matchless beauty and perfection, styled "the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys:" who can perceive no "sweet smelling savour of life "unto life," in that Gospel of peace, which is compared unto "myrrh, and frankincense, and all pow"ders of the merchant?" Open the mouth of him that sleepeth, and fill it with the choicest honey; you have no thanks from him, for he tasteth it not. As little relish bath one in a state of sin and worldly. 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"." Awak

ened 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 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 employinents 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.

Now he exults in visionary bliss, now he is racked with disquietudes created by his own fancy. Ainbition strains every nerve to climb to a height that is ideal, till, with all the eagerness of desire, grasping

a 1 Tim. iv. 2.

at the summit, she seems to feel herself half dead by a fall that is as much so; since neither if a man be in power, he is really and in the sight of God the greater; nor if he be out of power, is he the less. Avarice flies with fear and trembling from a poverty of which there is no danger, and with infinite anxiety and solicitude heapeth up riches that have no use. And while pleasure is incessantly shifting her painted scenes before the fancies of the gay, infidelity oftentimes seduceth the imaginations of the serious and contemplative into the airy regions of abstraction, setting them to construct intellectual systems, without one just idea of the spiritual world, and to delineate schemes of religion, exclusive of the true God and his dispensations. Thus doth man walk in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain, like one endeavouring 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 any thing but "the kingdom "of God, and his righteousness."

Again: Is a dream ever wandering from one thing to another that has no connexion 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, whe

ther 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 is but as yesterday, seeing it is past as a "watch in the night." How beautifully is the fading nature of all those things on which worldly 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 him shall Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, "and shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night"." "I was envious," says the Psalmist," at the foolish, when I saw the "prosperity of the wicked.-Their eyes stand out "with fatness: they have more than heart could wish "-Behold, these are the ungodly that prosper in the "world, they increase in riches." The sight at first staggered his faith; and he was tempted almost to distrust the promises of God made to the right

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say,

Job, xx. 4. et seq.

Psal. lxxiii. 3, 7, 12.