eous.

Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, "and washed my hands in innocency." But when he "went into the sanctuary of God," and consulted the divine oracles, as we all should do, upon these matters, then he "saw the end of such men," and the transient nature of that wealth which had excited his envy: "How are they brought into desolation as in

a moment! they are utterly consumed with ter"rors! As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, "shalt thou make their image to vanish." And was the task enjoined us to describe that disappointment and wretched emptiness which the miserably deceived soul of him who lives and dies in carnality and worldly-mindedness will experience upon the moment of her separation from the body, what words could we find for the purpose, like these of the prophet Isaiah?"It shall be as when a hungry man "dreameth; and behold he eateth; but he awaketh, "and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man "dreameth, and behold he drinketh; but he awaketh, "and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appe"tite," remaining altogether unsatisfied with the pleasures which he seemed for a while to enjoy, Such a state of delusion is the state of the world; so vain, so incoherent, so transitory, are the schemes and designs of worldly men: and, however important they may appear to the projectors of them at the time, yet most certain it is, that what the Scripture saith of Pharaoh, may be said, with equal truth, at

Isa. xxix. 8.

the death of every man who has spent his days in things pertaining to this life only; "So he awoke, "" and, behold, it was a dream!"

But it is high time to change this gloomy scene for one that is more agreeable. Permit me, therefore, to contrast the foregoing description of the state of man, a stranger to repentance and faith in Christ, with one of the opposite state, to which we are called in the text; "Awake, thou that sleepest, and "arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee "light."

And first, the sincere penitent, who really and truly turns from sin to righteousness, and from the world to Christ, passes from darkness to light. He undergoes a change, like that made in man and in universal nature by the dawning of the morning, when there is a resurrection of both. For then it is, that man awaketh out of sleep, and ariseth as it were from the dead, to behold the light looking forth from the windows of the east, and the day breaking upon the tops of the hills; at which time the shadows fly away, and the clouds parting asunder, open a passage for that life-giving luminary, whose appearance the expectation of the creature impatiently waiteth for. The sun, "that marvellous "instrument of the Most High, ariseth in glorious majesty, disclosing and adorning all things in heaven and earth. And now the darkness is past, and the light shineth, to the end that all who are risen may go forth to their work, and to their labour, until the evening. So is it likewise in the repentance of a sinner. At the powerful call of God, whether by

his

word read or preached, by the admonition of charitable friends, by some happy incident, or change of fortune, by the death of others, or the sickness of the party himself-for various are the methods made use of by the Divine Providence for this gracious purpose-at the powerful call of God he awaketh to righteousness, and findeth himself in a new world. He perceiveth that, through the tender mercy of God, the day-spring from on high hath visited him, to give unto him the knowledge of salvation for the remission of his sins, concerning which he was before in darkness and the shadow of death. But now all the shadows of his former ignorance fly away, all his earthly prejudices and passions are overcome, and dispersing like the cloud before the morning sun, the way is prepared for the Sun of Righteousness to arise upon him. By his glorious light, all the dispensations of God, in heaven and upon earth, are made manifest; and the man, being arisen to a life of grace, goeth forth to the work of his salvation, and to his labour of love, until the evening of his day.

Secondly, a sinner by repentance is brought out of a state of insensibility into one of sensibility. No sooner is a person awaked out of sleep, but he finds himself endued with the use of all his senses, powers, and faculties. He walketh abroad, and his eyes are blessed with a sight of the whole creation risen with him from the dead, and rejoicing in the glorious light shining upon it from above. He surveys that lovely variety which displays itself upon the face of the earth, and beholds the beauty and brightness of the firmament of heaven. But chiefly his attention

is fixed on the great ruler of the day, who gives life and comeliness to all things. His ears are, entertained with the music of the birds of the air, who fail not with their sprightliest notes to salute the rising sun; and his nostrils are refreshed with the grateful smell sent forth, in the hour of prime, from the ground and its productions. He is prepared to taste with delight the food afforded him by the bounty of God; and no part of his body is without the sensation proper and necessary for it. Similar to this is the alteration which takes place in the soul of the humble penitent, when at the call of God he awakes, and arises from the dead. If the light be sweet, and it be a pleasant thing to the eyes to be. hold the sun; sweet to the mind likewise is the light of life, and a pleasant thing it is to the eyes of the understanding to behold the Sun of Righteousness, who bestows by his word that divine knowledge, that heavenly wisdom, which is to them what the material light is to the bodily organs of vision. Hereby the penitent believer is enabled to behold the wonderful works of the Lord, the mighty things he hath done for his soul, having created all things anew in Christ Jesus, and brought the world out of darkness into his marvellous light. But above all the works he is led to contemplate and to adore the Author of them all; to look up steadfastly, with St. Stephen, into heaven, and see Jesus enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high, enlightening and enlivening all things with the glory of his grace. And this is what St. Paul so earnestly begs of God for his Ephesian converts, that being now awake from sin, they might

behold the works and the glory of the Redeemer. "I cease not," says he, "to make mention of you

in

my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you "the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the know"ledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the

hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory "of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised "him from the dead, and set him at his own right "hand in the heavenly places, far above all princi"pality, and power, and might, and dominion, and

every name that is named not only in this world, "but that which is to come: and hath put all things "under his feet, and given him to be the head over "all things to the church, which is his body, the ful"ness of him who filleth all in all." The hearing ear is another gift of God to the sincere penitent, who is now no longer deaf to the voice of his Redeemer, speaking to him by his holy word, which entereth through his ears into his heart: he heareth and delighteth in the melody of praise and thanksgiving, that music of the church, that voice of joy and health in the dwellings of the righteous; nay, faith carries him to the door of heaven, where listening, he heareth that new song, and those everlasting hallelujahs, in which he one day hopeth to bear his