1311 TnE WORLD TO COME. Secondly, What is implied in watchfulness, Answer. In general it is opposed to sleeping, as I have already hinted ; in Mark xiii. 35, 36. And, in the language of scripture, as well as in common speech, sleep and slumber denote an unprepared- ness to receive whatever conies, for this is the case with those who are asleep : On the other hand, watchfulness is a prepara- tion and readiness for every event, and so it is expressed in some of these parables, verse 40. Be ye therefore ready. But to en- ter into a few particulars. 1. There is a sleep of death ; Ps. xiii. 3. Spiritual death, as well as natural, is sometimes called a sleep. Such is the case of a soul dead in trespasses and sins ; Eph. v. 14. compared with ii. 1. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Watchfulness, therefore, implies life, a principle of spiritual life in the soul : Surely those, who are dead in sins, are not pre- pared to receive their Lord : He is a perfect stranger to them, they know him not, they love him not, they obey him not ; and a terrible stranger he will be, if he come upon them before they are awake. But those, who are awakened by divine grace into a spiritual life, have seen something of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; they are acquainted with their Lord, they love him, and have some degree of preparation to meet their Sa- viour, when the summons them to leave this world. This is therefore, a matter of highest consequence, that we awake from a state of sin and death, that we be made alive to God, begin the christian life, and set upon religion, in good earnest, according to the rules of the gospel, before Christ calls us away. It is only the divine life begun in us, that can secure us from eternal death ; though even christians may be found slumbering in other respects, and exposethemselves to painful evils, if that hour surprise them at unawares. 2. There is a sleep of indolence and thoughtlessness : When a man is insensible of his own circumstances, and too careless of the things which most concern him, we say, " the man is asleep." Such asleep seems to be upon the church of Israel ; Isai. xxix. 10, Il. a spirit of deep sleep, when the law, which contained the great things of God, and their salvation, was to them as a sealed book, they read it not, their eyes were closed, their spiritual senses were bound up. Many a christian, who bath been raised from a death in sin, has been seized with this criminal slumber, and has had the image of death come again upon him : He has grown too careless and unconcerned about his most important and eternal affairs ; and, in this temper, he hardly knows what his state is toward God, nor keeps up a lively sense or notice of divine and eternal things upon his spirit. Watchfulness, in oppo- sition to this sleep, implies a holy solicitude and diligence to
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=