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SVRPRIZE
IN
DEATH.
:EliISé.fff.
this sermon,.
give me
leave
to
add
a
few
more
motives
to
the duty of
watchfulness, for
we
cannot
be
too
well
guarded
against the danger
of
spiritual
sloth and security.
Motive
I.
" Our natures at
best, in
the present
state,
are
too
much inclined
to
slumber." We
are
too ready
to
fall asleep
hourly
:
All the
saints
on
earth,
even the most
lively
and active
of
them,
are
not out
oA
danger,
while
they carry
this
flesh
and blood
about
them.
Indeed
the
best of
christians here
below dwell
but
as
it
were, in twi-
light,
and,
in
some
sense,
they may
be
described
as
per-
sons between
sleeping and
waking,
in
comparison
of
the
world
of
spirits. We
behold
divine things
here but
darkly,
and
exert our
spiritual
faculties
but
in a feeble
manner
:
It
is
only
in
the
other
world
that
we
are
broad
awake, and
in
the perfect and
unrestrained
exercise
of
our
vital powers
;
there
only
the complete
life
and vigour
of
a saint appears.
In
such
a drowsy
state
then,
and
in
this dusky hour,
we
cannot
be too
diligent
in
rousing
ourselves, lest
we
sink down into
dangerous slumbers.
Besides,
if
we
profess
to be
children
of
the light,
and
of
the
day,
and
growing
up
to a
brighter immortality, let
us
not
sleep, as do others, who
are
the sons and
daughters
of
night and darkness
;
1
Thess.
v.
4,
5.
Motive
II.
"
Almost every thing around
us, in
this
world
of
sense
and
sin,
tends
to
lull
us
asleep again
as
soon
as we begin to
be
awake."
The
busy
or the
pleasant
scenes
of
this
temporal
life,
are ever calling
away
our
thoughts
from
eternal
things,
they conceal from
us
the
spiritual
world,
and
close
our
eyes to
God,
and
things
di-
vine
and
heavenly.
lithe
eyes
of
the soul were
but open
to
invisible things, what
lively
christians
would
we
be
?
.But
either
the
winds
of
worldly cares rock
us
to sleep,
or
the
charm
of
worldly
pleasures
soothes
us
into deceitful
slumbers.
We are
too
ready
to
indulge earthly delights,
and,
while
we
dream
of
pleasure
in
the creatures,
we
lose,
or,
at
least,
abate our
delights
in
God. Even the
lawful
satisfactions
of
flesh
and
sense,
and
the
enticing
objects
round about
us,
may
attach
our hearts
so
fast to them,
as
to
draw
us
down
into
a bed
of
carnal
ease, till
we fall
asleep
in
spiritual
security, and forget
that
we
are made
for
heaven, and
that our
hope
and our
home
is
on
high.
Motive
III.
"Many
thousands
have been
found
sleep-
ing
at
the
call
of
Christ
:"
Some,
perhaps,
in
a profound