11. May we all thus experience what it is, to be not almost only, but altogether Christians! Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus: knowing we have peace with God through Jesus Christ: rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, and having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto us!
SERMON III.[6]
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.