For if he is to be blamed as a slothful drone, that rather chuses the lazy indulgence of sleep, than to perform his proper worldly business, how much more is he to be reproached, that had rather lie folded up in a bed, than be raising up his heart to God in acts of praise and adoration.
2. Prayer is the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of him, that we are capable of in this life.
It is the noblest exercise of the soul, the most exalted use of our best faculties, and the highest imitation of the blessed inhabitants of heaven.
When our hearts are full of God, sending up holy desires to the throne of grace, we are then in our highest state, we are upon the utmost height of human greatness; we are not before kings and princes, but in the presence of the Lord of all the world, and can be no higher till death is swallowed up in glory.
On the other hand, sleep is the poorest, dullest refreshment of the body; that is so far from being intended as an enjoyment, that we are forced to receive it either in a state of insensibility, or in the folly of dreams.
*Sleep, is such a dull, stupid state of existence, than even amongst mere animals, we despise them most which are most drowsy. He therefore that chuses to enlarge the slothful indolence of sleep, rather than be early at his devotions to God; chuses the dullest refreshment of the body, before the highest, noblest enjoyment of the soul; he chuses that state, which is a reproach to mere animals, rather than that exercise, which is the glory of angels.
3. *Besides, he that cannot deny himself this drowsy indulgence, but must pass away good part of the morning in it, is no more prepared for prayer when he is up, than he is prepared for fasting, or any other self-denial. He may, indeed, more easily read over a form of prayer, than he can perform those duties; but he is no more disposed for the true spirit of prayer, than he is disposed for fasting. For sleep, thus indulged, gives a softness and idleness to all our tempers, and makes us unable to relish any thing, but what suits with an idle state of mind, and gratifies our natural tempers, as sleep does. So that a person that is a slave to this idleness, is in the same temper when he is up; and tho’ he is not asleep, yet he is under the effects of it: and every thing that is idle, indulgent, or sensual, pleases him for the same reason that sleep pleases him: on the other hand, every thing that requires care, trouble, or self-denial, is hateful to him for the same reason that he hates to rise.
4. It is not possible in nature for an epicure to be truly devout; he must renounce his sensuality, before he can relish the happiness of devotion.
Now, he that turns sleep into an idle indulgence, does as much to corrupt his soul, to make it a slave to bodily appetites, as he that turns the necessity of eating into a course of indulgence.
A person that eats and drinks too much, does not feel such effects from it as those do, who live in notorious gluttony and intemperance; but yet his course of indulgence, tho’ it be not scandalous in the eyes of the world, nor such as torments his own conscience, is a great and constant hindrance to his improvement in virtue: it gives him eyes that see not, and ears that hear not; it creates a sensuality in the soul, increases the power of bodily passions, and makes him incapable of entering into the true spirit of religion.