Page 527
The Thirty first SERMON. * 1.1 (Book 31)
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. * 1.2
THis Scripture represents unto us the miserable and lamentable state of the unregenerate, as being under the power of spiritual death, which is the cause and in-let of all other miseries. From hence therefore I shall make the first discovery of the woful and wretched state of them that apply not Jesus Christ to their own souls.
The scope of the Apostle in this Context, is to press believers to a circumspect and holy life; to walk as children of light. This exhortation is laid down in ver. 8. and pressed by diverse arguments in the following verses.
First, from the tendency of holy principles unto holy fruits and practices, ver. 9, 10.
Secondly, from the convincing efficacy of practical godli∣ness upon the consciences of the wicked, ver. 11, 12, 13. It awes and convinces their consciences.
Thirdly, from the co incidence of such a conversation with the great design and drift of the scriptures: which is to awa∣ken men by regeneration out of that spiritual sleep, or ra∣ther death which sin hath cast them into: And this is the Ar∣gument