2. Now _they that sleep, sleep in the night_. The state of nature is a state of utter darkness; a state wherein _darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people_. The poor unawakened sinner, how much knowledge soever he may have as to other things, has no knowledge of himself: in this respect, _he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know_. He knows not that he is a fallen spirit, whose only business in the present world, is to recover from his fall, to regain that image of God wherein he was created. He sees _no necessity_ for _the one thing needful_, even that inward universal change, that _birth from above_ (figured out by baptism) which is the beginning of that total renovation, that sanctification of spirit, soul and body, _without which no man shall see the Lord_. * 3. Full of all diseases as he is, he fancies himself in perfect health: fast bound in misery and iron, he dreams that he is at liberty. He says, Peace, peace, while the devil, _as a strong man armed_, is in full possession of his soul. He sleeps on still, and takes his rest, tho’ hell is moved from beneath to meet him; tho’ the pit, from whence there is no return, hath opened its mouth to swallow him up: a fire is kindled around him, yet he knoweth it not; yea it burns him, yet he lays it not to heart. 4. By one who sleeps we are therefore to understand (and would to God we might all understand it!) A sinner satisfied in his sins; contented to remain in his fallen state, to live and die without the image of God: one who is ignorant both of his disease, and of the only remedy for it: one who never was warned, or never regarded the warning voice of God, _to flee from the wrath to come_: one that never yet saw he was in danger of hell-fire, or cried out in the earnestness of his soul, _What must I do to be saved?_ 5. If this sleeper be not outwardly vicious, his sleep is usually the deepest of all: whether he be of the _Laodicean_ spirit, _neither cold nor hot_; but a quiet, rational, inoffensive, good-natured professor of the religion of his fathers; or whether he be zealous and orthodox, and _after the most straitest sect of our religion, live a Pharisee_; that is, according to the scriptural account, one that _justifies himself_; one that labours _to establish his own righteousness_, as the ground of his acceptance with God.