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. And this is the case of those who waste their time in sleep; it does not _disorder_ their lives, or _wound_ their consciences, as _notorious acts_ of intemperance do; but, like any other more moderate course of indulgence, it silently, and by smaller degrees, wears away the spirit of religion, and sinks the soul into a state of dulness and sensuality. 5. If you consider devotion only as a _time_ of so much prayer, you may perhaps perform it, tho’ you live in this daily indulgence; but if you consider it as a _state_ of the heart, that is deeply affected with a sense of its own misery and infirmities, and desires the Spirit of God more than all things in the world, you will find the spirit of indulgence, and the spirit of prayer, cannot subsist together. Self-denial, of _all kinds_, is the very life and soul of piety; but he that has not so small a degree of it, as to be able to be early at his prayers, can have no reason to think that he has taken up his cross, and is following Christ. *What conquest has he got over himself? What right-hand has he cut off? What trials is he prepared for? What sacrifice is he ready to offer to God, who cannot be so cruel to himself, as to rise to prayer at such a time, as the drudging part of the world are content to rise to their labour? 6. *Some people will not scruple to tell you, that they indulge themselves in sleep, because they have nothing to do: and that if they had either _business_ or _pleasure_ to rise to, they would not lose so much of their time in sleep. But such people must be told, that they mistake the matter; that they have a great deal of business to do; they have a _hardened heart_ to change; they have the _whole spirit_ of religion to get. For surely, he that thinks devotion to be of less moment than business or pleasure; or that he has nothing to do, because nothing but his prayers want him, may be justly said to have the whole spirit of religion to seek.