that, in this case, an enemy may come, and sow tares among the wheat, so that when the blade springeth up, and bringeth forth fruit, the tares also may make their appearance? How ought we then to feel ourselves indebted to that bodily sleeping and awaking, which so powerfully presses upon our recollection the terrible consequences of this mental sleep! For if the body never slept, whence could we have derived an idea of the sleep of the mind? And if the body never awoke out of sleep, how impossible would it have been for us to have formed a just conception, or indeed any conception at all, of the blessings and advantages resulting from mental awaking!
There is yet one other consideration, which I must beg leave to suggest on the subject of mental sleep and awaking, in order to guard you against the mistaken idea, that since there is danger in being always asleep, therefore your security lies in never sleeping; and that, consequently, the mind ought always to be kept in a state of spiritual thought, or wakefulness, without ever descending into a state of natural thought or sleepiness. This I call a mistaken idea, since the order of heaven requires that every man, during his abode in this lower world of nature, should be employed in some natural calling, or engagement, for the good of society; and it is well known, that every such natural calling
