kept within doors, he would be kidnapped. This had the desired effect. Colvin, when he set out for Manchester, concluded that he was on his way home to New-Jersey, and never perceived the deception until he came to Bennington, and saw many people with whom he had formerly been acquainted, and he was filled with surprise.

The Prisoner Released. A Sermon delivered at Manchester, Vermont, Lord's Day, Jan. 9th, 1820, on the remarkable interposition of Divine Providence in the deliverance of STEPHEN and JESSE BOORN, who had been under sentence of death for the supposed murder of RUSSELL COLVIN. To which are added, some particulars relating thereto. By LEMUEL HAYNES, A. M., Minister of the gospel in Manchester.

ISAIAH xlix., 9: That thou mayst say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.

HIEROGLYPHICAL illustrations were very common among the eastern nations, which shows the propriety of their being so much used in the sacred volume. The wretched and forlorn state of mankind is set forth. by metaphors the most apt and appropriate. The character and work of the ever-blessed Redeemer are designated in terms calculated to meet the exigences of fallen creatures. Are men said to be blind? Jesus is exhibited as the light of the world; as one who has eyesalve and can open the eyes. Are men said to be poor Christ is compared to gold, who can make them rich. Are they naked? he has white raiment to clothe them, that the shame of their nakedness need not appear. Are men starving? Jesus is the bread of life. Are we in bondage or in prison? Christ is anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isa. lxi., 1: "He says to the U

?

prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves!"

Prisons are of ancient date-they have their origin in human depravity. They are places where criminals < are confined to restrain them from acts of violence, and to secure the safety of the commonwealth. There is doubtless reference had in my text to the emancipation of the Jews from a long and distressing captivity, which is emblematical of the conversion of sinners that are in spiritual thraldom, but yet prisoners of hope. Could the late wonderful providence of God in delivering our fellow-mortals be improved for the emancipation of precious souls from the prison of death and hell, oh! with what thanksgiving, with what ecstasies of joy should we hail such an event! To improve it to this purpose is my main design on this occasion, and I am persuaded, my brethren, that you will this day bid me God speed, and not withhold your assistance in a matter so solemn and important.

Wherein there is and is not a similarity in the matters before us, is the order proposed.

1. Prisoners are in a state of confinement by an act of the civil authority, and are condemned by law the murderer for shedding blood: so the wicked are arrested by an act of the court of Heaven, and are condemned already, John iii., 18. The endictment against the wicked is very high: God makes inquisition for blood, Psalm ix., 12. Is it not more than probable that the blood of a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, a child, is crying from a repository of the dead against you, with accents not less severe and significant than the blood of a murdered Abel? Yea, perhaps from the prison of eternal despair, to which place your unfaithfulness has consigned them. You are endicted for suicide, for destroying yourselves, Hos. xiii., 9. Neither does the charge stop here. You stand convicted before the court of Heaven for shedding the precious blood of the son of God, or making a violent attempt on the life of the God-man mediator, for piercing the Saviour, Zech. xii., 10, For crucifying the son of God afresh, and for

putting him to open shame, Heb. vi., 6. Does not a groaning creation, adverse Providence, and a guilty conscience, bear a coincident testimony against you ?

2. Prisoners are cut off in a great measure from human society, as unfit for their communion and fellowship. So it is with the wicked-they separate themselves. Saints and sinners are prone to keep at a distance from each other. The prisoner converses principally with his fellows in jail, while those abroad are not fond of their place of abode, nor of their company. While constrained to stay with them, they are forced to exclaim, in the language of David, "Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." Psal. cxx., 5. Men naturally are deprived of the blessing of society, and the privileges of the children of God.

3. Another distressing circumstance that attends prisoners is, they are in a state of darkness, as mentioned in the text. The light of the sun does not shine upon them. The wicked are said to sit in darkness, to walk in darkness, to love darkness, &c. They are blind to their own characters and the character of God-to their own danger, and to the only way of escape. Wicked men behold nothing of the divine glory in his word or in his works. Their eyes are blinded and they cannot Like prisoners confined in a dungeon, no cheering ray can penetrate the impenetrable wall, or illuminate the solitary mansion.

see.

4. A prison is a place of distress and trouble. What a wretched state was Jeremiah in when cast into the dungeon, where was no water, and his feet sank down into the mire! Eastern monarchs, when they had cast their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them; but let them lie a long time in that miserable condition, wholly destitute of relief, and disregarded, says Bishop Lowth. Prisoners among the Romans were fettered and confined in a singular manner. One end of the chain, which was of a commodious length, was fixed about the right arm of the prisoner, and the other about the left

arm of a soldier. Imprisonment, says Dr. Doddridge, is a much greater punishment in the eastern part of the world than here. State criminals, especially when condemned to it, are not only forced to submit to a very mean and scanty allowance, but are frequently loaded with clogs and yokes of heavy wood, in which they cannot either lie or sit at ease; and by frequent scourgings, and sometimes by rackings, are frequently brought to an untimely end. These instances are introduced to illustrate the propriety of the appropriate allusion in my text. The wicked are represented as being under the bonds of iniquity-as perishing with hunger-as travailing in pain all their days, and like the troubled sea that cannot rest.

5. The prisoner assigned to an impregnable castle is in a state of confinement; he cannot extricate himself. His case is in a sense hopeless and helpless, without an interposition of Divine power, as in the case of Daniel, and Silas, and Peter. Sinners in spiritual bondage cannot deliver themselves, being bound with the cords of their sins, and are morally unable to burst their bands asunder, scale or break through the adamantine walls of their iniquities.

6. Imprisonment is a state of degradation. Such are despised and treated with contempt. So the wicked are considered as outcasts, forlorn, vile, and despicable in the sight of God. They are said to be clothed with shame, like prisoners having on them filthy garmentslike wretched captives covered with vermin, loathed and abhorred by the Almighty, and will be treated with infinite contempt at the day of judgment.

7. Criminals have a time appointed by authority for their execution, when they must be brought forth, and in a public manner experience a shameful death. So the sentence is pronounced by the judge of quick and dead against all the finally impenitent, and, in the council of God, the day of their death is appointed by an unalterable decree of Heaven. "The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction-they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath," Job xxi., 30.

8. Poor prisoners in jail are objects of pity and commiseration. They excite the tender sympathy of the humane and benevolent. Their friends mourn their sorrowful state, and tremble at the approach of the day of their execution. Who can describe the distresses of a parent, a brother, or a sister, on the reflection of the state of a child, a brother, doomed to an untimely and ignominious death! They bedew their pillow with tears, and wearisome days and nights are appointed to them. This, my friends, is but an imperfect picture of those agonies and pains that God's people sometimes experience by reflecting on the state of sinners doomed to the first and second death. Paul travailed in pain for the souls of men; was in great heaviness and sorrow of heart. "O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears! Rivers of water run down mine eyes," were the exclamations of holy David, on account of those who were under the condemnatory sentence of God's holy law, and every moment exposed to its awful infliction!

2dly. But it may be useful to draw a contrast between the two cases before us.

en.

1. Prisoners committed to jail among us are assigned there by men, or human tribunals, and not always sanctioned by the Almighty. But the wicked are doomed to punishment by an act issued from the court of HeavJesus, who is appointed judge, pronounces the awful sentence, "Let him be taken from among men, from the prison on earth, and delivered to the tormentors, to suffer eternal death!" The denunciation is from the majesty of Heaven, and fills the trembling criminal with terror and dismay. He shudders! he sinks like an affrighted Belshazzar. His countenance is changed; the joints of his limbs are loosed, and his knees smite one against another! Prisoners condemned by earthly judiciaries may entertain hopes that they may possibly escape the hands of men, or have the sentence reversed, or the punishment commuted; but when it is denounced by the Lord Jesus Christ, the incorrigible sinner can have no hope in his present state.