the law, and God has bound thee; to whom canst thou apply to loose thee? If men lay on bands, God can loose the prisoner, whether they will or not: "The Lord loofeth the prifoners," Pfal. cxlvi. 7. But if God lay on the bands, the whole creation may ftand and commiferate the prifoner. They may drop a tear, but neither angels nor men can loose him. There are bands on thee of Satan's laying on; and these must be fad ones which are laid on by that hand. He is the strong man; it must be a stronger than he who can loose them; this is beyond thy reach. Thou doft not feel God's bands, but walkeft lightly under them. Thou entertainest and takest a pleasure in Satan's chains, in your company, finful pleasures, and the like. This makes thy efcape the more hopelefs; while thou rejoiceft in thine iron fetters, as if they were chains of gold, it is an evidence that thou art befide thyfelf.-Finally, Thefe bands will infallibly fecure thy ruin, if thou be not loofed in time; thou wilt die in the prifon, if thou be not timeously brought out. There is but one step betwixt thee and death, eternal death. If thou die in the prison of an unconverted ftate, thou wilt go to the prison of hell, where the prisoners are kept without hope of any release.

This being the cafe, fee to yourselves in time, O prifoners of hope! Labour to be loofed from your bands, that you die not in the pit.--To fuch I would offer the following ADVices.

1. Awake, and feel the weight of the bands on thee; there is no hope of thy deliverance while thou walkeft lightly under them. Mourn over your guilt, your unbelief, and long for deliver

ance.

2. Put your cafe in the hand of the great Cautioner, who is willing and able to relieve you. Employ

Employ the Advocate, who will certainly carry the plea in your favour. He will not do as the butler who forgot Jofeph, though employed to use his intereft to bring him out of prison; but by the blood of his covenant Jefus will deliver you.

3. Give in your petition to your Judge: Job, ix. 15. "I would," fays Job, "make my fuppli, cation to my Judge." Pray, pray, ye prayerlets perfons; pray every day, pray always, ye who pray only now and then; a fign that ye have to begin this exercife, to pray to purpose. Pray feriously, fervently, importunately, ye that are formal in prayer. Your life lies at stake; there is

no time to trifle.

4. Haften your trial, that your plea may be heard before a throne of grace; for if you miss that tribunal, it will come before another at death and judgement, when it will be impoffible for you to ftand. There are two tribunals for fuch prifoners, the tribunal of mercy and grace, and the tribunal of juftice. -There is, the tribunal of mercy and grace, to which the finner is brought in the work of converfion, in time, in this world.. Hither the elect prifoner is brought, and stands trembling, while other prifoners lie ftill in the prifon, jovial and eafy. Here he is accufed, convicted, and condemned; he fubfcribes to the equity of the fentence; but, by the provifion made in this court for criminals, he comes off acquitted from the fentence of death, to return to the prison no morę. -There is the tribunal of justice, to which the finner is brought at death and the last day. Here the prifoner, in his natural ftate, is fifted, accused, convicted, and condemned without remedy: Matth. xxii. 13. "Then faid the king to the fervants, Bind him (that wants the wedding-garment) hand and foot, and take him

away,

there

away, and cast him into utter darkness ; fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And from hence he is fent into the prifon of hell. At the one or the other of these tribunals, all the prifoners must appear for their trial. To the first, I would have you to haften your caufe; for it has advantages which the other has not. In the firft, the law is fubfervient to the gospel, and condemns, to make the finner flee to the Mediator: Gal. iii. 24. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Chrift, that we might be juftified by faith." In the fecond, the law condemns, to make the finner's cafe abfolutely hopeless. The one makes the finner fick unto life and everlasting health, the other to death. At the one, a perfon may have the advantage of a Surety to undertake for his debt, of an Advocate to plead for him, I John, ii. 1. "If any man fin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our fins." He never fails to bring his client's cause to a comfortable iffue. But at the other, there is no Cautioner, no Advocate; the prisoner must act all for himself; yea, the Cautioner and Advocate is judge to condemn him.-Finally, at the one, there is a covert of blood for the condemned man to flee under, where the sentence of death cannot take effect. There are horns of an altar, from which justice cannot take him, and a city of refuge, where he fhall be fafe. But none of these are to be had at the other; therefore hafte the trial.. We now proceed,

III. To confider the darkness and blindness of the prisoners in a natural state. Here it will be neceffary to attend to three things. First, The nature of this blindness. Secondly, The kinds of

it

And

it incident to these prifoners. And, thirdly, The effects of it upon them. Let us attend, Firft, To the nature of this blindness. here we may observe, that it is a spiritual, and not a bodily defect. Though they have their eyes in their heads, their poor fouls are full of darknefs: Eph. v. 8. "Ye were fometimes darkress.” Though they may have a natural and literal knowledge of spiritual things, yet they want the fpiritual and faving light of life: 1 Cor. ii. 14. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually difcerned." How manifeftly are thefe distinguished! Though they have the knowledge of the hiftory of these things, yet they are ftrangers to the mystery of them. Thus it is faid, Deut. xxix. 4. " Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to fee, and ears to hear, unto this day." -Again, it is total blindness. They are not only dark, but darkness itself, Eph. v. 8. There is not the leaft gleam of faving light in their fouls; they are abfolute strangers to, and unacquainted with God in Christ. Their fervice in religion is to an unknown God. They know not Chrift; there is a tranfcendent glory in him, but they cannot perceive it. They are ftrangers to themselves; they are wretched and miserable, but know it not, Rev. iii. 17. They fee not their fins in their own ugly colours, in their natural deformity.-Let us,

Secondly, Attend to the kinds of blindnefs inci-dent to these prisoners. There is- a natural blindnefs common to all of them. All Adam's children are born blind: Rom. iii. 11. "There is none that understandeth, there is none that feeketh after God." Our minds naturally are void of faving light, we have loft faving knowledge, with other

parts

parts of God's image. Hence, whenever grace opens the eyes, people are as it were brought into a new world, feeing things they never faw before, and seeing them in that manner in which they never faw them before. Again, There is an acquired blindness, which they procure to themselves. Eph. iv. 18. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindnefs of their heart." The power and prevalence of lufts blind them more and more to the true intereft of their fouls. The light fhines about them, but they hate it; it glances in their faces from the word and providence, but they fhut their eyes, and will not let it in: Ifa. xxvi. 11. "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not fee." They by this means ftrengthen their difeafes; and the longer they continue in it, there is the lefs hope. --Finally, There is a judicial blindness: Ifa. vi. 9. 10. " And he faid, Go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and fee ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people. fat, and make their ears heavy, and fhut their eyes." They rebel against the light, they abuse that light which they have, they will not open their eyes to clear light, and God judicially fhuts them. He withdraws the common influence of his Spirit from them, and they are infatuated, so that they cannot fee their own true intereft, but act as fools and madmen in matters of the greatest importance. They are "delivered over to a reprobate mind, to do thofe things which are not convenient," Rom. i. 28. They are alfo delivered to Satan, who, ast the executioner of justice, binds them more and more: 2 Cor. iv. 4. " He blinds the minds of them that believe not."-We are to attend,

Thirdly, To the effects of this blindness on the prisoners.