opening of the prison to them that are bound; and our commission, like that of our Lord himself, is to preach liberty to the captives, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord; that æra of grace, pardon, and deliverance, which began with the nativity of Christ, and will last till the consummation.

My brethren, it is of God's infinite mercy, that when I stand here, I have such glad tidings to deliver to you. What will be said for you, if you do not hear them, and make your advantage of them? If the light should shine upon you, and your darkness should not comprehend it? If you should wear your chains, and be contented with them, when you may enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of God? If the iron gate should be shut upon you, and barred for ever against you, when the Angel of the Lord has offered to let you out, that you may escape, and flee from the wrath to come? As it would have gratified the malice of the Jews, to have seen the blessed Apostle dragging his chains, and led out to execution; so will the evil spirits rejoice against you, when you are carried forth to punishment in the day of vengeance: they will mock at that indolence, that fatal drowsiness and stupidity, which lost for ever the opportunity of salvation.

The

The practical duty which we are to infer from all that has been said, is that kind of charity, which exercises itself in delivering others, either from sin or from sorrow. The question will be put to us, whether we have visited those that were in bondage, as the day spring from on high hath visited us? He who has no compassion upon his poor brother, that is bound, either by sickness, poverty, debt, sorrow, or sin, is insensible of the blessings of his own redemption : into his prison the light hath not yet shined, but he is in darkness even until now. To enlighten the ignorant, to raise up the afflicted, to restore the guilty to pardon, to awaken the imprisoned soul, and strike it with a sense of its own misery, and of God's mercy; these are the proper works of the children of light. If we do these things to others, then we shew all men that we believe God has done the same for us; and this is the best security we can find in the great day of inquisition and retribution. And why doth God require these things of us? Not for his sake, but our own: not that we may repay him for what he has done, but that we may qualify ourselves for the hearing of that blessed sentence, worth ten thousand worlds-Well done-enter thou into the joy

of

of thy Lord which, may he grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ, who was manifested to us Gentiles, that we should no longer sit in darkness, but have the light of life.

SERMON

SERMON VII.

AND WHEN IT WAS DETERMINED THAT WE SHOULD SAIL INTO ITALY, THEY DELIVERED PAUL AND CERTAIN OTHER PRISONERS UNTO ONE NAMED JULIUS, A CENTURION OF AUGUSTUS' BAND. ACTS XXVII. 1.

ALL the adventures of St. Paul are worth the consideration of a devout reader of the scripture; but few parts of his history are more remarkable than this of his voyage and shipwreck in his passage to Rome. Several articles of that narrative, which is given us in the chapter from whence the text is taken, are so interesting, that I shall select them in the following discourse, and add as I go along such remarks as shall naturally arise from them. As to any criti

cal

cal consideration of the geographical part of this narrative, I have no concern with it, my design being rather of a moral nature. I shall not dispute about the true direction of the wind called Euroclydon; neither shall I enquire whether the island called Melita was that which is now called Malta, near to Sicily, or another of the like name among the islands of the Archipelago. I shall neglect all such critical disquisitions for the present, and confine myself to such observations, as may teach us to understand in a better manner the goodness of God and the perverseness of man; both of which were signally displayed on this occasion.

The particulars I mean to extract and propose to your meditation are these following:

1. I shall consider the situation and circumstances of the Apostle sailing a prisoner to Rome.

2. The error of Julius the centurion in not taking the Apostle's judgment concerning the voyage.

3. The attempt of the shipmen to flee out of the ship, and leave her in a helpless condition.

4. The comfort, encouragement and safety derived to the whole company from the presence of St. Paul,