III. We shall fhew, that Chrift offers to prifoners in a natural state, an opening of their prisons, and a bringing them out of thefe.

The improvement of each will be added as we proceed. We are then,

I. To fhew, that Chrift offers to prifoners in a natural ftate, an opening of their eyes, the recovery of their spiritual fight, and fo to bring them from darkness unto light.

What, do fuch fay, is in this offer? Certain it is that faving illumination is hereby offered to you: Rev. iii. 18. "I counfel thee," fays he, "to anoint thine eyes with eye-falve, that thou mayeft fee." This is a glorious and moft neceffary benefit, a thousand times more neceffary than light to thofe who are naturally blind. The unrenewed world lie in darknefs, they will not, they cannot fee. There is a long and dark night upon them. Christ offers to bring a morning unto their fouls, to make the day-ftar arise there; yea, the Sun of righteousness to fhine there. There is a thick mist about you, fo that you cannot fee your way, but fpend your life in endless wanderings among deep pits. He will, by the fpirit of his mouth, difpel it, and make light to arife up, that ye may fee clearly about you. Your eyes are clouded and blinded: he will make the fcales to fall off from them; and this will give you a threefold fight.There is,

1. A fad and melancholy fight, the faddeft ever you faw, which will make the lightest heart among us all heavy; and this is a fight of yourselves in your univerfal finfulness and defilement. This pricked Paul's hearers to the heart, Acts, ii. 37. It ftruck Paul with the palenefs of death; for "I was alive," faid he," without the law once? but when

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the commandment came, fin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 9. Men naturally are ftrangers to themfelves, but when the prifoner's eyes are opened, he gets a broad view of his finful felf. He fees a corrupt nature, from which no good can come; averfe to good, and prone to evil; not to be changed, but by a miracle of grace: Rom. vii. 24. "O wretched man that I am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?". He fees a corrupt, defperately wicked heart: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked; who can know it ?". Jer. xvii. 9. There is an emptinefs of all good; a fulness of all evil, the feed and root of all abominations which are done in the world, living lufts of all kinds, like fo many vermin in their neft, Mark, vii. 21.; a continual fteam of actual finning and lufting, arifing from hence on the fteam of a dunghill.-Further, he fees a finful life, and converfation, woven into one continued piece of fin, where the parts fometime thought good will appear even black as hell, like the reft; unclean lips, all over defiled with vanity or vileneis; an unclean life, which is unfruitful and unprofitable for God and for themfelves; full of fins against the holy law of God, committed against much light and love, as well as checks by word and providence, &c. When the Lord comes to the prifoner, and opens his eyes, he takes him and leads him through his heart and life; then what a fad fight does he get! then will he cry, as in Job, xl. 4. "Behold, I am vile: What fhall I anfwer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." Then is accomplished these words " hine own wickednefs fhall correct thee, and thy backflidings fhall reprove thee: know therefore, and fee that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou haft forfaken the Lord thy

God,

God, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the Lord of hofts," Jer, ii. 19.-There is,

2. A terrible and frightful fight, which will make the ftouteft heart to tremble, fo that they fhall fay, as Mofes did at the burning mount, "I exceedingly fear and quake.". And this fight is threefold.--There is a fight of an abfolute God, in the glory of his holinefs and juftice, Lev. x. 3. Men's eyes are naturally with-held, fo that they fee not what a God they have to do with, Psal. 1. 21. They think he is altogether fuch an one as themselves; but fays he, "I will reprove thee, and fet them (your fins) in order before you.' When their eyes are opened, they are cured of their fatal mistake: Habbak. i. 13. "Thou art of purer eyes. than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." They fee him on a throne of juftice, angry with the wicked every day; a hater of every fin, a fevere avenger of fin from the least to the greatest, with whom no fin is accounted a fmall thing. There is a fiery ftream iffuing out of his mouth, to devour his adverfaries, as engaged, by his word and nature, to magnify the law and make it honourable. This terrible fight will give the finner experience of the pfalmift's cafe, Pfal xxiii. 3. "I remembered God, and was troubled I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed ;" and hence make his heart cry out within him, as in Ifa. xxxiii. 14. " Who among us fhall dwell with devouring fire? Who among us fhall dwell with everlasting burnings?" -Again, he gets a fight of the fiery law in its abfolute purity, extenfivenefs, and feverity: Rom. "For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, fin revived, and I died." The law, to the blinded, finner, is like a looking-glafs covered over with duft, in

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which the man never sees the true fhadow of himfelf. But when the finner's eyes are opened, the glafs is rubbed clean, and fhines bright, to his terror and aftonifhment. Then it discovers the damnable nature of fome things he thought good, the heinousness of what he reckoned fmall faults, and makes all his fins greater than ever he thought them. He fees the threats and curfes of the law, no more as scarecrows, or as the fhadows of the mountains, but more fure than heaven or earth to have their effect. And then one word of it will go deeper with him, than a thousand ufed to do. Further, he gets a fight of himself, in his miferable, loft, and undone eftate. Like the prodigal, he comes to himself, and fees that he is perifhing with hunger. He fees himself to be ruined, to be a felf-deftroyer; a dead man in law, devoted to deftruction by the curfe of the law; under fentence of éternal death, pronounced by the Judge of all, and registered in the Bible; bound with the threatenings of the law. as fo many cords of death; and withal, utterly unable to extricate himself out of this gulph of fin and mifery: Rom. v. 6. "For when we were yet without ftrength, in due time Chrift died for the ungodly.”"

3. They get a comforting and heart-reviving fight, the most comfortable they ever faw, which will make the most heavy heart joyful. And this is a fight of Chrift in the glory of his Mediatory office: Ifa. xxxiii. 17. “Thine eyes fhall fee the King in his beauty, they fhall behold the land that is very far off." They fee Jefus ftanding-as a Prophet, difcovering thofe thoughts of love, which were from eternity in the breaft of Chrift's Father, toward these prifoners, Standing as a Prieft as he had been flain, at the Father's right hand, making

making interceffion for the prifoner's freedom.-And as a King, having the fovereign command of life and death, and having the keys of the prison in his hand, to take out the prifoner when he will. O glorious fight for the prifoners! when their eyes are opened. It is a threefold fight.-It is a fight of the tranfcendant excellency and loveliness of Jefus, Ifa. xxxiii. 17. (quoted above.) While the prifoner lay in darknefs, he was ready to fay to every lover of Chrift, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" Cant. v. 9. There was then to him more glory in a vain world, in the luft of the eye and the pride of life, than in Chrift. But now that his eyes are opened, he fees a glory in him, which darkens all created excellency, as the rifing fun makes the stars to hide their heads. He appears now as the pearl of great price, Matth. xiii. 46. All the perfections of the divine glory fhine forth in him; these appear in the face of Chrift, as in a glass, of which the prisoner now gets a view. And then none but Chrift for him: Pfal. lxxiii. 25. "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befide thee."-Again, he gets a fight of his fulness for, and suitableness to the cafe of the pri foner. Like the prodigal, Luke, xv. 17. he fees that in his father's houfe there is bread enough and to fpare. He fees then that he needs look to no other quarter for help; that there is an all-fufficient fulness of it in Chrift. Does the prisoner confider his vaft debts? Chrift is a cautioner, a mighty one. Does he confider his crimes? Chrift died to fatisfy for them. He has power over the jailor, and can bind the strong man, loose and bring out the prifoner. Is he defiled in his prifon-garments? Chrift has white raiment to put on him, in exchange for these. Are there iron gates in the

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