the dreadful curses of the law, from the bitter charges of conscience, from the mortal sting of death; to be children of the light and of the day; -to be delivered from this body of sin and death, and those domineering lusts which war against the soul, and chain it down to earth and sense ;-to be brought home to God; to dwell, as it were, under his eye; and enjoy the protection and plenty of our Father's house; to have enough now, and a kingdom in reversion:-Is this the deliverance which Christ preached to the captives? and has this deliverance been preached to us? and-have we accepted it? Do we Do we "see with our eyes and hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts?" Are we, in short, converted and healed?":

Do you not know whether you are so, or no? Must you have marks and signs to prove whether you are in prison, or at home? Does it require tedious examination to prove whether it be midnight or mid-day? Must you have a long time to determine whether you are poor and miserable, or have all and abound?-Alas! what is your Christianity? Is the difference between the bondage of sin, and the gentle yoke of Christ, so very small, that you are at a loss to say which of them you wear? Why, then, to bring the matter to an issue, that "every one may bear his own burden," and that you may have rejoicing in yourselves and not in another," let the following criterions be attended to.

If you have never been sensible what a miserable bondage it is to be in subjection to Satan-if you have never been "weary and heavy laden" with the burden of sin; nor so far pinched with its fetters as

to cry out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?"-If you cannot bear to hear sin in general, or at least some particular: sin, spoken against; and your heart rise against any faithful minister, or conscientious Christian, that reproves you for it;-if you make provision for the flesh, and spare no pains nor expence to gratify a prevailing inclination;-if you sin wilfully, deliberately, statedly, with relish and pleasure;-if public sins only are guarded against, and secret faults are freely indulged;-if, when under any remorse, you are more solicitous for pardon than purity, and wish rather to have your consciences stifled than to have your hearts renewed:-in short, if you have never renounced your covenant with death, and disannulled your agreement with hell, and from the bottom of your hearts said, "O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, but by thee only will we make mention of thy name:"-If you know nothing of all this, you know nothing of religion: if you are strangers to this experience, I think, without breach of charity, I may say, You are strangers to Christ; Satan is still in possession, in quiet possession. And perhaps you like to have him so; you would not choose to dis-. turb him; you had rather "sleep on, and take your rest," and sink blindfold and unmolested into destruction, than, by opening your eyes, set your souls in an uproar, and disoblige and enrage the prince of darkness.Let me only speak one word more: Christ is yet willing to deliver you. Did you hear that? Christ is yet willing to deliver

you.

But then, on the other hand, if you have been

deeply sensible that Satan is the worst tyrant in the universe; if you are weary of his service, and look upon it as a far greater evil to be given up to your own hearts' lusts, than to be given up to the power of the worst enemy you have in the world;-if you had rather be kept from sin than excused from suffering; and can willingly stoop to any cross, to have the old man, the body of sin, crucified upon it;if you can bear to hear, especially if you choose and desire to hear, sin represented in its darkest colours; if you can thank the friend that discovers and kindly exposes it in yourselves, and your hearts do not secretly plead for it;-if you avoid as much as possible all occasions of sin; and resolve to watch, and strive, and pray against all sin, and especially against those sins which most frequently and most successfully beset you ;-if the prevailing bent of your wills, and the general course of your lives, prove you to be most intent upon obeying God;→→→ if it be the grief and burthen of your souls that you cannot serve him perfectly; and you would rather have grace to keep all his commandments, than a dispensation to break one of them :--If this be your case, you have the greatest reason to conclude that you have changed masters, and may safely take all the consolation that belongs to those who are turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God."

And now, as a general improvement of this whole subject:

1. Does Christ preach deliverance; Then how welcome should he be to sinners!

Imagine a poor criminal, convicted, condemned,

and the day fixed for his execution at hand. Go to him, and tell him that the king intends to visit him he hears you not, or at least heeds you not. Tell him that all the nobles, and princes, and kings, of the earth are present they are all beggars to him, whose mind is full of the King of kings, before whom he is soon to appear. Dress him in all the gaudy trappings of majesty, put on him the purple robe, set a crown of gold on his head, and lay the treasures of the Indies at his feet: none of these things move him: the world cannot furnish a temptation that will divert him for a moment. The frightful instruments of death, and the still more frightful consequences of death, have so entirely engrossed him, that he sees and thinks of nothing else. But let him hear the dis tant footsteps of a friend, crying, 'A pardon, a pardon!' he is all ear; he leaps up, he runs, he embraces him, he faints, and almost dies for joy. Thus, and infinitely more welcome will Christ be when he comes and preaches deliverance to souls that have been long bowed down with a sense of guilt, and terrified with the hourly dread of death and damnation. If Satan should take such sin-distressed souls up into an exceedingly high mountain, and show them all the glories of this world, and say, "All these things will I give you;" they would stop their ears, and drown his enticements with • None but Christ, none but Christ.'

If this be the disposition, if this be the language," of any presént (as I hope and believe it is)," this day is salvation come to your house." He will "come in, and sup with you, and you with him :"

and "his banner over you shall be love" and he will give you "redemption, through his blood, evén the forgiveness of your sins"-" according to the riches of his grace."

Are there any present (as perhaps there are), who are unaffected by all that has been said;-who reject the offered "eye-salve," saying, Are we blind also?' and, when deliverance is preached to them, reject it with disdain, and say, We were born free, and were never in bondage to any

and who will not come to Christ that they may have life? May I ask, Whither will ye go? Be assured, depend upon it, for God hath said it, there is salvation in no other; "there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby you can be saved." And can you save yourselves; and claim heaven upon the footing of the old covenant, Do this, and live ?-The language of Job would' better become you-and Job, you know, was "a perfect man, and an upright; one that feared God, and eschewed evil"-and yet Job says; . If I wash myself in snow-water, and make my hands never só clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch,' and my own clothes shall abhor me: for he is not a man, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment; neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that may lay his hand upon both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me then would I speak, and not fear him: But it is not so with me." (Job. ix. 30.) "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God! for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord; and say unto him, Take