and what are the confequents of it; ye have finned, and fo come short of the glory of God. Now we shall proceed to the fecond queftion, What fball we do to be faved? And as the ground of what we are to fay upon this head, we have chofen the words read, in which both the question and anfwer are diftinctly laid down.

In the text and context, we have the account of the converfion of the keeper of the prison at Philippi, a city in Macedonia. In which there occur feveral things very confiderable.

1. The perfon who was converted deserves to have a special remark put upon him. He is a heathen, one of the ruder fort, who was taught blindly to obey what he was put to, without ever enquiring whether right or wrong. He had, but the night before, put the apostles feet in the stocks, and laid them in chains. When God defigns to erect trophies to his grace, he is not wont to fingle out the moral, the wife and polisht fort of finners, left they thould glory in themfelves: but he pitches upon a Mary Magdalen that has feven devils dwelling in her; a perfecuting Saul, a rude Jaylor, that no flesh may glory in his prefence, Cor. i. 26, 27, 28, 29.

2. The place where he is converted, is a prifon, a place where minifters were not wont to come, but when they were brought there, that they might be kept from endeavouring the converfion of finners. When God has a mind to have a finner, he will not want means to accomplish his defign. He can make a place, that is defigned to be a mean of fuppreffing the gospel, fubfervient to its propagation.

3. The exercife of the apoftles under their confinement, deferves a remark. A prifon is not

able

able to keep them from praising God. Sometimes they have been made to fing in a prison, who have been mourning when at liberty. God difpenfes the largest, the richest comforts, when his people need them moft. He can fweeten a ftinking dungeon with the favour of his fweet ointments. He can. foften hard chains, by lining them, as it were, with rich fupplies of grace. He can relax the clofenefs of a prifon, with his free fpirit, who brings liberty where-ever he is. Their hearts are thankful for mercies that they enjoy; and God chooses that time to give them new ones: A ftrong proof that it is indeed a good thing to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Praise for old mercies brings new mercy with it. The liberal man lives by liberal devices.

4. The occafion of the jaylor's conversion is an earthquake which fhook the prifon, opened the doors, and made the chains fall off. A ftrange fort of earthquake indeed, that loofed the prisoners bonds. When the Lord defigns to awaken a finner, if lefs will not do it, a miracle fhall be wrought.

5. It is worthy our observation, that the first influence of this providence was like to have proven fatal and ruining to the man whose falvation was defigned. The first appearances of God for the falvation of finners may have a very strange influence. They may be fo far from bringing the finners, whofe falvation is defigned, nearer, that they may feem to put them further off. The jaylor would have killed himself.

6. Their frame and deportment under this dif penfation is no lefs remarkable. Though the earth be fhaken, their hearts are not fo, but are in a blessed rest and repofe. They know that God

Part II. who shook the earth, was their God, and gave it a commiffion not to wrong, but to help them. This keeps the chriftian calm under shaking providences: the feas may rage, and beat high, but the rock whereon he refts, remains firm, and cannot be fhaken. And a further proof of their frame we have in their regard to the jaylor's fafety. Some would have thought it a happy occafion to make an efcape; but they take care of the keeper's life, though it should be to the endangering of their own. They do good to enemies, and love them that hate them.

7. Their words to the jaylor are remarkable; Do thyself no harm, they feasonably step in for preventing of fin. They represent the fin fo as it might appear the more hateful; they remove the temptation. Herein they leave us an example: if we would prevent the ruines of others, we must step in feasonably. Had they delayed a little long er, the man had been gone past all remedy. If we would discover fin fo as to make it appear fmful, we must represent it under thefe forms which are most likely to engage finners to renounce it. Do thyfelfino harm. Self-prefervation is the prime dictate of nature. For one to deftroy himself, is to act cross to the very foundation of reason, which leads to the ufe of all means that have a tendency to felf-préfervation. And then, they remove the temptation. Thefe who would effectually dif fuade finners from fin, muft let them fee that all the grounds they go upon are mistakes. The man fuppofed they had been gone, and that he would be punished for them; and to evite this imagina ry danger, he would have really ruined himfelf. Thus finners, to evite imaginary evils, run upon real ones; and to gain imaginary advantages, they

lofe

lofe the true gain. And therefore minifters or others, in dealing with them, fhould ftudy to undeceive them in this matter; Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.

Here fome may enquire, how they faw him, when it was now night, and he did not fee them? To this I anfwer, There might be either moonlight, or a candle in the uttermoft room, thereby they might fee what was done there; but yet he could not fee into the remote corners of the innermost prison where they lay in chains.

8. We are to obferve the influence that this check, this feasonable advice, that carrried a reproof in its bofom, had upon the man; it convinced him, it put him into this trembling humble posture we find him in. Here I might obferve many very confiderable truths. Grace ufually begins to work, when finners have gone to a height, to an excess of fin. While the man is practising a bloody crime, and had murdered himself in defign, then grace chooses to lay hold on him, When Saul was grown mad in his perfecution, carrying it even to a foreign country, grace takes the opportunity. It doth not befpeak finners in their lucid intervals; but, to fhew its power, it reaches them when at their worft. Again, how mighty a change can a word work, when the fpirit of God concurs? He whom the earthquake did not deter from finning, is overcome with a word: A word makes him that put their feet in the ftocks, fall down at their feet. One word opens the man's eyes to fee what he never faw before, it fills his heart with concern about falvation, a thing he had not minded before; and the fears of that wrath that he little thought of, when he was juft going to throw himfelf fearlefly in its hands by

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felf

Part II. felf-murder, now make him tremble, and fall down, and cry out, What must I do to be saved? It makes him pay reverence to them to whom he paid none before. He calls them Sirs, a term of honour and refpect. A great change indeed! Here are a multitude of wonders. The terrors of God make a ftout heart to shake. An unconcerned perfecutor lays falvation to heart: and much concern in the heart discovers itself by its effects; it breaks out in the trembling of the body, and the anxious question in the text.

9. Here it is worth our while to enquire; What he was convinced of? That the man is convinced of danger is plain; that it was not the danger of being punished for letting away the prifoners, is no lefs plain; he was now eafed of any fears he had of this fort. In one word, he was convinced of his fin and mifery. This is plain from the apoftles direction. It were blafphemy to think that they mistook his cafe: and the event puts it beyond all doubt, that they were not mistaken; for the cure is no fooner applied than it takes effect. The direction quieted the man's mind; and this makes it plain, that it was fin and mifery that was now in his view; it was the curfe of the law that was pursuing him. We need not fpend time in enquiring what fins he was convinced of. That the fin of felf-murder was the first, feems probable from what has been already discourfed. When the candle of the Lord fills the bofom of a finner with light, the first fin that is feen is ufually fome great fin, and for moft part the fin that was laft committed. This fin was juft now committed; and a monftrous one it was: but though this might be the firft, we have no reafon to think that it was this only; nay, we