would it be to the feelings of humanity, to be the bearer of the act that would confirm the blessing, and spread the joyful intelligence through the seats of oppression and slavery abroad! {50} But it is not to the West Indies or to Africa alone, that we are to wish the blessings of liberty. Even in this land of freedom we abound with slaves; who, while entreating liberty for others, feel not the chains that enslave themselves to a degree the most humiliating. Many boast of political freedom, who are under the galling yoke of spiritual thraldom. They are tied and bound with the chains of sin, which is the worst slavery, and are led captive by Satan, the most dreadful of tyrants. Yet they bear his yoke contentedly, and feel not the chains that form a sad prelude of eternal captivity. But here the great importance of religion is displayed. By revealing an act of emancipation from the council of the Trinity, and directing a world of captives to look for life and liberty to Jesus the mighty Redeemer, it “opens the prison to them that are bound,” Isa. lxi. 1, and shows a ransom paid down by his precious death, which makes infinite justice say in behalf of the sinner who believes the record, “Deliver him from going down to the pit.” Oh! that each enslaved sinner may apply the great redemption! and, “knowing the truth as it is in Jesus,” be set free from the entanglements of the world, the dominion of his lusts, or the more refined but deeply rooted delusion of self-righteousness!