synagogues, and excommunicate them; yea, that the time should come, that whosoever killed them, would think they did God service (a prophecy, one would imagine, in an especial manner designed for the suffering ministers of this generation;) no wonder, I say, considering all this that we are told, ver. 6. Sorrow had filled their hearts. "Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts." The expres sion is very emphatic; their hearts were so full of concern, that they were ready to burst. In order, therefore, to reconcile them to this mournful dispensation, our dear and compassionate Redeemer shows them the necessity he lay under to leave them. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away." As though he had said, Think not my dear disciples, that I leave you out of anger: no, it is for your sakes, for your profit that I go away: for if I go not away, if I die not upon the cross for your sins, and rise again for your justification, and ascend into heaven to make intercession, and plead my merits before my Father's throne, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, will not, cannot come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And, that they might know what he was to do, "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."

The person referred to in the words of the text, is plainly the Comforter, the Holy Ghost; and the promise was first made to our Lord's apostles. But though it was primarily made to them, and was literally and remarkably fulfilled at the day of pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down as a mighty rushing wind, and also when three thousand were pricked to the heart by Peter's preaching; yet, as the apostles were the representatives of the whole body of believers, we must infer, that this promise must be looked upon as spoken to us and to our children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call.

My design from these words, is to show the manner in which the Holy Ghost generally works upon the hearts of those, who, through grace, are made vessels of mercy, and translated from the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

I say, generally: for as God is a sovereign agent, his sacred Spirit bloweth not only on whom, but when and how it listeth. Therefore, far be it from me to confine the Almighty to one way of acting; or to say, that all undergo an equal degree of conviction; no, there is a holy variety in God's methods of calling home his elect. But this we may affirm assuredly, that, wherever there is a work of true conviction and conversion wrought upon a sinner's heart, the Holy Ghost, whether by a greater or less degree of inward soul-trouble, does that which our Lord

Jesus told the disciples, in the words of the text, that he should do when he came.

If any of you ridicule inward religion, or think there is no such thing as our feeling or receiving the Holy Ghost, I fear my preaching will be quite foolishness to you, and that you will understand me no more than if I spoke to you in an unknown tongue. But as the promise in the text is made to the world, and as I know it will be fulfilling till time shall be no more, I shall proceed to explain the general way whereby the Holy Ghost works upon every converted sinner's heart; and I hope that the Lord, even whilst I am speaking, will be pleased to fulfill it in many of your hearts. "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The word which we translate reprove, ought to be rendered convince; and in the original it implies a conviction by way of argumentation, and coming with a power upon the mind equal to a demonstration. A great many scoffers of these last days, will ask such as they term pretenders to the Spirit, how they feel the Spirit, and how they know the Spirit? They might as well ask, how they know, and how they feel the sun when it shines upon the body? For with equal power and demonstration does the Spirit of God work upon and convince the soul. And,

First, It convinces of sin; and generally of some enormous sin, the worst perhaps the convicted person ever was guilty of. Thus, when our Lord was conversing with the woman of Samaria, he convinced her first of her adultery: "Woman, go call thy husband. The woman answered, and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband; in this saidst thou truly." With this, there went such a powerful conviction of all her other actual sins, that soon after, she "left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, and see a man that told me all things that ever I did: Is not this the Christ ?" Thus our Lord also dealt with the pesecutor Saul: he convinced him first of the horrid sin of persecution: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me !" Such a sense of all his other sins, probably at the same time revived in his mind, that immediately he died; that is, died to all his false confidences, and was thrown into such an agony of soul, that he continued three days, and neither did eat nor drink. This is the method the Spirit of God generally takes in dealing with sinners; he first convinces them of some heinous actual sin, and at the same time brings all their other sins into remembrance, and as it were, sets them in battle-array before them. "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin."

And was it ever thus with you, my dear hearers? (For i must question you as I go along, because I intend, by the divine help, to preach not only to your heads, but your hearts.) Did the Spirit of God ever bring all your sins thus to remembrance, and make you cry out to God, "thou writest bitter things against me?" Did your actual sins ever appear before you, as though drawn in a map? If not, you have great reason (unless you were sanctified from the womb) to suspect that you are not convicted, much more not converted, and that the promise of the text was never yet fulfilled in your hearts.

Farther: When the Comforter comes into a sinner's heart, though it generally convinces the sinner of his actual sin first, yet it leads him to see and bewail his original sin, the fountain from which all these polluted streams do flow.

Though every thing in the earth, air and water; every thing both without and within, concur to prove the truth of that assertion in the scripture, "in Adam we all have died;" yet most are so hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, that notwithstanding they may give an assent to the truth of the proposition in their heads, yet they never felt it really in their hearts. Nay, some in words professedly deny it, though their works too plainly prove them to be degenerate sons of a degenerate father. But when the Comforter, the Spirit of God, arrests a sinner, and convinces him of sin, all carnal reasoning against original corruption, every proud and high imagination, which exalteth itself against that doctrine, is immediately thrown down; and he is made to cry out, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He now finds that concupiscence is sin; and does not so much bewail his actual sins, as the inward perverseness of his heart, which he now finds not only to be an enemy to, but also direct enmity against God.

And did the Comforter, my dear friends ever come with such a convincing power as this into your hearts? Were you ever made to see and feel, that in your flesh dwelleth no good thing; that you are conceived and born in sin; that you are by nature children of wrath; that God would be just if he damned you, though you never committed an actual sin in your lives? So often as you have been at church and sacrament, did you ever feelingly confess, that there was no health in you; that the remembrance of your original and actual sins was grievous unto you, and the burden of them intolerable? If not, you have been only offering to God vain oblations; you never yet prayed in your lives; the Comforter never yet came effectually into your souls: consequently you are not in the faith properly so called; no, you are at present in a state of death and damnation. Again, the Comforter, when he comes effectually to work

upon a sinner, not only convinces him of the sin of his nature, and the sin of his life, but also of the sin of his duties.

We all naturally are legalists, thinking to be justified by the works of the law. When somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord, we immediately, like the pharisees of old, go about to establish our own righteousness, and think we shall find acceptance with God, if we seek it with tears; finding ourselves damned by nature and our actual sins, we then think to recommend ourselves to God by our duties, and hope, by our doings of one kind or another, to inherit eternal life. But, whenever the Comforter comes into the heart, it convinces the soul of these false rests, and makes the sinner to see that all his righteousness is but as filthy rags: that his best works are but so many splendid sins; and that, for the most pompous services he deserves a doom no better than of the unprofitable servant, to be thrown into outer darkness, where is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

And was this degree of conviction ever wrought in any of your souls? Did the Comforter ever come into your hearts, so as to make you sick of your duties, as well as your sins? Were you ever, with the great apostle of the Gentiles, made to abhor your own righteousness which is by the law, and acknowledge that you deserve to be damned, though you should give all your goods to feed the poor? Were you made to feel, that your very repentance needed to be repented of, and that every thing in yourselves is but dung and dross? And that all the arguments you can fetch for mercy, must be out of the heart and the pure unmerited love of God? Were you ever made to lie at the feet of sovereign grace, and to say, Lord, if thou wilt, thou mayest save me; if not, thou mayest justly damn me; I have nothing to plead, I can in no wise justify myself in thy sight; my best performances, I see will condemn me; and all I have to depend upon is thy free grace? What say you? Was this ever, or is this now, the habitual language of your hearts? You have been frequently at the temple; but did you ever approach it in the temper of the poor publican; and, after you have done all, acknowledge that you have done nothing; and upon a feeling experimental sense of your own unworthiness and sinfulness every way, smite upon your breasts, and say, "God be merciful to us sinners?" If you never were thus minded, the Comforter never yet effectually came into your souls; you are out of Christ; and if God should require your souls in that condition, he would be no better to you than a consuming fire.

But there is a fourth sin, of which the Comforter, when he comes convinces the soul, and which alone (it is very remark

able) our Lord mentions as though it was the only sin worth mentioning; for indeed it is the root of all other sins whatsoever. It is the reigning as well as the damning sin of the world. And what now do you imagine that sin may be? It is that cursed sin, that root of all other evils, I mean the sin of unbelief. "Of sin because they believe not on me.”

But does the christian world or any of you that hear me this day want the Holy Ghost to convince you of unbelief? Are there any infidels here? Yes, (O that I had not too great reason to think so) I fear most are such. Not indeed such infidels as professedly deny the Lord that bought us (though I fear too many even of such monsters are in every country;) but I mean such unbelievers, as have no more faith in Christ than the devils themselves. Perhaps you may think you believe, because you repeat the creed, or subscribe to a confession of faith; because you go to church or meeting, receive the sacrament, and are taken into full communion. These are blessed privileges; but all this may be done, without our being true believers. And I know not how to detect your false hypocritical faith better than by putting to you this question: How long have you believed? Would not most of you say, as long as we can remember, we never did disbelieve. Then this is a certain sign that you have no true faith at all: no, not so much as a grain of mustard seed for if you believe now, (unless you were sanctified from your infancy, which is the case of some) you must know that there was time in which you did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost, if ever you received it, convinced you of this. Eternal Truth has declared, "when he is come he will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me."

None of us believe by nature; but after the Holy Ghost has convinced us of our natures, and the sin of our lives and duties, in order to convince us of our utter inability to save ourselves, and that we must be beholden to God, as for every thing else, so for faith (without which it is impossible to please, or be saved by Christ) he convinces us also that we have no faith. Dost thou believe on the Son of God? is the grand question which the Holy Ghost now puts to the soul. At the same time he works with such power and demonstrations, that the soul sees, and is obliged to confess, that it has no faith.

This is a thing little thought of by most who call themselves believers. They dream they are christians because they live in a christian country; if they were born Turks, they would believe on Mahomet; for what is that which men commonly call faith, but an outward consent to the established religion? But do not you thus deceive your own selves; true faith is