malicious reports were spread, and when it was brought to a town, some would say-The men that turn the world upside down are come here also.' Men who loved sin, and lived in sin, disliked the light of the gospel, because it discovered their evil deeds. Aud persons long used to superstition, error, and devil worship, were unwilling to forsake their old religion, as they called it. But when they saw miracles performed before their eyes; when they saw numbers of sick people healed with a word or a touch; when they saw some of their neighbours forsake the altars of their idols, and become moral and lovely in their conduct, they were forced to stop and consider how these things could be, and some of them would of course go and hear for themselves. Our text supposes such a thing; 'If there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned '—an unbeliever-an infidel-or an ignorant person, one unacqnainted with Christ and salvation. God often overruled this kind of curiosity for good. Zaccheus, a rich publican, wished much to see Christ when he passed through Jericho. He only wanted to gratify his curiosity in seeing a man who was so much talked of; but Christ in mercy called and converted him. It is good to be near Christ; he often meets with those who are in the way,' and 'is found by those who sought him not.' And it is happy for many that they did not suffer their own prejudices, or the fear of man, to prevent their going among serious persons, to hear and judge for themselves.

III. We observe further, that primitive preaching had a tendency to convince men of their being sinners, in a state of guilt and danger.

It was a principal part of the work of the prophets of old, to cry aloud and testify against the sins of the people. John the Baptist preached repentance. So did our Lord himself. And he commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations'-repentance, in order to remission. As the whole need not the physician, but the sick;' as the disease must be felt, before the remedy can be desired; so must all men know the diseased and dangerous state of their souls, before they can believe

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in Christ to the saving of their souls.' Accordingly, we find St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, charging sin upon the people of Jerusalem; the effect of which was, they were pierced to the heart,' and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?' Thus in our text-the unbeliever, coming into the assembly, is convinced of all, of all the preachers; whoever preached, his doctrine had this tendency, to convince the man of sin. This is done, not merely by the power of the word, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, going along with the word. This is one of the great works of the Spirit, as our Saviour promised, John xvi. 8, When he is come he shall reprove, or CONVINCE the world of sin; it is the same word as in the text; it signifies to convince by way of argument; to stop the mouth of the guilty person, conviet him, by his own conscience, and leave him without excuse.

The word of God is the chief mean of convincing people of sin. Reason and conscience alone are not sufficient. It is true, that those who have not a written law, or the Bible, are a law unto themselves; they shew the work of the law written in their hearts,' and their consciences accuse them when they do evil, and excuse them when they do well; but all this is done in a very weak and imperfect manner. The light of nature discovers some sins, but not all. It discovers scarcely any sins but those that hurt our neighbour. It discovers that there is a God, and that he should be worshipped; but it does not tell us how. It does not tell us half the duties we owe to God, and therefore not half the sins we commit in not performing them. The light of nature does not shew us the root of sin, in our fallen nature. It does not shew us what hearts we have, deceitful and desperately wicked,' as they really are. It cannot show us that a lustful glance, or angry thought, or a covetous desire, is sinful, as our Lord, in his sermon on the Mount, declares them all to be. Besides, natural conscience is often stupid and unfaithful. When men

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live long in sin, the conscience becomes callous and unfeeling, seared, as it were, with an hot iron.' It is corrupt, like all the other powers of our souls, and is too weak and feeble, without superior aid, to con

vince us, in a due manner, of our sinful and dangerous condition.

THE LAW of God, contained in the ten commandments, is an instrument of mighty power in the hand of the Spirit, to convince men of sin. The words of the law, as printed in a book, or laid up in the memory, or fixed up in a church, are not of themselves sufficient for this purpose. No, they must be spiritually understood, and applied to the heart. St. Paul himself is a notable instance: 'I was alive,' saith he, without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' He never was without the words of the law, he knew them from a child-but he was without the true knowledge of the law, as a spiritual law, requiring truth in the inward parts,' and condemning a sinful thought. It was the tenth commandment that opened his eyes; 'I had not known sin,' he saith, 'except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet ;' by this he saw that a desire might be sinful; and seeing this he was convinced of sin. Where natural conscience sees one sin, the law shews a thousand. What natural conscience thought a mole-hill, the law shows to be a mountain. What natural conscience thought merely not quite right, the law shews to be a daring act of rebellion, and worthy of eternal death.

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For besides being convinced of all,' our text adds, ' he is judged of all;' he is tried, cast, and condemned. The consideration of his own sin is fixed on his mind. he cannot forget it, he cannot get rid of it. My sin is ever before me,' said the Psalmist. It is brought home to his conscience, as when Nathan said to David, 'Thou art the man!' The truly convinced sinner receives the sentence of death in himself. The law says, 'The soul that sinneth shall die.' The conscience says, "I have sinned, and therefore I must die.' The law says,

Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' The conscience says, 'I have not continued in all things, therefore I am cursed.' It is the office of an enlightened conscience to anticipate the judgment of the great day; now to inspect the books that will be opened then, and so to judge ourselves that we may not be judged; so

to condemn ourselves that we may not then be condemned. Most men have such a notion of the mercy of God, as to forget his justice and holiness; they fortify themselves in his mercy against his justice. But when a person is convinced of sin, he sees that God is holy and just; and he cannot but dread these terrible attributes, till he learns from the gospel how God is at once a just God and a Savionr; just, yet the justifier of the ungodly,' who believe in Jesus.

IV. Another observation we make on the text is, Preaching the word tends to disclose the secret workings of the heart, which were unobserved before. are the secrets of his heart made manifest.

And thus

Most men are so busied in worldly affairs, or stupified with worldly pleasures, that they are great strangers to themselves. They are also lulled asleep by the soft preaching of virtue, and morality, and sincere obedience, which they flatter themselves they have, so that they give themselves no trouble about religion. But the faithful preaching of God's word has a tendency to rouse men from this supineness. The word of God is a mirror that does not flatter. It shews men their hearts. It does not only tell men what they ought to be, but shews them what they are. It leads them, from observing the streams of their evil actions, to trace them up to the fountain; the corrupt fountain of their fallen nature. Thus when David confesses his sin of adultery, in Psalm li. he acknowledges the spring of this horrid evil- Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' So, when our Lord would convince Nicodemus that he must be born again, he shewed him, that what was born of the flesh, was flesh,' nothing more, nothing better; nothing but corruption and defilement, as Paul confesses, In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing; and elsewhere, The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.' So God declared of the old world- Every imagination of man's heart is only evil. continually.' Now a convinced sinner knows this, feels this; and thus the 'secrets of his heart are made manifest." The Lord opens the root of bitterness; makes us smell the sink of sin; discovers the dung

hill whence all these little serpents were bred; shews us the rotten core, as well as the worm-eaten skin; that the nature of the person lies in wickedness, as a mole in the earth, or a carcase in putrefaction, (1 John v. 19.) all under sin; no good spring in the heart; that there is a poison in the heart that taints every work of the hand, imagination, fancy, thoughts of the mind, and motions of the will. He brings a man from the chamber of outward sins to the closet of inward iniquities, till he arrives at the large room of NATURE; bids him see if he can find out one clean corner in the heart; and so conducts him to the first sin of Adam; makes him behold the first fountain whence all issued; and all little enough to make the proud heart stoop to God: this makes a man vile in his own eyes, so that he cannot look upon himself but with confusion, and an universal blush.' So speaks the excellent Mr. Charnock.

Persons who have not been used to hear the gospel, are frequently surprised, when they sit under a powerful ministry, to hear their own case and character so exactly described. It is not uncommon for them to charge their friends with having been to the ministers beforehand, to tell them their case. But this is no new thing. The remembrance of one sin leads to the remembrance of another. Sins that have been forgotten many years, have a kind of resurrection in the mind, so that they seem to surround and terrify the soul of an unawakened sinner. Thus it was with the woman of Samaria, who was converted by our Lord at the well; having detected her in the lewd course of life which she led, and being convinced that he was a prophet, she ran to call her neighbours, saying, 'Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ? This is the proper and powerful effect of the word of God, which carries with it a mighty and convincing argument of its truth, as being the word of Him who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins of the children of men.' The person who thus hears the word to purpose, knows the plague of his own heart.' He boasts no more of a good heart.

He sees it is full of sin; which he no longer delights in, nor