would think they did GOD fervice (a prophecy, one would. in an especial manner designed for the fuffering minifters of no wonder, I fay, confidering all this of this, that we are told, ver. 6. Sorrow had filled their hearts:

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Becaufe I have faid thefe things unto you, forrow hath. filled your hearts." The expreffion is very emphatical; their hearts were fo full of concern, that they were ready to burst. In order, therefore, to reconcile them to this mournful dispenfation, our dear and compaffionate Redeemer fhews them the neceffity 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 faid, Think not, my dear difciples, that I leave you out of anger: no, it is for your fakes, for your profit, that I go away for if I go not away, if I die not upon I the crofs for your fins, and rife again for your juftification, and afcend into heaven to make interceffion, and plead my day merits before my Father's throne; the Comforter, the Holy Ghoft, will not, cannot come unto you; but if I depart, I will fend him unto you. And that they might know, what he was to do," When he is come, he will reprove the world of fin, and of righteoufnefs, and of judgment.'

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The perfon referred to in the words of the text, is plainly the Comforter, the Holy Ghoft; and the promife was first made to our LORD's apoftles. But though it was primarily made to them, and was literally and remarkably fulfilled at the day of Pentecoft, when the Holy Ghoft came down as a mighty rufhing wind, and alfo when three thousand were pricked to the heart by Peter's preaching; yet, as the Apostles were the reprefentatives of the whole body of believers, we muft infer, that this promife must be looked upon, as, fpokento us, and to our children, and to as many as the LORD our GOD fhall call.

My defign from thefe words, is to fhew the manner ja which the Holy Ghoft generally works upon the hearts of thofe, who, through grace, are made veffels of mercy, and tranflated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of GOD's dear Son.

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I fay, generally: For, as GOD is a fovereign agent, his facred Spirit bloweth not only on whom, but when and how it lifeth. Therefore, far be it from me to confine the Almighty

to

ye is dants to one way of acting, or fay, that all undergo an equal for degree of conviction: no, there is a holy variety in God's methods of calling home his elect. But this we may affirm affatedly, that, wherever there is a work of true conviction and converfion wrought upon a finner's heart, the Holy Ghoft whether by a greater or lefs degree of inward foul-trouble, does that which our LORD JESUS told the difciples, in ther words of the text, text. that he e fhould do when he came.

If any of you ridicule inward religion, or think there there is no fuch thing as our feeling or receiving the Holy Ghoft, I fear my preaching will be quite foolifhnefs to you; and that you will understand me no more than if I fpoke to you in an unknown tongue. But as the promise in the text, is made to inoiq the world, and as I know it will be fulfilling till time fhall be no more, I fhall proceed to explain the general way whereby the Holy Ghoft works upon every converted finner's heart and I hope that the LORD, even whilft I am fpeaking, will be pleased to fulfil it in many of your hearts. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of fin, of righteoufnels, and How od 2.10 of judgment." > bar ant The word, which we tranflate reprove, ought to be rendred convince; and in the original it implies a conviction by way. of argumentation, and coming with a power upon the mind equal to a demonftration. A great many fcoffers of thefe laft days, will afk fuch as they term pretenders to the Spitit, how they feel the Spirit, and how they know the Spirit? They might as well afk, how they know, and how they feel the fun of boxing when it shines upon the body? For with equal power and demonstration does the Spirit of GoD work upon and convince the foul. And, doof of flum ohmong 2:42

1 sl es vism as (bas ¿usiblit'ɔ who of use of First, It convinces of fin; and generally of fome enormous fin, the worst perhaps the convicted perfon ever was guilty of. Thus, when our LORD was converfing with the woman of Samaria, he convinced her first of her adultery: Woman, go call thy hulband. The woman anfwered, and faid, I have no husband. Jesus faid unto her, Thou haft well faid, p I have no hufband for thou haft had five hufbands, and he whom thou now haft, is not thy hufband in this faidit thou truly."With this there went fuch a powerful conviction of VOL. VI.

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all her other actual fins, that foon after," the left her waterAirpot, and went her way into the city, and faith to the men, Come, and fee a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the CHRIST?" Thus our LORD alfo dealt with the perfecutor Saul: he convinced him firft of the horrid fin of perfecution; "Saul, Saul, why perfecuteft thou me?" Such a fenfe of all his other fins, probably at the fame time revived in his mind, that immediately he died; that is, died to all his falfe confidences, and was thrown into fuch an agony of foul, ...that he continued three days, and neither did eat nor drink. This is the method the Spirit of GOD generally takes in dealing with finners; he first convinces them of fome heinous actual fin, and at the fame time brings all their other fins into remembrace, and as it were fets them in battle-array before them: When he is come, he will reprove the world of fin."

And was it ever thus with you, my dear hearers? (For I muft 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 fins thus to remembrance, and make you cry out to GOD, Thou writest bitter things against me?" Did your actual fins ever appear before you, as though drawn in a map? If not, you have great reafon (unless you were fanctified from the womb) to fufpect that you are not convicted, much more not converted, and that the promife of the text was never yet fulfilled in your hearts.

Farther: When the Comforter comes into a finner's heart, though it generally convinces the finner of his actual fin first, yet it leads him to fee and bewail his original fin, the fountain from which all thefe polluted ftreams do flow.

Though every thing in the earth, air, and water; every thing both without and within, concur to prove the truth of that affertion in the fcripture," in Adam we all have died;" yet moft are fo hardened through the deceitfulness of fin, that notwithstanding they may give an affent to the truth of the proposition in their heads, yet they never felt it really in their hearts. Nay, fome in words profeffedly deny it, though their works too, too plainly prove them to be degenerate fons of a degenerate father. But when the Comforter, the Spirit of

GOD,

GOD, arrefts a finner, and convinces him of fin, all carnal reafoning 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 fhall deliver me from the body of this death?" He now finds that concupifcence is fin; and does not so much bewail his actual fins, as the inward perverfeness 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 fuch a convincing power as this into your hearts? Were you ever made to fee and feel, that in your flesh dwelleth no good thing; that you are conceived and born in fin; that you are by nature children of wrath; that GOD would be just if he damned you, though you never committed an actual fin in your lives? So often as you have been at church and facrament, did you ever feelingly confefs, that there was no health in you; that the remembrance of your original and actual fins 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 fouls: confequently you are not in the faith properly fo called; no, you are at prefent in a state of death and damnation.

Again, the Comforter, when he comes effectually to work upon a finner, not only convinces him of the fin of his nature, and the fin of his life, but alfo of the fin of his duties.

We all naturally are Legalifts, thinking to be justified by the works of the law. When fomewhat awakened by the terrors of the LORD, we immediately, like the Pharifees of old, go about to establish our own righteousness, and think we fhall find acceptance with GOD, if we feek it with tears: finding ourselves damned by nature and our actual fins, 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 foul of these false refts, and makes the finner to fee that all his righteoufneffes are but as filthy rags; and that, for the most pompous fervices, he deferves no better a doom than that of the unprofitable fervant, "to be thrown into outer darkness,

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darknefs, where is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth."

And was this degree of conviction ever wrought in any of your fouls? Did the Comforter ever come into your hearts, fo as to make you fick of your duties, as well as your fins? Were you ever, with the great Apoftle of the Gentiles, made to abhor your own righteoufnefs 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 yourfelves is but dung and drofs? And that all the arguments you can fetch for mercy, must be out of the heart and pure unmerited love of God? Were you ever made to lye at the feet of fovereign Grace, and to fay, LORD, if thou wilt, thou mayeft save me; if not, thou mayeft justly damn me; I have nothing to plead, I can in no wife justify myfelf in thy fight; my beft performances, I fee, 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 finfulness every way, fmite upon your breafts, and fay, "God be merciful to us finners?" If you never were thus minded, the Comforter never yet effectually came into your fouls, you are out of CHRIST; and if GOD fhould require your fouls in that condition, he would be no better to you than a confuming-fire.

But there is a fourth fin, of which the Comforter, when he comes, convinces the foul, and which alone (it is very remarkable) our LORD mentions, as though it was the only fin worth mentioning; for indeed it is the root of all other fins whatsoever it is the reigning as well as the damning fin of the world. And what now do you imagine that fin may be? It is that curfed fin, that root of all other evils, I mean the fin of unbelief. Says our LORD, verfe 9. "Of fin, becaufe they believe not on me.".

But does, the chriftian world, or any of you that hear me this day, want the Holy Ghoft to convince you of unbelief?

Are