Holy Spirit after our Lord's ascension, have been led to form such sentiments about sin, rigliteousness, and a future judg- ment, as the world up to that time had not the most remote conception of ; so that a far higher standard of morals has been fixed throughout numerous nations than was at all thought of before."
9, — [Of sin...beUeve not. ..Me.] I think this verse means, " The Holy Ghost shall first and foremost convince the world con- cerning sin, by obliging my enemies to see, though too late, that in not believing Me they made an enormous mistake, and committed a great sin. He shall make them feel at last that in rejecting Me, they rejected One whom they ought to have believed."
10. — [Of righteousness. ..no more.] I think this verse means, " The Holy Ghost, secondly, shall convince the world concerning my righteousness, that I was a righteous Man, and not a deceiver. And this He will do after I have left the world, when the Jews can no longer see Me, and form any opinion of Me. I go to the Father, you knoAv, and you will soon see me no more. But after 1 am gone the Holy Ghost will oblige my enemies to feel that I was a just and righteous Person, and was unjustly elain." Even the centurion who saw our Lord crucified, de- clared, "Certainly this was a righteous man." (Luke xxiii. 46.)
11. — [Of judgment. ..judged] I think this verse means, " The Ho- ly Ghost, in the last place, shall convince the world concerning the judgment and overthrow of Satan's usurped power, by set- ting up a new kingdom everywhere, even my Church, by emp- tying the heathen temples of their worshippers, and by drying up the power of idolatry, and delivering vast portions of the world from its dominion." "
The " Prince of this world," of course means the devil. How great His power was over mankind before Christ came into the world, and how great a change Christ's death and resurrection produced in the general condition of mankind, are things which at this period of time we can hardly realize. The com- ing of the " kingdom of God," or " kingdom of heaven," was a reality 1800 years ago, of which we can now form little idea. The Holy Ghost produced a general conviction that a new or- der of tilings had begun, and that the old king and tyrant of the world was dethroned and stripped of much of his power.
Such is the view that I take of this passage. I do not pre- tend to deny that there are difficulties about it. I only main- tain that these difficulties are fewer than those which surround the common idea attached to the passage.
Poole's " Annotations " perhaps throw more light on the pas- sage than any commentary I have met with. But even he says
7