OlOS?
One place is more urged, and consequently more abused, than the rest, and therefore must be a little cleared; it is John xvi. 7-11. The words are, "I will send the Comforter to you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judg- ment: of sin, because they believe not in me; of righteousness, be- cause I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." First, It is uncertain whether our author understands the words of the Spirit in and with Christ at the last day, or in and with the ministry of the word now in the days of the gosiicl. If the first, he is foully mistaken ; if the latter, then the conviction here meant intends only those to whom the gospel is preached, — and what that will advantage universal re- demption, w^iich compriseth all as well before as after the death of Christ, I know not. But, secondly, It is uncertain whether he sup- poseth this conviction of the Spirit to attend the preaching of the
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gospel only, or else to consist in strivings and motions even in them who never hear the word of the gospel ; if he mean the latter, we wait for a proof Thirdly, It is uncertain whether he supposeth those thus convinced to be converted and brought to the faith by that convic- tion and that attending effectualness of grace, or no.
But omitting those things, that text being brought forth and in- sisted on, farther to manifest how little reason there was for its pro- ducing, I shall briefly open the meaning of the words. Our Saviour Christ intending, in this his last sermon, to comfort his apostles in their present sad condition, whereto they were brought by his telling them that he must leave them and go to his Father, — which sorrow and sadness he knew full welJ would be much increased when they should behold the vile, ignominious way whereby their Lord and Master should be taken from them, with all those reproaches and persecu- tions which would attend them so deprived of him, — bids them not be troubled, nor filled with sorrow and fear, for all this ; assuring them that all this loss, shame, and reproach should be abundantly made up by what he would do for them and bestow upon them when his bodily presence should be removed from them. And as to that par- ticular, which was the head of all, that he should be so vilely rejected and taken out of the world as a false teacher and seducer, he telleth them he will send them aXkov TapaxXriTov, John xiv. 16, "another Comforter," one that shall " vicariam navare operam," as Tertul., — be unto them in his stead, to fill them with all that consolation whereof by his absence they might be deprived ; and not only so, but also to be present with them in other greater things than any he had as yet employed them about. This again he puts them in mind of, chap. xvi. 7. Now, 6 TrapdxXrjTog, who is there promised, is properly "an advocate," — that is, one that pleadeth the cause of a person that is guilty or accused before any tribunal, — and is opposed rw '/.aryjyopoj, Rev. xii. 10 ; and so is this word by us translated, 1 John ii. 1. Christ, then, here telleth them, that as he will be their advo- cate with the Father, so he will send them an advocate to jolead his cause, which they professed, with the world ; that is, those men in the world, which had so vilely traduced and condemned him as a seducer, laying it as a reproach upon all his followers. This, doubtless, though in some respect it be continued to all ages in the ministry of the word, yet it principally intended the plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon the apostles at Pentecost, after the ascension of our Saviour; which also is made more apparent by the consideration of what he affirmeth that the advocate so sent shall do, namely, — 1. "He shall rejjrove," or rather, evidently, " convince, the world of sin, be- cause they believed not on him;" which, surely, he abundantly did in that sermon of Peter, Acts ii., when the enemies themselves and haters of Christ were so reproved and convinced of their sin, that, upon the
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pressing urgency of that conviction, they cried out, " Men and brethren, what shall v/e do to be saved?" Then was the world brought to a voluntary confession of the sin of murdering Jesus Christ. 2. He shall do the same of " righteousness, because he went to his Father ;" — not of its own righteousness, to reprove it for that, because it is not; but he shall convince the men of the world, who condemned Christ as a seducer, of his righteousness, — that he was not a blasphemer, as they pretended, but the Son of God, as himself witnessed: which they shall be forced to acknowledge when, by the effusion and pouring out of the Spirit upon his apostles, it shall be made evident that he is gone to and received of his Father, and owned by him, as the centurion did presently upon his death. 3. He shall " convince the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged ; " manifesting to all those of whom he speaketh, that he whom they despised as the carpenter's son, and bade come down from the cross if he could, is exalted to the right hand of God, having all judgment committed to him, having beforehand, in his death, judged, sentenced, and overcome Satan, the prince of this world, the chief instigator of his crucifiers, who had the power of death. And this I take to be the clear, genuine meaning of this place, not excluding the efficacy of the Spirit, working in the same manner, though not to the same degree, for the same end, in the majesty of the word, to the end of the world. But what this is to universal redemption, let them that can understand it keep it to themselves, for I am confident they will never be able to make it out to others.