2. The Holy Spirit Convinces of Righteousness.
has convinced us of our natures, 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 everything 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?" (Joh 9:35), 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 have believed on Mahomet; for what is that which men commonly call faith, but an outward consent to the established religion? But do not thus deceive your own selves—true faith is quite another thing. Ask yourselves, therefore, whether or not the Holy Ghost ever powerfully convinced you of the sin of unbelief? You are perhaps so devout (you may imagine) as to get a catalogue of sins, which you look over and confess in a formal manner, as often as you go to the holy sacrament: But among all your sins, did you ever once confess and bewail that damning sin of unbelief? Were you ever made to cry out, Lord, give me faith; Lord, give me to believe on thee--O that I had faith! O that I could believe! If you never were thus distressed, at least, if you never saw and felt, that you had no faith, it is a certain sign that the Holy Ghost the Comforter, never came into and worked savingly upon your souls.
But it is not odd that the Holy Ghost should be called a Comforter, when it is plain by the experience of all God's children, that this work of conviction is usually attended with sore inward conflicts, and a great deal of soul-trouble? I answer; the Holy Ghost may well be termed a Comforter, even in this work; because it is the only way to, and ends in, true solid comfort. Blessed are they that are thus convicted by Him—for they shall be comforted. Nay, not only so, but there is present comfort, even in the midst of these convictions: The soul secretly rejoices in the sight of its own misery, blesses God for bringing it out of darkness into light, and looks forward with a comfortable prospect of future deliverances, knowing, that,
"though sorrow may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning" (Psa 30:5). Thus it is that the Holy Ghost convinces the soul of sin.
And, if so, how wretched are they mistaken, that blend the light of the Spirit with the light of conscience, as all those do, who say, that Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and that light, if improved, will bring us to Jesus
Christ? If such doctrine be true, the promise in the text was needless: our Lord's apostles had already that light; the world hereafter to be convinced had that light; and, if that was sufficient to bring them to Christ, why was it expedient that Christ should go away to heaven, to send down the Holy Ghost to do this for them? Alas! All have not this Spirit—it is the special gift of God, and, without this special gift, we can never come to Christ. The light of conscience will accuse or convince us of any common sin; but the light of natural conscience never did—never will—and never can convince us of unbelief. If it could, how comes it to pass, that not one of the heathen, who improved the light of nature in such an eminent degree, was ever convinced of unbelief? No, natural conscience cannot effect this; it is the peculiar property of the Holy Ghost the Comforter: "When he is come, he will reprove [or convince] the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment."
2. The Holy Spirit Convinces of Righteousness.
We have heard how He convinces of sin. We come now to show, secondly, What is the righteousness, of which the Comforter convinces the world?
By the word righteousness, in some places of scripture, we are to understand that common justice which we ought to practice between man and man; as when Paul is said to reason of temperance and righteousness before a trembling Felix.
But here (as in a multitude of other places in holy writ) we are to understand by the word righteousness, the active and passive obedience of the dear Lord Jesus; even that perfect, personal, and all-sufficient righteousness, which He has wrought out for that world which the Spirit is to convince. "Of righteousness, [says our Lord] because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more." This is one argument that the Holy Spirit makes use of to prove Christ's righteousness, because He is gone to the Father, and we see Him no more. For had He not wrought out a sufficient righteousness, the Father would have sent him back, as not having done what He undertook; and we should have seen Him again.
Oh the righteousness of Christ! It so comforts my soul, that I must be excused if I mention it in almost all my discourses. I would not, if I could help it, have one sermon without it. Whatever infidels may object, or Arminians sophistically argue against an imputed righteousness; yet whoever know themselves and God, must acknowledge, that "Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, [and perfect justification in the sight of God,] to everyone that believeth" (Rom 10:4), and that we are to be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Co 5:21). This and this only, a poor sinner can lay hold of, as a sure anchor of his hope. Whatever other scheme of salvation men may lay, I acknowledge I can see no other foundation whereon to build my hopes of salvation, but on the rock of Christ's personal righteousness, imputed to my soul. Many, I believe, have a rational conviction of, and agree with me in this. But rational convictions if rested in avail but little; it must be a spiritual, experimental conviction of the truth which is saving. And therefore, our Lord says, when the Holy Ghost comes in the day of His power, it convinces of this righteousness, of the reality, completeness, and sufficiency of it, to save a poor sinner.
We have seen how the Holy Ghost convinces the sinner of the sin of his nature, life, duties, and of the sin of unbelief; and what then must the poor creature do? He must, he must inevitably despair, if there be no hope but in himself. When there-