Sermon 26 November 1645, Title page – Dedication
THE SPIRIT CONVINCING OF SINNE. OPENED In a Sermon before the Honorable HOUSE of COMMONS, Assembled in Parliament upon the solemne day of their Monethly Fast, Novemb. 26. 1645.
By PETER STERRY, sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge. AND NOW Preacher of the Gospel in LONDON.
Published by Order of the House of Commons.
LONDON, Printed by Matth. Simmons, for Henry Overton, and Benjamin Allen, and are to be sold at their shops in Popes-head Alley, 1645.
To THE HONOURABLE THE KNIGHTS & BURGESSES OF THE HOUSE of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT.
GOD hath promised his people to carry them on the Eagles Wing. The onelyonly desire and humble endeavour of your lowest servant in Christ, hath been to work with God in this Sermon; that your Soules, Counsels, Warres, may be carried on by the Spirit of God; who in the language of the Scriptures is not onelyonly the Dove for Purity and Peace; but also the True Eagle for Wisdome and Power.
Worthy Senatours, if you knew this Spirit, you would ask Him of your Saviour; and Hee would be in you a Fountain of Counsell and Strength springing up to Everlasting Peace and Glory. But have you not known The Spirit? His sound hath gone forth into all your Eares. All the Scriptures speak of Him as they doe of Jesus Christ.
Daniel was chosen by the King of Assyria to sway the great affaires of that vast Empire; because the Spirit of the immortall God was found in him.
David was a Statesman, Wiser then his Teachers: David was a Souldier; His fingers were skil'd in fighting, his hands train'd up to Victory over Wild Beasts, Giants, Armies of Men. was not the Spirit the Lamp of God which shone thus gloriously on David's Court and Camp, which made his Throne so great? Thy Word, saith he, was a Light to my Feet. The Word of God is the Spirit of God, saith St. Paul; The Sword of the Spirit, aforeign, as relating to foreign not foreign, as relating to foreign.which (Spirit, not Sword) is the Word of God. This made David when hee had sin'd, cry: Take not thine Holy Spirit from me. When the Spirit of God once left Saul, an evill Spirit came upon him, which vex't him, which haunted him to the losse of his kingdome and life together.
Honourable Fathers of your Countries, I humbly move to know, By what Title you sit there and rule over us. Is it not as Powers on Earth? But All power on Earth as well as in Heaven, is given to Iesus Christ. You are Substitutes and Vice-gerents to the Lord Iesus. Look then to Iesus the Beginning and End of your Authority. God hath laid the Government on his Shoulder. What is his sufficiency for it? The Spirit of the Lord resteth on him, and this is, A Spirit of Counsell and Might in him.
You who sit at the right hand of the Lord Iesus, in this Common-wealth, as the Lord Iesus sits at the right hand of his Father in that Kingdome, which is over all: pray, that the same Spirit, which was powred forth on him, may be by him powred forth on you: So shall you be Messiahs, anointed ones, and Saviours to this people. Can You be able to rule over any spot of this earth; when Jesus Christ was not fit for the government of the whole; without the Spirit?
Do you put your whole trust in the promises of God, and expect by them to be made partakers of every blessing? Do you believe the promises made in the Word of God? I hope, I may say, at least with as good confidence, as Paul said it to Agrippa; I know you believe them.
This is the promise: The Spirit shall lead you into all truth. You are now searching into the deep things of God, which concern Religion; Live in the Spirit, and the Spirit shall bring all into your minde, and shew you the things of Iesus Christ. It behoves you to know the method of Satan; the stratagems and dark deeps of the Devill himself, in mysteries of State and Religion. Walk in the Spirit; hee shall lead you into their chambers, as hee did Ezekiel; and let you see what mischiefes they are there contriving in secret.
This is the promise: The Spirit of God and of glory shall rest on his servants, in their conflicts and sufferings. Sit still in all humble resignation of your selves, to the working of this Spirit; that hee may rest on you: so shall hee manage your counsels, finish your wars; and end all your sufferings with glorie.
I shall conclude my Epistle with an humble Petition to your Honours: an hearty Prayer for you.
My humble Petition is, that You would ever remember to converse as Doves, among Doves; with this Dove; He is a tender Spirit, take heed of grieving this Spirit, where ever hee dwels: For by him alone can your hopes be sealed to a day of full accomplishment.
My hearty Prayer is, that, as you sit debating in Parliament, the appearances of the Holy Ghost may be among you; as hee was with the Apostles, sitting over them in the form of fiery tongues: that when you fight in the field, the Holy Ghost may be as a two-edged sword going forth from the mouth of the Lord Iesus into your enemy's hearts: that you may never see upon the walls of your house, that hand-writing which made Bel-shazzer tremble; Your kingdome is divided; but in stead of this, that uniting and building Principle; Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. This is the fervent, constant prayer of
Your Honours humble servant in Christ, Peter Sterry.
A SERMON PREACHED Before the honorable House of COMMONS, Novemb. 26. 1645. being the publike Fast.
JOHN 16. 8.
When he shall come, he shall convince the world of sin, &c.
I Will at once open to you the publike scope of this place; and the private sense of my Text, as it lies imbodied in the Context.
Our tender-hearted Saviour is now cheering the hearts of his Disciples, drooping with the sad presages of their dear Master's death.
The Lord Jesus sweetly gives them for a revivall of their fainting spirits, a gracious promise of his own Spirit.
This Promise is threefold, The Spirit's
1. Personall Comming,
2. Particular Comforts,
3. Universall Convictions.
Pardon me, if I be somewhat larger in the Explication of these. For this also will serve my purpose; which is, to set before you the Spirit of the Lord Jesus; that Spirit, by which we know those things, which Reason cannot reach; and live, nota1 Cor. 3. 3. as Men, (foreign) but asb2 Pet. 1. 4. Partakers of the Divine Nature.
The first Promise is the Personall comming. Pro. 1.This hath two parts. The
Person comming.
Comming of that Person.
Part 1st. The first part is the Person comming. It appears to be a Person of whom our Saviour speaks, by those demonstrative particles: Hee: Him. It appeares to be some great One, a Divine Person, by those workes, which are to be done by him: To comfort hearts: To convince a world: To be in stead of Christ; nay, to be a better Comforter then Christ himselfe in the flesh.
Commentators, Common-placers, Controversiaries, School-men; all sorts of Divines in general, chuse this place, and such like places in this dying discourse of our Saviour's; for principall proofes of this fundamental point in Divinity; that, the Blessed Spirit is not onelyonly, The Power of the Godhead, but, A Person in the Godhead. For, say they, Christ speakes of him as of a Person; Hee; Him: and as of a Distinct Person in the Trinity, Joh. 14. 16. Another Comforter. Another besides Jesus Christ.
Now these places with the same force prove it to be the same Person, which was to come to the Disciples. For Christ speaks of him not simply, but in respect of his comming.
Part. 2. The second part of this Promise is; The comming of that Person. School-men call the comming of the Spirit: Novus modus Existendi & Apparendi: A new way of the Spirit's Being in men, and Appearing to men.
All that I shall say concerning it, amounts to this. The Scriptures very often represent the Comming of Christ in the flesh, & this Comming of the Spirit in the same formes of Expression. I have cul'd forth these five: Comming, Sending, Giving, Dwelling, Appearing.
1st Comming. You read of the Comming of Shiloh, which is Christ: Hee, to whom. Gen. 49. 10. My Text tells you of the comming of the Spirit. The Divine and Humane Nature are, as it were, two termes of reciprocall motion, for these two glorious Persons.
2d. Sending. The Father sends the Son, Joh. 3. 17. The Son sends the Spirit, in the verse going before my Text. The Father's Love-token to man, is his own Son. The Son's Love-token to his spouse, is his own Spirit.
3d. Giving. Christ is the Gift of God to the world, Joh. 3. 16. S. Paul tells us that the holy Ghost is given to us, Rom. 5. 5. In a Gift there is a conferring of Propriety, and Possession.
4. Dwelling. Joh. 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us. 2 Tim. 1. 14. By the holy Ghost which dwelleth in thee. These two Texts have this difference. Christ dwels in Flesh, as in a Tabernacle, or Tent, like a Pilgrim or Souldier. The Spirit dwels in Timothy as at home, in his owne house.
5. Appearing. Christ is God manifested in Flesh, 1 Tim. 3. 16. Jesus speakes of the Spirit to his Apostles, You shall know him, Joh. 14. 17. These two are distinct Persons in respect of their Appearances, as well as Subsistencies. foreign.
This concurrency of expressions seems to signifie that these two Commings of Christ in the Flesh, and of the Spirit, are True, Reall Unions of God with Man; True, Reall Appearances of God to man; in these two Persons of the Trinity, the Son, the Spirit. But with this threefold difference.
First, the Cōming of Christ in the flesh is a Union of two Natures in one Person. This is that wch we call the Hypostaticall Union; where there is a distinction of Natures without a distinction of Persons or subsistencies. The Comming of the Spirit is a union between Persons as well as Natures. Here is a Distinction and a Union both at once, between Natures and Persons joyntly. Compare those two places of Scripture, 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord, is one Spirit. and Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit witnesseth …ith our spirits. The result of these will be; that …he Spirit of Christ, and of a Christian, are two spi…its, by distinction of persons, one by Union.
Secondly, the coming of Christ was into the broad street of the same common nature of man; to be with us; yet so, as to be without us. The coming of the Spirit is into our particular persons as into the same house with us. See this Opposition, Gal. 4. chap. 4. verse. He hath sent his Son, [made of a woman]; that is, made of the humane nature. Then, vers. 6. He hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our [Hearts]. Christ came into our flesh. The Spirit comes into our hearts; so as to be both with us, and within us, John 14. chap. 16. verse. He dwelleth [with] you, and shall be [in] you.
Thirdly, the comming of Christ in the flesh, was visible to all alike, to the eye of sense. But the coming of the Spirit is invisible to all the world; visible only to those who receive him, Joh. c. 14. v. 16. The world seeth him not, but ye shall know him, for he shall be in you. To these he is visible inwardly, and after a spirituall manner.
This is the first Promise, The Personall coming.
The second Promise is,Prom. 2. The particular comforts of the Spirit: He shall come as Comforter, saith the verse immediately foregoing my Text.
But can any thing comfort a Spouse that mourns for her beloved One, besides his own presence? therfore this makes the Spirit, a Comforter indeed; He brings Christ for a comfort along with him. Christ was to live again in the Spirit, 1 Pet. 3. c. 18. v. He was crucified in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Christ was to appeare again to them in the Spirit, and to be for ever with them, Joh. 15. chap. 26. vers. When the Spirit come, he shall testifie of me. The Spirit was to give them a second Sight of their Husband, in a more true, divine, lasting way; as he was unvailed of flesh, and in his own heavenly form.
Yea, this Comfort was to be doubled at the coming of the Spirit: For the Father was to come along with his deare Son, Joh. 14. c. 23. v. I, and the Father will come unto him, and make our abode with him. But which way would these Persons of glory come to lodge themselves in the humble Cottage of a Saints heart? In the Spirit. This Person was to be the Chariot for the other two. Therefore but two verses after this Promise, Christ explains it by another Promise, that of the coming of the Comforter: And St. Paul tels us, that we have accesse to the Father, by one Spirit, Ephes. 2. c. 18. v. Thus the Father, Son, Spirit, and a Saint, dwell all together, and converse: The Father and Son in the Spirit; the Spirit in our hearts. This is that Unity of the Spirit, which is the band of Comforts, Ephes. 4. c. 3. v.
The third Promise is the Universall Convictions of the Spirit.Prom. 3. Christ and his Disciples were singular in the world; they saw those things whcih none could see besides themselves: Blessed are your eyes, for they see. They were as mad men; they fill'd the world with a noise of things, as present, reall mighty in glory; they spake every where of a rising Sun, of a wonderfull Light, which made all other lights a deep darknesse; when all this while the whole world of men round about them could discerne no other Sun without them, save that which had shined from the creation untill now; no other Light within them, besides that which their own reason had ever in an ordinary way supplied them withall. Isaiah prophecied of Christ and his Disciples, Es. 8. chap. 8. v. I, and the children which thou hast given mee, are for signes and for wonders.
Would our Saviour now leave his Disciples alone in such a world as this? Therefore hee comforts them with this; that his Spirit should come and convince the world, anoint the eyes of man-kind generally, to see the same light of divine truth with them.
The Text reads it, Reprove, but the word in Greek (foreign) more properly signifies to convince, as the margin hath it.
This Conviction is threefold:
First, of Sin; Because they believe not in me. The Spirit should shew the world this as the Center, where all sin met in one; from whence all sin flows; their not believing in Christ, their neglect of the Person of Christ.
Secondly, of Righteousnesse, because I go to my Father, aJohn 6. 62.By Christs returning thither, where he was at first; by his going back to the Father, the Spirit should teach the world; that he alone came forth from the Father:bJohn 3. 13. For no one ascendeth up to Heaven, but the Son of man, who came down from Heaven. And by this Argument shall the Spirit demonstrate Christ alone to be the Righteousnesse of God to man.
Thirdly, of Judgement, because now the Prince of this world is cast out. The Spirit should reade this Lecture upon the world; how, since the fall, the whole frame, all appearances of things, had been one great enchantment raised and maintained upon the spirits of men, by the father of lies, the Prince of darknesse; to hide their eyes from the sight of God. But how Jesus Christ had by his death cast down that old Magician from his Throne and Power; and now the whole enchantment, the fashion or show of this world was dissolving and vanishing, till it should appeare no more.
Thus large I have been in the opening of the context and Text.
Now, without any further stay, or needlesse division of my Text;Doctr. my Doctrine from it is this.
Rightly to convince of sin, is the proper work of the Spirit.Proof.
I shall give you only one place of Scripture to prove it; but that, I hope, a fit and full one, Zach. 12. 10. I will powre out upon them the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall see him, whom they have pierced, and mourn over him.
You have here two successive effusions: one of the Spirit, and another of Tears.
First, An effusion of Teares; They shall mourne. Mourning expresseth true Repentance in all the foure parts of it; conviction, confession, contrition, conversion. The force of the conviction here, as in my Text, lies in a sight of Christ pierced; in a sense of unbelief. Not to receive Christ for your Husband and King, is to Pierce him. To take away His Crown and Your Hearts from him, is to kill him the worst way. But this is only a Consequent and Secondary effusion.
Secondly, An Effusion of spirit. This is the Antecedent Effusion. The powring forth of the Spirit is the cause of powring forth teares. But who? or what is this Spirit? He is markt by a double character: A Spirit of grace and supplication.
First, a Spirit of grace. There is a twofold grace. The grace of loving-kindnesse in the heart of God. The grace of divine lovelinesse in the heart of man. If this latter be here meant, then the Spirit of grace is he, whom St. Paul calls the holy Spirit, Ephes. 1. and wee generally know by the name of the Holy Ghost.
But this cannot be the sense: For in the Originall, it is chen, not chesed: Grace, or loving-kindnesse, not graciousnesse, or goodnesse.
This Spirit of Grace then must be, either the Spirit, the spring of love in the bosome of the Godhead: or, the Spirit, the diffuser, the discoverer of this love in the bosome of man. Both these are that One Spirit, the Holy Ghost. Divines give to the third Person, the name of Love; as they do to the second, that of Wisdome: And wee reade from St. Paul's mouth, Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is powred forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which he hath given us. This is the first character.
Second. A spirit of supplication. You have a Commentary upon this character, Rom. 8. ch. 26. vers. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, making intercession for us by groanes unexpressible. This is the Spirit which convinceth of sin, the Holy Ghost himself.