2. But then, secondly, there is a conviction of righteousness: 'He shall convince the world of righteousness;' that is, that a man now, when God hath forgiven him his sins, he is to look up to seek after righteousness. And this is certain, that God forgives no man his sins but by Christ, and through Christ, and for Christ; and he draws the eye of the soul, and the bent and the inclination of the heart, towards Christ; that now a man sets a price upon him, he prizeth him above all things: he prizeth him in his desire, till he may get assurance that he is his; and after he prizeth him in his estimation, walking in Christ, after he hath got assurance. There, I say, is the first thing then, he prizeth Christ before all things, he seeks nothing so much. You see the Lord works this disposition in the church in the Canticles, when the church had sinned by neglecting Christ; and now he withdrew himself from her, what doth she do? She comes and seeks him by the watchmen, and they smite her; she comes to those that kept the tower, and they mock her; she comes to the daughters of Jerusalem, and they slight her husband, him whom her soul loves; she goes on seeking still. This is the case of a Christian after relapse into sin, that he is not set again in his peace and comfort till he be made to prize Christ at an higher rate than before. So likewise he describes the church, Jer. 1. 4, thus seeking after Christ: They shall go weeping as they go; and shall seek the Lord God, and shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherwards.' They shall go; their end is to find out God, that God that was in covenant with them; to find out God, and they shall go weeping, and their faces towards Zion. This is the disposition of the soul of that man whose sins shall be forgiven him; he seeks nothing so much as Christ.

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Again, he prizeth Christ at so high a rate, having forgiveness, that he will not part with him. The church saith, 'If she could get Christ, she would keep him in the chamber of her mother that brought her forth.' And when she hath him, what is her desire? Set me as a seal upon thy hand for love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave. Much water cannot quench love,' Cant. viii. 6, 7. She so loves Christ now, that she will never part with him again, but will continue with him for ever. So we see Mat. xiii. 44, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; which when a man hath found, he hides it, and for joy of it he departeth, sells all, and buys it.' When a man hath found Christ, and the benefit of remission of sins by Christ, there is nothing that shall answer Christ in the esteem of his soul. Thus faith works by love, love to Christ; as we see the apostle Paul, Philip. iii. 8, he accounts 'all things as dung in comparison of Christ, that he might be found in him, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ.' So then thus we see every way there is an high esteem of Christ, a seeking of him till he be found, and a keeping with him when a man hath gotten him, in prizing of Christ at a high rate, nothing in comparison of Christ; this now is because he is convinced that there is a righteousness to be had in Christ, and a righteousness that can be had nowhere else but in Christ, and such a righteousness as can make him perfectly righteous. It is the great thing that he desires above all the world, and that is the second thing. The Spirit doth this; as it draws, so it links a man to Christ.

3. There is a third thing, the conviction of judgment; such judgment as wherein the prince of this world is judged.' That a man falls now in condemning the motions of sin in his heart, and to condemn himself for the actions of sin before. That you may understand these things clearly,

(1.) First, I say, a man condemns the actions of sin he hath committed he condemns them and himself for them. This disposition is in all those whom Christ receives to forgiveness, whom he forgives these sins. • Thou shalt judge thyself worthy to be cut off,' saith God, when I will be reconciled to thee,' Jer. xxxvi. 3. When God will be reconciled to his people, this is one thing, they shall judge themselves worthy to be cut off; and therefore, 1 Cor. xi. 31, 'if you would judge yourselves,' saith he, 'you should not be judged of the Lord.' So that this is that now which frees a man from the judgment of God; when he begins with his own heart, and judgeth himself for sin, he shall not be judged. It shall be judged once; and if a man will not judge himself, God will judge him; but if a man will judge himself, he shall not be judged of the Lord. Now, therefore, you have the conviction of judgment, when a man is now brought to judge himself, that is, to set himself against himself, as a judge sets himself against a malefactor : he arraigns him before him, he brings in evidence against him; he lays upon him the sentence of the law, he condemns him, and takes order that execution be performed upon him. Thus it is when a man sets himself to judge himself: he arraigns himself, he sets himself to a serious consideration before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the quick and the dead, to consider how the matter stands between God and him, and he brings in evidence against himself, the testimony of his own conscience, the witness of the law; the books that shall be opened then are now opened to prevent that judgment. He looks upon the law, and it shews him what he should have done; he looks upon his conscience, and that shews him what he hath done; and, when he hath thus done, he comes to confess himself guilty; he proceeds now upon this conviction to condemn himself, and to acknowledge that all the curses in the law are due to him, and he wonders that God should bear with such a one as he to live upon the face of the earth thus long; he subscribes to the righteous judgment of God, if he should cast him into hell for his sins, for he judgeth himself worthy to be cut off; he extenuateth not any sin, he lessens not any sin that he hath committed; he desires nothing so much as to feel the weight of it in his heart, that he may indeed see the ugliness of sin more and more, and be brought to be more out of love with it; and thanks any man that will help him to aggravate his sins to himself, and to see the ugliness of them. When he hath done thus, he comes to execution, that is, he comes to that revenge upon himself; there is an indignation against sin, and a revenge upon himself too, because of sin; he judgeth himself unworthy of those liberties that he hath abused, and sometimes he ties and limits himself in those particulars, and denies himself of those things that by reason of his corruption he cannot tell how to use without sin; or otherwise he takes revenge upon himself for particular ills. I say, thus a man judgeth himself for his sins past. That is one thing.

(2.) But now secondly, he judgeth the prince of this world, as well as himself; that as he judgeth himself for his actions, so he judgeth all the motions of sin in his heart: that for the present, if any motion be rising from his own corruption, drawing him to a new act of evil, he judgeth and condemneth the sin in his heart, and this is the very original, and the root of that conflict in his soul, this work of the Spirit, a conviction of judgment, that now hath made a man as a judge against himself; and therefore now he sits as a judge doth, to prevent sin by all means; he sets himself against the motions of sin, which was the case of the apostle Paul: Rom. vii. 19, • When I would do good, evil is present with me.' But what, doth he let

this go on? No, he strives against it, that as the flesh lusteth against the spirit, so the spirit lusteth against the flesh; there is a seed, there is a work of grace striving to work out the corruption in his heart. This is in all the servants of God, in all those whom God bestows this mercy upon of the forgiveness of sins, to condemn the motions of sin, and therefore he sets against them. 'O wretched man! saith the apostle, 'who shall deliver me from this body of death?' He calls for help as it were against the body of death; he looks about to see if it be possible by any means to get it rooted out. When a man hath a thief gotten into his house, he calls for all his neighbours to help him, that he may take him there; so there is a thief got into the soul, for now sin is not in his heart as a lord, but as a thief, and therefore he calls for help, that seeing it is gotten in, he may get it out again. But this, I say, beloved, is in all the servants of God that shall have remission of sins, there is this conviction of judgment; that is, they are brought to this pass, that now they judge themselves and their sin, and condemn it in themselves. Now, upon this follows reformation and amendment of life, because they judge the prince of this world; they judge all the works of Satan, and all the motions of sin in their hearts; and therefore now they set themselves into a contrary way, to works of obedience, and amendment of life. So the promise is made that, 1 John i. 9, 'If you walk in the light, as he is in the light, the blood of Christ shall cleanse you from all your sins.' Thus you see now how a man may know and prove that his sins are forgiven. Put all this together, and let every man now examine his own heart; I know no man but would desire to partake of the comfort of this doctrine; and I told you already, there is great reason why every man should labour after it, to get the knowledge of this, that his sins are forgiven. We are yet but upon that point, how a man may know that his sins are forgiven. Now for this purpose, I say, consider what hath been said. It is a thing that is revealed to a man by the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God doth manifest in the word those grounds and texts upon which a man may gain this assurance to his soul. Now look on this threefold conviction of the Spirit, whereby it manifests this work, conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness, and conviction of judgment, for they all go together in that heart whose sins are forgiven. I say conviction of sin: first, it makes a man see the loathsomeness of his sin, the ugliness of it; it makes him account it a burden that he would fain be eased of it, and therefore he confesseth it; therefore he sets against it with all his might, and therefore he loathes and detests it. That is the first thing.

Now try yourselves by that, whether you yet apprehend your sins in that manner or no; not for a man to say generally, I am a sinner, &c., and to send forth some few sighs, slight and short, to no purpose, in a cursory and formal manner, -as the manner of many is, but it is another manner of work. And therefore, I beseech you, consider seriously what is that inward secret work of the Spirit upon the heart; what effects it hath upon the affections of the soul, that is, upon the discovery of the filthiness of sin, to make a man weary of it, to loathe it, to hate it, to desire to be rid of it, to strive against it, to confess it, &c.

Whither hath this consideration sent thee? Hath it made thee to set a greater price upon Christ, and upon the gospel offering Christ unto thee; such a prizing of him as that thou lettest all go to seek him, that is, thou seekest Christ above all things; and if thou hast indeed gotten him, thou wilt not lose the comfort of him, but daily walk in him, that thy life is now

a living in Christ. I beseech you, consider this, the walking of a man that hath received Christ, in the Scripture, is called a walking in Christ: 'As you have received Christ, so walk in him;' and the living of believers is said to be a living in Christ: Now I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' Gal. ii. 20; that is, in his whole life he lives to express the virtues of Christ; express Christ in thy life. I beseech you, consider this, that the affections are now set wholly on Christ, and that a man now gives himself to Christ, as a servant to his Lord, to be commanded and to be guided by him. So that nothing now sways in a man, nothing now carries him in his actions so as Christ shall, when he knows what is agreeable to the will of Christ, that shall most of all draw him to perform it. When he knows a thing is contrary to Christ, that shall make him set most of all against it.

Besides this, when he hath done this, there is a conviction of judgment; that now thou art the sharpest judger of thyself for thy sins past, and art the most watchful judger of the motions of sin present. This is thus in every one. I beseech you, take this home with you; consider of it now in the preparation to the sacrament that you are to receive; for the sacrament is a seal, as we shall shew you after, because it seals, as among other things, this, forgiveness of sins. Now, that you may seal this comfort to yourselves, consider that the sacrament is a seal to none but to them that are sealed with the Spirit: In whom, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,' Eph. i. 13. The Spirit, the inward seal, gives virtue to the sacrament, and to everything else that are seals of comfort, and nothing can seal comfort to a man, but the Spirit within, that makes everything effectual for that purpose; and therefore if the Spirit doth it, it doth it by this means; consider of this, therefore, seriously. There be in this divers cases that should be answered for the further opening of it, and for the settling of weak-hearted Christians in a settled estate, and somewhat for the casting off of presumptuous persons that are in the height of their pride, that we may give every one their portion; that the weakest may see against many particular temptations and doubts, that even his sins are forgiven; and that the other should see that they had but a false plea, a false claim all this while to the pardon of sins, when they cannot make it good by the testimony of the Spirit. But the work would be very large, and I have been already more large than I intended.

Whereto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and what are they like ?-LUKE VII. 31-35.

CHRIST in the former verses had commended St John's ministry, and in the verse next going afore he speaketh of the different success it found in the publicans, from that it found in the pharisees, who rejected the counsel of God. Now in the verses following he shews what success his own ministry had amongst them, and thus he doth by way of comparison or parable. And this he brings by way of asking a question, which implies admiration and indignation, both shewing a deep passion, as it is in Isa.: • What shall I do for my vineyard' ? Isa. v. 4; and this shews in general, that the refractory disposition of man is a matter of indignation and of admiration, especially if we consider what it despiseth, and whom.

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First, They despise the word of God, the saving word, the counsel and wisdom of God; nay, secondly, they despise God clothed in flesh, that was born and died for their sakes, and thereby offers salvation to them, and life everlasting; yet all this to the obdurate heart of man is as lightning that dazzleth the eyes and helps not the sight a whit; and therefore, Isa. vi. 10, the prophet is bidden to make the heart of the people fat.' Go tell this people, hearing they shall not understand, &c.; and therefore no marvel if God bears indignation against such. • Whereto shall I liken the men of this generation,' Luke vii. 31; this generation of vipers, that are worse than any of the generations fore-passed, by how much they have had more means to be better.

Ver. 32. They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.'

The comparison is to little children that, at marriages and times for * The Success of the Gospel' forms the third of the four Sermons' appended to 'The Saints' Comforts' (See Vol. IV. page 160). The title-page is as follows:The Svccesse of the Gospell. Shewing the diverse entertainements it hath in the World. In a Sermon Preached upon the 7. of Luke and 31. verse. By that Faithfull and Reverend Divine, R. Sibbes, D.D. and sometimes Preacher to the Honorable Societie of Grayes-Inne. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes and are to be Sold by Peter Cole. 1637.' It has distinct pagination, but does not appear to have been published by itself.

†That is, 'wonder.'-G.