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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON VII.

JOHN xiv. 16, 17.

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive.

THE occasion upon which Christ pronounced those words you well know. It was upon the eve of his sacrifice of blood, of the last day of his life, an evening such as there had never been before, and the like of which shall never be again. Prepared for the separation from those whom he had most loved, he wishes to open in their souls, oppressed by grief, some source of consolation;-to call up before their eyes, bedimmed with tears, the dawn of a happier

time to come. The sweetness of his persuasive accents gives birth to hope in the hearts of his disciples; for a moment they forget the state of bereavement in which they will presently be left; they behold a divine energy descending from heaven to dry their tears, who will not abandon them as orphans in the world. Already this new star is rising upon them, already a glorious light breaks in upon their souls, they are already in possession of that COMFORTER, who will be to them as the presence of their heavenly Friend, until their re-union beyond the gloom of the grave, with Him whom their hearts esteem dearer than all things besides.

There was he yet!-that revered object of so much love and so many solicitudes, while he informed them that he was about to be snatched from their sight; that soon he must repose in the bosom of the earth; whence rising to the height of heaven, he will delegate to them the care of that holy universal Church, which he was to acquire at the price of his blood. It is then upon them,-upon feeble

men, that the charge is presently to fall of converting to the truth an idolatrous world! It is against them that the keen arrows of persecution will be all pointed. Shortly you may see them "as sheep having no shepherd,”— as fragile reeds that bend every way at the pleasure of the wind that tosses them. This they foresee and feel; and Jesus foresees it likewise; he feels a thousand times more keenly than they, the sorrows which threaten them; he would arm them against their attacks; he would strengthen them beforehand against the fatal hour of affliction; he would afford them consolation when he should be no longer visible among them.

Such, My dear Brethren, such is mainly the object which our Saviour proposes in the words taken for the subject of this discourse and assuredly, if the warmth of his feelings and the depth of his wisdom appear strikingly conspicuous, in every previous action of his life, it is here, in this, as that martyrdom which he is going to endure for us approaches, that the tenderness of his nature is fully pourtrayed.

It is while his last moment is drawing nigh, that he gives us the most sensible evidences of his love, by unfolding his designs respecting the everlasting good of mankind, and the unparalleled happiness, to which he permits us to aspire, of becoming sharers in the divine nature, of being made the recipients of the HOLY SPIRIT, and of the powers of the world

to come.

1st. To state to you, What is meant by "THE COMFORTER" promised by our Lord to his disciples, and to explain to you what is meant by the HOLY GHOST, according to the text of the Sacred Writers, and the testimony of the Christian Church;

2dly. To prove to you, That the consolatory promise of the text is made, not merely to the Apostles, but likewise " to us, and to our children;"

3dly. To exhort you to concur with the merciful designs, proposed to himself by the Almighty, in sending the spirit of truth :

Such is the plan of the discourse, to which you are now requested to afford a degree of

attention proportioned to the importance and the difficulty of the subject.

I. The word SPIRIT signifies a substance different from body and from matter; it is employed in particular to designate the divine. nature. With regard to the HOLY SPIRIT, we can know nothing but what is discovered in Scripture; and God will not require that we should have comprehended any thing beyond what he himself has revealed to us. Now, he teaches us in the Gospel, that the HOLY SPIRIT is not simply a faculty or attribute of God the Father; but that he is distinct both from the FATHER and the SON.

The New Testament attributes to him volition and intelligence; it speaks of him as descending upon holy men, and even as having appeared in a visible form; it ascribes to him perfections which belong only to God; it declares of him, that he " giveth life,"--that he is every where present,-that he “searcheth all things," that he alone "knoweth the things of God,"--that he understandeth men's

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