makes up the body of the Christian religion. And so this interpretation of St. Augustine comes near to the fulness, in what sense the Holy Ghost came in Christ's name. For when Christ

says, I am come in my Father's name, that was, to execute his decree, to fulfill his will, for the salvation of man, by dying; so when Christ says here, the Holy Ghost shall come in my name, that is, to perfect my work, to collect and to govern that church, in which my salvation, by way of satisfaction, may be appropriated to particular souls by way of application. And for this purpose, to do this in Christ's name, his own name is Paracletus, The Comforter, which is our last circumstance, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.

Athanasius notes, that

The Comforter is an evangelical name. the Holy Ghost is never called Paracletus, The Comforter, in the Old Testament. He is called Spiritus Dei, The Spirit of God, in the beginning of Genesis; and he is called Spiritus Sanctus, The Holy Spirit, and Spiritus principalis, The principal Spirit, in divers places of the Psalms, but never Paracletus, never the Comforter. A reason of that may well be, first, that the state of the law needed not comfort; and then also, that the law itself afforded not comfort, so there was no comforter. Their law was not opposed by any enemies, as enemies to their law. If they had not (by that warrant which they had from God) invaded the possession of their neighbours, or grown too great to continue good neighbours, their neighbours had not envied them that law. So that in the state of the law, in that respect, they were well enough, and needed no comforter. Whereas the Gospel, as it was sowed in our Saviour's blood, so it grew up in blood, for divers hundreds of years; and therefore needed the sustentation, and the assurance of a comforter. And then, for the substance of the law, it was Lex interficiens,non perficiens, says St. Augustine, A law that told them what was sin, and punished them if they did sin, but could not confer remission for sin; which was a discomfortable case. Whereas the Gospel, and the dispensation of the Gospel in the Church, by the Holy Ghost, is grace, mercy, comfort, all the way, and in the end. Therefore Christ,

20 John xvii. 12.

v. 17. calls the Holy Ghost, Spiritum veritatis, The Spirit of truth; in which he opposes him, and prefers him, above all the remedies, and all the comforts of the law. Not that the Holy Ghost in the law, did not speak truth, but that he did not speak all the truth, in the law. Origen expresses it well, the types and figures of the law, were true figures, and true types of Christ, in the Gospel; but Christ, and his Gospel is the truth itself, prefigured in those types. Therefore the Holy Ghost is Paracletus, the Comforter, in the Gospel, which he was not in the law.

In the records, and stories, and so in the coins, and medals of the Roman emperors, we see, that even then, when they had gotten the possession of the name of emperors, yet they forbore not to add to their style, the name of consul, and the name of Pontifex maximus; still they would be called consuls, which was an acceptable name to the people, and high priests, which carried a reverence towards all the world. Where Christ himself is called by a name appliable to none but Christ, by a name implying the whole nature, and merit of Christ, that is, The Propitiation of the sins of the whole world", yet there, in that place, he is called by the name of this text too, Paracletus, the Comforter. He would not forbear that sweet, that acceptable, that appliable name, that name that concerns us most, and establishes us best, Paracletus, the Comforter. And yet, he does not take that name, in that full, and whole sense, in which himself gives it to the Holy Ghost here. For there it is said of Christ, If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father; there, Paracletus, though placed upon Christ, is but an Advocate; but here, Christ sends Paracletum, in a more entire, and a more internal, and more visceral sense, a Comforter. Upon which comforter, Christ imprints these two marks of dignity, first, The Father shall send you another comforter 22; another, than myself. For, howsoever Christ were the fountain of comfort, yet there were many drams, many ounces, many talents of discomfort mingled, in that their comforter was first to depart from them by death, and being restored to them again by a resurrection, was to depart again, by another transmigration, by an ascension. And therefore the second mark by

which Christ dignifies this comforter, is, That he shall abide with us for ever. And in the performance of that promise, he is here with you now.

And therefore, as we begun with those words of Esay, which our Saviour applied to himself, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to comfort all them that mourn23; so the Spirit of the Lord is upon all us of his ministry, in that commandment of his, in the same prophet, Consolamini, consolamini, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, and speak comfortably unto Jerusalem". Receive the Holy Ghost, all ye that are the Israel of the Lord, in that doctrine of comfort, that God is so far from having hated any of you, before he made you, as that he hates none of you now; not for the sins of your parents; not for the sins of your persons; not for the sins of your youth not for your yesterday's, not for your yesternight's sins; not for that highest provocation of all, your unworthy receiving his Son this day. Only consider, that comfort presumes sadness. Sin does not make you incapable of comfort; but insensibleness of sin does. In great buildings, the turrets are high in the air; but the foundations are deep in the earth. The comforts of the Holy Ghost work so, as that only that soul is exalted, which was dejected. As in this place, where you stand, their bodies lie in the earth, whose souls are in heaven; so from this place, you carry away so much of the true comfort of the Holy Ghost, as you have true sorrow, and sadness for your sins here. Almighty God erect this building upon this foundation; such a comfort, as may not be presumption, upon such a sorrow, as may not be diffidence in him. And to him alone, but in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour, &c.

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SERMON XXVII.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, UPON WHITSUNDAY, 1628.

JOHN XIV. 26.

But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

We pass from the person to his working; we come from his WE coming, to his operation, from his mission, and commission, to his executing thereof, from the consideration, who he is, to what he does. His specification, his character, his title, Paracletus, the Comforter, passes through all. Therefore our first comfort is, docebimur, we shall be taught, He shall teach you; as we consider ourselves, the disciples of the Holy Ghost, so it is a mere teaching, for we in ourselves are merely ignorant; but when we consider the things we are to be taught, so it is but a remembering, a refreshing of those things, which Christ in the time of his conversation in this world, had taught before; He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. These two then, the comfort in the action, (we shall be taught) and the comfort in the way and manner, (we shall not be subject to new doctrines, but taught by remembering, by establishing us in things formerly fundamentally laid) will be our two parts at this time. And in each of these, these our steps; first, in the first we shall consider the persons, that is, the disciples, who were to learn; not only they who were so, when Christ spoke the words, but we, all, who to the end of the world, shall seek and receive knowledge from him; cos, ye; first vos ignorantes, you who are naturally ignorant, and know nothing, so as you should know it of yourselves, (which is one discomfort) and yet, vos, ye, cos appetentes, you that by nature have a desire to know, (which is another discomfort, to have a desire, and no means to perform it) vos docebimini, ye, ye that are ignorant, and know nothing;

ye, ye that are hungry of knowledge, and have nothing to satisfy that hunger, ye shall be fed, ye shall be taught, (which is one comfort) and then Ille docebit, He shall teach you, he, who cannot only infuse true, and full knowledge in every capacity that he finds, but dilate that capacity where he finds it, yea create it, where he finds none, the Holy Ghost, who is not only a comforter, but the comforter, and not only so, but comfort itself, He shall teach you; and in these we shall determine our first part.

In our second part, the way and manner of this teaching, (by bringing to our remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said unto us) there is a great largeness, but yet there is a limitation of those things which we are to learn of the Holy Ghost; for they are omnia, all things whatsoever Christ hath taught before; but then, sola ea, only those things which Christ had taught before, and not new additaments in the name of the Holy Ghost. Now this largeness extending itself to the whole body of the Christian religion, (for Christ taught all that) all that being not reducible to that part of an hour, which will be left for this exercise, as fittest for the celebration of the day in which we are now, we shall bind ourselves to that particular consideration, what the Holy Ghost, being come from the Father, in Christ's name, that is, pursuing Christ's doctrine, hath taught us of himself, concerning himself; that so ye may first see some insolences and injuries offered to the Holy Ghost by some ancient heretics, and some of later times, by the church of Rome; for, truly, it is hard to name, or to imagine any one sin, nearer to that emphatical sin, a that superlative sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost, than some offers of doctrines, concerning the Holy Ghost, that have been obtruded, though not established, and some that have been absolutely established in the church. And when we shall have delivered the Holy Ghost out of their hands, we shall also deliver him into yours, so as that you may feel him to shed himself upon you all here, and to accompany you all home, with a holy peace, and in a blessed calm, in testifying to your souls, that he, that comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father hath sent in his Son's name, hath taught you all things, that is, awakened

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