62 CHRIST EXALTED AND THE SPIRIT G1VEA. rSERM. IV. from the dead; but he also pronounced sudden death upon Ananias and Sapphira. Another of these gifts was prophecy, which taken in general signifies a power tb speak by, inspiration : And perhaps it may include the gift of utterance or freedom of speech : But in a more "particular sense implies the foretelling of things to come. So Paul foretold the rise of antichrist 2 ?hess. ii. 7. And Agabus, a christian prophet, predicted the famine in the days of Claudius Cwsar. Acts xi. 28. Besides these, there was the gift. of , discerning spirits ; that is, either of discovering the heart of a man, which on some occasions might be necessary in those early days of the gospel, or of discerning the temper and talents of a per.- son, that it might be better judged in what service to employ him. And after these follow the gifts of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, whereby one person could speak several foreign languages which he never learned, that he might preach the gospel to persons of distant nations ; And another could interpret tongues, or explain to the bulk of the assembly, what was spoken in a strange language, for the use of strangers who might come amongst them. Besides all these, we might reckon also the gifts of singing psalms and prayingby the Spirit, which parts of worship were performed by inspiration, in those primitive times. Thus much of the gifts. The graces of the holy Spirit are also of various kinds, for they include all those christian virtues or principles of holiness, which are wrought in the hearts of men by the influence of the Holy Ghost, such as faith, repent- ance, love to God and man; add to these, meekness, temperance, a well-grounded hope, holy joy, patience in suffering, and courage to profess the name and religion of Christ even in the face of death or martyrdom. 2 Tim. i. 7. See the fruits of the Spirit reckoned up by the apostle; Gal. v. 22, 23. Eph. v. 9. The design of the extraordinary -gifts of the Spirit, which were shed forth by our ascended Saviour, was to spread the gospel more speedily in the world, to diffuse an overpowering evidence of it among men, and to esta- 'blish this new religion in the earth; Heb. ii. 3, 4. This " great salvation at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, andwas confirmed unto us by them that heard him ; God also bearing them witness both with signs and wou- 5
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