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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 praying
by
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, and
was
confirmed unto
us
by
them
that
heard
him
;
God
also
bearing them
witness
both
with signs
and
wou-
5