SERMON XLVllf. 79 upon offenders. So St. Paul not only healed the maladies of men, but struck Elymas the sorcerer blind ; so St. Peter not only bid Tabithaarise 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 to 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 anti- christ ; 1 Thess. ii. 7. And Agabus, a christian prophet, pre- dicted the famine in the days of Claudius Cnsar. 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 occasi- ons might be necessary in those early days of the gospel, or of discerning the temper and talents of a person, 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 couldspeak several foreign languages which lie 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. Thegraces 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, repentance, love to God and man ; add to these, meekness, temperance, a well-grounded hope, holyjoy, patience in suffering, and courage to profess the name and reli- gion of Christ even in the face of deathand martyrdom ; 2 Tim. i. 7. See the fruits of theSpirit reckoned up by the apostle ; Gal, v. 22, 23. Eph. v. 9. The designof the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, which were shed forth byour ascended Saviour, was to spread the gospel more speedily in the world,to diffuse an overpowering evidenceof it among men, and to establish this new religion in the earth Leb. ii. 3, 4. This great salvation at thefirst began to be spoken ,b+ the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; Godalso bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. St. Paul assures the Corinthians, that when an ,unlearnedman, or an unbeliever, came into their assemblies, and .heard them speak by inspiration the doctrines of the gospel in a propermanner, lie is conz;inced, he is judged, the secretsofhis heart
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