or fixteen reckoned up. In which gift the Corinthians excelled; and in which yet Paul fays he excelled them ("speaking with "more tongues than them all +"); and poffeffing all thefe languages in fuch perfection, as to be able to fpeak them with readinefs and propriety on all proper occafions. If the mind fhall not be thought capable of containing all this knowledge at once, without its capacities being enlarged; can we fuppofe an angel, by his natural powers, capable of enlarging them? or any being, but the Father of fpirits, who first created them, either by a mediate or an immediate exertion of his own divine power? pat Or if it should be thought, that the minds of the apostles and others were capable of containing all this knowledge, without any enlargement of their natural powers; yet can it be thought, that they were capable of receiving all this knowledge in an inftant, without any fuch enlargement? How long does the most comprehenfive genius, at the greatest ripeness of age, require to take in any one art, science, or language, from the mafter that poffeffes or teaches it in the greatest perfection? Let any man confult the operations of his own mind, the experience and the history of the human understanding; and then fettle the account, Mofes, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, was forty days in taking the pattern from God himfelf in the Mount; and that tern was only of the tabernacle, its furniture and attendants, Is it to be imagined then, that the apoftles and others (po pá palos xai idiūras), “unlearned and ignorant men 1," were capable of having so many arts, divine fciences, and tongues imparted to them in an inftant, by any but Him that "calls the things that "are not as though they were." Suppofing it eafy to conceive, how an angel may, by his natural powers, drive fifh to a hook, or into a net; how he may bring fresh loaves and fifhes to feed a multitude; how he may support a man walking on the water, or waft a body up into the air; how he may raife or lay winds; how he may inflict or cure difeafes, or it may be raise a dead body to life: it may be as easy for an angel to fupport a man walking on the water, as for a man to keep a ftone from falling by his hand: and fo in other inftances; notwithstanding that all thefe are great miracles; yet can any one conceive that an angel, by his natural powers, can enlarge the capacities of the mind fo as to make it take in as much knowledge in an inftant, as a man of the best parts must be an age in learning, by flow degrees, with the utmost intention of his mind (on the fuppofition that his mind is able at once to contain it), and to have it all ready for his ufe on every occafion? If therefore it fhall be thought, that other miracles might be wrought by angels, this extenfive and inftantaneous illumination could be effected by none but God, or Chrift, or the Holy Spirit; it is a work exceed g all others that were wrought in confirma tion of the Chriftian religion, in kind as well as degree; and will fhew (farther than any thing I have yet faid, not only why the gifts of the Holy Ghoft are diftinguished from miracles in the New Teftament, but) wherein the fuperiority of this teaching and witness of the Spirit did confift; and account more fully for the much greater effects it produced than were wrought by Christ or his apostles in his life-time. Some of these confiderations that I have just now mentioned may perhaps account for the fuperiority of the Spirit's teftimony to all others. But that in fact it was always confidered as fuperior, both by Chrift and the apofties, may not only be collected from what I have been obliged to fay on other heads, and from texts that I have already quoted, but from these that follow. Our Saviour exprefsly afferts, that he that believes on him" fhall "not only do the works that he did, but greater; because, as he adds, he goes to the Father," that is to receive those gifts, and fhed them down: gifts which would admirably fuit his exaltation to the right-hand of God; and the defign of enlarging his kingdom, when he was exalted to his throne. When the Holy Ghost therefore was poured forth, Peter does not only explain what it was*, but offers to communicate it to them all, on their believing; as the greatest proof that could be given, that the gifts they had were what Chrift, on his exaltation, had fhed down. And this communication by the laying on of hands, reaching much farther than the immediate baptifm by the Holy Ghost and fire, and being confequently fo much a greater proof of Chriftianity; the laying on of hands is confidered as one of the first principles of Chriftianity; namely, its evidence; whilst baptifm, that is, by water and fire, are only confidered as the methods of the first entrance into it. And it is on the account of this fuperiority of the witness that the Spirit gives to Chrift, to the atteftation that even God the Father faw ht to give to him whilft he was upon earth, that St. Peter (after he had been speaking of the voice that came from that excellent glory, faying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom "I am well pleafed :" and after faying, "And we heard this voice "which came from heaven, when we were with him in the holy "Mount"), adds: "And we have (or have received) a more "fure word of prophecy;" for fo I think it fhould be rendered; Καὶ ταύτην τὴν φωνὴν ἡμεῖς ηκέσαμεν καὶ ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον τὸν προφυλικές λόγον. "We (that is, we apoftles, we who heard the voice when we "were with him in the holy Mount; and the reft of the apostles, "who are witnefies of all that Jefus did and taught, till the day he "afcended into heaven, as well as we) have received a word of prophecy (that is, the word of wisdom, and knowledge, and prophecy," which we apoftles have received from the Spirit of prophecy, whofe office is to fhew things to come t, by which we Ads . 15-39. + Heb. vi. 1, 200 ↑ John xvi. 19. speak fpeak a word from the Lord, as all former prophets did, and as we do the word of the Gospel, or the word of faith; by which we become not only the foundation on which you and all Chriftians are built as apoftles, but as prophets too +: and who "as prophets, "reveal the ministry, which was kept fecret since the world began, " by our fcriptures, according to the commandment of the ever"lafting God to all nations for the obedience of faith 1"), more fure than the voice we heard in the holy Mount. For though that is no fable, but a fact delivered to you by us, who heard it, and faw the glory, or Schekinah, that attended it; on which account we must be more fure of it than we can poffibly be of any Old Testament prophecies; and you must be fo too, fince it is the teftimony of us the witneffes of the Lord (greater than any of the prophets) and fully confirmed to you: yet neither can we nor you, in the nature of the thing, poffibly be fo fure of it, as we and you are of an illumination in all the wifdom of the Gofpel, and knowledge of all mysteries, and the gifts of prophecy, which we received in an inftant at the feast of Pentecoft; and fome of which gifts we have communicated to all believers where we have come, and particularly to fome of yourselves §; and have ftill the power to communicate; whereunto ye (to whom I write) do well that ye take heed, as to a light that fhineth in a dark place (this world, which is faid to be darkness, and would be fo, had not Jefus by himself and his Spirit enlightened it); and where we yet fee but through a glafs darkly **, in comparison of that clear light which will break in upon us, when (but therefore take heed to this light, as the best you will have until) the day dawn (or until the day of the Lord ††, or the day of judgement, dawn in the morning of the refurrection), and till the morning-ftar (popop) arife in your hearts (or till Chrift fhall give you the morning-ftar to irradiate your hearts ‡‡: when you will no more want this apoftolic word of prophecy, which, though the beft you will have here, and which therefore ye ought carefully to attend to, yet will be then of no ufe to you: "For when that "which is perfect is come, that which is in part fhall be done "away §§"). Knowing this firft (for you ought to obferve, that no prophecy of the fcripture, neither of the Old or New Teftament, is private interpretation (idies izinúews, of mens own fuggeftion): "For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; "but holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the Holy "Ghoft." And you can lefs imagine that prophecy is of private fuggeftion now, who have been fo fully acquainted that we kept in our upper room, unwilling to teftify the facts of Chriftianity, and unable to teach its doctrines, till the Holy Ghoft came upon us in an inftant, at the feast of Pentecoft (and fuggefted to us what we then taught, who were altogether unlearned before; and moved us See the Second Effay. Second Eflay. + Ibid. iii. 10. + Eph. ii. 20. Rom. xvi. 25, 26. See the 11 John by by the courage he gave us, to teftify, as well as preach to the world): and who, at least some among you, feel likewise some of these motions yourselves, in the gifts of the Holy Ghoft, which you have received * So that upon the whole, I apprehend the sense of this place, and the context, is this: "I write this epistle to you, to recall to your "memories what I have taught you; and the rather, because I am «fuddenly to leave you. Which things are not only the account "I gave you of the transfiguration of Chrift, which three of the "apoftles moft certainly faw, and the atteftation the voice of the "Father gave him, and which we moft certainly heard; but that « clearer knowledge of Chriftianity, and that greater proof of it which we gave you, in the doctrine we taught from the fug"geftions of the Spirit; and the farther proof we gave to the "truth of it from the other gifts of the Spirit which we have, and "impart; to which you ought carefully to attend, as to the great"eft difcovery, and the moft fully proved to you, that you will ever "receive in this imperfect ftate; or till you come to that land of light and vifion, where you fhall not want even apoftolic pro"phecy; but fhall fee as you are feen, and know as you are "known. But till that time take the moft careful heed to the "doctrines you have learnt from us. For be affured, that nothing "faid by us, as from the Spirit of prophecy, is of private fuggeftion: "That was not the cafe in the prophets under the Old Testament i « and you have far better proof that that is not the cafe of us the "apoftles and prophets under the New +." I hope the reader will forgive me for dwelling fo long on this text, fince it is a very difficult one, and has of late been turned to an unhappy purpofe; and fince the interpretation I have given of it is, for aught I know, entirely new. I fubmit it therefore to the judgement of others. I think, however, till I am fet right, that this fenfe of it makes the apoftles reafoning appear very pertinent and ftrong, and agreeable to the ftrain of the New Teftament. Whereas if the fenfe of it be what has been generally given it, referring to Old Teftament prophecy, I cannot understand the apostle's reafoning, or fee how it is fubfervient to his purpose, or fuited to the difpenfation of the Spirit. Nor can I fee how to obviate that unhappy ufe that has been made of it, and to which I think the common interpretation pretty naturally leads. If the New Teftament Greek will allow us to interpret βεβαιότερον τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον, only fure, and not more fure, as an ingenious difcourfe lately feems to infinuate; yet I think the argument of the apostle here requires that we should render it, as our tranflators have done, " a 66 more fure word of prophecy." Befides that, if this difficulty were out of the way, there are feveral others remaining (as I think * Pet. iv. 10, 11. The reader may fee a greater chifm, and that must be filled up with a much larger Supplement, Luke xvii. 7. See Dr. Clarke's Paraphrafe. will appear to thofe that confider what I have offered), which I fee no other interpretation that will remove. On the whole, I defy any man to make any cavil or exception to this witness of the Spirit, that may not be made to any thing. And he that will fay, that this is not fufficient evidence of the truth of a revelation, must say that revelation can have no evidence. So that it is as impoffible to convince them, as St. Paul fays it is to renew them again to repentance, who have "been enlightened, and "who have tafted of the heavenly gift, and have been made par"takers of the Holy Ghoft-if they fhall fall away *." And therefore, on this occafion, I cannot but agree with the learned Dr. Whitby, thus far at leaft, that the highest instance of blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft was attributing thefe gifts of the Holy Ghoft, in those that faw and heard them, to trick, delufion, or diabolical arts. This feems to be that inftance of it which our Saviour fays "fhall not be forgiven in the world to come," or in the new age, the kingdom of the Meffiah, and the difpenfation of the Spirit +. And that the reason why it could not be forgiven was, that it arofe from fuch an incurable wickedness and perverfeness of mind, as would not fuffer any evidence to convince them of the truth of that difpenfation, which was the only difpenfation that exprefsly promised that all manner of fin, and all manner of blafphemy, fhould be forgiven, but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft. Í fay it was a perverseness that would not fuffer any evidence to convince them (not even this teftimony of the Spirit, confirming the refurrection, afcenfion, and exaltation of Chrift); or, if they were convinced, yet carried them, inftead of owning this undeniable teftimony, to vilify and blafpheme it t. But though this was the greateft inftance of this incurable wickedness and perverfenefs, yet wherever it fhewed itself by blafphemy against any work done by the Spirit of God, even during our Saviour's life, it was the blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft; of which if the Pha rifees were evidently guilty §, yet men might be guilty of it in our Saviour's time, fince our Saviour fays on that occafion, that blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft " fhall not be forgiven in this world (or the age in which he spoke, which was the times of the law), cc any more than in the world to come" (or the age that fucceeded it, namely, the kingdom of the Mefliah, or the difpenfation of the Spirit) and our Saviour. probably spoke as a prophet, when he faid, that "blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft fhould not be for"given" thofe Pharifees, on whofe occafion he spoke it; as knowing that it would be the greateft evidence that thould ever in the courfe of God's providence be offered to them: as he fays, "Ye are "none of my fheep: ye fhall die in your fins ." *Heb. vi. 4, 5. + Matt. xii. 32. See his Appendix to the xiith chapter of St. Matthew, in his Paraphrafe and Comment on the New Teftament, p. 251. § Matt. ii. 31, 32. John x. 26. viii. 21. 24. Wa |