1 Cor. xii. 11. All these worketh that one and the self -same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
THE Corinthian Church was richly endowed with gifts : but the persons so endowed were not pro- portionably enriched with grace. Hence their gifts in too many instances administered only to strife and disorder ; creating pride in some^ who gratified them- selves with an ostentatious display of their preter- natural powers ; and calling forth envy in others, whose powers were only of an inferior order. To counteract and rectify these disorders, St. Paul directed the people's attention to the origin and use of all these gifts which had been conferred upon them. He shewed that they were all imparted by the Spirit of God according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, without any reference to the merits or attainments of the people themselves ; and that they were bestowed on them, not for the aggrandisement of the favoured individuals, but for the benefit of
the whole Church. This is the precise import of the whole chapter, as it is also of the fourteenth chapter, wherein the subject is still further pro- secuted : it is confined, I say, to the gifts of the Spirit, without referring to the graces. Yet we shall take occasion from our text to notice also the graces of the Spirit, because they will be treated of with peculiar advantage in this connexion.
We will consider then the work of the Holy Spirit generally ; and notice, I. His miraculous operations —
The powers communicated by him to the Church were extremely various —
[At this time it is not easy to say what was the precise difference between some of the powers specified in the pre- ceding context, though doubtless, when the epistle was written, they were well understood. " The word of wisdom," probably refers to a large and comprehensive view of the great mysteries of redemption : and " the word of knowledge," to a more particular insight into the types and prophecies, with an ability to explain them for the edification of others. " The faith," there mentioned, was such a confidence in God, as emboldened a person to go forward in the midst of all dangers undaunted and undismayed. ** The gift of healing," was a power merely confined to the healing of disorders ; whilst " the working of miracles " was operative on a larger scale. The gift of " pro- phecy," was a power of foretelling future and contingent events : the power of " discerning spirits," enabled a person to estimate with certainty and precision the motives by which others were actuated : the gift of " divers tongues," qualified a person to speak in languages which he had never learned : and " the interpretation of tongues," was a power of instantly interpreting such discourses to other persons in a language which they understood : so that, whilst some of the audience were addressed in a language familiar to them, the rest might also have the benefit of the discourse, by having it interpreted to them in their vernacular tongue ; by which means, a mixed assembly, belonging to different countries, might all be in- structed and edified by the same discourse.
If in this brief attempt to assign to each word its proper import we should not have exactly marked the precise meaning of each, it will be of little consequence ; our object being, not so much to enter into a critical examination of doubtful points, as to mark that in which all are agreed; namely, that all the miraculous gifts, of whatever kind they were, proceeded from