295
teries) and knowledge , tongues being added, 1 Cor. xiii. 2, 8 ; either by revelation or by knowledge , or by prophesying , or by doctrine , ch. xiv. 6 : and here of wisdom and knowledge ; Col. ii. 3 ; Eph. i. 17, iii. 19. He speaks as of things, which are of daily occurrence among the Corinthians ; at present we are in doubt as to the meaning and distinetion of the words themselves. This is certain, that when they are ascribed to God, they differ only in their objects : see Rom. xi. 33, note ; when they are attributed to believers, wisdom penetrates the length, the breadth, the depth and height, more than knowledge . Knowledge is, so to speak, sight; wisdom is sight coupled with taste.1 Know - ledge relates to things that are to be done ; wisdom , to things eternal ; hence also wisdom is not said to pass away ; ch. xiii. 8, and knowledge is of more frequent occurrence ; so Paul does not so much predicate the former as the latter concerning the Corinthians, ch. viii. 1, ii. 6. Prophecy belongs to the prophets ; wisdom to the wise ; what is left, viz., knowledge , to the scribes, Matt, xxiii. 34 ; Luke xi. 52. — r'o uur'o) the same , by whom the word of wisdom is given.
9. n faith) The faith here spoken of is not that, which is common to all the saints, but it is a peculiar gift, and distin- guished too from the four species, which immediately follow ; and yet it is joined more with them, than with that first and third genus of gifts, ver. 8, and ver. 10 at the end. This faith then is a very earnest and vividly-present apprehension of God, chiefly in regard to His will, as to the effects, that are particularly con- spicuous either in the kingdom of nature or of grace ; therefore it is connected with the operation of the miraculous powers , ch. xiii. 2 (of which the principal, because the most useful to others, was the power of curing diseases ), and with prophecy (to which the discerning of spirits was closely related, ch. xiv. 37) ; Rom. xii. 6. And from this description, which we have now given, it is evident, how common or saving faith, and miracu- lous faith, which is a peculiar gift, may either agree or differ, how the one may, or may not be, without the other, and either of them may, or may not be, without love. Men even without righteousness and love may have an intelligent perception of the omnipotent will of God in Christ, Matt. vii. 22 : but none but 1 ‘ Sapor, ’ akin to sapientia. — Ed.
296