Answ. Yes or else considering the infirmities and defects of most if not of all his Followers we could never have any comfortable hope in him much less so great as to desire and Pray for his Appearance And yet the Apostles give this as the Character of good and acceptable Christians who may therefore hope to be made happy when they are qualified for it according to Humane measures The Crown of Righteousness is for me and all that love his appearing saith St. Paul 2 Tim. 4. 8. Look for and by your Prayers haste on the coming of the great Day of God saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. 12. Come Lord Jesus come quickly saith St. John Rev. 22. 20. And in our daily Prayers our Lord himself has taught us every day to say thy Kingdom come Quest. Are we not indebted for all this indulgence to the merit of his Death Answ. Yes for we are accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood Eph. 1 6. 7. And owing all to him we must both Pray and give thanks for it in his Name Joh. 14. 13. Eph. 5. 20. Quest. All these acts of favour you have recited are marvellous instances of Gods clemency to all his faithful Servants and the Gospel I see encourages us to expect them at his hands But are we sure at that Day God will stand to these Gospel Terms Answ. Yes most sure For he never repents of his promises nor can deny himself Besides the same Jesus who once came from God to make us these gracious offers is then to come and Judge us according to them and make good his own Proposals Nay since there may seem the same Reason for his retaining them on to the consummation as for his resuming them at the Resurrection he may probably come as some of the Ancients have thought with the Glorious Scars of the Spear and Nails and the signs of his Meritorious wounds which purchased all this Grace about him And then as all the Wicked shall look on him whom they have pierced with horror and consternation so shall the Righteous with unspeakable comfort most joyfully beholding in his wounds both the heighth of their most dear and compassionate Judge's Love and the Price and assurance of their own Salvation Quest. This indulgence of our Almighty Judge will be an inexhaustible Fountain of ravishing joy and comfort to all serious and considerate minds And indeed without such clemency as you have described the thoughts of the future judgment must needs be a very melancholly consideration to the best Persons But expecting so much Candor and Benignity from him they have cause enough not only to look for but to love and desire his appearing But what shall be the effect of all this to good men Answ. They shall be sentenced to an Everlasting Life and Rewarded with all the Glory and Happiness of an Eternal Kingdom For having fairly and impartially heard their Cause and made all these Allowances and found them Righteous he will say to them Come ye Blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Beginning of the World Mat. 25. 34. Quest. And in that Allotment and Proportioning of Rewards will he consider the Difficulties and Oppositions in Doing Good which some Men meet withal above others Answ. Yes As these Tryals and Temptations are Proofs of a greater Love they will in proportion be a Ground of a Greater Reward Thus St Paul says the adding of Affliction to his Bonds or Multiplying his Trouble in preaching of the Word would surely turn to his greater Salvation in the End Phil. 1. 16 19. Quest. Will he also consider the Costliness of it as when 't is done with hazard or Loss of their Friends or Estates or it may be of their Lives Answ. Yes one single Act under such hazards may shew as much Religious Love and Zeal as would suffice to great Numbers when they are free from such incumbrances When we obey God with present Damage he will not only consider our Services but our Loss in his Cause and recompence abundantly not only all we did but likewise all we suffered for him For every one that forsakes Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Name 's sake says our Saviour shall receive therefore an hundred fold Mat 19. 29. And the Martyrs that were beheaded for the Witness of Jesus shall rise first and Reign with Christ a thousand years but the Rest of the Dead not till the thousand years are finished Rev. 20. 4 5. And therefore whensoever God calls Men to suffer for Righteousness they must not look upon it as a Calamitous Scourge but as a Favour and Priviledge such Suffering being sent in Truth as opportunities of accumulating Bliss and securing to themselves not only more ample but when their Sufferings proceed to Blood more early shares of the Future Glories To you 't is given saith St. Paul in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake Phil. 1. 29. Count it all joy saith St. James when you fall into diverse Temptations Jam. 1. 2. When you are Reviled and Slandered and Persecuted for Righteousness sake says our Saviour then think your selves Blessed and Rejoice and be exceeding glad for your Reward in Heaven shall be great for it Mat. 5. 10 11 12. As the Apostles did who when the Council had beaten them departed from their Presence rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name Act. 5. 40 41. And the Hebrews who took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods as knowing they had in Heaven a better and more Durable Substance Heb. 10. 34. Quest. But numbers of the Evils we endure come not on us for keeping God's Commandments but only as our share of that Misery and Trouble which God has allotted for us in this Life And will he at that Day Rate these and consider any persons having endured more Poverty Oppression Shame or Sickness in this World than other good Persons who yet are no better nor Dearer to God than themselves Answ. I suppose he will for he is no Respecter of Persons And therefore when Persons of equal or higher Goodness through the present ordering of his Providence want much of their Brethrens Temporal Encouragements they may hope for a more Liberal share in a better place For his extraordinary Measure of Evil things in this present time Lazarus had a proportionable surplusage of Good in Abraham's Bosom Luk. 16. 24. Blessed are ye that live in Poverty and Hunger now says our Saviour for ye shall be filled Blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh Noteing thereby such an ample Recompence for these present Evils in the next World as would render them to all good Men not the Miseries as this World esteems them but the truest Favours and Gainful Blessings of their Lives Luke 6. 20 21. This seeming
one another What becomes of their Apostasie If they proclaim the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to be the only true God whom we are to fear and worship and themselves to be fallen Angels who are no longer to be adored in Temples hearkened to in their suggestions nor imitated in their falshood pride envy hatred of God and Men and other practices they turn Angels of Light instead of being Powers of Darkness The Devils can work no Miracles for these ends except they should first turn Saints and change their Natures And therefore it was a most authentick and assuring mark which Jesus gave of the truth of his own Miracles when he called them the works his Father had given him to finish that is which were not wrought for any ill ends nor out of vanity to exalt his own Praise but to serve the ends of God and set on his Father's desires and purposes John 5. 36. Quest. Indeed in such kinds which seem more imitable by created powers these intents and designs would indisputably distinguish his signs from all Satanical Delusions Ans. Yes and so I might add in the last place would his manner of performance too For his usual way of working wonders was not by any Magical Rites and Invocations but meerly by a Word of his Mouth To the wind and sea he said Peace and it was still Mark 4. 39. to the deaf man's Ears Be opened and instantly he heard Mark 7. 34 35. to the blind man Go thy way thy faith hath made thee see and without more ado he saw again Mark 10. 52. to the leper I will Be thou cleansed and his leprosie was cured Luke 5. 13. Which way of effecting things by an all-commanding Word is as plain an evidence of a Divine Power as Creating all things was at first for then God only said Let there be light and there was light Gen. 1. 3. he only spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psalm 33. 9. Not to mention moreover the vast number of his Miracles which more assuredly inferred a Divine Power in him than in any nay in all the Prophets put together who lived before him For whereas the Jews when to exalt Moses and the Prophets they ambitiously make the most of their Miracles after they have picked up all they can compute all his only at 76. and all theirs from the beginning of the World to the destruction of the Temple only at 74. which both together make but 150. in above 3000 Years time this single Jesus in three Years wrought so many that were they all written the world it self would not be able to contain the Books that should be written of them John 21. 25. To all which I might add lastly That he did not only show these great and numerous signs himself in Person but transmitted the Power to Numbers to do the same in his Name and conferred this Power on Gentiles as well as Jews which are things utterly unknown among all the wonder-workers of former times Quest. But in this point one thing sticks still with the Jews which is that Jesus and his Apostles in credit of their Miracles went about to overthrow the Law of Moses And may not they therefore confront all the Miracles wrought in justification of that Law against theirs Ans. They might to one that accused that Law as forged or erroneous Which Jesus was so far from doing that he all along makes Moses and the Prophets his Vouchers telling the Jews had you believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me John 5. 46 and search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me verse 39. Quest. But did not those Miracles when they proved that Law to come from God prove also that none should come in after-time to abrogate and annull it Ans. No but on the contrary the Holy Prophets under that Law declared it should be changed and all those things subverted whereto it was adapted and which were the ground and foundation of it Quest. To what things was the Jewish Law adapted Ans. Their Moral Laws contained in the Ten Commandments were adapted not to the particular state and circumstances of any place or People but of the common humane Nature and therefore were unchangeable And accordingly when our Saviour comes to meddle with them he declares it was not to destroy or vacate but fulfil and add what was wanting in them Matth. 5. 17 18. But their Judicial Laws which prescribed the Rules of Courts and Judgments were fitted to their external Polity as they were a civil State in Canaan And as for their Ceremonial which order'd the Rules of their Religion and Worship to omit other specialties therein that chief part of them about Sacrifices was all to be administred by one Family viz. Aaron's line and was limited to one place viz. the temple of Jerusalem Quest. And did the Holy Prophets under that Law foretel any change in that Priesthood Temple-worship and Civil State or talk of any new settlement of things independent on or inconsistent with them Ans. Yes In the last days a known Phrase for the days of Messiah the mountain of the Lord's house says Isaiah shall be established in the top of the mountains and all nations shall flow unto it Isaiah 2. 2. God's Name shall be great among the Gentiles from the rising to the setting of the sun in every place shall incense be offered to his Name and a pure offering which cannot consist with Worshipping still in one appropriate place viz. the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem Mal. 1. 11. A new Priesthood shall be erected says the Psalmist in the days of Christ not after the order of Aaron but Melchisedech Psalm 110. 4. and then shall God take to himself Priests and Levites out of other nations no longer confining his choice to Aaron and his Sons Isaiah 66. 19 20 21. a plain sign the Law was to cease when the Priesthood was which had the Ministration of it Heb. 7. 12. About Messiah's time says the Prophet Daniel shall God destroy the city and make an utter desolation the Scepter too departing as Jacob foretold when once Shilo was come and what place then for their Judicial Laws when they were no longer to be a Nation nor have any Established Polity to administer and judge by them He shall also destroy the Sanctuary and what then becomes of all the Sacrifices when once the place was demolished wherein the Law required they should all be offered Dan. 9. 26 27. In summ they declare as I noted before that God would set aside the Mosaick Covenant by reason of its insufficiency and give them a new and better Covenant in its place And that he would make this change at that time when a woman should compass a Man which plainly notes the days of Messiah Jeremiah 31. 22 31 32 c. Quest. Indeed these are plain proofs
accounts will experimentally find that this is not the way to diminish but to increase an estate This Azariah the chief Priest told King Hezekiah was the cause of that surplusage of plenty which God bestowed upon the Jews 2 Chron. 31. The King had commanded all the people to pay justly all their Tythes and Offerings which had been fraudulently withheld to the Priests and Levites for their incouragement in the Law of the Lord beginning the Practice with his own example paying all his dues to the Church verse 3 4. And as soon as this commandment came abroad the people brought in all their Tythes and Oblations as they fell due in abundance the first-fruits of corn of wine and oyl and hony and all the increase of the field the tythe of oxen and sheep and the tythe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God the tythe of all things brought they in abundantly and laid them heaps by heaps verse 5 6. And when Hezekiah and the Princes came and saw the heaps and thereby understood the vast increase the People had received which yielded such abundance of Dues to the Priests he blessed God for it and asked Azariah concerning the cause of this mighty surplusage verse 8 9. And Azariah the chief Priest answered him and said Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord we have had enough to eat and have left plenty for the Lord hath blessed his people and that which is left is this great store That is since out of their Fruits which are the Gift of God they have faithfully paid their Dues to God he has so increased their store that our share comes to so much we know not how to dispose of it but have left all these heaps thou seest after we and our Families have eaten and are satisfied verse 10. Quest. I see it teaches us both in Duty and prudence to give willingly and cheerfully the Poors Dole and the Priests Dues but doth it not also teach us how to injoy and spend the rest which remains to our selves Ans. Yes for coming from the free Bounty of God we must injoy it with a thankful and cheerful heart not with murmuring envy or discontent like Men that are proner to spy faults than to own favours and are never pleased Besides since it is God's gift we must take care that God be honoured by it and never dishonour him or abuse our selves by spending it upon vice or vanity but own his Gift in a temperate and sober use of it Yea I add in a charitable use too For these Fruits God gives to us not as Proprietors but Stewards to distribute abroad to the necessities of others after we have served our selves So that not only temperance and thankful hearts but Alms and Charity also are necessary to hallow our enjoyments Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Quest. Is it God also that gives us Children Ans. Yes Children or the Fruit of the Womb are a reward and heritage that cometh of the Lord that is he disposes of them to whom he pleases as a Parent doth of his Estate Psalm 127. 3. And therefore as we must rest satisfied whilst we have none because it is God that withholds them so must we trust in God when we have many of them believing that since as our Saviour saith the life is more than meat he that sent Mouths will send Meat and that as they were at first his Gift they will be still his Care and that he who provides for the Ravens will much more provide for them Luke 12. 24. Quest. Is it the same Providence of God that makes us thrive in our Trades and gives a prosperous success to us in any business Ans. Yes the horse is provided against the day of Battel but safety is of the Lord Prov. 21. 31. Though a man's heart deviseth his way that is Men hammer out a project yet the Lord directeth his steps that is God determines the event and orders such an issue as perhaps he never intended Prov. 16. 9. Men may contrive and pursue methods but God still must give events The way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps that is to fix and determine them on any final issues Jer. 10. 23. Quest. Must not this teach us whensoever we begin any business or set upon any attempts to recommend them first to God by Prayers or Pious Ejaculations and to place our chiefest confidence in his Blessing Ans. Yes In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3. 6. commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established that is shall take effect Prov. 16. 3. And I think there is little question to be made but that Men miscarry far oftner than otherwise they would in their designs and business because they trust too much to their own care and skill and human aids and seek no more to God to ingage the furtherance of his good Providence Quest. Must Men seek thus to God even in things wherein they are best skilled themselves and when they are confident they take the surest methods Ans. Yes for the surest means without a good Providence will not secure the issues The race as Solomon observed is not always to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor favour to men of skill Eccles. 9. 11. So that when Men are in the wisest courses or most probable preparations they have need still to look up to God who must consummate all by his assistance Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3. 5 6. There is very much indeed lies in wise management every purpose as Solomon says being established by counsel Prov. 20. 18. But when wise managers shew a Religious dependance and trust in God too that is the way to assure the event He that handles a matter wisely shall find good but if together with that he trust in the Lord more than his own skill happy is he Prov. 16. 20. Quest. But if the event depends thus on God till we see what way he will take we cannot be sure of it And must not this teach us not to be too positive but modest in these expectations and promise the desired issue to our selves still with this reserve if God sees it fit for us Ans. Yes for man's goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way that is foresee the event of it since God oftentimes over-rules their motions to ends far distant from their thoughts Prov. 20. 24. And this as it will keep us from being too confident of gaining any good things will preserve us also from desponding under the apparent danger of any bad ones since when they are
ends both of Grace and Wisdom Ans. Yes to all those that love him If they come to defeat their projects they shall see at last that is in favour to them or if only to backen them that is but to respite them for a more advantageous issue at a fitter season nay perhaps these seeming backners will at last appear the truest promoters to help them on If Men will have patience till all is done their crosses and misadventures will appear most orderly proper and beautiful in their time when they have seen on to the end of the chain and viewed the whole frame and dependance of God's ordering And therefore upon any cross occurrences Men must not be hasty in judging to discourage and discontent their hearts but wait God's time with Patience Hope and implicite Faith till the end of things discovers his most Wise and Gracious Purpose Quest. But what if in the height of our hopes and probabilities some cross accident starts up that is like to break all our measures Ans. If God sees good to make our hopes take place he can make our crosses carry on our desires to advantage For 't is his Prerogative to bring light out of darkness to make use of weak things to worst the strong and of foolish things to confound the wise 1 Cor. 1. 27. And he has declared that all things shall work together for good to those that love God Rom. 8. 28. But then they must commit their case to his conduct and trust him with it Quest. But the evil accident happens at that very time which of all others seems most unseasonable and fit to pull down all they have been so long a building up Ans. Though it doth to God the easiness of accomplishing his Gracious Purposes is still the same It only gets him the greater Glory in making the crossest events serve such turns as are beside all expectation and he chuses to work by such improbable means to shew his overruling Wisdom What in appearance could be worse timed than the dissension of Paul and Barnabas two chief Ministers in an Infant-Church Yet this God turned to the furtherance of the Gospel by dividing them like two great Streams for the watering of more Countries Paul going through Syria and Cilicia and Barnabas to Cyprus Act. 15. 39 40 41. And therefore we must never be immoderately troubled or dejected at private or publick mischances falling out most unseasonably to cross our hopes either for our particular Interests or for God's Holy Church For when God is ingaged for us he over-rules as the greatest evils so the crossest seasons too to serve his own purpose Quest. Sickness loss of friends and crosses and mischances that could not be foreseen I see plainly are the Hand of God. But when we suffer from ill Men are those evils also of God's sending Ans. Yes for the wicked are God's sword Psal. 17. 13. He over-rules the most troublesom and ungodly Men to serve his own turn the Lord hath made or disposed all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil that is to vent themselves there where he sees fit to send evil Prov. 16. 4. They are his instruments whereby he either exercises our patience or corrects our disobedience Quest. If 't is God that afflicts us by them and they are but as a Rod or Instrument in his Hand when they design to vex and hurt us he can put by their design Ans. Yes and often doth as he put by Abimelech from committing wickedness by a terrifying dream Gen. 20. 3 6. and Pharaoh by sending great plagues upon him Gen. 12. 17. His Providence can at any time throw in their way a discouraging reason a diverting fear an inward relenting or expose some other object to their hurtful passion and divert it from him it fixed first upon Even the heart of kings says Solomon who having no Superiours here seem most of all left to their own wills are in God's hand to derive into any channels or courses as the rivers of water are in the Husbandman's to bring them over what part of his Ground he pleases Prov. 21. 1. whereof we have abundant instances both in Holy Scripture and Experience Quest. And when they are fully fixed to do us hurt yet since they are under his conduct and direction let them desire and endeavour it as much as they will they cannot do us any hurt before his time Ans. That is very right And this was plain in the wicked Jews who though they sought with all their might to kill Christ yet either he secretly withdrew himself at the very point of time when they thought to lay hands on him Luke 4. 29 30. or the officers hearts relented who were sent to apprehend him John 7. 32 44 45 46. or they were providentially struck with a startling fear that the People who held him for a Prophet would rise upon them Matth. 21. 46. Some thing or other stood always ready to put them by because his hour was not yet come John 7. 30. But when God's own time drew on his Providence which was a Wall of Brass about him before laid him open to their spite and then they wrought their wills upon him this is your hour and the power of darkness Luke 22. 53. And so it was also in Job's case Whilst God set an hedge about him no Enemy could annoy him and till God had said all he has is in thine hand Satan himself could not bring his mischievous instruments the Sabaans and Chaldaeans upon him Job 1. 10 12 15 17. Quest. And when that time is come can they exceed his bounds or afflict further than he has allowed them Ans. No for though the Jews to increase Christ's pain designed to break his legs as well as the Legs of the other Malefactors as he hung upon the cross yet by the speediness of his death God prevented them to fulfil the Scripture which saith a bone of him shall not be broken John 19. 33 36. And when the Corinthians were full of fears and apprehensive of great trials S. Paul tells them God is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able but will make a way to escape so much of the temptation as would prove over hard for you 1 Cor. 10. 13. And this has been the general experience of God's Servants who as S. Paul speaks might be troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. Quest. And as God stints the measure as well as appoints the season doth he also fix the length and duration of our sufferings from evil Men Ans. Yes that is not left to their malice but as soon as our sufferings have accomplished God's ends he will take care to alter the counsels and course of things The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust
Quest. I see the Holy Ghost endowed the Apostles with strange Gifts of Miracles But could they work these Miracles at any instant of time when they would or were some Preparations required to them Answ. There was required to them 1. Always Faith in him that wrought them And 2. sometimes particularly in miraculous Cures Faith in the Person that received them or whom they were wrought upon Quest. What was the Faith required in him that wrought them Answ. A Perswasion that God's Power would assist him and perform the Miracle by him For that they might never offer at this in vain which would have exposed both themselves and their Religion whensoever God would enable them to work a Miracle he first possessed their minds with a firm Belief and Assurance of it And this is the Faith so oft required of Wonder-workers in the Scriptures Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains 1 Cor. 13. 2. And if ye have Faith as a Grane of Mustard-Seed ye shall say to this Mountain Remove hence to yonder Place and it shall Remove and nothing shall be unpossible unto you Mat. 17. 20. And this Faith is reckon'd as one of the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit To another Faith by the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 9. Quest. What was the Faith that sometimes but more especially in the cure of Diseases was required on him that received a Miracle or the Person it was to be wrought upon Answ. A Perswasion that God would enable the Wonder-worker to do the cure for or shew the Miracle upon him This also was another Requisite For Paul stedfastly beholding the Creeple and perceiving he had faith to be healed said to him stand upright Act. 14. 9 10. Believe ye that I am able to do this said Christ to the blind Men according to your Faith so be it unto you Mat. 9. 28 29. If thou canst do any thing said the Father of the Demoniack have Compassion on us and help us Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe I can all miraculous Things are possible to be done to him that believeth Mar. 9. 22 23. And in his own Country 't is said Christ did not many Miracles because of their unbelief Mat. 13. 58. or as St. Mark he could not do them God it seems suspending this miraculous aid in the case of such whose unbelief rendred them unworthy of it Mark 6. 4 5. Quest. What is the third and last of those extraordinary Gifts which the Holy Ghost bestowed upon the Apostles Answ. The Gift of strange Tongues whereby they who were all Jews were able in an instant to Publish that Religion God had revealed to them over all the world and be understood by men of every Language Quest. Was this given to the Apostles Answ. Yes visibly at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended upon each of them in the shape of Cloven Tongues like as of Fire and they spake with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and talked to Parthians and Romans Cretes and Arabians and to the devout men from every Nation under Heaven at that time gathered together to Jerusalem to every man in the Tongue wherein he was born Acts. 2. 1. to 12. And at the imposition of the Apostles hands it was generally bestowed on others afterwards As on the Disciples at Ephesus at the imposition of Paul's hands Acts 19. 2 6. on Cornelius and his Gentile Friends at Peter's Preaching for while he yet spake to them the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and they spake with Tongues and magnified God Acts 10. 44 45 46. And so on others in great numbers particularly in the Church of Corinth Quest. To what end were they thus endowed with all Languages Answ. To enable them to Preach to all Nations for they were Commission'd to teach all Nations Mat. 28. 19. And they could not teach them without speaking to every man in his own Language And therefore wheresoever they came the Spirit immediately made them as perfect in the Language of the Place as they were in their own Mother Tongue Quest. Had not some the Gift of Tongues who were not sent out to men of another Language Answ. Yes as particularly in the Church of Corinth for there many would speak in the Assemblies where all or most were Greeks in Strange Tongues which because the Church did not understand St. Paul directs such gifted Linguists to Pray for another Gift of interpreting Tongues to make such enthusiasms intelligible to their Hearers 1 Cor. 14. 2 5 13. In these strange Tongues they Preached v. 6. and Prayed to God v. 14. And this being an offering up both inspired Prayers and in inspired Tongues which are both his extraordinary Gifts is called Praying and Singing by or with the Spirit v. 14 15. Quest. To what end then served these strange Tongues in such Churches all of one Tongue Answ. Not to make known Religion indeed because the hearers did not understand them But they serv'd to express the Speakers Devotion and so edified himself 1 Cor. 14. 4. and as a Sign to confirm our Religion and so were an argument as all other Miracles were to prove it true to Infidels Tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not v. 22. Quest. Was there any Guilt subservient to this of speaking with strange Tongues Answ. Yes the Gift of interpreting those strange Tongues when spoken either by themselves or others Quest. But I pray you what need of that did not they that spoke these strange Tongues understand themselves Answ. Yes he that spoke in an unknown Tongue edified himself 1 Cor. 14. 4. and he that gave Thanks in it gave Thanks well as St. Paul says v. 17. But in this exercise of strange Tongues the heat of Enthusiasm and Divine Rapture was sometimes so great that the Speaker could not interpret himself as he spoke nor remember it after that heat was over so as to give an explication to those that heard it And this defect the Gift of interpreting Tongues supplyed which Gift St Paul directs those who had the other of speaking with strange Tongues to beg of God in order to their greater usefulness Let him that speaketh in an unknown Tongue pray also that he may interpret i. e. do it with such consistency and moderation of mind as to be able afterwards to give the same in other more intelligible words v. 13. and orders that when any spoke with Tongues who were not thus qualified to explain themselves they should speak not all at a time as they sometimes did but by course and have one still to second them to interpret their strange speech v. 27. Quest. By this I see what are the extraordinary Gifts which the Holy Ghost bestowed upon the Apostles viz. the Gift of inspiration whereby they should be infallibly instructed in their Religion of Tongues and utterance whereby they should intelligibly and undauntedly