SERM. amongst whom they were.

And though

XVI. it may be said that these nations, which were strangers to them, had not such a clear proof that their ability of speaking various languages was given them from above, as their own countrymen had, yet they had certainly sufficient proof to induce them to believe it. The apostles asserted that the gift of tongues was supernatural; and they had a right to be credited, because the other miracles which they performed, such as the cure of diseases, and the raising of the dead, were as much out of the course of nature as this to which they pretended; the one, therefore, was a confirmation of the other.

This miracle, immediately on the spot and at the time, was followed by the most wonderful effects; so glaring was the evidence which it offered in favour of the truth of Christianity, that, after the sermon which St. Peter preached on the oc

casion,

casion, the people

cc

XVI.

gladly received his SER M. "word and were baptized, and the same "day there were added unto them about "three thousand souls." This was a large portion of first fruits, a great earnest of that spiritual harvest which the apostles had begun to reap, of which the first fruits of the productions of the earth, offered at this very time by the Jews, were a representation. Nor was the utility of the gift, conferred on the apostles, less conspicuous afterwards; the thing, indeed, speaks for itself. The last orders of Jesus Christ were "Go ye and teach all nations, bap

tizing them in the name of the Father, "and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, "teaching them to observe all things what"soever I have commanded you." How Iwere these orders to be fulfilled without a previous knowledge of the tongues of the nations whom these missionaries were to address? and how slow, very slow, must have

VOL. I.

SERM. have been the progress of the gospel if XVI. they had been left to acquire these tongues

by the usual methods. On the contrary, with this assistance, its progress was rapid beyond imagination; within the period of forty years, from the death of Christ, it had been preached and had obtained some footing in every considerable country of the then known world.

Let us, then, now, and at all times, entertain the highest gratitude towards God, for this stupendous instance of his desire that all nations and kindreds should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved; let us resolve to make the most we are able of this benevolent distribution of divine truth; let us pray to God that as his Holy Spirit at the first opening of Christianity gavę such extraordinary power to the apostles for our conversion, so he may continue the same blessed work by taking up his abode with each and all of

XVI.

us, by illuminating our understandings and SERM, purifying our hearts, that we may have a true perception of every thing which it concerns us to know, and may resolutely and uninterruptedly continue in the practice of it.