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34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

CHAPTER XII.

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have ignorant.

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2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

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Lord's supper, wait for each other in partaking 34 of it. But, if any one desires to eat for refreshment, let him take care to do it at home, before he assembles, that you may not when you thus assemble together be the occasion of punishment to yourselves. And what else remains to be noticed respecting your observance of the positive institutions, I will regulate when I come to you.

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But, in the mean time brethren, though, as I before said, you are not as yet fit to receive the Christian doctrines in their appropriate spiritual point of view, yet I would not have you ignorant of matters relating to supernatural spiritual power, either as exhibited by men in this life, or as it will be exhibited by God in a future state; a due consideration of which particulars would both prevent these schisms among you, and by leading you to reflect on the spiritual nature of the Gospel, serve effectually to confirm your faith in it. On the first of these points, since you formerly were, as you know, heathens misled by such exhibitions of su

3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

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pernatural intellectual power as then had influence over you, to trust in dumb idols; therefore, I think it right for the purpose of directing your judgment respecting such power, and the persons exercising it, to remind you, in the first place, that no one inculcating religious doctrines with supernatural intellectual power derived from God, can, consistently, inculcate that Jesus was devoted to destruction by God, and justly put to death; and that any one, therefore, so inculcating, though with supernatural intellectual power, is to be regarded as acting by the impulse of evil spirits: and in the next place, that no one inculcating religious doctrines with supernatural intellectual power derived from God can inculcate that Jesus is the Lord, except by having received that power from the Holy * Spirit of God. Now the supernatural intellectual gifts bestowed for this purpose are different, but " the spirit bestowing them the same; and the offices appointed for the exercise of these gifts are different, but the Lord who institutes them the same; " and the effects produced by these gifts and offices

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7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

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are different, but God who produces all the effects ' in all cases, the same. The means, however, of openly displaying the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit thus granted to different individuals, is given to each not for his own, but for the general benefit. 8 This is evident from the nature of these means, which indicates them as intended for general use. For to one is given, by means of immediate inspiration from the Holy Spirit, a supernatural power of explaining, on principles of general reasoning, the designs of God towards mankind; and to another, a supernatural power of explaining the connexion of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, in both cases, " according to the revelations of the same spirit: and to another, a supernatural confidence in the Gospel, in a dependence on the same spirit; and to another the conferring of immediate remedies by words 10 spoken, in a dependence on the same spirit; to another, the inflicting of destructive effects from supernatural power by words spoken; and to another, the foreseeing of future events; and to another, the intuitive discrimination of characters;

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11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

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and to another, the using of different inspired modes of speech; and to another, the interpreting of inspired modes of speech. But all these supernatural intellectual powers the one and the same spirit produces in them, distributing, severally, to each 12 individual as he thinks proper. Again, it is evident from the constitution of the Christian society; for as the human body is one substance consisting of many members, and all the members of that one body being many, form together one connected substance governed by the head, so also is the 13 Christian spiritual society. And very justly are we to be so considered, for we have all, whether we were formerly Jews or Gentiles, and as such, respectively, bound to a laborious system of bodily rites or free from any such obligation, been professedly formed by our baptismal engagement into one spiritual society under one Head; and have all, professedly, depended on one Spirit for strength to preserve our baptismal engagement. And we are not the less an united society because we are individually separate persons, for the human body

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15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him,

19 And if they were all one member, where were the body? 20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

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consists not of one member only but of many. 15 And though these members differ in their powers of acting, they are all equally parts of the body. If, on account of this difference, the foot should say, "because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body," is it on that account not part of the body? 16 and if the ear should say, "because I am not an

eye, I am not part of the body," is it on that ac"count not part of the body? If the whole body

consisted only of an eye, where would be the power of hearing? If the whole consisted only of hearing, 18 where would be the power of smelling? But as it is, God by bestowing appropriate powers of action on the different members of the body, hath placed each of them in it with such a determinate 19 function as he has thought proper; but if they all formed only one member with one function, where would be the body consisting, as a body necessarily does, of the union of different members with 20 different functions? As it is however, the members with their different powers and correspondent

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