But, if there be no interpreter,— The miracle which conferred the gift of tongues, seems to have been the instantaneous impressing on the mind the familiar and perfect knowledge of a language, with which the person was before unacquainted; yet so that from that time the person receiving it should be able, without any new miracle, to use it as he thought fit; in the same manner as the members of the body are freely and perfectly used, after having been restored by miracle to the exercise of their natural functions. It was as much in the course of nature for an Apostle, whom the Holy Spirit had enabled to speak a strange language, ever afterwards to have the use of that language, as it was for the cripple whom Jesus restored to the use of his limbs, ever afterwards to walk, run, and perform all the functions of a man perfectly sound and whole. This is the only hypothesis upon which the abuse of this gift can be accounted for.

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