1817 Oct r 15

Not Paul

Ch. Period before Conversion

§ Simon Magus

II. 4. All filled with the H. G. II. 38. […?] to be baptized and ye shall receive the gift of the H. G.

1. At the feast of Pentecost on the occasion on which the /of the/ cloven tongues are spoken of, the whole number of believers being stated at 120 they are all of them stated as being filled with the Holy Ghost: and this without any operation performed by any human hand for the production of the effect.

II. 4

2. In the same chapter when an assembly is represented as having met an assembly composed of persons not as yet disciples but so numerous that three thousand formed but a part of it then it is that Peter says to them ‘Repent and … be baptized every one of you … and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Was this a promise? /What was meant by this/ the performance of it is not stated. Was it a simple prediction? the fulfilment of it is not stated. In the English it is a promise: in the Greek it may be either: for to the English tongue belongs this great and almost peculiar advantage, that when an event is spoken of as future it may and commonly is and always may be made known without ambiguity whether the speaker does or does not it be or be /is or is/ not the intention of the speaker that he should be regarded as being /having been/ instrumental[?] in the production of it. Promise or prediction it seems not much to the credit of the historian, that after having thus reported the delivery of it, it should not have appeared to him worth while to state the accomplishment of it. On that same day about three thousand is stated as the number of those who were then baptized, and who by receiving this gift thus gave themselves so compleat a title /unquestionable a title/ to the other: yet that they ever received it is not stated. To be sure Neither is the contrary stated: and so thus the matter rests.