Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Corinthians 13:2

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy , and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge , and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains , and have not charity, I am nothing .

It hath been before shewed, that the Gift of Prophecy signifieth an extraordinary power or faculty, by which men in those Primitive Times were inabled to reveal the Mind and Will of God, either as to future contingencies, or things which should afterwards come to pass in the World, or by further explication or application of the Mind and Will of God already revealed in holy Writ.

Though, saith the Apostle, I had a vast knowledge, and could in any notion comprehend the most sublime and hidden things, whether Divine, or humane:

And though I had all Faith (except that which is saving and justifying): he further opens what Faith he meant, viz. Faith of Miracles, a firm perswasion, that God would upon my prayer work things beyond the power, and contrary to the course of Nature, (the Apostle alludeth to the words of our Saviour, Matt. 17.20) yet, saith he, if I have not Love, that true Love to God and men, by which that Faith, which is profitable to Salvation, worketh and sheweth it self:

it will all signifie nothing, be of no profit nor avail unto me in order to my eternal Salvation. I may perish for ever notwithstanding such gifts.

Marginal references: Chap. 12.8, 9, 10. See Matt. 7.22.; Luke 17.6.