Wesley Corpus

But with us it is not so. For our mind and conscience are cleansed, so that we do all things well, not for fear of present punishment, but through our love of God, and an habit of virtue. They therefore, though they were called sons, yet were as slaves; but we, being made free, have received the adoption, and look not for a land of milk and honey, but for heaven. “He brings also another proof, that we have the Spirit of adoption, by which, says he, we cry, ‘Abba, Father. This is the first word we utter ueta tas 6avuaatas obvas exceivas, scal Tov £evov cat Trapabokov Xoxevuatov voluov; after those amazing throes, (or birth-pangs,) and that strange and won derful manner of bringing forth. “He brings yet another proof of the superiority of those who had this Spirit of adoption: ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.' I prove this, says he, not only from the voice itself, but also from the cause whence that voice proceeds: For the Spirit suggests the words while we thus speak, which he hath elsewhere expressed more plainly, ‘God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!’ But what is, ‘The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit?” He means, the Paraclete by the gift given unto us.” (But that this was an extraordinary gift, we have no intimation at all, neither before nor after.) “And when ‘the Spirit beareth witness, what doubt is left? If a man or an angel spake, some might doubt; but when the Most High beareth witness to us, who can doubt any longer?” Now let any reasonable man judge how far your Lordship has “translated the words of St. Chrysostom; and whether he reckons the testimony of the Spirit among the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost,” or among those ordinary gifts of the Spirit of Christ which if a man have not he is none of his. 19. The fifth text your Lordship quotes, as describing a miraculous gift of the Spirit, is 1 Cor. xiv.