Wesley Corpus

I cannot perceive that he interprets it at all “of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.” His words are, “The Holy Spirit is called, and is, the unction and the seal. For John writes, ‘The anointing which ye have received of him, abideth in you; and ye need not that any man should teach you, but as his anointing, his Spirit, “teacheth you of all things' Again : It is written in the Prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me.’ And Paul writes thus: “In whom also ye were sealed.’ And again: ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” This anointing is the breath of the Son; so that he who hath the Spirit may say, ‘We are the sweet smelling savour of Christ. Because we are par takers of the Holy Spirit, we have the Son; and having the Son, we have ‘the Spirit crying in our hearts, Abba, Father.’” And so in his Oration against the Arians:-- “‘He sendeth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” His Son in us, invoking the Father, makes him to be called our Father. Certainly God cannot be called their Father, who have not the Son in their hearts.” Is it not easy to be observed here, (1.) That Athanasius makes “that testimony of the Spirit” common to all the children of God: (2.) That he joins “the anointing of the Holy One,” with that seal of the Spirit wherewith all that persevere are “sealed to the day of redemption:” And, (3.) That he does not, through out this passage, speak of the extraordinary gifts at all? Therefore, upon the whole, the sense of the primitive Church, so far as it can be gathered from the authors above cited, is, that “although some of the scriptures primarily refer to those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were given to the Apos tles, and a few other persons in the apostolical age; yet they refer also, in a secondary sense, to those ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit which all the children of God do and will experience, even to the end of the world.” 23.