of God; it indicates those who belong to him; and it renders their salvation certain.
This sealing is by the Holy Spirit of promise. That is, by the Spirit who was promised ; or who comes in virtue of the promise. This promise was given fre- quently through the ancient prophets, who predicted that when the Messiah came and in virtue of his medi- ation, God would pour his Spirit on all flesh. Christ when on earth frequently repeated this promise ; as- suring his disciples that when he had gone to the Father, he would send them the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, to abide with them for ever. After his resurrection he commanded the apostles to abide in Jerusalem until they had received “the promise of the Father,’ Acts 1,4; meaning thereby the gift of the Holy Ghost. In Gal. 3,14, it is said to be the end for which Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, that we should receive the promise of the Spirit. This then is the great gift which Christ secures for his people; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as the source of truth, holiness, consolation, and eternal life.
V.14. This Spirit is ὁ ἀῤῥαβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν, the earnest of our mheritance. It is at once the foretaste and the pledge of all that is laid up for the believer in heaven. The word ἀῤῥαβὼν is a Hebrew term which passed first into the Greek and then into the Latin vocabulary, retaining its original sense. It means first, a part of the price of any thing purchased, paid, as a security for the full payment, and then more generally a pledge. It occurs three times in reference