n of
his seal: "He can never own us without his mark, the stamp of holiness.
The devil's stamp is none of God's badge. Our spiritual extraction
from him is but pretended unless we do things worthy of so illustrious
birth and becoming the honor of so great a Father." The great office
of the Spirit in the present economy is to communicate Christ to his
church which is his body. And what is so truly essential of Christ as
holiness? "In him is no sin; whosoever abideth in him sinneth not."
The body can only be sinless by uninterrupted communion with the Head;
the Head will not maintain communion with the body except it be holy.

The idea of ownership, just considered, comes out still further in the
words of the apostle: "And grieve not the Spirit of God in whom ye were
sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30). The day of redemption
is at the advent of our Lord in glory, when he shall raise the dead and
translate the living. Now his own are in the world, but the world
knows them not. But he has put his mark and secret sign upon them, by
which he shall recognize them at his coming. In that great quickening,
at the Redeemer's advent, the Holy Spirit will be the seal by which the
saints will be recognized, {81} and the power through which they will
be drawn up to God. "If the Spirit that raised up Jesus dwell in you"
(Rom. 11: 9), is the great condition of final quickening. As the
magnet attracts the particles of iron and attaches them to itself by
first imparting its own magnetism to them, so Christ, having given his
Spirit to his own, will draw them to himself through the Spirit. We
are not questioning now that all who have eternal life dwelling in them
will share in the redemption of the body; we are simply entering into
the apostle's exhortation against grieving the Spirit. We must fear
lest we mar the seal by which we were stamped, lest we deface or
obscure the signature by which we are to be recognized in the day of
redemption.[6]

In a word the sealing is the Spirit himself, now received by faith and
resting upon the believer, with all the results in assurance, in joy,
and in {82} empowering for service, which must follow his unhindered
sway in the soul. Dr. John Owen, who has written more intelligently
and more exhaustively on this subject than any with whom we are
acquainted, thus sums up the subject: "If we can learn aright how
Christ was sealed, we shall learn how we are sealed. The sealing of