Christ by the Father is the communication of the Holy Spirit in
fullness to him, authorizing him unto and acting his divine power in
all the acts and duties of his office, so as to evidence the presence
of God with him and approbation of him. God's sealing of believers
then is his gracious communication of the Holy Spirit unto them so to
act his divine power in them as to enable them unto all the duties of
their holy calling, evidencing them to be accepted with him both for
themselves and others, and asserting their preservation unto eternal
life."[7]

2. _The Fullness of the Spirit_. Immediately upon his baptism we
read: "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Luke 4: 1). The same
record is made concerning the upper-room, disciples, immediately after
the descent of the Spirit: "And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit" (Acts 2: 4). What is here spoken of seems nothing different
from what in other Scriptures is {83} called the reception of the
Spirit. It is a transaction that may be repeated, and will be if we
are living in the Spirit. But it is clearly an experience belonging to
one who has already been converged. This comes out very plainly in the
life of Paul. If according to the opinion quoted in the early part of
this chapter, the reception of the Spirit is associated always and
inseparably with conversion, one will reasonably ask, why a conversion
so marked and so radical as that of the apostle to the Gentiles need be
followed by such an experience as that named in Acts 9: 17: "And
Ananias departed and entered into the house, and laying his hands on
him, said Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus who appeared unto thee in
the way which thou earnest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy
sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost." We seem to have a clear
allusion here to that which so constantly appears in Scripture, both in
doctrine and in life, a divine something distinct from conversion and
subsequent to it, which we have called the reception of the Spirit.
"The enduement of power" we may well name it; for observe how
constantly throughout the book of Acts mighty works and mighty
utterances are connected with this qualification. "Then Peter, _filled
with the Holy Ghost_, said unto them" (Acts 4: 8), is the preface to
one of the apostle's most powerful sermons. "And they were _all filled
with the Holy Ghost_, and they spake th