2 Corinthians 5:5

Now he that has made us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
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Ambrosiaster

AD 400
The Spirit is our guarantee because he is the agent of our adoption. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
However, now we see obscurely but then face to face; now we see partially but then completely. But the present ability to see in the Scriptures obscurely and partially something which, nonetheless, is in accord with Catholic faith is the work of the pledge which was received by the virgin church at her bridegroom’s lowly coming. She will be wed at his final coming when he will come in glory and when she will then behold face to face, for he has given to us a pledge which is the Holy Spirit, as the apostle says.

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
For this period in God’s plan, in which the Lord has deigned to appear in time and visibly as a man and has given to us as a pledge the Holy Spirit, by whose sevenfold working we are given life (apostolic authority having been added like the seasoning of a few fish), what else therefore does this period in God’s plan effect but the possibility of attaining the prize of the heavenly calling without [our] powers failing us? “For we walk by faith and not by sight.”

Cornelius a Lapide

AD 1637
Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. He that wrought, perfected, and formed us, i.e, (1.) He that created us for this eternal life of bliss, is God. (2.) He who by His eternal decree prepared and predestinated us for this same bliss, is God. (3.) Best of all, He who by His grace so forms and prepares the will and understanding of man and his whole nature, and who makes him so live as to be worthy of being beatified with this immortality, is God. Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. I.e, as Ambrose says, the Spirit Himself. God has not given us a pledge of gold or of silver, i.e, gold or silver as a pledge, but He has given us His Holy Spirit, inasmuch as He has infused into us His charity, and the virtues of the Spirit of holiness, whereby as sons we cry "Abba, Father," in full trust in God as our Father. For this Spirit is a pledge of our heavenly inheritance of glory laid up for us, and God has given us this Spirit to assure us through Him, a...

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
He that maketh us for this very thing, (literally, to this same thing ) is God, who created us to be eternally happy, who hath given us the earnest of the Spirit. See Chap. i. ver. 22. (Witham)

John Chrysostom

AD 407
Hereby he shows that these things were prefigured from the first. For not now was this decreed: but when at the first He fashioned us from earth and created Adam; for not for this created He him, that he should die, but that He might make him even immortal. Then as showing the credibility of this and furnishing the proof of it, he added, Who also gave the earnest of the Spirit. For even then He fashioned us for this; and now He has wrought unto this by baptism, and has furnished us with no light security thereof, the Holy Spirit. And he continually calls It an earnest, wishing to prove God to be a debtor of the whole, and thereby also to make what he says more credible unto the grosser sort.

John Chrysostom

AD 407
Here Paul shows that these things were prepared from the beginning. It is not now that they have been decreed but from the moment of creation, when he fashioned Adam. God did not create the first man in order that he should die but in order to make him immortal. To prove this, Paul adds that we have been given the Spirit as a guarantee. God is presented as having made a commitment to us to fulfill his promises. Paul does this in order to make what he says more credible to those less attentive.

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
This is why he shows us how much better it is for us not to be sorry, if we should be surprised by death, and tells us that we even hold of God "the earnest of His Spirit". Between God and man "He keeps in His own self the deposit of the flesh which has been committed to Him by both parties-the pledge and security of its entire perfection. For as "He has given to us the earnest of the Spirit, ". "earnest; ". But if repentance is a thing human, its baptism must necessarily be of the same nature: else, if it had been celestial, it would have given both the Holy Spirit and remission of sins. But none either pardons sins or freely grants the Spirit save God only.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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