Note (E), on page 38.
Bingham (Christian Antiq. b. xi. c. 1.) quotes several passages, wherein is expressed this doctrine of our being sealed, and so guarded and protected by Baptism; as the Acta Theclæ, "Give me the seal of Baptism, and temptation shall not touch me." Clemens of Alexandria, ap. Euseb. H. E. L. iii. c. 23. of the Presbyter to whom St. John had committed a young man, "The presbyter having taken him home, brought him up, kept him by him, cherished him, at last enlightened (baptized) him. After this he remitted further care and watchfulness over him, as having set upon him that perfect preservative, the seal of the Lord (i.e. Baptism.") See other instances in Suicer, v. σφραγίς.) St. Basil insists on the safety thereby procured to us, in that we are thereby marked as God's (cp. the Rev.) "How shall the Angel rescue thee from the enemies (see Jude 9.) unless he see the mark? How canst thou say 'I am God's,' unless thou bearest his tokens? Knowest thou not that the destroyer passed by the houses which were sealed (marked), and in the unsealed slew the first-born? An unsealed treasure is open to robbers; an unmarked sheep is easily entrapped" (De S. Baptismo, Hom. 13. § 4. p. 117. ed. Bened.) Again, he calls it "a seal, which no force (without us) can injure," ib. § 5. as does St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Procatech. § 16.) St. Gregory of Nazianzum uses in part the same references to Scripture history, and the same images. He especially calls Baptism "a seal to those beginning life, to the more advanced a grace also, and a restoration of the lost image." (De S. Baptismo, § 7. p. 640.) He exhorts the young to receive Baptism: "if thou provide thyself with the seal, and guard the future with the best and firmest of supports, and being marked, soul and body, with the anointing and with the Spirit, as Israel of old with that blood and anointing, which by night guarded the first-born, what shall happen to thee?" § 14. As, on the other hand, he alludes to the danger of those who have not this seal: "Fearest thou lest thou shouldest corrupt this grace, and so delayest thy purification, as having no second to look to? What then? Fearest thou not, lest in a time of persecution thou be in danger of being deprived of thy greatest treasure, Christ?" Ib. § 15. And again, "This purifying must not be glossed over, but must be stamped upon them." § 30. And hence Tertullian frequently calls Baptism the seallng-up of faith, as an impress on the part of God, whereby He secures and maintains it. "That bath is the sealing up (obsignatio) of faith, which faith begins, and is recommended by the faith of repentance." De Pœnitentia, c. 6. Again, de Spectaculis, c. 4. he calls Baptism "our sealing." And against Marcion, who distinguished the God of the New Testament from the God of the Old, and disbelieved the teaching of the
