Old Scriptures—"He seals, then, man, who in His sight never was unsealed! He washes man, who in His sight never was defiled! And He dips the flesh, which is excluded from salvation, in this whole Sacrament of salvation!" L. i. c. 28. And de Præscript. Hæretic. c. 36, "It unites the law and the prophets with the gospels and the apostolic writings, and thence imbibeth faith. This it sealeth with water, clotheth with the Holy Spirit, feedeth with the Eucharist, by martyrdom persuadeth; and against this institution admitteth no one." Cornelius also, ap. Euseb. Hist. L. vi. c. 33, speaks of "being sealed by the sign of the seal in the Lord." Ambrose de Spiritu S. L. i. c. 6. "Do we live through the water as through the Spirit? Are we sealed through the water as through the Spirit? for in Him we live, and He is the earnest of our inheritance; as the Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, saith, 'in whom believing, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,' &c. We were sealed then by the Holy Spirit, not in a natural way, but by God, because it is written, 'God, who anointed us, and sealed us, and gave the Spirit, as an earnest in our hearts.' We were sealed then with the Spirit by God; for as we die in Christ, that we may be born again, so we are sealed also with the Spirit, that we may retain His splendour, and image, and grace; and this then is a spiritual seal; for although we are outwardly sealed in the body, yet in reality we are sealed in the heart, so that the Holy Spirit forms in us the representation of the heavenly image." St. Cyril of Jerusalem, addressing those about to be baptized, says, "receive through faith the pledge of the Holy Spirit, that ye may be able to be received into the eternal habitations. Approach to the mysterious seal, that ye may be recognised by your Master. Where He seeth a good conscience, there He giveth that saving, that wondrous seal, of which the devils stand in awe, and which angels acknowledge." (Catech. 1. c 2.) And again—"Thou descendest into the water, bearing thy sins; but the words of grace pronounced over thee, having sealed thy soul, no longer permit thee to be devoured by the fearful dragon. Having descended dead in sins, thou arisest quickened in righteousness. For if thou wert planted in the likeness of the death of the Saviour, thou shalt also be accounted worthy of the resurrection." Ib. 3. 12. And in like manner, Cyril frequently speaks of "the Holy Spirit, which sealeth the souls in Baptism." Catech. 3, 3. 4, 4, 16. 16, 24. 17, 35. And Epiphanius (which is the more to be noticed) lays down thus the distinction between circumcision and Baptism:—"for there (among the Jews) there was a carnal circumcision, which served for a time, until the great circumcision (i. e. Baptism), which circumciseth us from sins, and sealeth us in the name of God." Hæres. 8. med. (cp. Hæres. 30. fin. quoted by Vazquez, l. c. disp. 134 c. 1.) And
