them to the corresponding portion of the Christian system. Since, then, circumcision, by which the covenant was ratified to the Jew, was spoken of as a "seal," and that by St. Paul also (Rom. iv. 11.), St. Paul, if he used the word "seal" with reference to the Christian, would obviously use it of that by which each person was brought within the Christian covenant—the Sacrament of Baptism. But it were the very error of the rationalists to suppose, that God's Holy Spirit, when He took the words used in Jewish Theology, and employed them to express Christian Truth, conveyed nothing more by them, than they would have meant in the mouth of any ordinary Jew; and did not rather, when receiving them into the service of the sanctuary, stamp them anew, and impress upon them His own living image. Since, namely, Baptism is not a mere initiatory rite, but is an appointed means for conveying the Holy Spirit, the language must in some respect be conformed to our higher privileges; and, instead of the covenant being said to be sealed to us, we are declared to be sealed by the Holy Spirit: since the Holy Spirit is then first pledged and imparted to us, and the earnest then given us is a pledge, that unless we wilfully break off the seal, we shall be carried on to eternal life, with larger instalments of our promised possession, until "the possession, purchased" for us, by Christ's precious blood-shedding, shall be fully bestowed upon us, and God's pledge be altogether "redeemed." 4. The Christian fathers have, from Apostolic times, used the word "seal" as a title of Christian Baptism; a relic whereof we have in the doctrine of our Church, that "the promises of forgiveness of sin, and our adoption to be the sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are therein visibly signed and sealed." Thus Hermas (about A.D. 65–81):—"Before[1] a person receive the seal of the Son of God, he is doomed to death; but when he receives that seal, he is freed from death, and made over to life. But that seal is water, into which men go down bound over to death, but arise, being made over to life. That seal, then, was preached to them also, and they made use of it, to enter into the kingdom of God." The least which this
- ↑ L. 4. simil. 9. no. 16, quoted by Bingham Christian Antiq. B. xi. c. 1.
