who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 21–22. This must needs be true, because he is God, who hath confirmed us with you, both us and you in Christ, in the faith, and grace of Christ crucified, who hath anointed us with divine graces, who hath sealed us, as it were, by an indelible character, in the sacraments of baptism, and confirmation, and ordination, when we were made ministers of Christ, who in this manner hath given the pledge [5] of his holy Spirit in our hearts, a sufficient pledge and earnest of his graces in this life, and of the glory he has prepared for us in the next. Witham.—By these texts, and Ephesians 4 the Catholic Church teaches, that we are anointed and consecrated to the service of God, and sealed with a spiritual and distinctive mark, called by divines, a character, (see Saint Jerome in Eph. iv. S. Cyril, cateches. 17.) which, as it is indelible, can never be iterated. The same is true of confirmation, and holy orders. See Saint Augustine cont. Parm. c. xiii. & Conc. Tarrac. c. vi.