44. Therefore after this manifold and
precise revelation of the presence of the Father’s nature in
Himself, He goes on to say, For Him hath the Father sealed, even
God St. John vi. 27.. It is the nature of a seal to
exhibit the whole form of the figure graven upon it, and that an
impression taken from it reproduces it in every respect; and since it
receives the whole of that which is impressed, it displays also in
itself wholly whoever has been impressed upon it. Yet this
comparison is not adequate to exemplify the Divine birth, because in
seals there is a matter, difference of nature, and an act of
impression, whereby the likeness of stronger natures is impressed upon
things of a more yielding nature. But the Only-begotten God, Who
was also through the Mystery of our salvation the Son of Man, desiring
to point out to us the likeness of His Father’s proper nature in
Himself, said that He was sealed by God; because the Son of Man was
about to give the food of eternal life, and that we thereby might
perceive in Him the power of giving food unto eternity, in that He
possessed within Himself all the fulness of His Father’s form,
even of the God Who sealed Him: so that what God had sealed
should display in itself none other than the form of the God Who sealed
it. These things indeed the Lord spoke to the Jews, who could not
receive His saying because of unbelief.