terious
unction, clothed with the panoply of the Holy Ghost, stand against the
adverse power and subdue it, saying: 'I can do all things in Christ, who
strengtheneth me.' "(361)

St. Ambrose, commenting on these words of the Apostle, "God ... hath given
us the pledge of the Spirit," (II. Cor. i. 22) expressly applies the text
to the seal of Confirmation. "Remember," he says, "that you have received
the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of
holy fear. God the Father hath sealed you; Christ the Lord hath
_confirmed_ you, and hath given the pledge of the Spirit in your hearts,
_as you have learned from the lesson read from the Apostle_."(362)

St. Ambrose here speaks of the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost which are
received in Confirmation, and every Bishop in our day invokes these same
gifts on those whom he is about to confirm.

"Do you know," writes St. Jerome against the sect of Luciferians of his
time, "that it is the practice of the churches that the imposition of
hands should be performed over baptized persons and the Holy Ghost thus
invoked? Do you ask where it is written? In the Acts of the Apostles; but
were there no Scriptural authority at hand the consent of the whole world
in this regard would have the force of law."(363)

"You willingly understand," says St. Augustine, "by this ointment the
Sacrament of Chrism, which, indeed, in the class of visible seals is as
sacred as Baptism itself."(364)

The Oriental schismatic churches recognize Confirmation as a Sacrament,
and administer the rite as we do, by the imposition of hands and the
application of chrism. Now, some of these churches have been separated
from the Catholic Church since the fourth and fifth centuries. This fact
is an eloquent vindication of the Apostolic antiquity of Confirmation, and
is an ample refutation of those who would ascribe to it a more recent
origin.

Protestantism, which made such havoc of the other Sacraments, did not fail
to abolish Confirmation in its sweeping revolution.

The Episcopal church retains, indeed, the name of Confirmation in its
ritual, and even borrows a portion of our prayers and ceremonial. But, in
opposition to the uniform teaching of the Catholic, as well as of all the
Oriental churches, both orthodox and schismatic, it declares Confirmation
to be a mere rite and not a Sacrament.

In violation of the p