SEAL, Abbatial, is the official formal seal of an ab- bot.
SEAL, Consecration of an Episcopal. It was customary in many parts of the Church tluring the Mid- dle Ages to consecrate the seal of a newly made bishop with his vestments and other episcopal insignia. The form of consecration was simple, tlie seal being blessed with holy-water. At the deatii of the bishop, his seal or seals (for he had usually more than one) were care- fully destroyed.
SEAL, Decanal, is the official formal seal of the dean of a cathedral or collegiate church.
SEAL (Ecclesiastical use of), a piece of metal or other hard substance, e. g. bone or ivory, usually roimd or elliptical, on which is engraved some device, used for making impressions on wax. The wax set or affixed to an ecclesiastical or legal instrument, duly impressed or stamped with a seal, is likewise designated by the same term. The use of seals as a mark of authenticity to letters and other instruments in writing is very an- cient, and was allowed to be sufficient without signing the name, which few could do of old. In 1237, owing to the prevalence of forgeries and the absence of public notaries in England, abbots, priors, deans, archdeacons, their officials and rural deans, capitidar bodies, colleges, and convents, were recjuired to have seals. If the office was perpetual, then the name of the man who bore it was engraved on the seal; but rural deans and officials whose office was temporary, had only the name of their office engraved upon it. They resigned their seals at the expiration of their tenure to him by whom they had been commissioned. The name seal is also given to the little stone which covers the sepulchre of relics in an altar.
SEAL, Episcopal, is the official formal seal of a bish- op, attached to letters of orders, licenses, deeds of in- stitution, induction, degradation, and other documents. They represent the arms of the diocese, impaled with the personal arms of the bishop. Rishojis commouly have two official seals — a large and a small one. These, in England, on their death, are sent to Lambeth Palace to be defaced and destroyed under the direction of the archbishop's official.
SEAL of Baptism. Baptism was often called, in the early Church, "the seal of the Lord." "the seal of Christ," with allusion, jierhaps, to Kph. i, 13: iv, 30; John iii,33, and other similar passages, especially 2 Cor. i, 21, 22. This use of the word is taken from the cir- cumstance that the stamp or impression of a seal upon anything was regarded as a mark of property, or a token that it belonged to a certain owner, namely, the person whose seal it bore. Thus Gregory of Nazianzum (^Oiat.
40) calls baptism the seal and sign of sovereignty, or the token that tlie baptized person was subject to the dominion and government of God, and lived to obey his will. See Riddle, Christian Antiq. p. 484.
SEAL of Confession, a name for the obligation on a priest never to reveal the secrets of the confes- sional. See hee, Gloss, oj' Liluiffical 7 V/??;*-, s. v. ; AVal- cott, iSac. A rdavol. s. v.
Sealed Books, certain printed copies of the re- vised Anglican Prayer-book, as settled at the Savoy Conference, issued A.D. lG(i2, which, having been ex- amined by the commissioners appointed for that pur- pose, were certitied by them to be correct. Thev were ordered by Parliament to be preserved in certain cathe- dral and collegiate churches. A folio reprint of the Sealed Book was issued by Pickering (1844), and again by Masters (1848, 8vo). See Lee, Gloss, of Lilurijiful Terms, s. v.
Seal-skin. See Badger.
Seam occurs in Scripture only in the epithet dppn- (pog, "without seam," applied to our Saviour's inner garment ("coat"), which the soldiers at his crucifixion accordingly cast lots for (.lohn xix, 23). Monographs on this fact are cited by Volbeding, Index Proyramma- tum, p. 60.
Seaman, Richard, a minister of the Methodist Episco])al Church, was born April 28, 1785. He studied medicine, and was admitted to practice in New York when abo\it nineteen. He became a Christian in 1812, and in 1823 was received into the New York Conference, and was regularly appointed until 184.5, when he was obliged to take a superannuated relation. He continued to labor as his strength would permit, but for the last thirteen years of his life was a great sufferer from rheu- matism. He died Nov. 6, 1864. He was a man of su- perior judgment, stern integrity, untiring energy, mod- est, generous, and evangelical. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1866, p. 100.
Sea-monster is the rendering in Lam. iv, 8 of the Heb. "P, tan, where the margin has "sea-calves." The root of the word is "JO, iandn, "to stretch out," hence it seems to apply to a slim creature that extends itself, and some think it to mean a kind of serpent. Others woidd render it "jackal." It is variously ren- dered in the A. V. ("whale," "seri)ent," etc.), nor is it probable that it was very definite in its application. See Dragon,
Sear occurs in Scripture only in the rendering of the word KnvTr\piaZ,tji, to brand ("sear with a hot iron"), in a tropical sense of the conscience (1 Tim. iv, 2). To sear the flesh is to cauterize or burn it, and thus deprive it of the power of sensation. In 1 Tim. iv, 2 the term denotes the effect of habitual sin, by which the con- science becomes so stupefied as to be insensible to the most enormous guilt and the most fearl'ul threatenings of punishment. Sec Birninc;.