Origen on Baptism

A scallop shell (a common symbol of our Christian baptism) in the moulding in St. John's Chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral.

If you transgress, you write unto yourself the handwriting of sin. But, behold, when you have once approached to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your handwriting is affixed to the cross and blotted out in the font of baptism.  

                         - Origen