The dofpet ofCrrcttttreiátr. could not but defpife fuch an Ordinance. Thole that know not God have no Spiritual Senfe of theThing, therefore we find the Heathens fcoff at it : As Horat. Curtofque Yud cos, et,- Credal fudecus Apella. becaufe by their carnal Reafon they could not fee the reafon of it. Therefore when the Lord would have both united to Jefus Chrift in one Body, he abolithes Circumcifion. This Ordinance was difpenfed to the Males: The Females were inclu- ded and comprehended in the Males, and as fully and clearly compre- hended in them, as the Land and the Trees are Paid to be Circum- cifed ; fo are all the Daughters of Abraham, as they came of circum- cifed Parents, and married to circumcifed Husbands : And their Sons were circumcifed, fo that it was a circumcifed Nation and People. It was to be done upon the eighth Day after the Birth of the Child ; and fo in this Text, Re gave him the Covenant of Circumcifion, andfo Abraham begat Ifaac, and circumcifed him the eighth Day. The reafon of this limitation might be, partly becaufe of the Infant-fiate of the Church in thofe Times ; therefore the Lord teacheth them, and limit- eth them even in fuch fmall particulars, which are now left to be de- termined only by the general Rule of the Word, even the particular Time andSeafon of our Circumcifion. It's thought alfo this might have fome further Myftery in it, in re- ference to the Chriftian Sabbath ; which is the Eighth Day in one re- fpec&, the firft in other ways of numbring. And to refpeet a newState and Life, after the compleat and full number of the Days of this Life here are gone through ; after the Week is ended, ( the Week ofthis Life here) we come to Heaven and Glory, which was one thing in- timated inCircumcifion, as you will hear afterwards. But fo much for the external part of this Ordinance, the cutting off the Foreskinof Abra- ham and his Mile-feed, and that upon the Eighth Day. 2. To fpeak a little to the Myfiery of this Ordinance, the meaning of it, the Spirit of this external Difpenfation. For betides the Shell, therewas a Kernel ; befides the Letter of the Lawof the Ordinance, there was much Spiritual Myftery intended and aimed at in it. Novi then what is the Myftery of Circumcifion, the inward part of it, that is the Covenant ? Andbe gave him the Covenant of Circumcifion. So that Circumcifion is the Covenant, and it is the fame Expreffion where thia Ordinance it firft inftituted : You (hall have my Covenant in your F1efh, Gen. 17. It is called a Covenant, as other Signs and Sacraments are it is a Sacramental Fbrafe : The Lamb is tailed the Raifover, theBread the
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