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9 And God said unto Abra- | ye shall keep, between me and ham, Thou shalt keep my cove- you, and thy seed after thee; nant therefore, thou, and thy seed Every man-child among you after thee, in their generations. shall be circumcised.

10 This is my covenant, which

s Acts 7. 8.

here the origin of Circumcision, an institution which, however revolting to European or American feelings, is held in such veneration to this day by no less than 150 millions of the earth's population, that they look down with the utmost contempt and execration upon every male uncircumcised. Astu the origin of the rite, whether it had

of Canaan, and that in virtue of this they are to be restored and reinstated in thur ancient possession, and to flourish with more than their pristine glory. It is only in this way, they affirm, that the splendid predictions respecting the later fortunes of Israel are to be fulfill ed. But until the great principles of prophetic interpretation are more definitively settled than they are at pres-existed in the world prior to this coment, we cannot but deem this a very hazardous theory to maintain, and one which has a bearing far from favourable upon the conversion of the Jews.

e.

mand, it is a point which has occasioned much controversy among the learned. Herodotus speaks of it, as a custom ancient even in his time, and which existed among several nations, particu larly the Egyptians and Ethiopians.

9. Thou shalt keep my covenant. To keep a covenant is faithfully to perform the conditions imposed upon the cove-This has led some to suppose that the nanting parties. The grand condition in the present case was the observance of the rite of circumcision, which God goes on to specify and enjoin in a more particular manner in the ensuing verse. 10. This is my covenant, &c. i. the sign of my covenant, as explained v. 11. From this phraseology the usage arose of denominating a sacramental sign by the name of the sacrament itself. Thus, Ex. 12. 11, 'Ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's passover;" i. e. the sign of the passover. Luke 22. 19, 20, This cup is the New Testament in my blood;' i. e. the sign of the New Testament, Mat. 26. 17, 'Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?' i. e. the lamb, the sign of the passover. Here the covenant, properly so called, is couched in the preceding words, 'I will be a God unto thee,' &c,- -T Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. Heb. yimmol, shall be cut round about; i. e. there shalt be an excision of the prepuce or foreskin of the flesh of all males. We have

practice was adopted from the Egyptians; but it is to be borne in mind that Moses lived more than a thousand years before Herodotus, and from his account it is certain that the ancestors of the Israelites were already circumcised, when they went down into Egypt, and did not therefore first adopt the practice during their continuance in that country. The presumption is rather that the Egyptians borrowed the rite from the Israelites, perhaps from the belief that the remarkable fecundity of the Hebrew race, as mentioned Ex. 1. 7, 12, was in some way dependent upon it, or connected with it. There are, moreover, other considerations which make it highly probable that the custom was utterly unknown to the Egyptian prior to the sojourning of the Israelites among them, (1.) It was twenty years after Abraham's return from that country before God enjoined upon him the rite of circumcision, and then, we are told, he administered the rite upon every male in his house, v. 23. Now it is certain

that when he came out of Egypt he | SEAL. (1.) Its first and most obvious brought with him a numerous train of men-servants and maid-servants; and therefore unless we suppose that all these Egyptian men-servants died within twenty years, or that when they died none of them left any male issue behind them, we can scarcely doubt that circumcision was not known in Egypt in Abraham's time; for it is expressly said that every male among the men of Abraham's house was circumcised,' at the same time that he himself was, which could never have been the case had they undergone the operation before. (2.) The conduct and expressions of Pharaoh's daughter upon finding the infant Moses in the ark go to establish the same point. Ex. 2. 6, 'And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold the babe wept (Heb. and behold, a male-child weeping). And

she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.' It is plain that she noted the sex of the child, and the inference is fair, if not inevitable, that she knew him to be a Hebrew child by the sign of circumcision-a mark which distinguished the Hebrew from the Egyptian children, (3.) The language of the inspired writer, Ezek. 31. 18, would seem to imply that, although the practice may have obtained, as Michaelis contends, to some extent among the priests, yet that it was so far from being universal, that it could not even be deemed a general characteristic of the nation;-Thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword: this is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.' But waiving the farther discussion of this point, or rather taking it for granted that the custom was now expressly ordained of Heaven, it is a matter of more importance to determine the grand ends which the divine Institutor had in view in establishing it. It may be viewed under the twofold aspect of a SIGN and a

design was to serve as a sign of the
covenant into which the posterity of
Abraham were, in the person of their
father, to enter; or in other words, to
fix upon the persons of all his natural
descendants a distinguishing mark,
separating them from the rest of the
world and denoting their peculiar rela-
tion to the true God. The wisdom of
such a badge will be evident at once
when it is remembered, that God had
promised to multiply the seed of Abra-
ham to an innumerable multitude. This
promise it is true, he might have veri-
fied even though he had suffered them
to be mingled promiscuously with the
other nations of the earth. But in or-
der to afford a visible attestation to his
veracity it was necessary that they
should be distinguished by some mark
of peculiarity, and for this purpose, as
we shall soon see, nothing could be
more suitable than the rite here pre-
scribed. But such an end, it is obvi-
ous, could not have been answered,
had the practice at this time generally
prevailed among other nations; for in
that case its distinctive character would
have been lost. We can see then with
how much propriety this rite is after-
wards v. 11, termed the 'token of the
covenant.' But this was not all. It
served also to Abraham and his seed,
(2.) As a memorial of their engage-
ments. When they submitted to this
ordinance, whether it were in infancy
or at an adult age, they were no longer
to consider themselves their own, or at
their own disposal, but as dedicated to
the service of their God. As Paul in
reference to the scars and bruises which
his body had r ceived in the service of
his Lord, said, 'I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus,' so might
the same language with propriety be
used by every Jew in reference to this
sacred memorial; for having in his own
person the appointed sign of his rela-
tion to God, he must be continually re

shall not enlarge upon it here. (5.) In addition to the reasons above cited for the adoption of this rite, there is another suggested by Saurin, which, though intrinsically more appropriate to Abraham himself than to his posterity, is yet well deserving of notice. Whoever looks into the life of this pa triarch will perceive that God especially designed him for an eminent pattern of faith and obedience to all succeeding generations. The prominent dis

minded 'whose he was, and whom he | more properly falls within the range of was bound to serve.' (3.) Another a New Testament commentary, we reason for the adoption of this painful rite was its adaptedness to represent certain spiritual truths intimately connected with the great scope of the covenant. The Scriptures very frequently hold forth some of the most important moral doctrines under metaphors drawn from the practice of circumcision. Thus the mortification of sin is spoken of as the 'putting off the whole body of sin;' 'the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts;' 'the putting off the old man, and put-pensations of God's providence toting on the new;' are all of them expressions exactly coinciding with the chief intent of this ordinance, showing that we bring a corrupt nature into the world with us which it must be the great labour of our lives to put away. But there are also other expressions of Scripture which show that this rite imported the highest degree of sanctification and holiness. Moses repeatedly speaks of the 'circumcising of the heart to love the Lord with all our heart and all our soul,' Deut. 10. 16.30. 6. And the prophet Jeremiah's language is singularly emphatic, Jer. 4. 4, 'Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it.' From all this it is clear that the ordinance was figurative and designed to instruct the Lord's people in the na-ed and his faith crowned, God was ture and extent of their duties towards pleased again to cross his expectation him. (4.) From the reasonings of by requiring of him the performance of Paul in the epistle to the Romans, ch. an act, which, in all human probabil4. 9-13, we learn a still higher import ity, must totally defeat the promise. of this institution, which without such To the eye of senee it was an operaa clew we should perhaps never have tion not only dangerous to adults, but gathered from it. He instructs us to when administered to one of his ad consider it as 'a seal of the righteous-vanced years, even if he survived it, ness of faith,' inasmuch as it shadows out a circumcision of the heart, which is an inward seal that the sinner is justified by faith as Abraham was. But as this is a view of the subject which

wards him seem to have been all ordered with a particular view to the trial of his faith, which continually became the more illustrious, the more it was subjected to the ordeal. It was for this end that so long a delay was ordained before the birth of the promised son; and after he was born, that he was required to offer him up in sacrifice, to the extinction of his own hopes, and the apparent nullification of all the gracious promises made to him. Now may we not conceive the command relative to circumcision to have been a part of the same severe but salutary discipline? God did not only defer for the space of twenty years the birth of that son who was so solemnly promised and so impatiently desired, but even when that period was elapsed, instead of seeing the promise accomplish

it would in all likelihood effectually preclude the possibility of his even be. coming a father. Indeed the injunction, 'My covenant shall be in your flesh,' to a man of his years could not

11 And ye shall circumcise the | old " shall be circumcised among flesh of your foreskin; and it shall you, every man-child in your be a token of the covenant be- generations, he that is born in twixt me and you. the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

12 And he that is eight days

t Acts 7. 8. Rom. 4. 11.

u Lev. 12. 3. Luke 2. 21. John 7. 22. Phil. 3. 5.

regard their extraction from Abraham as being as truly miraculous, under the circumstances in which it occurred, as if they had been excavated or quarried out of the solid rock; an allusion to which we are also to recognise in the words of John the Baptist, Mat. 3. 9,

We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.' He has virtually done it once, and he can do it again.

11. Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. Heb. Danby ¬wa n the flesh of your superfluous foreskin, by a usual hypallage for foreskin of your flesh, where 'flesh' has the appro

but seem as opposite to the promise of having a son, as the command to 'take his son, his only son Isaac, and offer him for a burnt-sacrifice,' was to the promise of his being the father of a numerous posterity. Yet the faith of Abraham triumphed over this as it did over all other obstacles. He was sat-'And think not to say within yourself, isfied that notwithstanding every impediment, whether from a fresh physical incapacity in himself or a permanent one in his superannuated wife, God would assuredly by one means or other make good his promise. This was indeed a new and illustrious instance of the faith of the father of the faithful; and we cannot well doubt that among the things of which circumcision was to be a memorial to his poster-priated meaning elsewhere assigned to ity, this signal example of believing in the promise in spite of his advanced age and of such a disqualifying operation, was one. Circumcision was enjoined upon the Jews to be a perpetual memento of their strange and supernatural origin, an impressive token at once of the faith of their ancestor, 'who against hope believed in hope,' and of the fidelity of their God, who from one man only, and him as good as dead,' was able to raise up a people as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as the sands upon the sea-shore. This idea throws light upon the words of the prophet, Is. 51. 1, 2, 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone (i. e. when childless), and blessed him and increased him;' anguage importing that they were to

it, as Lev. 15. 2, 19. Ezek. 16. 26.-23. 20. The original for 'foreskin' is defined by lexicographers to signify that which is superfluous or redundant; not that any part of the human body is really and originally superfluous or useless; but in relation to an ordinance it may be termed so, just as it might have been proper to command a Nazarite to shave off his superfluous hair-superfluous in relation to his vow. Gr. axpoßvoria akrobustia, from aκpov extremity and Bvw to cover. The same word is applied figuratively to other parts, as to the lips, Ex. 6. 20, to the ear, Jer. 6. 10, to the heart, Lev. 26. 41. Is. 6. 10, and in plain allusion to this phrase the apostle James exhorts, ch 1. 21, to 'lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,' and in Col. 2. 13, the uncircumcision of our flesh is coupled with our estate as dead in sins, all betokening that the excis

13 He that is born in thine house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be cir

ion of the superfluous prepuce is to be understood as a sign of the mortification of sin and the renewal of our corrupt nature.

12. He that is eight days old—every child in your generations. Heb. 'a son of eight days.' This ceremony was to be administered on the eighth day even though that should chance to be the Sabbath; it being one of the Jewish maxims, that circumcision drives away the Sabbath.' That this maxim was acted upon in our Saviour's time is clear from John, 7. 22, 23, 'Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me,' &c. The performance of the rite was probably delayed till the eighth day, because that all creatures newly born were counted as in their blood and unclean for seven days, and might not be sooner offered to God, Lev. 12. 2, 3. Neither calf, lamb, nor kid could be presented as an oblation before it was eight days old, Lev. 22. 27. The rite was administered to males only, as they alone were capable of it; but as the man is the head of the woman, she was virtually included in the covenant. From the constructive unity of man and wife, it was proper that in a federal transaction of this nature her agency should be merged in his. But in baptism, to which, under the gospel dispensation, circumcision has given place, Col. 2. 11, 12, males and females stand upon a par in this respect.- - He that is born in the house, or bought with money. Heb. op the purchase of silver; though the term silver is a general term for money or price, just

cumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

as bread is a general term for food. From the position of the Heb. accents and the rendering of most of the ancient versions, it is at least questionable whether our present translation of this clause is correct.

The versions alluded

to do not connect the phrase of any stranger' (Heb. of every son of a stranger) with 'bought,' but read it, according to a common Heb. idiom, as an expression of totality, exegetical of the previous clause, and characterizing still farther the class spoken of in contradistinction to the 'born in the house.' Guided by them we should literally translate the verse--'A son of eight days shall be circumcised unto you; every male in your generations, the born in the house and the purchase of silver, from (i. e. even or including,) every son of the stranger, which is not of the seed.' This we incline to consider the true construction, and if so this passage, however it may be with others, affords no countenance to the idea of Abraham's having bought slaves of others who claimed an ownership in them. It is more likely that the persons in question sold themselves, though it is undoubtedly true that in such cases their children were considered as belonging to their master. The power of a master over his household and slaves at that early period was no doubt very absolute, and he might probably have compelled the observance of this injunction; but still it is more likely that the command did not contemplate a resort to compulsion, as it would be entirely consonant to the ideas and customs of the East that every thing belonging to a person should be affected just as he was. Thus the king of Nineveh, Jon. 3. 8, ordered not only his people, but even

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