him issue in such an old age and lastly after he had issue in that most transcendent effect of his faith the oblation and slaughter of his onely Son in whom were made the promises To him therefore more expressly than formerly God renewed his promise as he did afterward again to David that this promised seed should descend from him in which seed all both he and the rest of his seed i. e. so many as were sons of his faith even amongst all nations as well as the Hebrews should be blessed i. e. should obtain redemption remission of former sin a new sanctification by Gods spirit and ability to observe his laws and lastly the inheritance of the heavenly Canaan See Gen. 22.28 compared with Galat. 3d Chapter which latter may serve for a comment upon the former § 47 This Covenant God made with Abraham's faith And then for the time preceding the coming of this Seed even of this Blessed Infant Jesus who should accomplish this Redemption he instituted for a Seal of this Covenant between them and that as well for all Proselytes of the Gentiles as for Abraham's carnal posterity Gen. 17.12 23. Instituted I say the Circumcision and cutting-off of the prepuce of that member in which after mans fall first appeared the effect of sin and the rebellion of the flesh against the Spirit Of which rebellion our first Parents in the beholding it were so much ashamed which shame also hath adhered to all their posterity By which Circumcision of Abrahams flesh were signified to Him the very same things through this seed then promised as are now to us by baptism through the seed now exhibited namely his renouncing cutting off and mortifying the former lusts of the flesh and of sin in his members and becoming a reformed and new Creature to walk thereafter by grace conferred through this seed in all purity and righteousness at which time God therefore also as to new Creatures gave to him and his wife new names Gen. 17. changing them from Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah § 48 Now in this sacred Ceremony as God engaged on his part of the Covenant redemption from sin and Grace restored through the promised Seed to Abraham and to all those who were his spiritual Sons and who walked in the faith of the Gospel I mean the faith concerning the seed and the means of their Salvation which faith was preached unto them more or less clearly according to the several degrees in different ages of the manifestation thereof so Abraham Gen. 17.1 12. and his Sons on their part engaged the sincere observance of all Gods Commandements so far as in this Covenant was required of them Where also it came to pass but by their own fault that so many of Abrahams natural Children as received Circumcision by which they engaged themselves to the observance of Gods law and yet were not also children of the faith of Abraham according to the revelation of redemption through this seed by which faith they might become partakers of remission of their former sin and of the return of Grace through the same seed so many I say were put in a much worse condition by their Circumcision than they were in formerly contracting by this a new obligation to Gods law without ability by reason of their want of faith to perform it and without a partaking of the merit of this seed whereby to be pardoned their transgressions against it Of which Circumcision therefore may be said the same which the Apostle saith of the Promulgation of the law in the 7th Chapt. to the Romans And the same thing still happens in baptism to so many as receive it without a due faith and without any donation of Grace they making therein a new engagement to the observance of Gods Commandements without ability to perform them § 49 This being the story of Circumcision which was a seal we see of the Evangelical Covenant made in the promised seed and presupposed former sin and through this seed effected a purgation from it this eternal Son of God therefore who came from heaven and who was conceived in the Virgins womb not of the seed of man but by the Holy Ghost and who was this very promised seed that was to redeem Abraham and his posterity needed not at all to be circumcised both because not guilty of sin and because himself was the redeemer and seed promised from whom Circumcision received its efficacy And what greater indignity could happen to his sanctity and purity than to be circumcised in his flesh who never knew any rising or rebellion of the flesh nor contracted from our first Parents any stain thereof For though our Lord was by the flesh taken of his mother a Son of Abraham and Gods law was very strict that every Male of his posterity should be circumcised or else cut off Gen. 17. Lev. 12 yet seeing such a law was prescribed to Abraham's posterity with reference to sin as also most of the laws Ceremonial were such law extended not to any of Abrahams seed that should be without all sin as our Holy Lord was § 50 But though this spotless babe was free from any obligation to Circumcision in this respect yet many other reasons and motives there were for which his divine wisdom chusing such a way as he did for mans redemption thought meet to undergo it as also in like manner he received and passed through all the other Sacraments of general obligation that were appointed by God his Father in the Church both old and new the one as a Son born under the law and all its Ceremonies the other as a Father and founder of the Gospel and all its Rites As for his Circumcision then besides those reasons ordinarily given for it that he admitted it to shew the truth of his human flesh against those Heresies that afterwards arose contending that he had only a fantastical and apparent or if a true a celestial Body Again least that by not receiving it he might seem to disallow of Circumcision or also might appear a breaker of the law to those who knew him not to be pure and exempt from original sin likewise that thus he might bear the true mark and badge of Abrahams seed and not be rejected by them as none of the true Messias on this account who was sent in the first place to the house of Israel Mat. 10.6 and a Minister of Circumcision Rom. 15.8 the defect of which surely would have bin a greater accusation than his Original out of Galilee Again that he might practice an obedience and conformity for peace-sake though in a matter not obliging as he did afterward in paying tribute Mat. 17.27 ut non scandalizemus eos I say besides these reasons sufficient for his non-omission of that sacred Ceremony there seem to be others yet more considerable § 51 For first Circumcision as also baptism afterward was not administred only in relation to sins past as an expiation
thereof but also as a door of entrance into the Church family and houshold of God and into a new Covenant with God for the time to come by which from Abrahams daies till the accomplishment of our redemption this family was distinguished from all the rest of the world and a strict pact and Covenant passed between God and all such persons for the future whereby they engaged themselves on their parts to walk sincerely in his laws in newness of life as his obedient Children receiving then as it were a new nature as well as a name and God engaged on his part to be their Father and protector and exceeding great reward in bestowing upon them the inheritance and possession of an heavenly Canaan Now as to such significations of Circumcision and the other Church Sacraments though not as to the real effect of them upon him as the effect of the Sacrament is also by others many times had before the receit thereof these were more compleatly fulfilled in our Lord than in any other For he entred into the Church and houshold of God not as a simple member but as the Father and Head thereof not as a Son of God by Adoption but as that true natural Son and seed through whose merits all others entred into this Covenant of Grace As for the performance of the Condition of this Covenant never any undertook and walked therein in such perfect obedience and new life and circumcision of all carnal and rebellious lusts as himself Nor ever any received so high an eternal inheritance from God by vertue of this Covenant observed as his Humanity did § 52 But 2ly yet further as Circumcision hath relation to fin so the humility of our Lord also entertained both it and all other sacred expiations of guilt in the disguise of a sinner For his eternal wisdom thought meet for the more proper and satisfactory destroying of sin to cloth himself in the likeness of sin and to take all the appurtenances and shames thereof save only the very guilt it self which his purity could not admit and being without sin to suffer to the utmost what to other sinners was due and to perform to the utmost what of others as sinners was required That he might thus as it were in their stead give all satisfaction to his Fathers justice in his sufferings and to his laws in his obedience to his laws not only the Moral first given to man in innocence but also the Ceremonial prescribed to sinners for remission of guilt in observing which Ceremonies they also a second time failed and so these also as well as the Moral were a hand-writing against them Coloss 2.14 Eph. 2.16 There therefore he also undertook that by the merit of his exact observing these laws and satisfying his Fathers justice therein he might remove also this second hard and unsupportable yoke from off their necks Act. 15.10 and purchase for them the perfect spiritual effects thereof So by Christs Circumcision saith the Apostle Col. 2.14 Eph. 2.15 Gal. 3.24 25. Gal. 4.3 4.9 we are circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in out putting off the body of the sins of the flesh which cleansing from carnal lusts is the Spiritual Grace of the carnal Circumcision § 53 Again the Ministry of the Baptist succeeding that of the law who was sent to sinners with a baptism of repentance to prepare them for receiving afterward from our Lord the baptism of the Spirit our Lord hasted now again among other sinners to receive from John this baptism of repentance and to fulfil this righteousness or duty of sinners as if he had bin a sinner too to the wonder of the Baptist to whom God then revealed him and his all-sanctity and after it he betook himself to a long penance of solitude in a desert of fasting and praier accompanied also with strong temptations from Satan for six weeks and afterward all his life long he endured reproaches as a sinner Rom. 15.3 and though the Holy one of God he sequestred not himself from the more publick offenders but conversed freely with them not out of love to sin but to the sinners though it turned much to his disesteem and prejudice with those who pretended more sanctity among the people § 54 Thus he not only as the second Adam descending from heaven entred upon the first Covenant of works Hocfac vives and fully performed the natural or moral law in all the points thereof but also as a Son of Adam faln and taking upon him the curse of his sin though not deriving from him the guilt of it he entred upon the Covenants of Grace and expiations of sin made with Abraham and the Patriarks and in the stead of sinners performed exactly all the Ceremonial Law as it related to sin and thus by his perfect obedience became heir of the Promises of the eternal inheritance made first to Adam for his works and then to Abraham for his faith and by these his merits whilst he owed nothing of what he did and suffered for himself became also the purchaser of mercy and of remission of sin and of the Spirit for all other sinners believing in him by which Spirit they are also enabled to keep the Covenant of Grace and to inherit the promises made to it Rom. 8.3 4. Gal. 3.14 â—4 6 § 55 This Digression perhaps not unprofitably made to shew to them more clearly the motives or reasons of the Circumcision of our Lord. Now I proceed Next At the Circumcision as being the Sacrament of Regeneration and admission into Gods Covenant family and Son-ship under the law accordingly a new name was given to the circumcised imposed by the Parents or more usually by the Mother See Gen. 4.1.25 16.11 29.32 1 Sam. 4.21 Esai 7.14 a name which ordinarily signifyed something that related to piety and Religion in reviving the memory of some former holy Person or thing in acknowledging some special favour or Grace received from the divine Majesty in devoting the circumcised to some virtues or qualities acceptable to God or also when the name was imposed by God or persons directed by his Spirit foretelling the nature actions and successes of the person circumcised God also many times by his secret providence guiding the Parents though knowing nothing to give such names as do correspond to future events Hence also as was said in the first institution of Circumcision were two new names given by God to Abraham and to his wife § 56 n. 1. When therefore this Son of God came to be circumcised God his Father appointed his name to be Jesus or Jeshua as he was called in the Syriack the language which the Jews then ordinarily spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or us being the Greek and Latine terminations thereof i. e. Saviour God signifying this before-hand by an Angel first to his Mother at his Conception and afterward to Joseph her husband upon his first discerning her to be with Child specifying then
stone-knife some drying medicines are applied to the wound and so it is bound up and usually within two or three daies perfectly healed During the action the 128 and some other Psalms are sung by which also the Infants crying is not heard and a name given to the Child by his Parents appointment See Luk. 1.59 Lastly some festival entertainments and Congratulations are made to the Parents by their kindred and friends as in a time of joy See Leo Modena a Jewish Rabby in his Ritus Hebraici Part. 4. cap. 8. § 44 Now considering that the Blessed Virgin and her husband were meer strangers in this place The Lord seeming to have said to this his Son for his greater exinanition even before he was born and to his poor Mother as he did to Abraham Egredere de terra tua de cognitione tua Gen. 12.1 de domo Patrum tuorum removed from all Consolations or assistance of Kindred or acquaintance and their Condition also very poor it is probable that our Lords Circumcision was suitable to his birth done after the rudest and plainest manner and with small or no attendance some mean lodging perhaps hired by Joseph in the Town wherein this Ceremony was performed or also as some rather think dispatcht in the Stable or Grott by Joseph himsel In which Grott also or in some private hired room this Holy Family may be imagined according to the highest rule of perfection to have sojourned till their departing into Egypt without any secular acquaintance in great Solitude silence and Devotion and exceeding reverence to the Holy Child Jesus as the divine Off-spring Joseph by the gain of his Trade providing necessaries for the Virgin and the Babe and trâ—â—ting the Mother also as a consecrated Temple of the Holy Ghost with a most pure and chast honour and respect Jesus meanwhile by his omnipotent influence working in both their hearts what was acceptable to his Fathers will to be done unto him Restraining also by the same divine oeconomy the wonder and devotion both of the Shepheards and other Inhabitants to whom these had told their discoveries in such a manner as that all expected rather what would follow afterward than curiously searched into what was transacted for the present and so as that their great awe presumed not so far as to visit this new-born hope of Israel or to perform any respect or service to him which did not suit with that low Condition he had chosen of living poor unknown solitary and exposed to all hardships in which his Parents also may be thought to have served him in great privacy and silence and without talking or conversing much abroad As also the Evangelist observes that whilst the Shepheards divulged the wonders of his birth yet his holy Mother kept all private and pondered them in her heart as a much-considering silent woman Luk. 2.18 19. And so we may conjecture that the visits both of the Shepheards and the Magi were both performed by them and received by Mary and Joseph with such a profound reverence modesty and silence as became a Temple rather than a Stable and as was suiting to the presence of so great a Majesty though mean and weak in his outward appearance for this appertained to his present state of Humiliation yet most commanding and powerful in his divine influence and energy on all those who approached him and whose Conversation he admitted For already his humanity also by the union to it of his divine person is to be esteemed replenished from his first Conception with the Holy Ghost and with all wisdom and not to have as the bodily so also the mental impotencies or weaknesses of Infancy § 45 This his Circumcision therefore seems to have bin performed as with the greatest reverence so privacy hardship and inaccomodation And if the Institution and Signification of this sacred Ceremony be well examined we shal find our Lord here entring upon the stage of his sufferings with the performance of one of the greatest acts of humility and voluntary obedience that his whole life afforded and that his Circumcision and his Cross i. e. the first and the â—ast act of his life were the two greatest abasements that his celestial pure and unspotted Person descended-to In both which he was content to appear to the world in the Similitude of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 and to be numbred amongst the Transgressors Esay 53. and to bear the penalties of sin as if he had bin a sinner As in that last act to be condemned for the greatest Malefactor and Blasphemor and destroyer of the law so in this first to suffer as a sinful Son of Adam an expiation of that Original Guilt with which he was never stained and that not a washing only with water as it is now in baptism but a shedding of his blood For though Circumcision then was a Sacrament of the same Evangelical Covenant as now Baptism is yet was not this expiation then to be without shedding of blood as a type and figure of what was to come till the true blood of our Redemption should be shed upon the Cross after which now the Ceremony of a mundation only with water sufficeth § 46 To digress a little here the more exactly to weigh the just importment of this Ceremony which if you think an impertinency you may pass on to § 56. For Circumcision and the obligation which then the people of God had to it thus the case stood Adam being fallen from his original righteousness and so having lost the Grace of God and being become unable to observe his commands and by the breach of them liable to eternal death and the loss of the heavenly inheritance yet God in compassion to him then promised a seed that should bruise the head of that serpent that seduced him Gen. 3.15 and by whom should be had redemption pardon of former sin restorement of Grace and of the Holy Spirit to keep Gods commands so far as this Covenant of Grace required and a new benediction and introduction into the heavenly inheritance to all the faithful and children of the Gospel And so by this promised seed and in this faith and Covenant Evangelical were all the holy men preceding Abraham even from Adam Abel Enoch Noah c. redeemed and saved And Fathers of the faithful also before Abraham all these were in respect of their spiritual posterity and probably had some different ceremony from the rest of mankind by which they were initiated into this Evangelical Covenant and constituted members of Gods Church tho Abraham first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bare this name for his faith in God singularly eminent among the rest He believing as the Apostle saith Rom. 4.18 with his wife and family in hope even against hope first in relinquishing at once his country and kindred at Gods bare command not knowing saith the Apostle Heb. 11.8 when he went out whither he went 2ly and then in believing Gods power to give