Chapter 16

§ 1.

As to Circumcision, that God gave it also not as conveying perfect righteousness, but for a sign, that the race of Abraham might remain always distinguishable,¹ we learn from the Scripture itself. For God, it saith, spake unto Abraham,² Every thing of yours that is male shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, for a sign of a covenant between Me and you. This same the Prophet Ezekiel saith of the Sabbath:³ And I gave them My Sabbaths, that they may be for a sign between Me and them, that they may know that I am the Lord, who sanctify them. And in Exodus God saith unto Moses, And ye shall keep My sabbaths;⁴ for it shall be to you a sign with Me through your generation.

These things then were given in sign; but they were not signs without a symbol, i.e., without a subject, nor idle, given as they were by a wise artificer; but the circumcision after the flesh signified the spiritual circumcision.⁵ For so saith the Apostle, We are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.⁶ And the Prophet saith, Circumcise the hardness of your heart.

As for the Sabbath,⁷ it taught perseverance in serving God all the day. For we are counted, saith the Apostle Paul,⁸ all day as sheep for the slaughter: i.e., consecrated, and ministering the whole time since our belief, and persevering in it, and abstaining from all covetousness; not gaining nor possessing treasures on earth. And there was a revelation made in a manner, even from created things, of the Rest of God, i.e., of the Kingdom wherein that man shall rest, who perseveres in standing by God, and he shall partake of God’s Table.

§ 2.

Now that man was not justified by these, but they were given as a sign to the people, is proved in that Abraham himself, without circumcision, and without keeping the Sabbath,⁹ believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, and he was called the Friend of God.¹⁰ Yea, and Lot without circumcision was led out of Sodom, receiving deliverance from God. Also Noe, while he was uncircumcised, pleased God, and received the measures of the world in its second birth. And Enoch too,¹¹ without circumcision pleasing God, though he was a man, yet did the office of an ambassador unto Angels, and was translated, and is reserved unto this hour as a witness of God’s just judgment; in that, while the Angels that had sinned fell down to earth unto judgment, a Man, being approved, was translated unto salvation. Add to this again all the remaining multitude of those who before Abraham were righteous, and of those Patriarchs who were before Moses, and were justified without the aforesaid things, and without the Law of Moses. As indeed Moses himself tells the people in Deuteronomy:¹² The Lord thy God made a covenant in Horeb; and the Lord made not this covenant with your fathers, but with you.

§ 3.

Wherefore then did the Lord not make a covenant with the Fathers?¹³ Because the Law was not appointed for righteous men; and the Fathers were righteous, having the meaning of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls, i.e., loving God who made them, and abstaining from wrong towards their neighbour: and so it was unnecessary for them to be warned by writings of reproof, since they had righteousness in themselves.

But when this righteousness and love towards God passed into oblivion,¹⁴ and was quenched in Egypt, God, for His great Love’s sake towards men, shewed Himself by a voice in the hour of need, and brought the people out of Egypt by His might, that man might again become a disciple and follower of God: He smote also the disobedient, lest they should despise their Maker; and He fed that people with manna, that they might receive reasonable meat; as Moses also saith in Deuteronomy;¹⁵ And He fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that thou mightest know that man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God, which goeth out of His mouth, doth man live. He both enjoined love towards God, and wrapped up with it righteousness towards our neighbour, that one might neither be unjust, nor unworthy of God; building up man by the Ten Commandments to be friends with Himself, and to all concord with his neighbour: things indeed which were profitable to man himself, God all the while needing nothing from man.

§ 4.

Therefore saith the Scripture,¹⁶ These words the Lord spake to all the congregation of the children of Israel in the mountain, and added nothing; for nothing, as we said before, did He need of them.¹⁷ And again Moses saith, And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul? Now these things did indeed make man glorious, fulfilling that which was wanting unto him, i.e., that he should be the Friend of God; but on God they bestowed nothing; for God needed not at all the love of man. But unto man the glory of God was wanting, and he could no way receive it, except by obedience to God.¹⁸ And therefore Moses tells them again, Chuse life, that thou mayest live, and thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, to hear His voice, and to hold by Him; for this is thy life, and the length of thy days. And in building up man to that life, the Lord Himself by His own self spake the words of the Decalogue alike unto all: and so they abide equally with us, receiving extension and augmentation, but not abolition, by His Coming in the Flesh.

§ 5.

But as to the precepts of the servile state,¹⁹ He enjoined them by Moses exclusively to the people, as suited to their instruction: according to Moses’ own saying,²⁰ And the Lord enjoined me at that time to speak unto you statutes and judgments.

These things then,²¹ which were given them unto bondage, and for a sign, He hath cut off by a New Testament of Liberty. But those which are natural, and savouring of freedom, and common to all, He hath amplified and expanded: in that He bestows upon men, by adoption, bounteously and without grudging, to know God as their Father, and to love Him with their whole heart, and without opposition to follow His Word, abstaining not only from evil deeds, but also from the desires thereof. And He hath increased Fear also: for sons ought to fear more than slaves, and to have greater love towards their Father.²² And therefore saith the Lord, Every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;²³ and, He that shall have looked on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart;²⁴ and, He who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: to make us aware, that we are to give account unto God not of our deeds only, as slaves, but also of our words and thoughts: even as we have received power to be free: whereby man is more thoroughly tried, whether he reverences, and fears, and loves the Lord. And therefore Peter saith,²⁵ that we have not liberty as a cloke of wickedness, but to try and manifest Faith.