as a sign, that the race of Abraham might continue recognisable. For it declares: "God said unto Abraham, Every male among you shall be circumcised; and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, as a token of the covenant between me and you."[1] This same does Ezekiel the prophet say with regard to the Sabbaths: "Also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord, that sanctify them."[2] And in Exodus, God says to Moses: "And ye shall observe my Sabbaths; for it shall be a sign between me and you for your generations."[3] These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit. For "we," says the apostle, "have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands."[4] And the prophet declares, "Circumcise the hardness of your heart."[5] But the Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in God's service.[6] "For we have been counted," says the Apostle Paul, "all the day long as sheep for the slaughter;"[7] that is, consecrated [to God], and ministering continually to our faith, and persevering in it, and abstaining from all avarice, and not acquiring or possessing treasures upon earth.[8] Moreover, the Sabbath of God (requietio Dei), that is, the kingdom, was, as it were, indicated by created things; in which [kingdom], the man who shall have persevered in serving God (Deo assistere) shall, in a state of rest, partake of God's table.
2. And that man was not justified by these things, but that they were given as a sign to the people, this fact shows,—that Abraham himself, without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths, "believed God, and it was imputed
- ↑ Gen. xvii. 9–11.
- ↑ Ezek. xx. 12.
- ↑ Ex. xxi. 13.
- ↑ Col. ii. 11.
- ↑ Deut. x. 16, LXX. version.
- ↑ The Latin text here is: "Sabbata autem perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant;" which might be rendered, "The Sabbaths taught that we should continue the whole day m the service of God;" but Harvey conceives the original Greek to have been, τὴν καθημερινὴν διαμονὴν τῆς περὶ τὸν Θεὸν λατρείας.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 36.
- ↑ Matt. vi. 19.
