DNM300
Puritan Board Freshman
From Flavel’s works, Vindiciae Legis et Foederis, pg. 341 in the DigitalPuritan copy.
- - - - - - - - -
Next, let us consider the ends for which circumcision was instituted and ordained of God; Of which these were the principal.
(1.) It was instituted to be a convictive sign of their natural corruption, propagated by the way of natural generation: For which reason, this natural corruption goes in scripture under the name of the uncircumcision of the heart. Jer. ix, 26.
(2.) It also signified the putting off of this body of sin, in the virtue of Christ's death. Col. ii. 11.
(3.) It was appointed to be the initiating sign of the covenant, or a token of their matriculation, and admission into the church and covenant of God, Gen. xvii. 9, 10, 11.
(4.) It was ordained to be a discriminating mark betwixt God's covenanted people, and the Pagan world, who were strangers to the covenant, and without God in the world. And accordingly both parties were, from this ordinance, denominated the circumcision and the uncircumcision. Col. iii. 11.
(5.) It was also an obliging sign to Abraham and his seed, to walk with God in the uprightness and sincerity of their hearts, in the performance of all covenanted duties; in which duties, Abraham, and the faithful, walked obediently, with God, looking to Christ for righteousness: but the carnal Jews resting in, and trusting to those duties and ordinances for righteousness and justification, made it a covenant of works to themselves, and circumcision itself a bond of that covenant.
(6) Now, forasmuch as circumcision prefigured Christ, who was to come of this holy circumcised seed of Abraham, and his death also was pointed at therein, Heb. ii. 16. Col. ii. 11. of necessity this ordinance must vanish at the death of Christ: and accordingly did so.
- - - - - - - - -
Next, let us consider the ends for which circumcision was instituted and ordained of God; Of which these were the principal.
(1.) It was instituted to be a convictive sign of their natural corruption, propagated by the way of natural generation: For which reason, this natural corruption goes in scripture under the name of the uncircumcision of the heart. Jer. ix, 26.
(2.) It also signified the putting off of this body of sin, in the virtue of Christ's death. Col. ii. 11.
(3.) It was appointed to be the initiating sign of the covenant, or a token of their matriculation, and admission into the church and covenant of God, Gen. xvii. 9, 10, 11.
(4.) It was ordained to be a discriminating mark betwixt God's covenanted people, and the Pagan world, who were strangers to the covenant, and without God in the world. And accordingly both parties were, from this ordinance, denominated the circumcision and the uncircumcision. Col. iii. 11.
(5.) It was also an obliging sign to Abraham and his seed, to walk with God in the uprightness and sincerity of their hearts, in the performance of all covenanted duties; in which duties, Abraham, and the faithful, walked obediently, with God, looking to Christ for righteousness: but the carnal Jews resting in, and trusting to those duties and ordinances for righteousness and justification, made it a covenant of works to themselves, and circumcision itself a bond of that covenant.
(6) Now, forasmuch as circumcision prefigured Christ, who was to come of this holy circumcised seed of Abraham, and his death also was pointed at therein, Heb. ii. 16. Col. ii. 11. of necessity this ordinance must vanish at the death of Christ: and accordingly did so.
