And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Ver. 11. It shall be a token of the covenant.] It seals up nothing then to those that are not in covenant. Circumcision to such is but as a seal to a blank. Unregenerate Israel was to God as Ethiopia. Amo 9:7 Circumcision of itself avails nothing, if the heart be uncircumcised. The apostle distinguisheth of circumcision, Col 2:11 and tells us that the true circumcision is "made without hands" (αχειροποιητος), and "is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter". Rom 2:29 It is a wonderful work of the Spirit, wrought by the word, upon the saints in their first conversion, whereby corruption of nature is wounded, beloved sins cast away with sorrow, and the sinner received into an everlasting communion with God and his saints. Labour this, or you are not a button the better for your baptism. A man may go to hell with font-water on his face, if not baptized "with the Holy Ghost, and with fire". Mat 3:11 Circumcision seals not up any covenant of grace to Turks, as it did not, of old, to Ishmaelites, Edomites, and Midianites, who yet would needs be circumcised.