Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
Ver. 22. Moses therefore] Tam severus sabbati exactor, As strict as he was for the observation of the sabbath, yet he was not against circumcision, and the healing again of the child's wound, upon that day. And if any object that circumcision was a sacrament, and so a sabbath day's work, it may be answered, 1. That this cure also was much to the glory of God. 2. That the man was cured on both sides, and received both sanitatem in corpore, et sanctitatem in corde, health in the body and purity of the heart.
Ye on the sabbath day circumcise] q.d. If you may wound a man on the sabbath day, may not I heal one? If you may heal on the sabbath one member of the circumcised, may not I make a man whole every whit? If you be at pains to cure such a one with your hand, may not I without pains cure a man with my word only? What if circumcision be a sacrament? so was this that I have done a special means of bringing much glory to God.