And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
The uncircumcised man-child ... shall be cut off from his people - i:e., he should not participate in the privileges of the covenant. The consequence of neglecting the rite was disastrous both for Jewish boy and the male servant who was an inmate of a Jewish family. It reduced them to a state of excommunication. The prevalence of this peculiar practice among many ancient pagan nations carries back our thoughts to a primeval ordinance, which, like that of sacrifice, belonged to the earliest age after the fall; nor is there anything in the language of the sacred historian to forbid the ascription of it to so ancient an origin.
On the contrary, the manner in which the injunction was laid upon Abram implies that it was an old and well-known usage; because no explanation is given either of what it was, or how the rite was to be performed. And assuming it to have been an ordinance of primeval antiquity, the appointment of this ancient symbol to be a divine ordinance in the Old Testament Church corresponded exactly to the consecrated use of the common element of water, which, having been always associated with ideas of purity, was instituted by the direct authority of our Lord to symbolize in the Christian Church the cleansing efficacy of his atoning blood, as well as the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit on the soul of the recipient.