The plea of the children of believing-parents for their interest in Abraham's covenant, their…

We are to consider Ordinances in their Institution, wherefore God appointed them, what they carry in them, in their own Nature, and what Men ought to do who partake of them, not what Men do; we know what Baptism signifies, what it implies, and what they ought to do who partake of it, though Men abuse it. The Case was the same as to Circumcision.

That this was one thing it Sealed up, as I said, the Promise of Christ to come, the Anabaptists cannot deny, and it is the true Answer which Pererius gives, from Aquinus, to that Question, what was the difference between the Circumcision of the Jews, and of other Nations? for that other Nations did Circumcise besides the Jews, not only Cyprian, de ratione Circumvis, & Hierom. on Jer. 9. ult. [who upon that Text I think well;] but also Herodotus, who lived some hundreds of years before Christ in Xerxes's Time, tells us, insomuch, that Herodotus saith the Jews took it up from the Egyptians; among ⟨p. 84⟩whom it was in so much esteem, that there was no entrance into the most Honourable Offices amongst them, unless they were Circumcised. Now Pererius makes this difference: Other Nations used it, taking it up as a custom and right, transmitted to them from their fore-Fathers, whom they had in Honour. But the Jews used it, as it was a Sacrament containing in it, the Profession of their Faith and Obedience towards God, and the Divine Promise of the Messiah to come; he adds, And Expiation of Original Sin, as the Ancients speak of Baptism, and so many do now.

That other Nations do not use it as a Seal of God's Covenant, it appears by the time of Circumcising; the day God appointed, was the eighth day, but Ishmael's Posterity, Circumcise in the thirteenth year of their Age, then Ishmael was Circumcised; so that it is merely in Honour of him, so Josephus tells us. l. 1. c. 12.