Luke 1:59

Observe here, 1. The circumcision of the child at eight days old, according to the commandment, Genesis 17:12.

Where note, first, the act, circumcising.

Secondly, the time, at eight days old.

God commanded every male child to be circumcised; because the males by the foreskin, propagate sin, and convey original impurity.

By this ordinance, God gave his people to understand the exceeding filthiness of sin, and that man brings something into the world with him, which ought presently to be cut off.

Note also, the time of circumcising the child, at eight days old; not before, lest the child should be too weak to bear the pain; and it must not be deferred longer, lest God interpret the delay to be. contempt of the ordinance.

Hence by the way we may learn, that God did not tie salvation to the outward sacrament; for if the child had perished that died uncircumcised, it had been. hard thing to defer circumcision eight hours. 'Tis not the want, but the contempt and neglect, of the sacrament that damns. "It came to pass on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child." We find in scripture, the ordinance appointed, and the time limited, but neither the persons nor the place declared: Moses's wife "circumcised the child, and that in an inn