EIGHTH DAY, BECAUSE HE HAD BROKEN GOD'S COVENANT.
When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he hath broken my covenant,"[3] some may be troubled how that ought to be understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it is said must perish; nor has the covenant of God been broken by him, but by his parents, who have not taken care to circumcise him.But even the infants, not personally in their own life, but according to the common origin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant in that one in whom all have sinned.[4] Now there are many things called God' s covenants besides those two great ones, the old and the new, which any one who pleases may read and know.For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."[5]
Whence it is written in the book called Ecclesiasticus, "All flesh waxeth old as doth a garment.For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shall die the death."[6] Now, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and the apostle says, "Where no law is, there is no prevarication,"[7] on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true,"[1] accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,"[8] except that all who are held liable for any sin are accused of dealing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some law? If on this account, then, even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged that in the same sense in which they are sinners they are also prevaricators of that law which was given in Paradise, according to the truth of both scriptures, "Iaccounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators," and "Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus, be cause circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on account of the original sin by which God's covenant was first broken, was not undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said, Whoever is not born again, that soul shall perish from his people, because he hath broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all others.For had He said, Because he hath broken this my covenant, He would have compelled us to understand by it only this of circumcision; but since He has not expressly said what covenant the infant has broken, we are free to understand Him as speaking of that covenant of which the breach can be ascribed to an infant.Yet if any one contends that it is said of nothing else than circumcision, that in it the infant has broken the covenant of God because, he is not circumcised, he must seek some method of explanation by which it may be understood without absurdity (such as this)that he has broken the covenant, because it has been broken in him although not by him.Yet in this case also it is to be observed that the soul of the infant, being guilty of no sin of neglect against itself, would perish unjustly, unless original sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.
CHAP.28.--OF THE CHANGE OF NAME IN ABRAHAM AND SARAH, WHO RECEIVEDTHE GIFT OF
FECUNDITY WHEN THEY WERE INCAPABLE OF REGENERATION OWING TO THE BARRENNESSOF
ONE, AND THE OLD AGE OF BOTH.
Now when a promise so great and clear was made to Abraham, in which it was so plainly said to him, "I have made thee a father of many nations, and I will increase thee exceedingly, and Iwill make nations of thee, and kings shall go forth of thee.
And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I will bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall be of him,"(1)--a promise which we now see fulfilled in Christ,--from that time forward this couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai, but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first, for every one does so now.The reason why the name of Abraham was changed is given: "For," He says, "I have made thee a father of many nations." This, then, is to be understood to be the meaning of Abraham; but Abram, as he was formerly called, means "exalted father." The reason of the change of Sarah's name is not given; but as those say who have written interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in these books, Sarah means "my princess," and Sarai "strength." Whence it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed."[2] For both were old, as the Scripture testifies; but she was also barren, and had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children even if she had not been barren.Further, if a woman is advanced in years, yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children to a young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man can beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham could of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age.This, then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraham's body was now dead;[3] because at that age he was no longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a small part of her natural vigor.Of course we must understand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for if it was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man, but the corpse of a dead one.Although that question, how Abraham begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the gift of begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even after the death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the question which I have followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old man of a hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so then, when men still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old age.
CHAP.29.--OF THE THREE MEN OR ANGELS, IN WHOM THE LORD IS RELATED TOHAVE
APPEARED TO ABRAHAM AT THE OAK OF MAMRE.