Wesley Corpus

Every man-child among you shall be circumcised;--it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. The uncircumcised man-child shall be cut off; he hath broken my covenant.” So we see, this original covenant, though everlasting, was conditional, and man’s failing in the condition cleared God. 63. We have St. Paul’s account of this covenant of God with Abraham, in the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, verse 3, &c.: “Abraham,” saith he, “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” (This was a little before God established his covenant with him, and is related Genesis xv. 6.) “And he received the sign of circum cision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision” (that is, of them that are circumcised) “to them who are not of the circumcision only, but also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.” Now, if these words do not express a conditional covenant, certainly none can. 64. The nature and ground of this covenant of God with Abraham is farther explained: “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? For I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him: And they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring unto Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Gen. xviii. 17, &c.) Does God say here, “I will do it, because I will?” Nothing less.