{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>When it is said, \"The male who is not circumcised in the\r\nflesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_142\">[Pg 142]</a></span>\r\nbecause he hath broken my covenant,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_285_285\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_285_285\">[285]</a> some may be troubled\r\nhow that ought to be understood, since it can be no fault of\r\nthe infant whose life it is said must perish, nor has the\r\ncovenant of God been broken by him, but by his parents, who\r\nhave not taken care to circumcise him. But even the infants,\r\nnot personally in their own life, but according to the common\r\norigin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant in\r\nthat one in whom all have sinned.<a id=\"FNanchor_286_286\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_286_286\">[286]</a> Now there are many\r\nthings called God's covenants besides those two great ones,\r\nthe old and the new, which any one who pleases may read\r\nand know. For the first covenant, which was made with the\r\nfirst man, is just this: \"In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall\r\nsurely die.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_287_287\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_287_287\">[287]</a> Whence it is written in the book called Ecclesiasticus,\r\n\"All flesh waxeth old as doth a garment. For the\r\ncovenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_288_288\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_288_288\">[288]</a>\r\nNow, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and the\r\napostle says, \"Where no law is, there is no prevarication,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_289_289\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_289_289\">[289]</a>\r\non what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, \"I\r\naccounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_290_290\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_290_290\">[290]</a> except\r\nthat all who are held liable for any sin are accused of dealing\r\ndeceitfully (prevaricating) with some law? If on this\r\naccount, then, even the infants are, according to the true belief,\r\nborn in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess\r\nthey have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it\r\nmust be acknowledged that in the same sense in which they\r\nare sinners they are also prevaricators of that law which was\r\ngiven in Paradise, according to the truth of both scriptures,\r\n\"I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,\" and\r\n\"Where no law is, there is no prevarication.\" And thus, because\r\ncircumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant,\r\non account of the original sin by which God's covenant\r\nwas first broken, was not undeservedly to lose his generation\r\nunless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be\r\nunderstood as if it had been said, Whoever is not born again,\r\nthat soul shall perish from his people, because he hath broken\r\nmy covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_143\">[Pg 143]</a></span>\r\nothers. For had He said, Because he hath broken this my\r\ncovenant, He would have compelled us to understand by it\r\nonly this of circumcision; but since He has not expressly said\r\nwhat covenant the infant has broken, we are free to understand\r\nHim as speaking of that covenant of which the breach\r\ncan be ascribed to an infant. Yet if any one contends that\r\nit is said of nothing else than circumcision, that in it the\r\ninfant has broken the covenant of God because he is not circumcised,\r\nhe must seek some method of explanation by which\r\nit may be understood without absurdity (such as this) that\r\nhe has broken the covenant, because it has been broken in\r\nhim although not by him. Yet in this case also it is to be\r\nobserved that the soul of the infant, being guilty of no sin of\r\nneglect against itself, would perish unjustly, unless original\r\nsin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK SIXTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-242"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f391c0e1abf6762daeddfb15a56908cfe814cb3725e6feb17ef5b168673621fb","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"SIR","chapter":15,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ecclus. xv. 17","verse":17,"verse_end":17}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_288_288","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_288_288","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_288_288\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_288_288\"><span class=\"label\">[288]</span></a> Ecclus. xv. 17.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_288_288","text_sha256":"98961c7f0886c43a0dd414c97decb97f502349eebddb100b28abefe601067137","verified":false,"work_id":null}