Section 59
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 27 Moses subsequently delivered to be observed in types and sym bols, because such things as these do not belong to Christians. Bui they obviously knew the Christ of God, as he appeared to Abra ham, communed with Isaac, spoke to Jacob; and that he com muned with Moses and the prophets after him, has already been shown. Hence you will find, also, these pious persons honoured with the name of Christ, as in the following expression : " Touch not my anointed ones (my Christs,) and do my prophets no harm." Whence we should plainly suppose, that the first and most an cient religion known, that of those pious men that were connect ed with Abraham, is the very religion lately announced to all in the doctrines of Christ. Abraham is said to have received the command of circumcision, and yet long before this, was proved to have received the testimony of righteousness through faith. " Abraham," the Scriptures say, " believed, ajnd it was imputed unto him for righteousness." And, indeed, jtbe divine communi cation was given to him from God, who appeared to him when he bore this character before "circumcision. And this was Christ himself, the word of God announcing that all who should come in future times should be justified in a similar way ; saying, " and in thee shall be blessed all the nations of the earth." And again, " when he shall become a great and mighty nation, in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." We may obviously understand this by its fulfilment in us ; for he indeed was justified by his faith in Christ, the word of God that appeared to him ; and having renounced the superstition of his fathers and the former errors of his life, confessed the one supreme God, and served him by deeds of virtue, and not by the service subsequently enjoined in the law of Moses. To him, then, being such, it was declared that all the tribes and all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him. But the course of piety which was pursued by Abraham, has appeared thus far cultivated only by Christians, and that too by works more efficacious than words. What, then, should prevent us henceforth from acknowledging that there is one and the same principle of life and conduct, the same course of piety common 5*