The eighth day, on which the child was circumcised, betokened the eighth age of this world, in which we shall arise from death, parted from every earthly corruption and pollution of our body. The stone knife, which circumcised the child, betokened the stone of which the apostle said, "The stone verily was Christ." He said _was_, meaning a type, not in substance. Through belief, and hope, and true love of Christ, are pious hearts cleansed, by daily circumcision, from their sins, and through his grace enlightened.
We have often heard that men call this day the day of the year, as if this day were first in the circuit of the year; but we find no explanation in christian books, why this day is accounted the beginning of the year. The old Romans, in heathen days, begun the circuit of the year on this day; and the Hebrew nations on the vernal equinox; the Greeks on the summer solstice; and the Egyptians begun their year at harvest. Now our calendar begins, according to the Roman institution, on this day, not for any religious reason, but from old custom. Some of our service-books begin on the Lord's Advent; but not on that account is that the beginning of the year, nor is it with any reason placed on this day; though our calendars, in this place, repeat it. Most rightly it has been thought that the beginning of the year should be observed on the day that the Almighty Creator placed the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the beginning of all the seasons; that is on the day that the Hebrew people begin the calculation of their year; as the leader Moses has written in the books of laws. Verily God said to Moses concerning that month, "This month is the beginning of months, and it { 101} is first of the months of the year." Now the Hebrew people held the first day of the year on the vernal equinox, because on that day the yearly seasons were set.
The eighteenth day of the month that we call March, which ye call Hlyda, was the first day of this world. On that day God made light, and morning, and evening. Then three days went forth without any measure of times; for the heavenly bodies were not created before the fourth day. On the fourth day the Almighty fixed all the heavenly bodies, and the yearly seasons, and commanded that they should be for a sign, for days, and for years. Now the Hebrews begin their year on the day when all the seasons were appointed, that is on the fourth day of the world's creation, and the doctor Beda reckons, with great discretion, that that day is the twenty-first of March, the day which we celebrate in honour of the holy man Benedict, for his great excellencies. Aye, the earth also makes known by her plants, which then return to life, that the time at which they were created is the most correct beginning of the year.