676. There were many among the Children of Israel, and there are many among the Jews at the present time, who believe that they are specially chosen, because they are circumcised. There are also many Christians who think the same because they are baptised. Yet both these rites, circumcision and baptism, were only given as a sign and memorial that they should be purified from evils, and so become the chosen people. What in the case of a person is the external without the internal, except like a church building without services, a useless structure unless it can serve as a stable? Or again, what is the external without the internal but like a field of nothing but reeds and stalks without a crop of grain? Or like a vineyard with nothing but branches and leaves without any grapes? Or like a fig tree with no fruit, such as the Lord cursed (Matt. 21: 19)? Or like lamps in the hands of the foolish virgins with no oil (Matt. 25:3)? Or rather like living in a mausoleum, where there are corpses underfoot, bones around the walls and midnight apparitions flying beneath the roof? Or like a chariot pulled by leopards, with a wolf in it as charioteer, and a fool as passenger? The external man is not a man, but only the figure of a man; for it is the internal, the power to be wise which comes from God, which makes the man. It is much the same with the circumcised and the baptised, unless each circumcises or washes his heart.