We are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, verse 31. i. e. we are believers in Christ, in opposition to the judaizing teachers and their followers, who seek to be justified by the law, chap. v. 4. Now, if true believers be the children of promise, as Isaac was, it necessarily follows that they are the seed represented by him, compare chap iii. ult. If ye be Christ's, what follows? Why? then ye are Abraham's seed: not his seed by the bond woman, but by the free: for ye are heirs according to the promise. Agreeably to this, the apostle observes elsewhere, that they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son, Rom. ix. 8, 9. From these passages it is clear as the light, that the children of God, the children of the free woman, and the children of the promise, are precisely the same with the seed, the collective seed. Now, if the children of the free woman, who had been so long barren, be the seed, it unavoidably follows, that by the woman herself must be understood the patriarchal church. For to whom was the seed promised? Why? To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, together with their families, constituting the then church; which we therefore call the patriarchal church. As Sara, to whom Isaac was promised was the mother, so the church, unto whom the collective seed was promised, behoved to be the mother represented by Sara: I say, the collective seed, or the multitude of true believers; for we are not speaking of the personal Seed, Christ, in whom we believe. As certainly as the multitude of believers under the New Testament dispensation are the seed promised, so certainly the church, consisting of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their families, was the mother to whom that seed was promised. As it cannot be denied that the seed was promised to that church, as little can it be denied, that she was the mother.

In further confirmation of this, let it be observed, that such as the covenant was, in virtue of which the

seed were brought forth, such must be the church. which was their mother. Now, it is obvious that the one was the Abrahamic covenant, Gal. iii. 17. and therefore the other must be the church with whom that covenant was made, viz. the patriarchal church, consisting of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, &c. To acknowledge that the seed were brought forth in virtue of the former, as the efficient cause, but not by the latter, as their mystic mother, would be to say in ef fect, that the Abrahamic promise was not made to Abraham, which is direct contradiction. It merits our attention here, that Abraham is uniformly represented as the father, not only of Jewish, but also of Gentile believers, Rom. iv. 1, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18. Gal. iii. 7, 29. Heb. xi. 12. James ii. 21. The former are called his seed, not by generation, but by imitation, viz. on account of their walking in the footsteps of his faith, John viii. 39, 40. Rom. iv. 12. and ix. 7, 8. and in the same sense the latter are his seed likewise, Rom. iv. 11. He is called the father of all them who believe, not because they are all his lineal descendants, for that they are not; nor because he was the first believer in the world; for from Eve down to his time there were believers in Messiah who was to come, as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, Heb. xi. 4-7. Nay, from sacred chronology it can be instructed, that Shem lived 75 years at least, after the promise made to Abraham*. But he

Thus Shem was 525 years old when the promise was made to Abraham, and

is called the Father of all the faithful, because the promise of the personal Seed, which had been mightily obscured, was renewed unto him; which promise he believed, notwithstanding all the obstacles that lay in the way, as Sara's barrenness, her age, and even Isaac's death.

It is usual in scripture to style one who has led the way to others in any profession, or manner of life, their father. So Jabal was called the father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle; and his brother the father of all such as handle the harp and organ, Gen. iv. 20, 21. Not that all shepherds issued from the loins of the one, or all musicians from those of the other; for the posterity of these two men, if they had any, were, with the rest of Cain's descendants, destroyed by the flood. Abraham's progenitors, at least Terah his father, was fearfully sunk in idolatry, Josh. xxiv. 2. The promise concerning the Seed, Gen. iii. 15. had not as far as we can learn, been renewed, no not to Shem, whose God Jehovah is expressly called, Gen. ix. 26. That the church might be recovered from the one, and more abundantly enjoy the comfort of the other, God was pleased to call Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, where his kindred served other gods; to enter into covenant with him, and to ratify it, as by solemn sacrifice, Gen. xv. 9-21. so by circumcision, and at last by his irrevocable oath, chap. xxii.16-18. chap. xvii. 9—14. The church now assumed a new form, so to speak; and Abraham, being singled out from all the posterity of Shem, as he from whom the personal Seed was to come, and in whom therefore all the believing nations (compare Rev. xxi. 24.) were to be blessed, is called their father, Gen. xvii. 5. Rom. iv. 17. The many nations of whom he was constituted a father, could not be the Jews, who were but one nation, but believers

consequently he lived 75 years after, viz. to the 50th year of Isaac, for he lived in whole 600 years, Gen. xi. 10, 11. Some will have it that he reached Jacob's 50th year; so Boston in his notes on the Marrow, and in his manuscript copy on Genesis, reckoning it would seem, that Abraham was born in the 70th year of Terah. But this I am persuaded is a mistake. For Abraham being 75 years old when his father died, aged 205, Gen. xi. ult. xii. 4. Acts vii. 4. he behoved to be born, not in the 70th, but in the 130th year of his father's life.

out of all the Gentile nations. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed, Gal. iii. 9. These, and not the carnal Jews, are his seed, innumerable as the stars of the sky, or the sands on the sea shore, Heb. xi. 12. He was the natural father of the one, they issuing from his loins; but the spiritual father of the other, they following the footsteps of his faith. It is in the same sense that he is called the root, Rom. xi. 16. the Jews the natural branches, and the believing Gentiles the ingrafted, verses 19, 21, 24. Compare Gal. ii. 15. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles. Consider the believing Gentiles as branches, Abraham is the root: view them as children, and he is their father. And if so, who but the patriarchal church can be their mo ther? By which church I mean not only the three illustrious patriarchs with the pious in their families, but also all they who, down to the New Testament times, were treading in their steps; worshipping God in the spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and putting no confidence in the flesh, Phil. iii. 3. All such, though under the Mosaic economy, were truly the patriarchal church, inasmuch as they turned not aside to the law for life, but still kept their eye upon, and in their hearts clave unto, the Abrahamic promise concerning the personal Seed, panting after its accomplishment.

These, in their several generations, were the genuine successors of the pious patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, &c. lived in them, as did Elijah in the Baptist, or as shall the souls of the martyrs, at the Millen nium, Rev. xx. 4. Quickened with the same spirit, as were the pious patriarchs, trusting in the same promise, and looking forward with joy to its accomplishment, they were one body with them. The promise respecting the collective seed, to be gathered from among the nations, beginning to be fulfilled unto that church, she might be said to bring forth, and barren as she long had been, to be now a joyful mother of

children. Thus it appears with what propriety thre Jerusalem above, or the spirits of the just in heaven, are called the mother of all the believers on earth, Gal. iv. 26. viz. they as children imitate the faith and holiness of departed saints, or as our apostle expreses it, Heb. vi. 12. they are followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

It being certain that by the free woman is meant the patriarchal church, or such as believed in the promise, we may hence infer what is intended by the bond. It must be those who were different from, yea, opposite to believers in the covenant of promise: as opposite as bond to free. Now, who are these? Why? Such as trust in the law. For as in the matter of justification, the law is opposed to the promise, and works to faith, so those who trust in the law of works, stand in direct opposition to such as rest in the promise alone. Therefore as by the free woman is meant the patriarchal church, or such as believed in the promise made to Abraham; so by the bond, we must understand those who trusted in the Sinai covenant. Both parties were in the commonwealth of Israel, as Sara and Hagar in Abraham's house; but the one clave to the promise for righteousness and life, the other to the law,

This interpretation corresponds exactly with the apostle's view of the matter, telling us that the two women signify the two covenants, the one of which is said to have been made with Abraham, Gal. iii. 17. the other given from Sinai, chap. iv. 24. These two covenants determined the states of such as adhered to them, the one being free in virtue of the promise, the other under bondage by the law. Agar, saith our apostle, answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children, viz. in bondage to weak and beggarly elements, Gal. iii. 9. The Jerusalem and her adherents, in our apostle's time, were of the same spirit with all those who in ages past had persecuted the holy prophets, Matt. xxiii. 31. Their fathers had killed the servants, and they as their children,