A. D. 58. Way of Religion; and would reduce you again ‡ to a ~ Bondage, though not so ill a one as your Heathen State was 10 Ye observe days, and months and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. 12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am : for I am as ye are, ye have not injured me at all. 10 & 11. I perceive you are grown zealous Observers of the Jewish Sabbaths, New-Moons and Festivals. If this Temper continues on you, I fear my Labours of converting you to the Christian Religion are all loft. 12. Let me entreat you, dear Brethren, to be of my Sentiment. I was once as zealous a Patriot for the Mofaical Law as any of you can be. And tho' I am now otherwise; yet am willing to condescend and conform to your Notions, as far as ever my Christian Office and Profeffion will permit me. Let no Sufpicions or Resentments between us abate your Love toward me: For my part, I have none against you. 13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first, 14 And my temp tation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an Angel of God, even as Chrift Jesus. 15 Where 13 & 14. Do not forget what Respect you once payed both to my Person and Doctrine, when I firít preached to you and made you Christians. None of the Sufferings and Infirmities I laboured under, nor the Meanness of my personal Appearance, made you then flight me in the least; but ye received me with such Respect as if I had been Christ himself, the true Messiah, the Great Angel of the Covenant. * 15. You ‡ Turn again, and defire again: i. e. not that the Galatians were ever Jewish Proselytes at all; but that, as their former Heathen Religion was beggarly, weak and flavish, so by defiring to be Circumcised, they would again be reduced to a Bondage, tho not the fame they were under before. * An Angel of God, ἄγελον θες. The Messenger of God Emphatically, The Angel of the Covenant. 15. You then expressed such Sa- A. D. 58. tisfaction and Happiness in me, that Teachers? 16. Or what is it that has changed your Sentiments of me? Is it that I tell you plainly, The Mofaical Law has no hand in your Fustification that be it, 'tis the very Gospel Truth, and Happiness? If and I must stand to it. 17 They zealoufly affect you, but not well: yea they would exclude you, * that you might affect them. 18 But it is good || to be zealoufly affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you, 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, 20 I defire to be present with you now, and to change my voice, 17. Your false Teachers indeed pretend an extraordinary Love and Respect for you; they malicioufly endeavour to draw you entirely from me *, and engross all your Affections to themselves. 18. But pray rembember, if ever you had any just Reason to esteem me || as a good and true Apostle, you ought to do so still in my Absence, as well as when I was preaching among you in Person. 19. My dear Christian Children ! I am in the very Pains of a Mother in Travail, till I have renewed and brought you forth again into better and founder Principles of Chriftianity. 20. I could wish myself with you; and that I had reason to change these Complaints into Com mendations. * Ver. 17. Exclude you, i. e. from the Christian Covenant, unless you be Circumcised; and thereby make you fond of their Principles. Or else, ἡμᾶς, Exclude Me, as some Copies read it, and as in the Paraphrafe. || To be zealously affected in a good Thing. Or cὦ καλῶ, toward a good Perfon. > doubt of you. A.D. 58. voice, for I stand in mendations. But indeed at the present, I know not what to think of you. 21 Tell me, ye that defire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 21. But let me argue the main Point with you again, from the very Words of the Old Testament, wherein both Law and Gospel may be represented. And I hope, you that are so fond of Mofes's Law, will not refuse to believe his Writings. 22 For it is writ ten, that Abraham had two fons, the one by man. 23 But he who was of the bond-woman, was born after the flesh: but he of the free-woman was by promife. 22. You read there, that Abraham had two Sons, from whom the two different Branches of his Posterity sprung, the one by his Bond-Maid Hagar, and the other by his proper Wife Sarah. 23. Ifmael that was born of Hagar, (while Abraham was young enough to have Children) was by the common Course of Nature; but Ifaac was begotten of Sarah, at an Age when they were naturally incapable of Procreation. His Birth was extraordinary, and the pure Effect of a divine Promise appropriated to him and his Posterity. 24 Which things are an * allegory; for these and the two covenants, the one from the mount Sinai which 24. You must know then, That this is not only a literal History, but may be taken as a figurative Representation of the two Covenants and gendreth to bondage, Religious Dispensations, viz. The Law and the Gospel: And accordingly the Prophet Ifaiah uses it which is Agar. in the way of Figure or Allegory. [Ver. 27.] and and * ̓Αλληγορές μένα, are allegorized, viz. by Ifaiah in Ver. 27. † Τὸ γάρ Αγαρ Σινᾶ ὅρα, &c. This Hagar is Mount Sinai. For the Construction of this Verse, let the Critical Reader see Dr. Bentley's Epift. to Joan. Mal. Chron. and the Note of Dr. Mills on this Place. And for a larger and most excellent Explanation of this whole Allegory, I refer him to Dr. Jackson, Tom. III. Book XII. Cap. 10. and answereth to Jerufalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. that were to be kept 26 But Jerufalem which is above, is free, which is the Mother of us all ||. ~ and temporary Dispensation of the A. D. 58. 26. But Sarah (the Mother of lem, i. e. the Christian Churchi which is truly spiritual and free of all Obligation to those troublesome Ceremonies; and is not, like the Jewish Religion, confined to one Nation, but, as an universal || Mother, receives all, both Jewish and Gentile Believers, into her Blessings and Privileges. And you cannot deny the Justness of this Representation: For how can you allow that it was of God's mere Pleasure and Will, that Sarah, and not Hagar, Ifaac, and not Ifmael, were chosen to be the Parents of the Convenanted People, and of the Promised Seed; and yet deny, that by the fame Will and Pleasure God cannot and will not chuse the Gentile World to be his Church in Chrift ? 27 For it is writ ten, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not for the defolate hath many moe chil. dren than the which hath an husband. 28 Now we, brethren, as Ifaac was, are the children of promise. / 27. Of this Church it is you are to understand those triumphant Words of Ifaiah, (Ifai. liv. 1.) wherein he calls upon her (particularly the Gentile part of her) to rejoice in the vast Number of her Members, that should exceed those of the Jewish People, who had been all along the only Church and People of God. 28. The Application then of this Allegory is plain, Christians, whether Gentile or Fewish, Circumcised or not, are the Members of this blessed Covenant intended in the Promise to Abraham; and are the Spiritual Offspring of Ifaac. 29. But || The Mother of us all. Μήτηρ, the Metropolis, says Mr. Dodwel, Differt. Cyp. 5. A. D. 58. 29 But as then he him that was born af- 29. And indeed the Jews, by their obstinate Behaviour, have carried the Resemblance still further. For, as Ifmael, who was a meer * Natural Son, did then mock and infult Ifaac, that was to be the Inberitor of Abraham's Promise; so now the worst and most bitter Perfecutors of the Christian Church are the Infidel Part of the Jewish Nation, and the zealous Adherents to their Ceremonial Law. 30 Nevertheless, fon: for the fon of man. 31 So then, bre- woman, but of the 30. And God will compleat the Parallel in a just Recompence upon them: For as Ifmael and bis Mother were turn'd out of Abraham's Family, so shall these obstinate Patriots of the Jewish Law, who depend upon it for their Justification, have no Share in the Bleffings of the Chriftian Covenant. 31. The Sum of the Argument is this then, That every Christian is a Member of the free, gracious, and spiritual Religion of the Gospel, as Ifaac was the promised Seed of Abraham; and consequently, cannot be obliged to the heavy Bondage of the Ceremonial Law of Mofes. * Ver. 29. After the Flesh a natural Son, i.e. a Son by a fecondary Wife or Concubine, and begotten without any special and extraordinary Concurrence of Divine Power, or Promise; in Contradistinction to the Cafe of Ifaac. CHAP. |