Galatians 4

NOw I say, that the heir so long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all The Apostle had before determined, that the whole body of such as believed in Jesus Christ, were that seed of Abraham to which the promise was made; and so Heirs of the promises made to him; yet so that as it is among men, though a child be a great Heir, and Lord of a great Estate, yet while he is under age, he is used like a Servant; so the time of the Law being as it were the time of Believers non-age, those who lived in that time were used like Servants..

But is under tutours and governours until the time appointed of the father The Heir (mentioned in the former verse,) though he be an Heir of a great Estate; yet is not presently possessed of it; but he is by his Father kept under Tutors and Governours, until the time which he has appointed when he will be pleased to release him from his Pupillage, and settle some part of his inheritance upon him..

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements, of this world Such children were all Believers, the Seed of Abraham; from the first designed to a Gospel Liberty, but that was not to be fully enjoyed, until the fulness of time should come when God intended to send his Son into the world: And during the time of their nonage they were kept under the Law, as a Tutor and Governour, leading them unto Christ. He chiefly intendeth the Ceremonial Law; which Acts 15.10. Peter calleth a yoke, which neither they, nor their Fathers were able to bear. He calls these ordinances the Elements of the World; so also Col. 2.20. he means that Discipline by which God instructed, and under which God by Moses at first tutoured the World, that is, the Jews, who were that part of the World to whom God pleased to make his Oracles known. He calls those ritual observances, Elements, or Rudiments, because they were the first Instructions God gave Believers, leading them to Christ; like the first Elements, or Rudimens in Grammer Learning..

But when the fulness of the time was come The time, which answered the time appointed of the Earthly Father, mentioned ver. 2. when that time came in which God had designed to bring his people into the most perfect state of liberty, which in this Life they are capable of:, God sent forth his Son made of a woman God sent forth his Son, who was existent before, (being brought forth before the Mountains or Hills were setled; Prov. 8.25.) but not sent forth until this fulness of time came. And then made of a Woman, conceived in the Womb of the Virgin, by the Power of the Holy Ghost overshadowing her., made under the law Made under the Law, to which as God he was not subject, (being himself the Lawmaker;) but he subjected himself. He was born in a Nation, and of a parent under the Law; he was circumcised, and submitted to the Ceremonial law: He in all things conformed his life to the rule of the Law; and subjected himself to the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. Nothing of this is questioned, except the last which yet appears also to have been necessary by what followeth in the next verse; for how else could he have redeemed those, who were under the Law, and this agreeth with what we had, chap. 3.13..

To redeem then that were under the law This makes it appear, that Christ's being under the law must be understood as well of the Moral as of the Ceremonial Law, that is, subject to the precepts of it, as well as to the curse of it: For if the end of this being born under the Law, was to redeem those that were under it, that he had not reached by being merely under the Ceremonial Law, For the Gentiles were not under that Law, but only under the Moral Law;, that we might receive the adoption of sons and they also were to be redeemed, and to receive the great priviledge of Adoption, or rather, the rights of adopted children; which (some think) is to be understood here, rather than what is strictly to be understood by the term of Adoption, viz. a right to be called, and to be the Sons of God. Others by Adoption understand that full state of liberty which the Apostle had been before speaking, in opposition to that state of childhood and non-age in which believers were until the times of the Gospel; for chap. 5.1. we shall find that that was a liberty wherewith Christ made us free: And indeed this last sense seemeth best to agree with what the Apostle had before said, ver. 1, 2, 3. (though the other senses are not to be excluded.).

And because you are sons Lest the Jews should claim the Adoption as peculiar to them, the Apostle tells them that these Gentiles were also Sons, and in confirmation of that, he says,, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father that God had sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts: Not that the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of the Father as well as of Christ; but he calleth him the Spirit of Christ, because he had made Adoption the end, and fruit of Redemption; and Redemption is every where made the work of the Son. The Apostle says Rom. 9.4. that the Adoption belonging to the Israelites the Jews were the first People whom God dignified with the name of his Sons, his first-born, Exod. 4.22. and so many of them as believed also received the Spirit Ezek. 36.27. but the full effusion of the Spirit was reserved to Gospel times, and until the time that Christ Ascended, Iohn 7.39. and 16.7 After which the Spirit was poured out in the days of Pentecost, Acts 2. whose effects were evident, not only in power to work miracles, and speak with divers tongues, (which were not common to all believers;) but also in a variety of spiritual gifts and habits, amongst which this was one teaching them to cry, Abba Father. Crying it is expounded Rom. 8.15. whereby we cry, that is, through whose influence and working in us we cry Abba Father, that is, Father, Father: which not only signifieth the Spirits influence upon believers words in Prayer, first conceived in the heart, then uttered by the lips, but chiefly those abits of Grace, by which we pray acceptably Faith and Holy Boldness, by which we call God Father; zeal and fervency, by which we are importunate with God, and say Father, Father. Which were now not the priviledges of Jews only, but of these Galatians also who were by nature Genti es and Strangers to God; and a certain evidence of their concern in the Redemption of Christ, and that they also might expect Salvation from him..

Wherefore thou Thou that art a believing Gentile, as well as the believing Israelites. art no more a servant Art no more a Servant, not in that state of servi e subjection to the Law:, but a son but in a more excellent state of liberty; like unto that of Sons that have attained to a full, and ripe age. Christ told his Disciples, Ioh. 15.15. that he did not call them Servants, for Servants, knew not what their Lord did; but he had freely communicated to them what he had received from the Father. The Apostle here says, they were sons, sons by Adoption; which is the highest notion of freedom and liberty., and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ And this entituled them to an inheritance; if Sons then Heires. Which agreeth with Rom. 8.17. and as it is with Sons and Heirs, though the Inheritance cometh not fully to them till the death of the Parent, yet while they live they are in a far better condition then Servants: so the believing Gentiles being made Sons and Heirs of God through Christ, though they were to stay a while for the Inheritance reserved for the Sons of God in the Heavens, yet their state was much better then that of Servants; for though they were obliged to serve the Lord, yet they served him without servile fear, and were no otherwise Servants then Sons are also Servants to their Father..

Howbeit then when ye knew not God When ye knew not God, as he is, or as ye ought to have known him, or as since, you have known him, (for even the Heathen have some knowledge of God, Rom. 1.21.), ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods You paid religious homages unto Idols: which are Gods, not by nature, and essence, but only in the opinion of Idolaters. Which was a more miserable bondage and servitude then the Jews were under, who knew the true God; though in the time, when the Church was like the Heir under age, it was subject to the Law contained in Ordinances, and under the yoke of the Law..

But now after that you have known God After that you are come to a true, and saving knowledge of God in Christ, and know God as he is., or rather are known of God Or rather after you are received of God, approved of him, made through Christ acceptable to him, which is much more then a true comprehension of God in your notion and understanding., how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage How turn you back again to the legal services of the Ceremonial Law, which he calleth Elements or Rudiments, because they were Gods first instructions given to his Church for his Worship, to which he intended afterward a more perfect way of Worship. He calls them weak because they brought nothing to perfection; and the observance of them was impotent as to the Justification of a Soul, as all the Law is. He calls them beggerly in comparison of the more rational, spiritual way of worship under the Gospel. He says that they desired to be in bondage unto these, because they would not see and make use of the liberty from them, which Christ had purchased. Obj. It may be objected, that the Galatians were not educated in Iudaism; how then does the Apostle charge them with turning back to them? Answ. This has made some think, that, by the weak, and beggerly Elements mentioned in this verse, the Apostle meaneth their Gentile superstitions and idolatries; but this is not probable, the Apostle all along the Epistle charging them with no such Apostacy. Others think, that he in this verse chiefly reflecteth on the believing Jews, who afterwards returned again to the use of the Law. But why may not we rather say, that he calleth their fact a turning back, not so much with reference to their personal practice, as to the State of the Church; which was once under those Elements, but by the coming of Christ was brought into a more perfect state. So that for them who were called into the Church in the time of this its more perfect state, for them to return to the bondage of the Law, that was truly to turn back; if not to any practise of their own, which they had cast off, yet to a state of the Church, which the Church of God had now outgrown.?

Ye observe days If we had any evidence that these Galatians were relapsed to their Gentile superstitions, these terms might be understood of such days, &c. as they kept in honour to their Idols. But the Apostle throughout the whole Epistle, not reflecting upon them for any such gross Apostacy, (as returning to the vanities of the Heathen in which they formerly lived;) but only for Judaizing, and using the ceremonies of the Jewish Law, as necessary to be observed, besides their believing in Christ, for their Justification; it is much more probable that he meaneth by days the Jewish Festivals: such as their New Moons, &c. By, and months Moneths, the first and the seventh moneth, when they religiously fasted., and times By Times, their more solemn times such as were their Feasts of First-Fruites, Tabernacles, &c. And by, and years Years, th r years of Iubilee, the seventh and the fiftieth Year. His meaning is, that they took themselves to be under a religious obligation to observe these Times as still commanded by God..

I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Paul knew that with reference to himself, he had not laboured in vain; he might say with Isaiah, Though Israel be not gathered, yet I shall be glorified. He had told the Corinthians, that he knew he should be a sweet savour to God, as well them that perished as in them that should be saved: but he speaks with reference to them. A faithful Minister accounteth his labour lost when he seeth no Fruits of it upon the Souls of his People. Nor was Paul afraid of this as to the sincerer part of this Church, who truly believed, and were justified, but he speaketh this with to the whole Body of this Church. That which he, was their falling back from their profession of Christianity to Iudaism; as judging the observation of the Jewish days necessary by Divine precept to Christians. Nor does he speak of the observation of such days, as was their duty in obedience to the Moral Law to observe, which commandeth the observation of a seventh day for the weekly sabbath, and gives a liberty for setting apart other days, and the commanding the observation of them, to take notice of, and acknowledge God in emergent Providences. But he only speaks of days imposed by the Ceremonial Law, and mens religious observation of them as being tyed to it by a Divine precept; by which they made them a part of Worship. We have a liberty to set apart any day for Gods Worship, and Magistrates have a liberty to set apart particular days for the acknowledgement of God in emergent Providences, whether of Mercy or Judgment. But none has a power to make a day holy, so as that it shall be a sin against God for all to labour therein, much less has any a liberty to keep Jewish Holy-days..

Brethren, I beseech you be as I am, for I am as ye are Be as friendly to me as I am to you, (see the like phrase, 1 Kings 22.4.), you have not injured me at all But how does the Apostle say they had not injured him at all? When it is manifest they had defamed him. Answ. He had forgiven, or was ready to forgive this to them; he had no desire or design to be reveng'd on them, Or in this particular thing of Iudaizing, for which he had been eflecting upon them, they had done him no personal injury, it was only his care for, and love to their Souls, which had drawn out this discourse from him; not any particular prejudice to them, or any desire he had to take any revenge upon them, for any personal injury done to himself..

Ye know how through infirmitie of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first The Scripture having not given us a particular account of Pauls circumstances, when he first preached the Gospel to the Galatians; we are at a loss to determine what those infirmities were which Paul here speaketh of; more then that he calls them infirmities of the flesh. By which may be understood, either the baseness, and contemptibleness of his presence, (which the false Teachers at Corinth objected to him, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. verse 10.) Or some boldly sickness which Paul had at that time, (as some of the antients guesse) or his sufferings for the Gospel, which were those infirmitus wherein he chose to glory, 2 Corinthians 11.30..

And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected The Apostle says they were so far from injuring him (as he had said verse 12.) that they had expressed great kindness to him: For though when he first came amongst them to Preach the Gospel, he was a man of no great presence; but, in the judgment of some, vise and base or was full of bodily weakness and diseases; was persecuted by men. Yet they did not reject nor despise him, for those temptations he had in the Flesh: by which he means, the same things he before meant by infirmities, for both bodily weaknesses, and sufferings for the Gospel, are Temptations, as the word signifieth Trials., but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus Nay (says he) you were so far from rejecting, or despising me upon that account, that (on the contrary) you received me, as if I had been an Angel; yea, if Jesus Christ himself had came amongst you, you could not have been more kind to him then you were to me. This he tells them, partly to let them know, that what he had spoken he had not spake out of any ill will or prejudice to them; partly to retain their good will, that they might not show themselves uncertain and inconstant in their judgement and affections, and partly, (as the following verse testifieth) to show the levity of some of them; who had too much forgotten their first judgment of him, and value for him..

Where is then the blessedness you spake of Some understand the blessedness here spoken of in a passive sense; you were then a blessed and happy people, receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel in the Truth and Purity of it; what is now become of that blessedness? But both the preceding, and the following words, seem to rule the sense otherwise, viz. where is that blessedness which you predicated of me.? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible you would have pluckt out your own eyes and given them to me You called me then blessed, and showed me such a d ar affection that you would if it would have done me good, have parted with what was dearest to you..

Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth What has now altered your mind? or made you have a worse opinion of me, wherein have I offended you or done you any harm? I have done nothing but revealed to you the truth of God, am I therefore become your Enemy? or do you account me your Enemy upon that account?.

They The false Teachers, that have perverted you as to the Faith of the Gospel. zealously affect you Pretend a great warmth of affection for you., but not well but in this they do not well, nor for a good end.: yea, they would exclude you They would exclude you from our good opinion and affection., that you might affect them That they might have all your love, and respect; and so by the ruine of our reputation with you, they might build up their own reputation..

But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing The Apostle in the former verses had been speaking of a great zeal, or warmth of affection, (for that zeal signifieth,) which these Galatians had for, and declared towards him, when he first preached the Gospel amongst them; and also of a great warmth and degree of affection which these false Teachers had pretended to this Church. These words are so delivered that they are applicable to either of these; but the latter words seem to make them most properly applicable to the former; so the term [always] is emphatical: There was a time, when you were very warm in your love to me; the cause being good, your warmth of affection ought not to have abated, but continued always, and not, and not only when I am present with you only while you saw me, and I was present with you..

My little children By calling them little Children, he both hints to them that he was their Spiritual Father, and had begotten them to Christ; and that they were as yet weak in the Faith, not grown men, but as yet little Children: and also hints to them, the tender affection he had towards them; which was the same as of a mother to her little children: though they did not own and honour him as their spiritual Father, yet he loved them as his little Children. of whom I travel in birth again For whom I am in as great pain, through my earnest desire for the good of your Souls, as the Woman is that is in travail for the bringing forth of a Child., until Christ be formed in you Till Christ be fully and perfectly formed in you: that is, till you be brought off from your Iudaisme, and opinion of the necessity of superadding the works of the Law to the Faith of Christ in order to your Justification, and be rooted in the Truth and established in the liberty of the Gospel, with which Christ has made you free..

I desire to be present with you now I wish circumstances so concurred that I could be present with you., and to change my voice That I might use my tongue towards you as I saw occasion; either commending, or reproving, or exhorting, as I saw cause. for, I stand in doubt of you For I do not know what to think of you; I am afraid of your falling away from the profession of the Gospel to Judaism..

Tell me ye that desire to be under the law You that cannot be content to receive Jesus Christ alone, for Justification; but have a mind to maintain a necessity of obedience to the Law of circumcision, and other Judaical Rites;, do ye not hear the law Do ye not hear the Law, the Law which curseth every one who continueth not in all that is therein written to do it? or rather the story which follows; which is taken out of one of the Books of the Law, which the Apostle makes a mystical Revelation of the divine Will, that there should come a time when circumcision should be cast out.?

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free-woman The substance of this is written, Genesis 26. where we read of Abrahams having Ishmael by Hagar his bondwoman; and Genesis 21.2. where we read of the birth of Isaac whom he had by Sarah who was his Wife..

But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh They were both (in a sense) born after the Flesh, viz. in a natural way and course of generation: but after the flesh is plainly in this verse opposed to by promise: and the meaning is, that Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was not that son of Abraham to whom the promise was made, that in him all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, Genesis 15.4. chap. 17.19. Isaac is said to have been born after the promise, either because God gave Isaac to Abraham, in complement, or fulfilling of the promise made to him, that he should have an Heir out of his own loins; or because the mighty and miraculous power of God was seen in his production, inabling Abraham at those years to beget, and Sarah to bear a child, when both their bodies were as dead., but he of the free-woman was by promise t:

Which things are an allegory That is called an Allegory when one thing is learned out of another, or something is mystically signified and to be understood further then is expressed. The Scripture has a peculiar kind of Allegories, wherein one thing is signified by and under another thing. The thing here signifying, was Abrahams Wife and Concubine, Sarah and Hagar.; For these are the two covenants The Apostle, says, these signifyed the two Covenants; for thats the meaning of, are.) So as here we have one Text more, where the verb substantive is put for, signifieth: and it will be hard to assign a reason why it should not be so interpreted in the institution of the Lords Supper; (notwithstanding the Papists and Lutherans so earnest contending to the contrary.) The very word is here used,, that is used in the institution of the Lords Supper. Here it is these are the two Covenants or Testaments; there, this is the New Covenant. The Apostle calls them two Covenants, whereas they were but one, with reference to the time of their exhibition, and manner of their Administration, in which they much differed. Nor must we understand the Apostle as signifying to us by these words, that Moses wrote the History of Sarah and Hagar, with such a design and intention; but only that that History is very applicable to the two Covenants, and we shall find verse 27. the Apostle justifying this application from the authority of the Prophet Isaiah. And herein he complied with the general sense of the Jews; who judged that there was not only a litteral but a mystical sense also of those Histories of the Patriarchs., the one from the mount Sinai, which gendreth to bondage The one Covenant was that of the Law delivered from mount Sinai, this was like Hagar, for as Hagar was her self a Bond woman, and so her child did partake of the condition of the Mother, and Hagar bare a Bond Man or Servant; so the Law (which he calls a Covenant, because of the stipulation of obedience from the people to the Will of God revealed, and declared,) lest those that were under it in a state of bondage or servitude., which is Agar.

For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia Agar the bondwoman fitly represented Mount Sinai, the Mountain in Arabia, from which the Law was given:, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is And Ierusalem which now is answereth to Mount Sinai; for as in Mount Sinai the Law was given in a terrible manner, so now Ierusalem is the seat of the Scribes and Pharisees, who are the Doctors of that Law, and rigidly press the observation of it., and is in bondage with her children By which the Iews are kept in bondage: The Apostle speaketh not here of the civil servitude that the Iews were in under the Romans, to whom they were now Tributaries, but of that Religious servitude in which the Scribes and Pharisees kept them to their legal services..

But Jerusalem which is above, is free The new Covenant, or the dispensation of the Gospel, or the Christian Church, which is above, or from above, which answereth to Sarah, and is said to be above, because revealed from Heaven by Christ, sent out of the bosom of the Father, not as the Law was revealed upon Earth, upon Mount Sinai. Hence Apostates from the Doctrine of the Gospel, are said to turn from him who speaketh from Heaven, Heb. 12.25. Or else it is said to be above, because it is the assembly of the first born written in Heaven, ver. 23. hence the Gospel Church is called the Heavenly Hierusalem, ver. 22. Of this Gospel Church the Apostle says, that it is free, i. e. free from the yoke and bondage of the Ceremonial Law, or from the Covenant and curse of the Law., which is the mother of us all Which Church he says is the Mother of all Believers, they imbracing the same Faith, and walking in the same steps, from whence was easie for the Galatians to conclude, their freedom and liberty also from the Law..

For it is written, Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate has many mo children, then she which has an husband It is written Isa. 54.1. Some think that the Apostle does but allude to that of the Prophet, and that the sense of the Prophet was only to comfort the Iews, whose City, though it should be for a present time barren, thin of Inhabitants, during the time of the Babylonish Captivity; yet it should be again replenished with people, and be more populous then other Cities. But the Prophet seemeth rather to interpret that Prophesie, then merely to allude to it; so that verse is one of those Prophetical passages about the calling of the Gentiles, (of which are many in that Prophet.) In this sense, the Gentiles are to be understood under the notion of the woman that was barren and desolate. The Church of the Iews is represented under the notion of a Woman that had an Husband and Children. The Prophet, by the Spirit of Prophesie, calleth upon the Gentiles, that brought forth no children to God, and to whom God was not an Husband, to Rejoyce, and to cry out for joy, for there should be more Believers, more children brought forth to God, amongst them, then were amongst the Iews: So as the Church of the Gentiles are compared to Sarah, who was a long time barren, but then brought forth the child of the Promise, the Seed in which all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed..

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise Isaac was the promised Seed, Gen. 21.12. Rom. 9.8. the Apostle tells the Galatians that the believing Gentiles were (as Isaac) the children of the promise. Isaac being born, not by virtue of any procreative virtue in his Parents, which was now dead in them, Rom. 4.19. but by virtue of the promise, and by a power above nature, was a Type of the believing Gentiles, who are a Spiritual Seed, and that Seed to whom the promise was made, being the Members of Christ by Faith: So as the Jews had no reason so much to glory as they did, that Abraham was their Father, for those amongst them that believed not, were but his carnal Seed, believers only were the Spiritual Seed, the children of the Promise: To which the believing Gentiles had the same claim with the believing Jews, and a much better then those of them that believed not in Christ..

But as then he that was born after the flesh As it was in Abrahams time, Ishmael, who was born in a mere carnal and ordinary way of Generation:, persecuted him that was born after the spirit Persecuted Isaac, by mocking at him, Gen. 21.9. who was born by virtue of the promise, and the mighty power of God, inabling Sarah at those years to conceive, and Abraham to beget a Child., even so it is now Even so it is now, the carnal Seed of Abraham, the Jews persecute the Christians which are his Spiritual Seed. From whence we may observe, that the Holy Ghost accounteth mockings of good people for Religion, Persecution. So Heb. 11.36. others had tryals of cruel mockings, and we know these were one kind of the sufferings of Christ. By this also the Apostle does both confirm, what he had before said, in making Hagar a Type of the Jews, and Sarah a Type of the Gentiles, the Jews persecuting the seed of Christ, as Hagars seed persecuted Isaac..

Nevertheless, what says the scripture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman We read Gen. 21.10. that when Sarah saw Ishmael mocking at her Son Isaac, she was not able to bear it, but speaketh to her Husband Abraham, saying, Cast out this bond-woman, and her Son, for the Son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my Son, even Isaac. The principal design of the Apostle seems to be, by that Type of the ejection of Ishmael out of Abrahams Family, to let them know the mind and will of God. 1. Concerning the exclusion of the Law from a partnership with Christ, and the Gospel, in the justification of sinners before God. 2. Concerning the rejection of the Jews, upon the calling of the Gentiles. 3. Concerning the total destruction of the Jewish Church and Nation, for their persecution of Christ, and the Christian Church..

So then brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free The Church of the Gentiles, was not Typified in Hagar, but in Sarah; from whence the scope of the Apostle is to conclude, that we are not under the Law, obliged to Judaical observances, but are freed from them, and are justified by Faith in Christ alone, not by the works of the Law. By this conclusion, the Apostle maketh way for the exhortation in the following chapter, pressing them to stand fast in their liberty..