Galatians 4

Galatians 4:1

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.

It is with man under the Law, as with a child under ward-ship or pupillage: let the child be never so great an heir, yet so long as he is under age, he is held down; and differeth nothing in his usage from a servant, but is kept straitly in under tutors and governors, until the full time limited by his Father’s will, or set by the laws, be expired. IV. 3, 4, 5. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Even so it is with us: In this spiritual minority of ours, we were under the bondage and wardship of the Law of Ceremonies: But, when the time, which our Heavenly Father had prefixed for our freedom, was fully come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, and made voluntarily subject unto the Law, to redeem us that were in bondage to the Law, that we might now attain those full and ample privileges and liberties, which belong to us as sons, by the virtue of his gracious adoption.

Galatians 4:6

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

And, because ye are his truly-adopted sons, God hath given you the comfortable sense and assurance of his mercy; in that he hath given unto your hearts the Holy Spirit, even the Spirit of his Son, which, with a holy vehemency, enables you to lay claim to God as your own, and to speak to him by the name of Abba, Father.

Galatians 4:9

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

But now, after that ye have known God and his will; yea, rather, after that God hath so known you, as to accept you to mercy, and to reveal his will unto you; how is it, that ye, being thus endeared to God, yet turn back to the base and impotent ceremonies of the Law from which ye were freed; as if ye were fond of that bondage, whereof ye are acquitted?

Galatians 4:10

Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Ye stand upon the Judaical observations of those New Moons and Sabbaths, of the Seventh Month, of the Solemn Festivities, and of Jubilees, which the Mosaical Law hath prescribed.

Galatians 4:12

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

Brethren, I beseech you be ye so affected to me, as I am to you; and be ready to follow my example in leaving these ritual observations, as I am ready in all indifferent things to conform myself unto you: and, if I have spoke sharply to you in this point, think not that it is out of any discontentment, or private displeasure against you; for ye have not wronged me at all.

Galatians 4:13

Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

Ye know, that when I first came amongst you and preached the Gospel to you, though I was then much opposed and outwardly afflicted, and demeaned myself in a homely and mean manner;

Galatians 4:14

And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Yet ye then did not despise or reject me, because I was thus afflicted, and mean in my outward port and carriage; but received me with all alacrity and reverence; so as if an angel of God had come amongst you, yea, if my Lord Jesus should in person have come to you, ye could not have shewed more outward respect to him.

Galatians 4:15

Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, &c.

Where is then that blessedness, which ye spoke of; professing how happy ye were in such a teacher? for I bear you record, &c.

Galatians 4:17

They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude, that ye might affect them.

These false teachers make shew of much zealous affection that they bear you, as if they wooed your love; but it is but colourable and ill-grounded: they would draw away your respect from us, that ye might be wholly devoted to them.

Galatians 4:18

But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

But it is good to be zealously affected towards good men, and upon good grounds always; and when ye have once placed your good liking and opinion, as ye did once upon me, not to be easily removed from it; but to continue it still, as well in absence, as in presence. IV. 19, 20. My little children, of whom I travail in birth

Galatians 4:21

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Tell me, ye, that have so much desire to fall back and to be under the bondage of the Law, if ye have such a mind to Moses, do but hear what Moses hath told you.

Galatians 4:22

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

For, it is written, you know, in him, that Abraham had two sons, the one, Ishmael, by his bondwoman Hagar, the other, Isaac, by his true wife, Sarah.

Galatians 4:23

But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Abraham was indeed the natural father to them both; but, as for Ishmael, who was the bondwoman’s son, he had nothing but nature in him: as he was conceived in an ordinary manner, so, he had nothing but mere flesh, derived from Abraham; but Isaac, that was the son of Sarah, the freewoman, and lawful wife of Abraham, was both extraordinarily conceived upon the promise made by the angel, and was the son of Abraham’s faith, to and in whom the promise of blessing made to Abraham was accomplished.

Galatians 4:24

Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar.

Which, as it is a true history, so it is an allegory also of spiritual things: for these two mothers resemble and express the two Covenants; Sarah, the Covenant of Grace; and Hagar, the Covenant of Works: this Hagar then bringeth forth children to bondage.

Galatians 4:25

For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Which same thing is also typed forth unto us by Sinai and Jerusalem: for this Hagar is a figure of mount Sinai in Arabia (out of the bounds of the promised land) where the law was given; and representeth the present Jerusalem, as it now stands, under the bondage of the Law, to which she and her children have subjected themselves.

Galatians 4:26

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

But the Spiritual Jerusalem, which is the Church of the New Testament, gathered by the heavenly grace of God, is free from all these slaveries of the Ceremonial Law; which Church is the mother of us all, and communicateth therefore her freedom unto us.

Galatians 4:28

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Now brethren, we Christians are, as Isaac was, the sons of the freewoman; and those, to whom the promise of blessing is both made and performed.

Galatians 4:29

But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

But, as then, Ishmael, which was the merely natural son of Abraham, persecuted Isaac, that was born above the power of nature by the wonderful work of God, and also renewed by the Spirit of God; even so it is now: the sons of the bondwoman, those, that will needs be slaves to the Law, persecute and oppose those free Christians, which know themselves exempted therefrom.

Galatians 4:30

Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Nevertheless, even as Sarah said to Abraham, Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for, &c. even so hath God determined concerning the Jewish Synagogue and their abettors which stand for the Law, that he will cast them off, and bereave them of all the privileges of his Church and the inheritance of children.

Galatians 4:31

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

So then, brethren, we see how to account ourselves: we are not children of Hagar the bondwoman, that we should be under the Law; but, of Sarah the freewoman, that we should be under grace.