66 flesh, by his being "justified by works." So, by being "made perfect by the FLESH," (Gal. iii. 3,) he clearly means a being completely justified by works, as appeareth from verse 2, immediately preceding; as also from verse 5; and, indeed, from the general scope and carriage of the chapter, yea, and of the whole Epistle itself. Again: When he saith thus, "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now;" (Gal. iv. 29;) in these last words, even so it is now," his meaning must needs be this: They that are now, in these days, born after the flesh, persecute those that are born after the Spirit. And, by those "now born after the flesh," he cannot mean, either, 1. Men born according to the course of natural propagation; because those here said to be "born after the Spirit," were born upon such terms; and so the antithesis which he makes between the one and the other will fall; nor, 2. Can he mean unregenerate men, simply considered, or as such, because these are nowhere expressed or described by a being "born after the flesh," in the literal signification of the word "flesh;" this being a character or description agreeing as well to persons regenerate as unregenerate; and, besides, such a sense as this is wholly irrelative to the business in hand, which is to prove an opposition, not between an estate of unregeneracy and faith in Christ, but between the works of the law and such a faith in the important business of justification: Therefore, by those "born after the flesh," he must needs mean such who, as elsewhere he describes them, "are of the works of the law;" (Gal. iii. 10 ;) that is, have their dependence upon "the works of the law" for their justification; which dependence is, as it were, their spiritual subsistence and being. Yet again: Where he saith, "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence IN THE FLESH," (Philip. iii. 3,) by having "no confidence in the flesh," he means, that they have not the least or lightest dependence upon the works of the law for their justification. The injunctions or performances of the ceremonial law are termed dixaiwμaтa σapxos, carnal, or fleshly ordinances. (Heb. ix. 10.) So that by the "children of the flesh," in the place in hand, it is a clear case that the Apostle meaneth such persons who seek for righteousness in the sight of God by the observation of the law. The metaphorical sense of the word "children," frequent in like constructions, gives some further light and strength to this interpretation. They who love the light, and are so much addicted to it, are, in Scripture phrase, called the "children of light;" (Luke xvi. 8; John xii. 36; Eph. v. 8;) and so likewise they that embrace the truth are said to be "of the truth;" (John xviii. 37; 1 John iii. 19;) that is, in effect, children of the truth; as they who depend upon the law for righteousness are said to be "of the law," (Rom. iv. 14,) and "of the works of the law." (Gal. iii. 10.) They that love and give themselves to the study of wisdom are called the children of wisdom; (Matt. xi. 19;) they who love and practise obedience, the children of obedience; (1 Peter i. 14;) they that embrace and depend upon this present world for their comfort and peace, the "children of this world," &c. (Luke xvi. 8.) In like manner and phrase, they who love, embrace, and depend upon the flesh, that is, as hath been said, a carnal and fleshly way, principle, or means for their justification, or upon the merit of their own doings, are termed "children of the flesh." This, to be the clear sense and import of the clause, is yet more evident from the description of those who are by the Apostle opposed to these "children of the flesh:" These he calls "the children of the promise." Now, that, by "the children of the promise," he means believers, and those who seek after justification by faith, the familiar language of his own pen demonstrates. In one place he affirms, that those that are Christ's, meaning believers in Christ, "are Abraham's seed," and "heirs according to the promise," (Gal. iii. 29,) that is, according to the intent and mind of God in that promise, wherein the inheritance of life and blessedness are promised unto Abraham and his seed. Elsewhere he opposeth the law and the promise: "For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." (Gal. iii. 18.) In another place, those that "are of the law," that is, as we formerly expounded the phrase, that seek justification by the works of the law, to those that seek it by the promise: "For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect;" (Rom. iv. 14;) meaning, that then they who expect the inheritance by faith, and by the promise, shall be frustrated in such their expectation. Elsewhere he calls believers, "heirs of promise;" (Heb. vi. 17;) and in one place, a passage of much like import with that now before us, he expressly calls those H who believe in Christ, amongst whom he numbereth himself, and this in opposition to those who look for justification by the works of the law, "the children of promise:" "Now we, brethren, according unto Isaac," or, "as Isaac was," "are the children of promise." (Gal. iv. 28.) So that evident it is, that by the "children of the promise," who, the Apostle saith, God meant should be "counted" for the emphatical "seed" of Abraham, which was to inherit, he meaneth true believers; and, if so, then by the "children of the flesh," which he opposeth unto these, and which he denieth to be Abraham's seed, in such a sense, he must needs mean those who "are of the works of the law." If it be demanded, "But what was or is there in that saying to Abraham, For in Isaac shall thy seed be called,' that gives the least overture to such a sense intended by God in them, as the Apostle here mentions; as, namely, that God thereby should teach or insinuate that believers only, and not they who look to be justified by works, should be counted or adjudged by him for that seed, or that kind of seed, of Abraham, whom he would adopt for children, and make heirs? Or what agreement is there between such a text, and such an interpretation ?" I answer, Ishmael, who was, by order from God, put out of doors, was, as the Apostle says elsewhere, "born," or begotten, “after the flesh;" (Gal. iv. 23, 29;) that is, according to the ordinary course of nature, upon such terms as children commonly are begotten, and born in the world; Hagar, his mother, being a young woman, and in a likely capacity to conceive, and Abraham as yet not so dead in his body, but that he might have children, and this without miracle, or any extraordinary interposure by God, by a wife so capable as Hagar was: * Whereas Isaac is said to have been "born," or begotten, xara veuμa, after, or according to, the Spirit, that is, by a peculiar interposure of the Spirit of God:† 1. In making a promise unto Abraham, that Sarah shall yet have a son by him before she died, notwithstanding the deadness of her womb, and of his body also; in which respect he is said to have been "born," or • Habet enim ordo naturæ ut ex juvencula possit quis non nimium senex filios procreare.-ESTIUS in Gal. iv. 23. Possibile † Eos enim vi naturæ generavit Abraham senex ex Ketura juvencula. est senem ex juvencula suscipere prolem; ex decrepita, sterili impossibile est naturalitur.-PARÆUS in loc. begotten, "by promise," (Gal. iv. 23,) whereof our Apostle also remindeth us in the verse immediately following. 2. In strengthening and assisting both Abraham and Sarah to believe this promise. 3. And lastly, in a supernatural collation of strength, upon Abraham to beget, but especially upon Sarah to conceive, a son, according to this their faith in that promise; for of this the Apostle takes special notice elsewhere: "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age," &c. (Heb. xi. 11.) So, then, these two children, in their different and respective manner or terms of conception, do, with a most exquisite aptness and sweetness of resemblance, typify, the one, namely, Ishmael, those that seek after justification by works; the other, Isaac, those that seek it by faith. For they who expect justification by works depend upon themselves and their own natural goodness and strength for the obtaining of it, and so have their spiritual subsistence or being, as it were, in a way of nature; as, on the other hand, they who expect justification by faith receive their spiritual being from the gracious and free promise of God: So that, in these words spoken by God unto Abraham, "For in Isaac shall thy seed be called," under the literal or grammatical sense of them, whatsoever this be, though it be variously formed by interpreters, there was this counsel or purpose of God mystically or allegorically signified, namely, that those who should spiritually resemble Ishmael in his birth, and seek for a subsistence in peace and happiness by the strength of nature, or works of the law, should be excluded from them; but that all those who should spiritually resemble Isaac in his, and receive their spiritual subsistence and being from, and by virtue of, the gracious and free promise of God, should inherit life, and peace, and glory. Some give this sense of these words, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called;" that is, "That seed of thine, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, shall descend from Isaac, not Ishmael." Others, this: "That generation or nation of men, unto whom I intend to perform those gracious promises formerly made unto thee and thy seed, as of giving the land of Canaan, of making a covenant with them, of dwelling amongst them, &c., and, consequently, who shall more particularly be taken notice of in the world, for thy posterity or seed, shall lineally descend from Isaac, and not from Ishmael, whose posterity shall be reckoned in common with the other nations of the earth." This latter sense is much the better, and bears the allegory more naturally, and with clearness of resemblance. For, God, intending that only those who should naturally descend from Isaac, who was Abraham's son by promise, though not all these neither, as we shall see in the verses following, and hereby themselves also, in a sense, children of promise, should inherit the external privileges and good things promised unto Abraham's seed, hereby might well, as in an allegory or mystery, signify, that only they who should be spiritually born, as Isaac, and Abraham's seed by him, were naturally, should inherit those spiritual and heavenly privileges and good things, whereof those external privileges were manifest shadows and types. If it be demanded, "But how can Abraham's seed be said to be counted or estimated, in the sense given, in Isaac, and his seed and posterity, when as one part of his seed, namely, Esau, with his race, was no more included, or intended to be included, by God, in those great promises made unto Abraham and his seed, than Ishmael and his race were?" I answer, 1. That God, in restraining his computation of Abraham's seed unto Isaac and his line, did not necessarily enlarge it to the whole extent and compass of this line. From this saying, "But in Isaac shall thy seed be called," literally and grammatically only understood, there can no more be inferred but only this, that that nation or people, to whom he meant to perform those great and precious promises, as concerning the land of Canaan, signal multiplication, &c., made unto him, Abraham, and his seed, should naturally descend from the loins of Isaac ; not, that whosoever, or what people soever, should descend from him, should be counted his seed, in such a sense. 2. The reason, probably, why God would not have all that should proceed from Isaac's loins to be counted Abraham's seed, in the sense lately declared, that is, heirs of those temporal promises which were made, and consequently intended to be performed, to his seed, may be to signify and teach, by way of type, that, even from Abraham's spiritual seed themselves, true and sound believers, a carnal generation might and would proceed, persons that should not inherit the spiritual Canaan with their parents. Or rather, 3. And lastly: The reason hereof might be, that God by this means might so much the more effectually declare and show, as |