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| Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise.
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Chapter 2.—Of the Children of the
Flesh and the Children of the Promise.
There was indeed on earth, so long
as it was needed, a symbol and foreshadowing image of this city,
which served the purpose of reminding men that such a city was to
be rather than of making it present; and this image was itself
called the holy city, as a symbol of the future city, though not
itself the reality. Of this city which served as an image, and of
that free city it typified, Paul writes to the Galatians in these
terms: “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not
hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of
the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman
was by promise. Which things are an allegory:770
| 770 Comp. De Trin. xv. c.
15. | for these are the two covenants;
the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break
forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith 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.
And we, brethren, are not children of the bond woman, but of the
free, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”771
This
interpretation of the passage, handed down to us with apostolic
authority, shows how we ought to understand the Scriptures of the
two covenants—the old and the new. One portion of the earthly
city became an image of the heavenly city, not having a
significance of its own, but signifying another city, and therefore
serving, or “being in bondage.” For it was founded not for
its own sake, but to prefigure another city; and this shadow of a
city was also itself foreshadowed by another preceding figure.
For Sarah’s handmaid Agar, and her son, were an image of this
image. And as the shadows were to pass away when the full light
came, Sarah, the free woman, who prefigured the free city (which
again was also prefigured in another way by that shadow of a city
Jerusalem), therefore said, “Cast out the bond woman and her son;
for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with my son
Isaac,” or, as the apostle says, “with the son of the free
woman.” In the earthly city, then, we find two things—its own
obvious presence, and its symbolic presentation of the heavenly
city. Now citizens are begotten to the earthly city by nature
vitiated by sin, but to the heavenly city by grace freeing nature
from sin; whence the former are called “vessels of wrath,” the
latter “vessels of mercy.”772
And this was typified in the two
sons of Abraham,—Ishmael, the son of Agar the handmaid, being
born according to the flesh, while Isaac was born of the free woman
Sarah, according to the promise. Both, indeed, were of
Abraham’s seed; but the one was begotten by natural law, the
other was given by gracious promise. In the one birth, human
action is revealed; in the other, a divine kindness comes to
light.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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