suffered reproach. Then did the city sit solitary that was full of people, she became as a widow, Lam. i. 1. By Babel's streams her children sat in mournful mood. They wept when they remembered Zion. And on the willows they hung their harps. There they suffered reproach, their enemies asking a song, and their mas ters, mirth, Psalm cxxxvii. Now the widow wept, her eyes run down with water, because the Comforter was far from her. Zion spread forth her hands, and there was none to comfort her, Lam. i. 16, 17. The woman so visibly forsaken was grieved in spirit.

Such desertion, desolation or widowhood, cannot befal the New Testament church, now that the personal Seed is come. Amidst all that she can suffer, she knows her Advocate, Head, and Husband is on high. There can be no doubts or fears concerning his coming, as was often the case under the Old Testament. Knowing that the great promise is already fulfilled, what can shake our faith as to any of the rest: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. Thus it appears the characters given to the barren woman cannot be applied to the New Testament church, but unto the patriarchal only; and that therefore not the former, but the lat ter, must be understood as signified by that woman.

3dly. The woman so long barren, and at last bringing forth is, according to the apostle, the mother, and New Testament believers are the children. For it is obvious to any who compares the prophetic passage, with the chapter where our text lies, that the woman so long barren is the same with the free. Her maternal relation to New Testament believers is thrice asserted by the apostle; verse 26. Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all; verse 28. We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise; verse 31. So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free. From all which passages it is abundantly evident that the apostolic church was not Sara, the mother; but ra

Now if

ther Isaac the son, brought forth in virtue of the promise. Now, as Isaac was a figure of such as believe in Christ, who should be born after the mystical Ishmael, the carnal Jews; so Sara was typical of that church, which had the promise of the figurative Isaac. That church therefore was the woman so long barren, but who at last brought forth children, by virtue of the promise made to her. She being the mother, the Christian church, was the daughter, as I may say, Ezekiel xvi. 61. This is further confirmed from what is said to the barren woman, in view of her being a joyful mother, Isaiah liv. 3. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, . e. the Gentiles shall be thy seed. They shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, Isaiah xlix. 22. Compare Gal. iii. ult. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. the believing Gentiles be the seed of the woman; they cannot be the woman herself. These observations receive strength from the epithet given to that Jerusalem which is the mother of believers, whether Jews or Gentiles. Jerusalem, says the apostle, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. "It is beyond doubt that by this Jerusalem the apostle understood the same which in the epistle to the Hebrews he calls the heavenly Jerusalem, chap. xii. 22. i. e. the fathers dead in the faith, living to God in a state of glorious liberty, who had the promises of the kingdom of God, of the blessing and calling of the Gentiles, by virtue of which promises, the free church of Jews and Gentiles, made one people, should at last be brought forth: so that this church, according to the apostle, is the offspring of that very woman Sara." Vitringa in

locum.

4thly. That the two women and their sons mentioned by the prophets and the apostle, are not meant of the Old and New Testament churches, is evident from this, that the women are reckoned types of two things which took place under one and the same Testament, viz. the covenant with Abraham, and that from mount

Sinai: the one the covenant of promise, the other the covenant of the law. And while they were typical of these two covenants, their sons were equally figurative of those, who adhering to them, shall be judged accordingly. These things are so plainly taught in the epistle to the Galatians, that he who runs may read. Sara, the free woman, bare her son in virtue of the covenant made with Abraham. And hence she was a figure of that covenant, and Isaac a figure of those who cleave unto it. He was the child of that covenant which was made with Abraham, 430 years before the covenant at Sinai, and therefore fitly adumbrated those who sought righteousness and life by it. Hagar, the bond woman, had not her son by promise, but in virtue of Abraham's hearkening unto carnal counsel, and therefore by her is fitly represented the Sinai covenant; and by the son born of her, the carnal Jews, who turned aside unto it for salvation. These are the two covenants, says our text, the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth unto bondage, which is Agar.

5thly. That the two women and their sons mentioned by the prophet and the apostle, cannot be the Old and New Testament churches, appears from this, that the one woman and her son, were enemies to the other and hers: which can by no means be said of the Old Testament church and her children, with respect unto the New Testament church and hers. The two women and their sons are represented as being coeval, living together, for a time one and the same visible church, as did Sara and Hagar in Abraham's family: which cannot be applied to the Old and New Testament churches, the one of which was many ages before the other. Nay, as was already observed, these are not so properly two churches, as one and the same under different designations. Before the advent of the illustrious Seed, such as professed their faith in him, are called the Old Testamentchurch; but since his coming, such as do, are denominated the New Testament church. Still, however, they differ no more from one another, than the waters nigh the foot of the river, from those which are nearer

to its head: or than the heir in a state of minority does from himself when come to age. As in these cases it is the same river and the same person, in like manner, the church under both Testaments is one and the same: as certainly so, as her Redeemer is one, Hagar and her son were enemies to Sara and hers: Hagar despising Sara, and Ishmael persecuting Isaac, Gen. xvi. 4. and xxi. 9., But so did not the Old Testament church with respect to the New. The church in one period could not persecute the church in another; and so far were the believing Jews from having any hostile intentions towards the Gentiles, that they are represented as looking forward with complacency to the time of their conversion. We have a little sister say they, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for, &c. Cant. viii. 8, 9. And when that blessed era came, how sweetly did they coalesce into one body with the Gentiles, rejoicing in him who had broken down the middle wall of partition which separated them so long. The faithful eleven who were sent to teach the nations, and to preach the gospel to every creature, were they not Jews? and was not the great apostle of the Gentiles, an Hebrew of the Hebrews? Phil. iii. 5. To sum up all in one word, if the Old Testament church were enemies to that of the New, the kingdom of God would be divided against itself, and therefore could not stand. It remains therefore that by the barren woman is meant the patriarchal church or those who under the Old Testament believed in the promise made to Abraham: and by the bond, the Jewish legalists.

6thly and Lastly. If the children of the barren and desolate woman be the promised seed, she herself must be the patriarchal church. But the former is true, and therefore the latter. That the former is true is evident from the context, the apostle speaks of himself and other true believers, as the children of the free woman, who had been so long barren. We brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise, verse 28.

We are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, verse 31. i. e. we are believers in Christ, in opposi tion to the judaizing teachers and their followers, who seek to be justified by the law, chap. v. 4. Now, if true believers be the children of promise, as Isaac was, it necessarily follows that they are the seed represented by him, compare chap iii. ult. If ye be Christ's, what follows? Why? then ye are Abraham's seed: not his seed by the bond woman, but by the free: for ye are heirs according to the promise. Agreeably to this, the apostle observes elsewhere, that they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son, Rom. ix. 8, 9. From these passages it is clear as the light, that the children of God, the children of the free woman, and the children of the promise, are precisely the same with the seed, the collective seed. Now, if the children of the free woman, who had been so long barren, be the seed, it unavoidably follows, that by the woman herself must be understood the patriarchal church. For to whom was the seed promised? Why? To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, together with their families, constituting the then church; which we therefore call the patriarchal church. As Sara, to whom Isaac was promised was the mother, so the church, unto whom the collective seed was promised, behoved to be the mother represented by Sara: I say, the collective seed, or the multitude of true believers; for we are not speaking of the personal Seed, Christ, in whom we believe. As certainly as the multitude of believers under the New Testament dispensation are the seed promised, so certainly the church, consisting of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their families, was the mother to whom that seed was promised. As it cannot be denied that the seed was promised to that church, as little can it be denied, that she was the mother.

In further confirmation of this, let it be observed, that such as the covenant was, in virtue of which the