Galatians 4:22

22. It is written The ordinary deferential form of quotation from the old canon. Genesis 16, 21.

Abraham The great representative of the covenants, both old and new.

Two sons That Ishmael. the natural-born, as distinguished from Isaac, as miracle-born, represents the unregenerate as distinguished from the Church of the regenerate, and especially represents the falsely regenerate, who seek salvation by work and law as distinguished from the truly regenerate, who seek salvation by faith in Christ, we have explicitly shown in our note on Romans 9:8. And it is from this standpoint that the false expositions of Stuart, and Calvinistic interpreters in general, of Romans 9:8, is clearly shown; and by consequence the falseness of their entire interpretation of the book of Romans.

The correspondent points between the outer and inner meaning of the history appear in the following synopsis:

HAGAR, the old covenant. SARAH, the new covenant.

ISHMAEL and the legalists. ISAAC and the justified by faith.

Sinai. Zion?

Old Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem. In bondage. In freedom.

Cast out of heirship. Heirs with the Son.

The doctrine of this programme is equally clear and true. Isaac, as miraculously, under promise, born of Sarah, is type of all the faithful, who are freely justified by faith, and heirs of the new Jerusalem; while Ishmael, as born of the alien bond-woman, is palpable type of the falsely regenerate by law and works, who are still adhering to old Jerusalem, are in legal bondage, and bound to be cast out of the inheritance. And St. Paul has as much right to frame this into a full allegory, giving it a conceptual form to occupy the imagination and memory of his readers, as any man would to shape it into a metaphor, a poem, or a parable.