SERMON XXX.

THE ALLEGORY OF THE TWO COVENANTS.

GALATIANS IV. 22-26.

IT IS WRITTEN THAT ABRAHAM HAD TWO SONS, THE ONE BY A BONDMAID, THE OTHER BY A FREE WOMAN. BUT HE WHO

WAS OF THE BONDWOMAN WAS BORN AFTER THE FLESH; BUT HE OF THE FREE WOMAN WAS BY PROMISE. WHICH THINGS ARE AN ALLEGORY: 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.

No prophecy is of private interpretation. It comes not from the prophet's own suggestion or invention. He is only God's organ in what he declares: "for prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."'

1 2 Pet. i. 21.

St. Paul was under the same safe and salutary law, in giving a typical character and reference to any portion of the historical Scriptures in the Old Testament. That reference was suggested to his mind by the unerring Spirit of God, as one of the great items of scriptural truth; as one of the strong and beautiful links of connexion between the instructive shadows of the Old, and the bright realities of the New Testament.

Without such an appropriation of the record concerning Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, contained in Genesis xxi, the great apostle would never have realized it in his own mind; nor if it had been brought home to his apprehension, would he have rashly adventured to lay it before the Church, as part and parcel of the whole counsel of God. And well doth the same caution become every student of the Bible: well were it, if the same reverential awfulness dwelt in every man, while considering and speaking of the mind of God. The Kohathites were not to go in to see when the holy things were covered,1 lest they should die. The men of Bethshemesh, with all their

1 Numbers iv. 20.

reverence for the ark, were smitten in great numbers, because they lifted up the mercy-seat

to look what lay beneath it.'

And some things "which they that

there are in the divine word, are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 A morbid desire to find a type, an allegory, a hidden meaning and an application to some deep mystery of God, in the most plain and ordinary narratives of the Bible hath spread, and doth yet pour forth wild confusion over the Church of Christ; and no testimony against it can be too strenuous or urgent. walk of safety and profit, in the paths of typical interpretation, will be to tread where the Holy Ghost hath opened the way, and thus graciously invites us to follow Him in light and truth.

Our

Under this guidance of plenary and absolute inspiration, we connect St. Paul's doctrine in the passage now before us, and its context, with the personal history of Abraham. And I know not how any cautious interpreter could, by possibility, have drawn this contrast between the legal and the Gospel covenant, without the

1 1 Sam. vi. 19.

2 2 Pet. iii. 16.

warrant and teaching of that Eternal Spirit. Thus authorized, thus preceded, thus beckoned forward, thus instructed, it is alike our duty and privilege to bring Moses and Paul together; and endeavour to draw instruction from the union of historical fact with typical signification. The history has been laid before you, with such reflections as it appeared naturally to suggest and enforce.

II. THE SPIRITUAL TRUTH

CONNECTED

What

WITH IT, NOW DEMANDS YOUR ATTENTION. I. St. Paul having referred to the state and circumstances of Abraham's family, his wife, his concubine, and their respective sons, declares that these things are an allegory. does the apostle mean by this term? An allegory, etymologically and simply considered, signifies, that when one thing is mentioned, another is to be understood. Of this figure of speech there are various examples in Holy Writ take one from profane history. It was a familiar proverb among the Greeks, to say, Dionysius is at Corinth :" meaning thereby, that a man was fallen from an exalted to a mean condition. The proverb had reference to this tyrant, who, being expelled for cruelty from his kingdom in Sicily, fled to Corinth, and

there became a schoolmaster. There was no other relation than that of resemblance in reduced circumstances, between the dethroned king, and the person to whom the proverb was applied.1 Thus too, in the Scriptures, it became a saying in Israel, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" merely to signify any thing strange, sudden, and unexpected.

With these preliminary remarks we are in a position to examine the apostle's statement:

The whole passage, from the 22nd verse to the end of the chapter, is meant to detach every one, into whose hand it comes, whether Jew or Gentile, from a dependence on the law, which is the covenant of works; and to lead him to seek salvation, through the better covenant of grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. The subject embraces the state of the Church at this day, as effectually, and emphatically, as it did eighteen hundred years ago. It is an allegorical representation of the different foundations whereupon men are resting their hopes of eternal life and blessedness: and of their different conditions in the view of a pure and holy God. The whole Christian world may be divided into the

1 See Quinctilian, quoted by Pierce, on Gal. iv. 22.