in the allegory answers to the present literal Jerusalem, for she is in bondage with her children: but the spiritual, or heavenly, Jerusalem is signified in the prophet's allegory by Sarah, the free-woman; and this Jerusalem is the mother of us Gentiles who believe in Christ. For to this purpose are the words of the prophet Isaiah, whose allegory, what I have now said, is designed to clear and explain to you: Rejoice thou Sarah, who hadst been barren all that part of thy life wherein alone women are used to be fruitful, break out into loud acclamations of joy, thou who never till thou wast past age hadst any travailing pains; for more numerous are the children of Sarah who was desolate and past hope, than of Hagar, who became Abraham's wife, and bare him a son, when he was, according to the course of nature, capable of generating.' Thus you see how Isaiah has allegorised these things, and represented the spiritual seed of Abraham, that was by promise, as more numerous than that which was in a course of nature. And now that I may farther pursue his allegory, and bring the matter home to our own case, we are to remember, my brethren, that we Gentiles are the children of promise, like as Isaac was."

If it should still be thought that the reference in Isaiah is not to the two wives of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah, and that there is therefore no such allegorising of this part of Abraham's history by him, as we have endeavoured to show, it will, nevertheless, leave the fact of such allegorising untouched. The only difference will be, that the apostle and not the prophet will be the allegoriser. And the words will bear this interpretation, without doing them any violence.

The participle allegoroumena does

not signify the definite completion, but the progress or tendency, of the action. So that it will apply, as already suggested, to the apostle himself as the agent, or even to the gracious Providence of God, which was thus multiplying the Gentile converts to the faith of Christ, far beyond those of the descendants of Abraham, and delivering them from the yoke of bondage imposed by the Mosaic law. Either way, whether we take the words, "which things are allegorised," to refer to the prophet, to the apostle, or to the Church of Christ, it is all the same as to the fact, that the history cited means something more than in their mere literal sense the words announced.

"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then, he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him who was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture ? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."—Ver. 28-31.

Here, the birth of Isaac, in consequence of the Divine promise, is compared with the spiritual birth of the faithful; man after the flesh, on the contrary, stands parallel with Ishmael. The flesh and the spirit are contrary to one another (chap. v. 17). That was shown, even at that time; and now, too, the history of Isaac and Ishmael appears typical in this point of view also. The Scriptures have but slight indications of the contests between the brothers (Gen. xvi. 4, 12; xxi. 9), but the traditions of the Jews relate more about them. The persecution refers here especially to the contrasts in the mass, not merely between the believers and unbelievers, but also between the pure and impure among the former. Thus, the Judaists showed themselves as

carnal, while they so vehemently persecuted Paul, the true spiritual man. But this expression has its verification, also, as regards the inward man in the individual; the old and the new man must be contrary to one another, and the former we thrust out determinately, with might and main.

In this contest the spirit is to overcome; hence the command to drive out the bondwoman and her son, according to Gen. xxi. 10. Thus, the apparent harshness and injustice of Abraham's conduct towards Hagar and Ishmael find, at the same time, their justification by this spiritual conception of the

Occurrence.*

See Olshausen, p. 87.

THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

CHAPTER II.

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."-Ver. 2. THAT Satan is here meant, all orthodox commentators are agreed, but upon the precise meaning of the phraseology by which he is described, there is a good deal of diversity amongst them.

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The prince of the power of the air, may mean the powerful prince of the air; as chap. i. 6. "The glory of his grace," or his "glorious grace;" and ver. 18, "the riches of the glory," or the " glorious riches," or wealth; so the prince of the power of the air," or "the powerful prince ;" though what that is, we cannot certainly determine. Whichever way the phrase is taken, it implies that the evil spirit spoken of is the chief or head of the body to which he belongs; the first in authority and power-having the pre-eminence or rule. He is so called in Matt. ix. 34; xii. 24; Mark iii. 22; Luke xi. 15; and in John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11, he is called "the prince of this world" which seems to indicate the same thing as the apostle indicates here, for the "children of disobedience " are the world, in opposition to the church. Beyond this all is uncertainty. Wetstein, Grotius, Koppe, Doddridge,

Bloomfield, and others take the phrase "prince of the power of the air" to mean that Satan is the head or lord of the demons or evil spirits who dwell or range in the regions of the atmosphere, it being a common opinion among both Jews and heathen that the air was thus peopled. Cocceius and some

others explain the word air as signifying darkness; but Hengstenberg has shown that it never is so used. It may signify no more than the void or space by which the earth is surrounded, and which Jews and Gentiles, as we have said, supposed to be inhabited by the evil spirits.

They

This last-mentioned view of the passage is acquiesced in by Barnes, who says he sees no absurdity that should make it impossible to believe it. For (1) the Scriptures abundantly teach that there are fallen, wicked spirits; and the existence of fallen angels is no more improbable than the existence of fallen men. (2). The Bible teaches that they have much to do with this world. tempted man; they inflicted disease in the time of the Saviour; they are represented as alluring and deceiving the race. (3). They must have some locality-some part of the universe where they dwell. That they were not confined down to hell in the time of the Redeemer is clear from the New Testament, for they are often represented as having afflicted and tortured men. (4). Why is there any improbability in the belief that their residence should have been in the regions of the air-that while they were suffered to be on the earth to tempt and afflict men, they should have been permitted peculiarly to occupy those regions? Who can tell what may be in the invisible world, and what spirits may be permitted to fill up the vast space that now composes