---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Galatians 4:1. The heir, as long as He is a child — Though he be appointed by his father"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4"
---

Verse [Galatians 4:1](../../../kjv/galatians/4/1). ***The heir, as long as He is a child*** — Though he be appointed by his father's *will* heir of all his possessions yet till he arrive at the legal age he is master of nothing, and does not differ from one of the common domestics.

Verse [Galatians 4:2](../../../kjv/galatians/4/2). ***But is under tutors*** — επιτροπους. *Guardians* and *governors*; οικονομους. those who have the *charge* of the *family.* These words are nearly similar; but we may consider the first as *executor*, the last as the person who *superintends the concerns of* *the family and estate* till the heir become of age; such as we call trustee.
***Until the time appointed of the father.*** — The time mentioned in the father's will or testament.

Verse [Galatians 4:3](../../../kjv/galatians/4/3). ***Even so we*** — The whole Jewish people were in a state of nonage while under the law.
***The elements of the world*** — A mere Jewish phrase, יסודי עולם הזה *yesodey olam hazzeh*, "the principles of this world;" that is, the *rudiments* or *principles* of the *Jewish religion*. The apostle intimates that the law was not the science of salvation, it was only the *elements* or *alphabet* of it; and in the *Gospel* this alphabet is composed into a most glorious system of Divine knowledge: but as the alphabet is nothing of itself, unless compounded into syllables, words, sentences, and discourses; so the *law*, taken by itself, gives no salvation; it contains indeed the *outlines* of the Gospel, but it is the Gospel alone that *fills* *up* these outlines.

Verse [Galatians 4:4](../../../kjv/galatians/4/4). ***When the fulness of the time was come*** — The time which God in his infinite wisdom counted best; in which all his counsels were *filled up*; and the time which his Spirit, by the prophets, had specified; and the time to which he intended the Mosaic institutions should extend, and beyond which they should be of no avail.
***God sent forth his Son*** — Him who came immediately from God himself, *made of a woman*, according to the promise, [Genesis 3:15](../../../kjv/genesis/3/15); produced by the power of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary without any intervention of man; hence he was called *the Son of* *God*. See Luke, [Luke 1:35](../../../kjv/luke/1/35), and the note there.
***Made under the law*** — In subjection to it, that in him all its designs might be fulfilled, and by his *death* the whole might be abolished; the law *dying* when the Son of God expired upon the cross.

Verse [Galatians 4:5](../../../kjv/galatians/4/5). ***To redeem them*** — εξαγοραση. To *pay down a price* for them, and thus *buy them off* from the necessity of observing circumcision, offering *brute sacrifices*, performing different *ablutions*, c., &c.
***That we might receive the adoption of sons.*** — Which adoption we could not obtain by the law for it is the Gospel only that puts us among the children, and gives us a place in the heavenly family. On the nature of *adoption* [Romans 8:15](../../../kjv/romans/8/15); [Romans 8:15](../../../kjv/romans/8/15).

Verse [Galatians 4:6](../../../kjv/galatians/4/6). ***And because ye are sons*** — By faith in Christ Jesus, being redeemed both from the *bondage* and *curse* of the law; GOD-the *Father*, called generally the *first* person of the glorious TRINITY, hath sent forth the SPIRIT-the *Holy Ghost*, the *second* person of that *Trinity*, of his SON-*Jesus Christ*, the *third* person of the *Trinity-crying, Abba, Father*! from the fullest and most satisfactory evidence that God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, had become their portion. For the explanation of the phrase, and why the *Greek* and *Syriac* terms are joined together here, [Mark 14:36](../../../kjv/mark/14/36); [Mark 14:36](../../../kjv/mark/14/36); and *"*[Romans 8:15](../../../kjv/romans/8/15)*"*.

Verse 7. ***Thou art no more a servant*** — Thou who hast believed in Christ art no longer a *slave*, either under the *dominion of sin* or under *obligation* to the Mosaic ritual; *but a son* of God, adopted into the heavenly family.
***And if a son, then an heir*** — Having a right to the *inheritance*, because *one* of the *family*, for none can *inherit* but the *children*; but this heirship is the most extraordinary of all: it is not an heirship of any *tangible possession*, either in *heaven* or *earth*; it is not to possess a *part* or even the *whole* of *either,* it is to possess *Him* who made all things; not God's *works*, but God *himself*: heirs of GOD through Christ.

Verse 8. ***When ye knew not God*** — Though it is evident, from the complexion of the whole of this epistle, that the great body of the Christians in the Churches of Galatia were converts from among the *Jews* or *proselytes* to Judaism; yet from this verse it appears that there were some who had been converted from *heathenism*; unless we suppose that the apostle here particularly addresses those who had been proselytes to Judaism and thence converted to Christianity; which appears to be most likely from the following verses.

Verse 9. ***Now, after that ye have known God*** — After having been brought to the knowledge of God as your Saviour.
***Or rather are known of God*** — Are *approved* of him, having received the adoption of sons.
***To the weak and beggarly elements*** — After receiving all this, *will ye turn again* to the ineffectual rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law-*rites* too *weak* to counteract your sinful habits, and too *poor* to *purchase pardon* and *eternal life* for you? If the Galatians were *turning again* to them, it is evident that they had been *once* addicted to them. And this they might have been, allowing that they had become *converts* from *heathenism* to *Judaism,* and from Judaism to Christianity. This makes the sense consistent between the 8th and 9th verses. [Galatians 4:8-9](../../../kjv/galatians/4/8-9).

Verse 10. ***Ye observe days*** — Ye superstitiously regard the Sabbaths and particular days of your own appointment;
***And months*** — New moons; *times*-festivals, such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, &c.
***Years.*** — Annual atonements, sabbatical years, and jubilees.

Verse 11. ***I am afraid of you*** — I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labour in your conversion have been thrown away.

Verse 12. ***Be as I*****am**] Thoroughly addicted to the Christian faith and worship, from the deepest conviction of its truth.
***For I*****am*****as ye*****are**] I was formerly a Jew, and as zealously addicted to the rites and ceremonies of Judaism as ye are, but I am saved from that mean and unprofitable dependence: "Be therefore as I am now; who was once as you now are." Others think the sense to be this: "Be as affectionate to me as I am to you; for ye were once as loving to me as I am now to you."
***Ye have not injured me at all.*** — I do not thus earnestly entreat you to return to your Christian profession because your perversion has been any loss to me, nor because your conversion can be to me any gain: ye have not injured me at all, ye only injure yourselves; and I entreat you, through the intense love I bear to you, as my once beloved brethren in Christ Jesus, to return to him from whom ye have revolted.

Verse 13. ***Ye know how through infirmity*** — The apostle seems to say that he was much afflicted in body when he first preached the Gospel to them. And is this any strange thing, that a minister, so laborious as St. Paul was, should be sometimes overdone and overcome by the severity of his labours? Surely not. This might have been only an occasional affliction, while labouring in that part of Asia Minor; and not a continual and incurable infirmity, as some have too hastily conjectured.

Verse 14. ***And my temptation which was in my flesh*** — On this verse there are a great many various readings, as there are various opinions.
Instead of μου, MY *temptation*, ABC*D*FG, some others, with the *Coptic, Vulgate, Itala*, and several of the primitive *fathers*, have υμων, YOUR temptation.
The word πειρασμον, which we translate *temptation*, signifies *trial* of any kind. The verse therefore may be read, "Ye despised not the trial which was in my flesh;" or, "Ye despised not your trial, which was in my flesh:" i.e. what my flesh suffered on your account, the afflictions I passed through in consequence of my severe labours on your account. You did not consider me less an apostle of God on account of my sinking for a time under the weight of my work. Had they been disaffected towards him at that time, they would have used this to the prejudice of his apostolic mission. "What! do you pretend to be an extraordinary messenger from God, and yet are suffered to fall into sickness under the severity of your labour? If God sent you, would he not sustain you?" This would have been quite natural, had they not been well affected toward him. But, on the contrary, notwithstanding these afflictions, they *received him as an angel of God*-as a messenger from heaven, and *as Jesus Christ* himself. This appears to me to be the simple meaning of the apostle, and that he neither alludes to a *bodily* nor *mental* infirmity, which *generally* or *periodically* afflicted him, as some have imagined. Nor does he appear at all to speak of the *same case* as that mentioned [2 Corinthians 12:7](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/12/7), where I wish the reader to consult the notes. That St. Paul had frequent and severe afflictions, in consequence of his constant and severe exertions in the Gospel ministry, we may readily believe, and of this his own words bear sufficient testimony.
See his affecting account, [2 Corinthians 11:23-29](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/11/23-29), and the notes there.

Verse 15. ***Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?*** — *Ye spake* *of* should be in italics, there being no corresponding word in the Greek text. Perhaps there is not a sentence in the New Testament more variously translated than this. I shall give the original: τις ουν ην ὁ μακαρισμος ὑμων· *What was then your blessedness*! Or, *How great was your happiness at that time*! Or, *What blessings* *did ye then pour on me*! It is worthy of remark, that, instead of τις, *what*, ABCFG, several others, the older *Syriac*, the later *Syriac* in the *margin*, the *Armenian, Vulgate*, one copy of the *Itala*, and some of the *fathers*, have που, *where*; and ην, *was*, is omitted by ACD, several others, also the *Vulgate, Itala*, and the *Latin fathers*. According to these authorities the text should be read thus: *Where then is your blessedness*? Having renounced the Gospel, you have lost your *happiness*. What have your false teachers given you to compensate the loss of communion with God, or that *Spirit of adoption*, that *Spirit of Christ*, by which you cried *Abba, Father*! If, however, we understand the words as implying the *benedictions* they then heaped on the *apostle*, the sense will be sufficiently natural, and agree well with the concluding part of the verse; *for I bear you record,* *that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and* *have given them to me*. You had then the strongest affection for me; you loved God, and you loved me for God's sake, and were ready to give me the most unequivocal proof of your love.
*Dearer than one's eyes*, or to profess to *give one's eyes* for the sake of a person, appears to have been a proverbial expression, intimating the highest tokens of the strongest affection. We find a similar form of speech in *Terence*, Adelphi, act iv., scene 5, ver. 67.
*Omnes oderint, ni magis te quam* oculos *nunc ego* amo meos.

"O father,
may all the gods hate me, if I do not love you now more than
my own eyes."

Verse 16. ***Am I therefore become your enemy*** — How is it that you are so much altered towards me, that you now treat me as an enemy, who formerly loved me with the most fervent affection? Is it *because I tell you the truth*; that very *truth* for which you at first so ardently loved me?

Verse 17. ***They zealously affect you*****, but*****not well*** — It is difficult for common readers to understand the meaning of these words: perhaps it would be better to translate Ζηλουσιν ὑμας ου καλως, these false teachers *endeavour to conciliate your esteem,* *but not in honest* or true *principles*; they work themselves into your good graces; they wish you to place all your affection upon themselves.
***They would exclude you*** — They wish to *shut you out* from the affection of your apostle, *that you might affect them*, ἱνα αυτους ζηλουτε, that you might love them alone, hear them alone, abide by their directions only, and totally abandon him who called you into the grace of the Gospel of Christ. Some MSS. read ἡμας, *us*, instead of ὑμας, *you*; they wish to shut *us* entirely out from among you, that you may receive and believe *them* alone. The sense is nearly the same but the former appears to be the more authentic reading.

Verse 18. **It is*****good to be zealously affected*** — It is well to have a *determined mind* and an *ardent heart* in reference to things which are laudable and good.
***Not only when I am present*** — You were thus attached to me when I was among you, but now ye have lost both your reverence and affection for me. Your false teachers pretended great concern for you, that you might put all your confidence in *them*; they have gained their end; they have estranged you from me, and got you to renounce the Gospel, and have brought you again into your former bondage.

Verse 19. ***My little children*** — τεκνια μου. My *beloved* *children*. As their conversion to God had been the fruit of much labour, prayers, and tears, so he felt them as his children, and peculiarly dear to him, because he had been the means of bringing them to the knowledge of the truth; therefore he represents himself as suffering the same anxiety and distress which he endured at first when he preached the Gospel to them, when their conversion to Christianity was a matter of great doubt and uncertainty. The metaphor which he uses needs no explanation.
***Until Christ be formed in you*** — Till you once more receive the Spirit and unction of Christ in your hearts, from which you are fallen, by your rejection of the spirit of the Gospel.

Verse 20. ***I desire to be present with you*** — I wish to accommodate my doctrine to your state; I know not whether you need stronger reprehension, or to be dealt with more leniently.
***I stand in doubt of you.*** — I have doubts concerning your state; the progress of error and conviction among you, which I cannot fully know without being among you, This appears to be the apostle's meaning, and tends much to soften and render palatable the severity of his reproofs.

Verse 21. ***Ye that desire to be under the law*** — Ye who desire to incorporate the Mosaic institutions with Christianity, and thus bring yourselves into bondage to circumcision, and a great variety of oppressive rites.
***Do ye not hear the law?*** — Do ye not understand what is written in the *Pentateuch* relative to Abraham and his children. It is evident that the word *law* is used in *two senses* in this verse. It first means the *Mosaic institutions*; secondly, the *Pentateuch*, where the history is recorded to which the apostle refers.

Verse 22. ***For it is written*** — Viz. in [Genesis 16:15](../../../kjv/genesis/16/15); [Genesis 22:1](../../../kjv/genesis/22/1), c., *that Abraham had two sons*, Ishmael and Isaac *the one*; Ishmael, *by* *a bond maid*, Hagar; *the other*, Isaac, *by a free woman*, Sarah.

Verse 23. ***Was born after the flesh*** — *Ishmael* was born *according* *to the course of nature*, his parents being both of a proper age, so that there was nothing uncommon or supernatural in his birth: this is the proper meaning of the apostle's κατα σαρκα, *after* or *according to the flesh*, and answers to the Hebrew phrase, על דרך בשר *al derec basar*, according to the manner of the flesh, i.e. *naturally, according to the common process of nature*.
***By promise.*** — Both Abraham and Sarah had passed that age in which the procreation of children was possible on *natural* *principles*. The birth, therefore, of Isaac was *supernatural*; it was the effect of an especial promise of God; and it was only on the ground of that promise that it was either credible or possible.

Verse 24. ***Which things are an allegory*** — They are to be understood *spiritually*; more being intended in the account than meets the eye.
*Allegory*, from αλλος, *another*, and αγορεω, or αγοπευω, *to speak*, signifies a *thing that is a representative of another*, where the *literal sense* is the representative of a *spiritual* *meaning*; or, as the glossary expresses it, ἑτερως κατα μεταφρασιν νοουμενα, και ου κατα την αναγνωσιν· "where the thing is to be understood differently in the interpretation than it appears in the reading."
*Allegories* are frequent in all countries, and are used by all writers. In the life of *Homer*, the author, speaking of the marriage of *Jupiter* and *Juno*, related by that poet, says: δοκει ταυτα αλληγορεισθαι, ὁτι Ἡρα μεν νοειται ὁ αηρ-Ζευς δε, ὁ αιθηρ· "It appears that these things are to be understood *allegorically*; for Juno means the *air*, Jupiter the *aether*." *Plutarch*, in his treatise *De Iside et Osir*., says: ὡσπερ Ἑλληνες Κρονον αλληγορουσι τον χρονον· "As the Greeks allegorize *Cronos* (Saturn) into *Chronos* (Time.)" It is well known how fond the Jews were of *allegorizing*. Every thing in the *law* was with them an *allegory*. Their *Talmud* is full of these; and one of their most sober and best educated writers, *Philo*, abounds with them. Speaking (De *Migrat. Abrah*., page 420) of the five daughters of Zelophehad, he says: ἁς αλληγορουντες αισθησεις ειναι φαμεν· "which, *allegorizing*, we assert to be the *five senses*!"
It is very likely, therefore, that the allegory produced here, St. Paul had borrowed from the Jewish writings; and he brings it in to convict the *Judaizing* Galatians on their own principles; and neither he nor we have any thing farther to do with this allegory than as it applies to the subject for which it is quoted; nor does it give any license to those men of vain and superficial minds who endeavour to find out *allegories* in every portion of the sacred writings, and, by what they term *spiritualizing*, which is more properly *carnalizing*, have brought the testimonies of God into disgrace. May the *spirit of silence* be poured out upon all such *corrupters* of the word of God!
***For these are the two covenants*** — These *signify* two different systems of religion; the one by *Moses*, the other by the *Messiah*.
***The one from the Mount Sinai*** — On which the law was published; which was typified by *Hagar*, Abraham's bond maid.
***Which gendereth to bondage*** — For as the *bond maid* or *slave* could only *gender-bring forth her children*, in a *state of slavery*, and subject also to become *slaves*, so all that are born and live under those Mosaic institutions are *born* and *live* in a state of bondage-a bondage to various *rites* and *ceremonies*; under the *obligation* to keep the *whole law*, yet, from its severity and their frailness, obliged to live in the habitual breach of it, and in consequence exposed to the *curse* which it pronounces.

Verse 25. ***For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia*** — Το γαρ Αγαρ Σινα ορος εστιν εν τη Αραβια. This is the common reading; but it is read differently in some of the most respectable MSS., *versions*, and *fathers*; thus: το γαρ Σινα ορος εστιν εν τῃ Αραβια, *for this Sinai is a mountain of Arabia*; the word Αγαρ, *Agar*, being omitted. This reading is supported by CFG, some others, the *AEthiopic, Armenian, Vulgate*, and one copy of the *Itala*; by *Epiphanius, Damascenus, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, Augustine, Hilary,* *Sedulius*, and *Bede*; and the word is sometimes, though not always, omitted by *Cyril* and *Origen*, which proves that in their time there were doubts concerning the common reading.
Of the word *Agar* in this verse, which renders the passage very obscure and difficult, Professor *White* says, *forsitan* delendum, "probably it should be expunged." *Griesbach* has left it in the text with a note of *doubtfulness*.
***Answereth to Jerusalem*** — Hagar, the bond maid, bringing forth children in a state of slavery, *answereth to Jerusalem that now* *is*, συστοιχει, *points out*, or, *bears a similitude* to, Jerusalem in her present state of subjection; which, with *her* *children*-her citizens, is not only in *bondage to the Romans*, but in a worse bondage to the *law*, to its oppressive *ordinances*, and to the heavy curse which it has pronounced against all those who do not keep them.

Verse 26. ***But Jerusalem which is above*** — The apostle still follows the Jewish *allegory*, showing not only how the story of *Hagar* and *Sarah, Ishmael* and *Isaac*, was allegorized, but pointing out also that even *Jerusalem* was the subject of allegory; for it was a maxim among the rabbins, that "whatsoever was in the earth, the same was also found in heaven for there is no matter, howsoever small, in this world, that has not something similar to it in the spiritual world." On this maxim, the Jews imagine that every earthly thing has its *representative* in heaven; and especially whatever concerns *Jerusalem*, the *law*, and its *ordinances*. Rab. *Kimchi*, speaking of Melchizedec, king of Salem, says: זו ירושלם של מעלה *zu Yerushalem shel malah*, "This is the Jerusalem that is from above." This phrase frequently occurs among these writers, as may be seen in *Schoettgen*, who has written an express dissertation upon the subject. *Hor. Hebr*., vol. i. page 1205.
***Is free, which is the mother of us all.*** — There is a spiritual Jerusalem, of which this is the type; and this Jerusalem, in which the souls of all the righteous are, is free from all bondage and sin: or by this, probably, the kingdom of the Messiah was intended; and this certainly answers best to the apostle's meaning, as the subsequent verse shows. There is an *earthly* *Jerusalem*, but this earthly Jerusalem typifies a *heavenly* *Jerusalem*: the former, with all her *citizens*, is in *bondage*; the latter is a *free city*, and all her *inhabitants* are *free* also. And this Jerusalem is *our mother*; it signifies the Church of Christ, the metropolis of Christianity, or rather the *state* of *liberty* into which all true believers are brought. The word παντων, *of all*, is omitted by almost every MS. and *version* of antiquity and importance, and by the most eminent of the *fathers* who quote this place; it is undoubtedly spurious, and the text should be read thus: *But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which* *is our mother*.

Verse 27. ***Rejoice*****, thou*****barren that bearest not*** — This quotation is taken from [Isaiah 54:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/54/1), and is certainly a promise which relates to the *conversion of the Gentiles*, as the following clause proves; for *the desolate* - the Gentile world, *hath many more* *children* - is a much larger and more numerous Church, than *she - Jerusalem*, the Jewish state, *which hath a husband* - has been so long in *covenant with God*, living under his continual protection, and in possession of a great variety of spiritual advantages; and especially those offered to her by the Gospel, which she has rejected, and which the Gentiles have accepted.

Verse 28. ***Now we*** — Who believe in the Lord Jesus, *are the* *children of promise*-are the spiritual offspring of the Messiah, the seed of Abraham, in whom the promise stated that *all the* *nations of the earth should be blessed*.

Verse 29. ***But as then he*** — Ishmael, *who was born after the* *flesh*-whose birth had nothing *supernatural* in it, but was according to the ordinary course of nature,
***Persecuted him*** — Isaac, *who was born after the Spirit*-who had a supernatural birth, according to the *promise*, and through the efficacy, of the *Holy Spirit*, giving effect to that promise-*Sarah* *shall have a son*, [Genesis 17:16-21](../../../kjv/genesis/17/16-21); [Genesis 21:1](../../../kjv/genesis/21/1), c.
*Persecuted him* the persecution here referred to is that mentioned [Genesis 21:9](../../../kjv/genesis/21/9). It consisted in mocking his brother Isaac.
***Even so*****it is*****now.*** — So the Jews, in every place, persecute the Christians; and show thereby that they are rather of the posterity of *Hagar* than of *Sarah*.

Verse 30. ***What saith the Scripture?*** — (In [Genesis 21:10](../../../kjv/genesis/21/10):) *Cast out the bond woman and her son*: and what does this imply in the present case? Why, that the present Jerusalem and her children shall be *cast* out of the favour of God, and *shall not be* *heirs with the son of the free woman*-shall not inherit the blessings promised to Abraham, because they believe not in the promised seed.

Verse [Galatians 4:31](../../../kjv/galatians/4/31). ***So then*** — *We*-Jews and Gentiles, who believe on the Lord Jesus, *are not children of the bond woman*-are not in subjection to the Jewish law, *but of the free*; and, consequently, are delivered from all its bondage, obligation, and curse.
Thus the apostle, from their own Scripture, explained by their own allegory, proves that it is only by Jesus Christ that they can have redemption; and because they have not believed in him, therefore *they continue to be in bondage*; and that shortly God will deliver them up into a long and grievous captivity: for we may naturally suppose that the apostle has reference to what had been so often foretold by the prophets, and confirmed by Jesus Christ himself; and this was the strongest argument he could use, to show the Galatians their folly and their danger in submitting again to the bondage from which they had escaped, and exposing themselves to the most dreadful calamities of an earthly kind, as well as to the final ruin of their souls. *They desired to be* *under the law*; then they must take all the consequences; and these the apostle sets fairly before them.
1. WE sometimes pity the *Jews*, who continue to reject the Gospel. Many who do so have no pity for themselves; for is not the state of a Jew, who systematically rejects Christ, because he does not believe him to be the promised Messiah, infinitely better than his, who, believing every thing that the Scripture teaches concerning Christ, lives under the power and guilt of sin? If the Jews be in a state of *nonage*, because they believe not the doctrines of Christianity, he is in a worse state than that of *infancy* who is not *born again* by the power of the Holy Ghost. Reader, whosoever thou art, lay this to heart.
2. The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th verses of this chapter ([Galatians 4:4-7](../../../kjv/galatians/4/4-7)) contain the sum and marrow of Christian divinity.
(1.) The determination of God to redeem the world by the incarnation of his Son.
(2.) The manifestation of this Son in the fulness of time.
(3.) The circumstances in which this Son appeared: *sent forth;* *made of a woman; made under the law*; to be *a sufferer*; and to *die* *as a sacrifice*.
(4.) The redemption of the world, by the death of Christ: he came to redeem them that were under the law, who were condemned and cursed by it.
(5.) By the redemption price he purchases *sonship* or *adoption* for mankind.
(6.) He, God the *Father*, sends the *Spirit*, God the *Holy Ghost*, of God the *Son*, into the hearts of believers, by which they, through the full confidence of their adoption, call him their Father.
(7.) Being made *children*, they become heirs, and God is their portion throughout eternity. Thus, in a few words, the whole doctrine of grace is contained, and an astonishing display made of the unutterable mercy of God. See the notes on these verses ([Galatians 4:4-7](../../../kjv/galatians/4/4-7)).
3. While the Jews were rejecting the *easy yoke* of Christ, they were *painfully* observing *days*, and *months*, and *times* and *years. Superstition* has far more *labour* to perform than true religion has; and at last profits nothing! Most men, either from *false views* of religion, or through the *power* and *prevalency* of their own evil *passions* and *habits*, have ten thousand times more trouble to get to *hell*, than the followers of God have to get to *heaven*.
4. Even in the perverted Galatians the apostle finds some good; and he mentions with great feeling those amiable qualities which they once possessed. The only way to encourage men to seek farther good is to show them what they have got, and to make this a reason why they should seek more. He who wishes to do good to men, and is constantly dwelling on their *bad qualities* and *graceless state*, either irritates or drives them to *despair*. There is, perhaps, no sinner on this side perdition who has not something good in him. Mention the good-it is God's work; and show what a pity it is that he should not have more, and how ready God is to supply all his wants through Christ Jesus. This plan should especially be used in addressing *Christian societies*, and particularly those which are in a declining state.
5. The Galatians were once the *firm friends* of the apostle, and loved him so well that they would have even *plucked out their eyes* *for him*; and yet these very people cast him off, and counted and treated him as an *enemy*! O sad *fickleness* of human nature! O uncertainty of *human friendships*! An *undesigned* word, or look, or action, becomes the reason to a fickle heart why it should divest itself of the spirit of friendship; and he who was as dear to them as their own souls, is neglected and forgotten! Blessed God! hast thou not said that there is a *friend that sticketh closer than a* *brother? Where* is he? Can such a one be trusted long on this unkindly earth? He is fit for the society of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect; and thou takest him in mercy lest he should lose his friendly heart, or lest his own heart should be broken in losing that of his friend. Hasten, Lord, a more perfect state, where the spirit of thy own love in thy followers shall expand, without control or hinderance, throughout eternity! Amen.
6. On *allegorizing*, in explaining the word of God, something has already been said, under [Galatians 4:24](../../../kjv/galatians/4/24); but on the subject of *allegory* in general much might be said. The very learned and accurate critic, Dr. *Lowth*, in his work, *De Sacra* *Poesi Hebraeorum*, has entered at large into the subject of *allegory*, as existing in the sacred writings, in which he has discovered *three* species of this rhetorical figure.
1. That which rhetoricians term a *continued metaphor*. See Solomon's portraiture of old age, [Ecclesiastes 12:2-6](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/12/2-6).
2. A *second* kind of allegory is that which, in a more proper and restricted sense, may be called *parable*. See [Matthew 13](../../../kjv/matthew/13), and the note on *"*[Matthew 13:3](../../../kjv/matthew/13/3)*"*, &c.
3. The *third* species of allegory is that in which a *double meaning* is couched under the same words. These are called *mystical* allegories, and the two meanings are termed the *literal* and *mystical* senses.
For examples of all these kinds I must refer to the learned prelate above named.

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","width":640,"height":370,"caption":"Clarke's Commentary -  Galatians 4"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4","name":"Clarke's Commentary -  Galatians 4","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4#primaryimage"},"datePublished":null,"dateModified":null,"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Verse Galatians 4:1. The heir, as long as He is a child — Though he be appointed by his father's will heir of all his possessions yet till he arrive at th","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","name":"Commentaries"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","name":"Clarke's Commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians","name":"Galatians"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/galatians/4","name":"4"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]}
```