+II. The antagonism of their descendants represented the violent and incessant opposition of the law to the Gospel.+--"As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. . . . Cast out the bondwoman and her son" (vers. 29, 30). Sooner or later the slave-boy was bound to go. He has no proper birthright, no permanent footing in the house. One day he exceeds his licence, he makes himself intolerable; he must be gone. The Israelitish people showed more than Ishmael's jealousy toward the infant Church of the Spirit. No weapon of violence or calumny was too base to be used against it. Year by year they became more hardened against spiritual truth, more malignant towards Christianity, and more furious and fanatical in their hatred towards their civil rulers. Ishmael was in the way of Isaac's safety and prosperity (_Ibid._). +III. The Gospel bestows a richer inheritance than the law.+--"The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. . . . We are children of the free" (vers. 30, 31). The two systems were irreconcilable. The law and the Gospel cannot coexist and inherit together; the law must disappear before the Gospel. The higher absorbs the lower. The Church of the future, the spiritual seed of Abraham gathered out of all nations, has no part in legalism. It embraces blessings of which Mosaism had no conception--"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" (1 Pet. i. 4). +Lessons.+--1. _The law and the Gospel differ fundamentally._ 2. _The law imposes intolerable burdens._ 3. _The Gospel abrogates the law by providing a higher spiritual obedience._ _GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._ Vers. 21-31. _Legal Bondage and Spiritual Freedom contrasted_-- +I. In their inception and development+ (vers. 21-27). +II. In their ceaseless antagonism+ (ver. 29). +III. In their inevitable results+ (vers. 28, 30, 31). Ver. 21. _A Lesson from the Law_-- +I. Addressed to those eager for its subjection.+--"Ye that desire to be under the law." +II. Is suggestive of solemn warning.+ +III. Should be seriously pondered.+--"Tell me, do ye not hear the law?" Ver. 26. _Jerusalem Above._ +I. The Church of Christ as she exists in the present world.+--"Jerusalem, above and free." 1. _Above; that is, seen in connection with God and the scenes of the heavenly world._--(1) Her Head is from above. (2) If we take the Church as a whole, though she is in part on earth, the greater number of her members are in heaven. (3) Our Jerusalem is above because her members all fix their affections there and thither then as the great end of their profession. 2. _Jerusalem above is free, and so are her children._--From the bondage of seeking salvation by works of law, from the guilt of sin, from its dominion.