The apostle (Gal. iv. 25, 26) distinguishes between "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children"--the remaining carcase of the Jewish church that rejected Christ, and "Jerusalem that is from above, that is free, and is the mother of us all"--the Christian church, the spiritual Jerusalem, which God has chosen to put his name there; in the foregoing chapter we read the doom of the former, and left that carcase to be a prey to the eagles that should be gathered to it. Now, in this chapter, we have the blessings of the latter, many precious promises made to the gospel-Jerusalem by him who (ver. 1) declares his power to make them good. It is promised, I. That the attempts of the church's enemies against her shall be to their own ruin, and they shall find that it is at their peril if they do her any hurt, ver. 2-4, 6. II. That the endeavours of the church's friends and patrons for her good shall be pious, regular, and successful, ver. 5. III. That God will protect and strengthen the meanest and weakest that belong to his church, and work salvation for them, ver. 7, 8. IV. That as a preparative for all this mercy, and a pledge of it, he will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance, the effect of which shall be universal and very particular, ver. 9-14. These promises were of use then to the pious Jews that lived in the troublous times under Antiochus, and other persecutors and oppressors; and they are still to be improved in every age for the directing of our prayers and the encouraging of our hopes with reference to the gospel-church.
The Security of the Church; Punishment of the Church's Enemies; Promises to Judah. (b. c. 500.)