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Whiche thinges are spoken by an alligorie. For these are two testamentes, the one from the mounte Sina, whiche gendereth vnto bondage, whiche is Agar, for mounte Sina is Agar in Arabia, and bordereth vpon the citie, whiche is now called Ierusalē, and is in bondage with her children. But Ierusalem whiche is aboue is free, whiche is the mother of vs all.
Nor is it to be supposed, that this tale hath, beside the trueth of the historie no secrete hidden misterie. For comenly suche is Moses law, that as in a māne vnder the grosse fleshe and coueryng of the body, is hidden the soule the ruler therof: so vnder the letter and historie, a more priuey thyng and higher mistery is couered. Let vs then serche foorth, what in the alligorie these two mothers and the two sonnes signifie. Surely the* 1.1 twoo mothers represent the twoo testamentes, of whom the one brought foorth a people subiecte to the bondage of the lawe, the other brought foorth a people through fayth free frō that burdain. For Sina is a moū¦taine in Arabia, whiche in the Chaldees language hath the name of the bondmaiden Agar, and bordereth vpon the mountaine of Sion, wher∣in standeth the cytie, that once was called Iebus, and is now called Ie∣rusalem. Now are they, that inhabite the mountaine Agar, euen in these daies, bonde, in theyr state resemblyng the beginner of that nacion. But Ierusalem, whiche as inheritaunce fel to Isaacs posteritie, is free. This citie, forasmuche as it standeth in a high place, representeth hea∣uen, into whose freedome we be called. That cytie is not onely mother to the Iewes, but to all vs, whiche beleue in Christ.
Moses lawe is yearthly, the lawe of the gospel, forasmuche as it came* 1.2 from heauen is heauenly. As the body is seruaunt to the soule: so that whiche is grosse, is bonde, and that whiche is spiritual, is free. Moses lawe brought foorth her childe fyrst, the lawe of the gospel, albeit it had issue after, yet how many more children brought it to God. Moses lawe brought foorth but one nacion, & the same of no great multitude neither, the lawe of the gospel containeth all nacions of the worlde.