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After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might
think that in him was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying,
when he wished to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be
thine heir: but he that shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine
heir." Therefore, lest he should think that what was promised was
fulfilled in the handmaid's son, "when Abram was ninety years old
and nine, God appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God; be
well-pleasing in my sight, and be without complaint, and I will make
my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee exceedingly."
Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations
in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is
signified, and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man and
a barren old woman. For although God effects even the natural course
of procreation, yet where the agency of God is manifest, through the
decay or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And
because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but by
regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son was promised
of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons, but also home-born
and purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies that this grace
pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify than a nature
renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the eighth
day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed,
that is, after the Sabbath? The very names of the parents are
changed: all things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed
forth in the old. For what does the term old covenant imply but the
concealing of the new? And what does the term new covenant imply but
the revealing of the old? The laughter of Abraham is the exultation
of one who rejoices, not the scornful laughter of one who mistrusts.
And those words of his in his heart, "Shall a son be born to me that
am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old,
bear?" are not the words of doubt, but of wonder. And when it is
said, "And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the
land in which thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession," if it troubles any one whether this is to be
held as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment may still be looked for,
since no kind of earthly possession can be everlasting for any nation
whatever, let him know that the word translated everlasting, by our
writers is what the Greeks term ai?w?nion, which is derived from
ai?w?n, the Greek for soeculum, an age. But the Latins have not
ventured to translate this by secular, test they should change the
meaning into something widely different. For many things are called
secular which so happen in this world as to pass away even in a short
time; but what is termed ai?wnion either has no end, or lasts to the
very end of this world.
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