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And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by Hagar the
bond maid, the other by Sarah the free woman, about whom we have
already spoken in the previous book. As regards this transaction,
Abraham is in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this
concubine, for he used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the
gratification of lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his
wife, who supposed it would be solace of her barrenness if she could
make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of
her own nature, and by that law of which the apostle says, "Likewise
also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife,"
could, as a wife, make use of him for childbearing by another, when
she could not do so in her own person. Here there is no wanton lust,
no filthy lewdness. The handmaid is delivered to the husband by the
wife for the sake of progeny, and is received by the husband for the
sake of progeny, each seeking, not guilty excess, but natural fruit.
And when the pregnant bond woman despised her barren mistress, and
Sarah, with womanly jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her
husband, even then Abraham showed that he was not a slavish lover,
but a free begetter of children, and that in using Hagar he had
guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife, and had gratified her will and
not his own, had received her without seeking, had gone in to her
without being attached, had impregnated without loving her, for he
says, "Behold thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth
thee;" a man able to use women as a man should, his wife
temperately, his handmaid compliantly, neither intemperately!
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