So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
We were therefore sons of the slave woman when we were liable for our sins. But, having received the remission of sins from Christ, we have been made free.
Let us consider whether we should say that the righteous people of old were children of the slave woman or the free. But God forbid that they should be the slave woman’s. If therefore they are the free woman’s, they belong to the new covenant in the Holy Spirit, whose lifegiving power the apostle contrasts with “the letter that kills.”
He raises and treats all these points in his wish to prove that what has occurred is not an afterthought but was prefigured from above and through many ages. Do you see how it is absurd that those who were foreordained through so many ages and had obtained freedom should happily put themselves again under the yoke of slavery? Homily on Galatians
He turns and discusses this on all sides, desiring to prove that what had taken place was no novelty, but had been before typified many ages ago. How then can it be otherwise than absurd for those who had been set apart so long and who had obtained freedom, willingly to subject themselves to the yoke of bondage?
Next he states another inducement to them to abide in his doctrine.
