my little children, of whom again I travail in birth, till Christ may be formed in you,

and I was wishing to be present with you now, and to change my voice, because I am in doubt about you.

Tell me, ye who are willing to be under law, the law do ye not hear?

for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman,

but he who [is] of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who [is] of the free-woman, through the promise;

which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar;

for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children,

and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all,

for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate – more than of her having the husband.'

And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise,

but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now;

but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;'

then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.