A memorable name in Scripture well known to all lovers of the Bible. The wife of Abraham. Various have been the interpretations given to her name, according to the root from whence various commentators on the Bible have supposed it to have been derived. The most general opinion hath been, that it is taken from Shar, prince; and if so Sharah or Sarah will be princess. It would be to give an abridgement of that part of the word of God which contains the history of Sarah to amplify observations in this place on her character. The reader will do well to turn to the relation given of her in the book of Genesis, and in summing up her character to recollect what honorable testimony the Holy Ghost hath given of Sarah in giving her a place among those illustrious persons-who all died, as they had lived, in faith, "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." It is but a short inscription over Sarah's portrait in those lively pictures of the faithful, but it is a very blessed one, "She judged him faithful who had promised." (Hebrews 11:11-13)
Though I think it unnecessary to swell the pages of this Concordance with the history of Sarah, because we have it already most blessedly set forth in the holy Scriptures, yet I cannot shut up this article without making a short observation on that beautiful allegory which the Holy Ghost hath given us in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, (Galatians 4:22-31). Under the history of Sarah and Hagar, the Holy Ghost there teacheth the church that he hath represented the two covenants of the gospel and the law. No man upon earth, untaught of God the Holy Ghost, would ever have had the most distant idea of those things being shadowed forth in Sarah and Hagar's history, had not the Lord the Spirit so taught. But being there so beautifully and strikingly explained, it becomes a subject of sweet consolation and instruction, and gives to all true believers in Christ new occasion to bless God when discovering their relationship in Jesus, that they "as Isaac was, are the children of promise." It is indeed most blessed to discover that "we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."