Matthew Poole and continuators on Galatians 4:3

3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements, of this world .

Such children were all Believers, the Seed of Abraham; from the first designed to a Gospel Liberty, but that was not to be fully enjoyed, until the fulness of time should come when God intended to send his Son into the world: And during the time of their nonage they were kept under the Law, as a Tutor and Governour, leading them unto Christ. He chiefly intendeth the Ceremonial Law; which Acts 15.10. Peter calleth a yoke, which neither they, nor their Fathers were able to bear. He calls these ordinances the Elements of the World; so also Col. 2.20. he means that Discipline by which God instructed, and under which God by Moses at first tutoured the World, that is, the Jews, who were that part of the World to whom God pleased to make his Oracles known. He calls those ritual observances, Elements, or Rudiments, because they were the first Instructions God gave Believers, leading them to Christ; like the first Elements, or Rudimens in Grammer Learning.

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