Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head I. the Under Banding. 5^
Mofes to Chrift. When Ch i*}: came, the World
was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews,
and the true Light with them, were within an Itb-
clofure, Pfal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Betwixt them and
the Gentile World, there was a Partition-IVall of
God’s making, namely the ceremonial Law; and
upon that there was reared up another of Man’s
own making, namely a rooted Enmity betwixt the
Parties, ii. 14, 15. If we look abroad with¬
out t\\z Inclofure (and except thofe Profelytes of i.hc
Gentiles, who, by Means of fome Rays of Light
breaking forth unto them, from within the Inclofure,
having renounced Idolatry, worfhipped the true
God, but did not conform to the Mofaical Rites)
we fee nothing but dark Places of the Earth, full of
the Habitations of Cruelty, Pfal. Ixxiv. 20. Grofs
Darknefs covered the Face of the Gentile World,
and the Way of Salvation was utterly unknown a-
mong them. They were drown’d in Superfiition and
Idolatry; and had multiplied their Idols to fuch a
vaft Number, that above thirty thoufandare reckon¬
ed to have been wor(hipped by thofe of Europe alone.
Whatever Wifdom was among their Philoldphers,
the World by that Wifdom knew not God, 1 Cor. i.
21. and all their Re-fearches in Religion were but
groping in the Dark, Alls xvii. 27. If we look w'ith-
in the Inclofure, and, except a few that were groan¬
ing -and waiting for the Conflation of Ifrael; we’ll
fee a grofs Darknefs ontheFa'ce of that Generation.
Tho* to them were committed the Oracles of God, yet
they were mod corrupt in their Do&rine. Their
Traditions were multiplied, but the Knowledge of
thefe Things wherein the Life of Religion lies, was
loft ; Mafters of Ifrael knew not the Nature and Ne-
Ceffity of Regeneration, John iii. 1 q. Their Religion