' :, '--- ~ ·2 'The_Corruptio11 of the Underflanding. State 1¥': , fin had lo!l: that primiti-ve light whcre\vith he was endued in . his creation, it pleafed God to make a. gracious revelation of his mind and _will to him, 'touching the way of falvatioo, 0 en. iii. 1 5. This was handed 'down byhim, and other godly fathers before the flood: yet the natural darknefs Of the · mind .of man prevailed' fo far againfr that revelation, as to carry off all fenfe oftrue religion from the old wor Id, except , what remained iQNoah 's family, whi.:h was preferved in the ark. After the flood, as men multiplied on the earth, thena– tural darknefs of mind prevails again,. and the light decays', ,t ill it died out among the.generality ofmankind, aRd is pre– ferved only among the po{lerity of Shem. Arid even with tbem it was well near its fetting, when God called Abraham ,. fromjerz..·ingother,~ods, Jofhr. xxiv.q .. . God givesAbra– h :zm'a more clear and full revelation, and he communiq.tes the fame to his family, Gm. xviii. I 9; yet the natural dark:o mJs wears it out at length, fave that it was preferved among the pofl:erity ofJacob. They beingcarried down intoEgypt, . that darknefs prevailed fo', as to leave them very little 1enfe of true religion; and a. new revelation behaved to be made them in the wildernefs: And many a cloud of da.rknefs got above that, now and then, during the time fromMojes to ' Chrill-. \!\.' hen Chrifi came, the world was divid,ed into , , :Je~UJJ andG-'entiles. TheJe{wJ,and the true light with them, , were within an incloftue, Pfal. cxlvii. 19, 20 , Betwix~ them and t}j.e Gentile world, there was a partition-wall o{ · God's ma_king, namely, the ce1emoniaUaw; and upen that ·there was reared up another of m~n's own making, namely . ~rooted enmity betwixt the parties-,- Eph .ji, 1-4, I 5. If we :· look abroad.w'itlwut the indofure (ind except thofe profe .,. · lytes of. the Gen.tiles, who, ,by ~ea,ns. of fome rays of light · br.eaking forth unto them from within the ioclofure, h~ving l'enounced ido'Jatr:y, worf!!ipped the .true G0d, but 6iid not ' -<:qnform to theMofaical rites) we fee nothing but d.arkp(acu ·· cf~ the earth,fttl! of the habita(ion£ of cruelty,, Pfal. Jxxiv. :~o. Grofs.darknefs covered the face cf the Gentile world, and the way 'of falvation was utterly unknown among the-m. '– They were drpwnecf in fuperftition and idolatr.y; and had ' lllUltiplied their idols to {uch avafi number, that abo'~-e thirty , ·thloufand are reckoned to have been wor4hippe3 by'th'ofe of · Ji1urope .alone. ,Whate.ver. wifdom was among their,philofo_- - .. - _ • ', _ p~ers;) ,
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