008 JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN CHURRHES. afar off from God, being neglected by him, and by their iniquí ties and their wretchedness, they appeared as children of wrath under divine displeasure; Eph. H. 3. By their own practice they abandoned God, and were without God in the world ; Eph. ii. 11, 12. They were children of disobedience, as to the true God : They had another God, or ruler, even the devil, who is called the god of this world, this heathen world, and him they obeyed, he was their God ; 2 Cor. iv. 4. Ile ruled in them as their prince, and they were carried captive by him, at his plea- sure; Eph. ii. 2. To him they sacrificed, even to devils, and not to the true God ; 1 Cor. x. 20.. Theywalked in darkness, and ignorance; Eph. iv. 17, 18. and were alienated from the life of God, because of the blindness of their heart; they were dead in trespasses andsin, following the lusts of the flesh, and of the mind, that is, carnal and spiritual iniquities ; Eph. ii. 3. uncir- cumcised in flesh and heart, undevoted to God, strangers or aliens from the covenant of promise, without Christ, and without hope; verse 12, this is their literal character. And as the Israelites are evidently figures of God's true in- visible church, his rest saints, or holy ones ; so the Gentiles are, evidently, a figure and emblem of all the sinful world, the un- holy, unconverted part of mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, whom I have before described, as iu a state of corrupt nature, in the first proposition; and who are not born of God, or renewed by grace, and repentance, and a sincere change of heart. The word uncircumcision, is the very name and literal character of the Gentiles, and it is used to signify sinful souls, unholy, and unbeloved of Gal ; Jer. ix. 26. The house of Israel is uncir- cumcised, that is, Gentiles in heart, and unsanctified. In Rom. ii. 25-29. the words circumcision and uncircumcision, are used both in their spiritual sense, to signify holiness and unholiness, as well as, in their literal sense, to denote Judaism and Gentilism ; verse 25. If thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision, that is, thy person, notwithstanding all its marks of mortification, is counted unholy, unsanetified in the G sight of God. The entiles are described, as a sinful charac- ter ; Gal. ii. 15. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles. And some suppose the ungodly; Rom. iv. 5. and Rom. v. 6. to signify the Gentiles, where Paul says, who be- lieveth on him, that justifieth the ungodly; .and when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 'The Gentiles, and the ungodly, or sinners, are used as syuoni- mous terms ; and the descriptions of them, in scripture, are much the same. The working of the will of the Gentiles, is an expression to signify a sinful course of life, or 'an unconverted state,. even by the apostle Peter who was a Jew ; 1 Pet. iv., 3. Yet, I would lay down this caution, that I do not, hereby,
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