SECT. I. A confutation of Judaism, beginning with an address to the Jews.

NOW we are coming out of the thick darkness of heathenism: the Jewish religion, which is a part and the beginning of truth, appears to us, much like twilight to a person gradually advancing out of a very dark cave: wherefore I desire the Jews, that they would not look upon us as adversaries. We know very well, that they are the offspring of holy men, whom God often visited by his prophets and his angels;⁵³⁷⁵³⁷   This, and what follows, is taken out of the ixth, xth, and xith, of the Romans; to which may be added Matt. v. 21. that the Messiah was born of their nation, as were the first teachers of Christianity: they were the stock into which we were grafted: to them were committed the oracles of God, which we respect as much as they; and with Paul put up our hearty prayers to God for them, beseeching him that that day may very speedily Dome when the veil which now hangs over their faces,⁵³⁸⁵³⁸   2 Cor. iii. 14, 10, 16. being taken off, they, together with us, may clearly perceive 182the fulfilling of the law;⁵³⁹⁵³⁹   Rom. iii. 21. viii. 14. x. 4. xiii. 8. Gal. iii. 24. and when, according to the ancient prophecies, many of us, who are strangers, shall lay hold of the skirt of a Jew, praying him, that with equal piety we may worship that one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.⁵⁴⁰⁵⁴⁰   Zech. viii. 20, and following. Isaiah ii. 2. xix. 18. and 24. Micah iv. 2. Hosea iii. 4. Rom. xi. 52.