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The same inspired writer says, Eccles. ix. 3. "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil; and madness is in their heart while they live; and after that they go to the dead." If these general expressions are to be understood only of some, and those the less part, when in general, truth, honesty, good nature, &c. govern the world, why are such general expressions from time to time used? Why does not this wise and noble, and great soul'd Prince express himself in a more generous and benevolent strain, as well as more agreeable to truth, and say, Wisdom is in the hearts of the sons of men while they live, &c....instead of leaving in his writings so many sly, illnatured suggestions, which pour such contempt on the human nature, and tend so much to excite mutual jealousy and malevolence, to taint the minds of mankind through all generations after him?

If we consider the various successive parts and periods of the duration of the world, it will, if possible, be yet more evident, that vastly the greater part of mankind have, in all ages, been of a wicked character. The short accounts we have of Adam and his family are such as lead us to suppose, that far the greatest part of his posterity in his life time, yea, in the former part of his life were wicked. It appears, that his eldest son, Cain, was a very wicked man, who slew his righteous brother Abel. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years before Seth was born; and by that time, we may suppose, his posterity began to be considerably numerous: When he was born, his mother called his name Seth; for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel. Which naturally suggests this to our thoughts; that of all her seed then existing, none were of any such note for religion and virtue, as that their parents could have any great comfort in them, or expectation from them on that account, And by the brief history we have, it looks as if (however there might be some intervals of a revival of religion, yet) in the general, mankind grew more and more corrupt till the flood. It is signified, that when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, wickedness prevailed exceedingly, Gen. vi. at the beginning. And that before God appeared to Noah, to comVOL. VI. 2 A

smallness of the number of them that are saved, as a consequence of the peculiar perverseness of that people, and of that generation; but as a consequence of the general circumstances of the way to life, and the way to destruction, the broadness of the one, and the narrowness of the other. In the straitness of the gate, &c. I suppose none will deny, that Christ has respect to the strictness of those rules, which he had insisted on in the preceding sermon, and which render the way to life very difficult to mankind. But certainly these amiable rules would not be difficult, were they not contrary to the natural inclinations of men's hearts; and they would not be contrary to those inclinations, were these not depraved. Consequently the wideness of the gate, and broadness of the way, that leads to destruction, in consequence of which many go in thereat, must imply the agreeableness of this way to men's natural inclinations. The like reason is given by Christ, why few are saved. Luke xiii. 23, 24. “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the strait gåte: For many I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." That there are generally but few good men in the world, even among them that have those most distinguishing and glori ous advantages for it, which they are favored with, that live under the gospel, is evident by that saying of our Lord, from time to time in his mouth, many are called, but few are chosen. And if there are but few among these, how few, how very few indeed, must persons of this character be, compared with the whole world of mankind? The exceeding smallness of the number of true saints, compared with the whole world, appears by the representations often made of them as distinguished from the world; in which they are spoken of as called and chosen out of the world, redeemed from the earth, redeemed from among men; as being those that are of God, while the whole world lieth in wickedness, and the like. And if we look into the Old Testament, we shall find the same testimony given. Prov. xx. 6. "Most men will proclaim every man his own goodness: But a faithful man who can find?" By a faithful man, as the phrase is used in scripture,

is intended much the same as a sincere, upright, or truly good man; as in Psal. xii. 1, and xxxi. 23, and ci. 6, and other places. Again, Eccl. vii. 25....29. "I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to find out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness: And I find more bitter than death, the woman whose heart is snares, &c....Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account, which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: One man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all these have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Solomon here signifies, that when he set himself diligently to find out the account or proportion of true wisdom, or thorough uprightness among men, the result was, that he found it to be but as one to a thousand, &c. Dr. Taylor on this place, p. 184, says, "The wise man in the context, is inquiring into the corruption and depravity of mankind, of the men and women, that lived in his time." As though what he said represented nothing of the state of things in the world in general, but only in his time. But does Dr. Taylor or any body else, suppose this only to be the design of that book, to represent the vanity and evil of the world in that time, and to shew that all was vanity and vexation of spirit in Solomon's day? (Which day truly we have reason to think, was a day of the greatest smiles of heaven on that nation, that ever had been on any nation from the foundation of the world.) Not only does the subject and argument of the whole book shew it to. be otherwise; but also the declared design of the book in the first chapter; where the world is represented as very much the same, as to the vanity and evil it is full of, from age to age, making little or no progress, after all its revolutions and restless motions, labors and pursuits, like the sea, that has all the rivers constantly emptying themselves into it, from age to age, and yet is never the fuller. As to that place, Prov. "A faithful man, who can find?" There is no more reason to suppose that the wise man has respect only to his time, in thesewords, than in those immediately preceding,

XX. 6.

mand him to build the Ark, one hundred and twenty years beż fore the flood, the world had long continued obstinate in great and general wickedness, and the disease was become inveterate. The expressions we have in the 3, 5, and 6 verses of that chapter suggest as much: "And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man; and God saw, that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil, only evil continually; and it repented the Lord, that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." And by that time, all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, v. 12. And as Dr. Taylor himself observes, p. 122. "Mankind were universally debauched into lust, sensuality, rapine, and injustice."

And with respect to the period after the flood, to the calling of Abraham; Dr. Taylor says, as has been already observed, that in about four hundred years after the flood, the generality of mankind were fallen into idolatry; which was before the passing away of one generation; or before all they were dead, that came out of the Ark. And it cannot be thought, the world sunk into that so general and extreme degree of corruption, all at once; but that they had been gradually growing more and more corrupt; though it is true, it must be by very swift degrees, (however soon we may suppose they began) to get to that pass in one age.

And as to the period from the calling of Abraham to the coming of Christ, Dr. Taylor justly observes as follows: (Key, p. 133.) "If we reckon from the call of Abraham to the coming of Christ, the Jewish dispensation continued one thousand nine hundred and twentyone years; during which period, the other families and nations of the earth, not only lay out of God's peculiar kingdom, but also lived in idolatry, great ignorance, and wickedness." And with regard to that one only exempt family or nation of the Israelites, it is evident that wickedness was the generally prevailing character among them, from age to age. If we consider how it was with Jacob's family, the behavior of Reuben with his father's concubine, the behavior of Judah with Tamar, the conduct of

Jocob's sons in general (though Simeon and Levi were leading) towards the Shechemites, the behavior of Joseph's ten brethren in their cruel treatment of him; we cannot think, that the character of true piety belonged to many of them, acaccording to Dr. Taylor's own notion of such a character; though it be true, they might afterwards repent. And with respect to the time the children of Israel were in Egypt; the scripture, speaking of them in general, or as a collective body, often represents them as complying with the abominable idolatries of the country. And as to that generation which went out of Egypt, and wandered in the wilderness, they are abundantly represented as extremely and almost universally wicked, perverse, and children of divine wrath. And after Joshua's death, the scripture is very express, that wickedness was the prevailing character in the nation, from age to age. So it was till Samuel's time. 1 Sam. viii. 7, 8. "They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them; according to all their works which they have done, since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, unto this day." Yea, so it was till Jeremiah and Ezekiel's time. Jer. xxxii. 30, 31. "For the children of Israel, and the children of Judah, have only done evil before me from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the Lord: For this city hath been to me a provocation of mine anger, and of my fury, from the day they built it, even unto this day." (Compare chap. v. 21, 23, and chap. vii. 25....27.) So Ezek. ii. 3, 4. "I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation, that hath rebelled against me, they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day: For they are impudent children, and stiffhearted." And it appears by the discourse of Stephen (Acts vii.) that this was generally the case with that nation, from their first rise, even to the days of the apostles. After his summary rehearsal of the instances of their perverseness from the very time of their selling Joseph into Egypt, he concludes (Verse 51....53.) "Ye stiffnecked, and uncir

Levit. xvii, 7. Josh. v. 9, and xxiv, 14. Ezek, xx. 7, 8, and xxiii. 3.