And as to the other two tribes; though their kings were always of the family of David, and they were favored in many respects far beyond their brethren, yet they were generally very corrupt; their kings were most of them wicked men, and their other magistrates, and priests and people, were generally agreed in the corruption. Thus the matter is represented in the scripture history, and the books of the prophets. And when they had seen how God had cast off the ten tribes, instead of taking warning, they made themselves vastly more vile than ever the others had done; as appears by 2 Kings xvii. 18, 19. Ezek. xvi. 46, 47, 51. God indeed waited lon ger upon them, for his servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, that he had chosen ; and used more extraordinary means with them; especially by those great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, but to no effect: So that at last it came to this, as the prophets represent the matter, that they were like a body universally and desperately diseased and corrupted, that would admit of no cure, the whole head sick, and the whole heart faint, &c.

Things being come to that pass, God took this method with them: He utterly destroyed their city and land, and the temple which he had among them, made thorough work in purging the land of them; as when a man empties a dish, wipes it, and turns it upside down; or when a vessel is cast into a fierce fire, till its filthiness is thoroughly burnt out. 2 Kings xxi. 13. Ezek. Chap. xxiv. They were carried into captivity, and there left till that wicked generation was dead, and those old rebels were purged out; that afterwards the land might be resettled with a more pure generation.

After the return from the captivity, and God had built the Jewish church again in their own land, by a series of wonderful providences; yet they corrupted themselves again, to so great a degree, that the transgressors were come to the full again in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes; as the matter is represented in the prophecy of Daniel, Dan. viii. 23. And then God made them the the subjects of a dispersation, little, if any thing, less terrible than that which had been in Nebuchadnezzar's days. And after God had again delivered

them, and restored the state of religion among them, by the instrumentality of the Maccabees, they degenerated again; so that when Christ came, they were arrived to that extreme degree of corruption, which is represented in the accounts given by the evangelists.

It may be observed here in general, that the Jews, though so vastly distinguished with advantages, means and motives to holiness, yet are represented as coming, from time to time, to that degree of corruption and guilt, that they were more wicked in the sight of God, than the very worst of the Heathen. As, of old, God sware by his life, that the wickedness of Sodom was small, compared with that of the Jews. Ezek. xvi. 47, 48, &c. also chap. v. 5....10. So Christ, speaking of the Jews in his time, represents them as having much greater guilt than the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, or even Sodom and Gomorrah.

But we are now come to the time when the grandest scene was displayed, that ever was opened on earth. After all other schemes had been so long and so thoroughly tried, and had so greatly failed of success, both among Jews and Gentiles; that wonderful dispensation was at length introduced, which was the greatest scheme for the suppressing and restraining iniquity among mankind, that ever infinite wisdom and mercy contrived, even the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. "A new dispensation of grace was erected (to use Dr. Taylor's own words, p. 239, 240) for the more certain and effectual sanctification of mankind, into the image of God; the delivering them from the sin and wickedness, into which they might fall, or were already fallen; to redeem them from all iniquity, and bring them to the knowledge and obedience of God." In whatever high and exalted terms the scripture speaks of the means and motives which the Jews enjoyed of old; yet their privileges are represented as having no glory, in comparison of the advantages of the gospel. Dr. Taylor's words in p. 233, are worthy to be here repeated. "Even the Heathen (says he) knew God, and might have glorified him as God; but under the glorious light of the gospel, we have very clear ideas of the divine perfections,

and particularly of the love of God as our Father, and as the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We see our duty in the utmost extent, and the most cogent reasons to perform it: We have eternity opened to us, even an endless state of honor and felicity, the reward of virtuous actions, and the Spirit of God promised for our direction and assistance. And all this may and ought to be applied to the purifying our minds, and the perfecting of holiness. And to those happy advantages we are born, for which we are bound for ever to praise and magnify the rich grace of God in the Redeemer." And he elsewhere says, "The gospel constitution is a scheme the most perfect and effectual for restoring true religion, and promoting virtue and happiness, that ever the world has yet seen." Andt admirably adapted to enlight. en our minds, and sanctify our hearts; And‡ never were mo◄ tives so divine and powerful proposed, to induce us to the practice of all virtue and goodness.

And yet even these means have been ineffectual upon the far greater part of them with whom they have been used; of the many that have been called, few have been chosen.

As to the Jews, God's ancient people, with whom they were used in the first place, and used long by Christ and his apostles, the generality of them rejected Christ and his gospel, with extreme pertinaciousness of spirit. They not only. went on still in that career of corruption which had been increasing from the time of the Maccabees; but Christ's coming, and his doctrine and miracles, and the preaching of his followers, and the glorious things that attended the same, were the occasion, through their perverse misimprovement, of an infinite increase of their wickedness. They crucified the Lord of Glory with the utmost malice and cruelty, and persecuted his followers; they pleased not God, and were contrary to all men; and went on to grow worse and worse, till they filled up the measure of their sin, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost; and they were destroyed, and

* Key. § 167. + Note on Rom. i. 16. Pref. to Par. on Rom. pages

145, 47.

cast out of God's sight, with unspeakably greater tokens of the divine abhorrence and indignation, than in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. The bigger part of the whole nation were slain, and the rest were scattered abroad through the earth, in the most abject and forlorn circumstances. And in the same spirit of unbelief and malice against Christ and the gospel, and in their miserable, dispersed circumstances, do they remain to this day.

And as to the Gentile nations, though there was a glorious success of the gospel amongst them in the apostles' days, yet probably not one in ten of those that had the gospel preached. to them, embraced it. The powers of the world were set against it, and persecuted it with insatiable malignity. And among the professors of Christianity, there presently appeared in many a disposition to corruption, and to abuse the gospel unto the service of pride and licentiousness. And the apostles, in their days, foretold a grand apostasy of the Christian world, which should continue many ages, and observed that there appeared a disposition to such an apostasy, among professing Christians, even in that day, 2 Thess. ii. 7. And the greater part of the ages which have now elapsed, have been spent in the duration of that grand and general apostasy, under which the Christian world, as it is called, has been transformed into that which has been vastly more deformed, more dishonorable and hateful to God, and repugnant to true virtue, than the state of the Heathen world before; which is agreeable to the prophetical descriptions given of it by the Holy Spirit.

In these latter ages of the Christian church, God has raised up a great number of great and good men, to bear testimony against the corruptions of the church of Rome, and by their means introduced that light into the world, by which, in a short time, at least one third part of Europe was delivered from the more gross enormities of Antichrist; which was attended at first with a great reformation as to vital and practical religion. But how is the gold soon become dim! To what a pass are things come in Protestant countries at this day, and in our nation in particular! To

what a prodigious height has a deluge of infidelity, profaneness, luxury, debauchery and wickedness of every kind, arisen! The poor savage Americans are mere babes and fools, (if I may so speak) as to proficiency in wickedness, in comparison of multitudes that the Christian world throngs with. Dr. Tay. lor himself, as was before observed, represents that the generality of Christians have been the most wicked, lewd, bloody, and treacherous of all mankind; and says, (Key, § 388) "The wickedness of the Christian world renders it so much like the Heathen, that the good effects of our change to Christianity are but little seen."

And with respect to the dreadful corruption of the present day, it is to be considered, besides the advantages already mentioned, that great advances in learning and philosophic knowledge haye been made in the present and past century, giving great advantage for a proper and enlarged exercise of our rational powers, and for our seeing the bright manifestation of God's perfections in his works. And it is to be ob served, that the means and inducements, to virtue, which this age enjoys, are in addition to most of those which were mentioned before as given of old, and among other things, in addition to the shortening of man's life to seventy or eighty years, from near a thousand. And with regard to this, I would observe, that as the case now is in Christendom, take one with another of them that ever come to years of discretion, their life is not more than forty or fortyfive years; which is but about the twentieth part of what it once was; and not so much in great cities, places where profaneness, sensuality and debauchery commonly prevail to the greatest degree.

Dr. Taylor, (Key, § 1) truly observes, that God has, from the beginning, exercised wonderful and infinite wisdom, in the methods he has, from age to age, made use of to oppose vice, cure corruption, and promote virtue in the world, and introduced several schemes to that end. It is indeed remarkable, how many schemes and methods were tried of old, both before and after the flood; how many were used in the times of the Old Testament, both with Jews and Heathens, and how ineffectual all these ancient methods proved for four hundred