not only finned in Practice, but I am totally and " universally corrupt in my very Nature."

This He acknowledges, not to extenuate his Offence, but to lay open his excessive Vileness. And indeed it is not poffible, to form a right Judgment of Ourselves, or to be duly humbled before GOD, unless We add the Depravation of our Nature to the Tranfgreffions of our Life. Just as it is impossible to difcern, what monstrous and voracious Animals lie hid in the Ocean, if We only glance an Eye upon the Surface of the Waters.

Ther. This, You know, was written by the royal Penitent, under the Pangs of a severe Remorse.. Does not a Sense of his enormous Iniquity, toge-. ther with the Apprehenfion of divine Wrath, cause his Hand to shake, and lead Him to aggravate Features? Or, suppose it were true of the adulterous King, is it equally applicable to Others, who have escaped such gross Pollutions?

Afp. It is no exaggerating Draught, but a faithful Delineation; and exactly represents every Child of Adam. It was written with the utmost Deliberation; and therefore is introduced with that Call for peculiar Attention, Behold! - And, though David was fcandaloufly criminal in his Intrigue with the Wife of Uriah; yet, the general Tenour of his Life was not only irreproachable, but exemplary. Who fo zealous for the House of GOD, or fo devoted an Admirer of the divine Word? His Heart was an Altar, ever flaming with heavenly Love; and his Tongue a Trumpet, to found the Praises of JEHOVAH through all Generations. And if He had Reason to make this abasing Confeffion; who

is

is the Person, that can think Himfelf aggrieved, by sharing in the Imputation?

One of our most eminent Martyrs *, when He heard of any Malefactor, condemned to fuffer an. ignominious Death, used to lay his Hand upon his Breaft, and fay" The Seeds of all those Villanies, " which brought that unhappy Wretch to the Gib"bet, were sown Here. If they have not sprung

८८

up into the same detestable Deeds, unto divine "Grace, unto divine Grace alone, be all the "Glory!"

Ther. Your Martyrs had honest Hearts, but not always the clearest Heads. I admire their Zeal, and reverence their Memories. But I can no more receive their Opinion as an Oracle, than I can be perfuaded to worship their Relics.

Afp. I have no Intention to palm Popery on my Friend, nor any Defire to calumniate the human Species. If it be difingenuous and finful, to asperse a particular Character; how much more unjustifiable, to traduce our Nature in general!

My Account, dark and disgustful as it is, stands confirmed by a higher Authority, than any private Opinion. It is confirmed from an univerfal Survey of Mankind; taken by the Eye of the CREATOR Himself, and left upon Record in the Books of Revelation. The LORD looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men, to see if there were Any that did understand, and feek after GOD.-What is the Result of this grand Enquiry? It must, without all Peradventure, be infallibly true. Because GOD's Inspection is too keen, to be eluded; and

his Judgment too impartial, to be biassed. This is

13

• Mr. Bradford.

the

the Report, made by the infinitely wife OBSERVER: They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy *; there is None that doeth Good, no not One.

Ther. This, I apprehend, is the Character of those besotted Creatures, those most egregious of all Fools, Who say, There is no GOD. To them the Pfalm relates, and to them the abandoned Character is appropriated. They have it, if I may so speak, Cam Privilegio.

Afp. It is meant rather of practical, than of speculative Atheists; who say, if not explicitly with their Mouths, yet implicitly in their Hearts, There is no GOD. Who live, as if there was no ALLSEEING EYE, to take Cognizance of their present Conduct; no Supreme JUDGE, to call them to a future Reckoning. Now I dare appeal to Yourself, though perhaps the fondest of Fathers, Whether this Instance of Foolishness, is not bound up in the Hearts of our Children t. Nay, I dare appeal

i

to

* Pfal. xiv. 2, 3. The two original Words סר נאלחו are metaphorical Expressions; taken from-Wines, that are become four-and Meats, that are in a Sate of Putrefaction. I believe, it is impossible to find Images, more strongly expressive of a total Depravity, and of the utmoft Degeneracy. Yet both these Images St. Paul has comprehended in one Word; διεφθαρμενων τον νεν, 1 Tim, vi. 5.

† Prov. xxii. 15. Let None think, that by Foolishness the sacred Writer means only those filly Tricks, which discover a Weakness of Understanding in Children. Solomon's Fool is not the Idiot, but the Sinner; and the Folly, ftigmatized throughout the Proverbs, denotes, not a Failure in the intellectual, but in the religious and moral Character,

The

to any unprejudiced Person; Whether it be not natural to Us all, both in Youth and Manhood, to forget our CREATOR?

In this Cafe, Theron, there is no Monopoly. Your Right and mine, are too strongly established by Experience, and too clearly expressed in the preceding Scripture, to admit of any Controverfy.If there were Any, that understood-They are all gone out of the Way-There is None, that doeth Good-No, not One. - Could any Conveyancer in Europe have contrived a Form of Words, more fully to ascertain our unhappy Title?

Ther. There may be some Texts in Scripture, which seem to countenance your Affertion. But these refer to the worst of Men, in the worst of Times. And can You, with any Justice, ascribe the Properties of a few Reprobates to the whole Species?

Afp. This very Passage, and others of a like Import, are adopted by St. Paul, and applied both to Jews and Gentiles; with this professed Design, that every Mouth may be stopped, and all the World may be found guilty * before GOD. Which evinces, I should

14

The Words, in this Passage, are peculiarly forcible. Foolishness is in the Heart; implanted in the very Nature; funk deep into the inmost Faculties. -And not only funk deep, but adheres almost inseparably : קשורה is wrapt, tied, and bound: twines like the Ivy, and is rooted like the Oak.

* Rom. iii. 19. Υποδικος γένηται, " May become guilty," does not so exactly answer the Scope of the Context, neither does it so solidly establish the Apoftle's Argument, as "may be found guilty;" be fully convicted, and apparently liable to most just Condemnation. -Thofe. Things were written of Old, and were quoted by St. Paul, not to render Men criminal, but to prove them so,

should think, beyond all Doubt, the Univerfality of

its Extent.

If to the Universality, We add the Antiquity of this Fact, it will bear the two grand Characteristics of Truth. Far from being a novel Opinion, it was received as a Maxim, in the early Age of Job. What is Man, that He should pretend to be clean? And He that is born of a Woman, that He should prefume to be righteous? Righteous before the infinitely JUST and HOLY ONE! Behold! He putteth no Trust in his Saints, though the most exalted of all intelligent Beings. Yea, the Heavens, those brightest Parts of the material Creation, are not clean in his Sight. How much more abominable and filthy is Man *? Who drinketh Iniquity; though lothesome to GOD, and worse than Poison to his own Soul; yet drinketh it like Water; without any Hesitation or the leaft Fear, with an eager and profuse Delight.

This, You will observe, was alledged in a Difpute, carried on with no small Vehemency. Yet is admitted, on all Hands, as unexceptionably true.Be pleased alfo to take Notice, That the Charge is not confined to some very notorious Sinners, but is laid against the whole Body of Mankind. Whatever Figure they may make, each in his own Conceit; they are all defcribed in the Word of GOD-as Beings, infatiably athirst after Evil - from Objects, which We cannot endure to behold; or cannot behold

*

Job xv. 14, 15, 16. The immaculate Purity of the bleffed GOD, and the utter Depravity of fallen Man, are Points of io great Importance in the scriptural System of Divinity, that they are inculcated no less than three Times, within the Compass of this fingle Book. And by wuch the fame noble Contrast of striking Images.. Chap. iv. 17, 18.-xv. 14, 15, 16.-xxv. 4, 5, 6.