Useful remarks. An essay upon remarkables in the way of wicked men

We are now ready to proceed upon our more Special Enquiries. And these will be no more than Two.

I. What is there to be Marked in the Way that Wicked Men have trodden; or, what shall we find Remarkable in the Way of wicked Men! Many Remarks are to be made upon it. I will Single out a few, that will be as Useful, as they are Obvious.

First. We may Mark this in the Way that Wicked Men have trodden; Tis an old Way. It is a just observation, which a famous & an acute Scotch Expositor has upon my Text; That Sin is a very Old Trade in the World. We read, Joh. 8. 44 It was from the Beginning. Sin was committed in the very Beginning of the World. The World had not been begun long before the Way of Sin was taken up. Tis true, the Way of Sin is not so old, as the Way of Truth Our Excellent Caryl has well Expressed it; Tho' man quickly went out of the Way, surely, his First step was not out of the Way. He went Right before he went Wrong; he stood before he fell. But then, the way of Sin is very old. In the Sinful ways of men, to seek after a Felicity in things under the Sun, here tis that it has been said, There is no New Thing under the Sun. Tis no New Thing for men to Sin against God. And tho' men are Inventers of Evil Things, yet there is rarely ⟨p. 6⟩any sort of Sin committed in our days, but what was committed in the Days of old. Indeed, we read, Jer. 6. 16 Ask for the old paths, where is the Good way, and walk therein. There is a Good old Way. And it is the oldest Way. The Greatest Antiquity is to be pleaded for that Way. But then, there is an •ll way, that is also an old Way. The Way o Sin, is a very beaten Way It was trodden, as here we find in the Old World, and long before the Flood. It was that Way, that the Flood rushed in upon the world. One gives this Paraphrase on my Text. Hast thou marked the Way of the old World? An Old Way; Very near, very near, as old as the World. The very first man, that was born into the World, proved a wicked man. Of Wicked men in our Days, We read, Jud. 11. They have gone in the way of Cain. The Nature of Man was betimes depraved with corruption. Ah, Mankind, How Early didst thou rise, & corrupt all thy Doings? Men have naturally taken the way of Sin, ever since our First Fall from God. And, how Quickly did we fall! Man in Honour, How few Nights didst thou continue so? The Way of Sin is more than five Thousand and seven Hundred Years old. It is no Apology or an Evil thing; Tis no more than what others have done before me. The via trita, is not always via tuta. It may be an old Way, and yet not a safe Way. It may be