280 ON THE CORRUPTION they should not confine themselves to relate the sins of these alone. Why are the errors, the weaknesses, and even the crimes of the best men re- corded with equal fidelity? Why are we told of the twice repeated deceit of the father of the faithful ? Why of the single instance of vanity in Hezekiab ? Why of the too impetuous zeal of Elijah ? Why of the error of the almost perfect Moses ? Why of the insincerity of Jacob ? Why of the far darker crimes of the otherwise holy David ? Why of the departure of the wisest of men from that piety displayed with sublimity unparal- leled in the dedication of the Temple ? Why seems it to have been invariably .studied, to record with more minute de- tail the vices and errors of these eminent men, than even those of the successive impious kings of Israel, and of Judah ; while these last are generally dismissed with the brief, but melancholy sentence, that they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord ; followed only by too
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