account, they fhall be beaten with fewer ftripes than others: They shall not wholly escape, because they were not wholly ignorant; but by how much they had lefs knowledge than others, by fo much their punishment fhall be lighter.

And there is all the equity in the world it fhould be fo, that men fhould be accountable according to what they have received, and that to whom lefs is given, lefs fhould be required at their hands. The fcripture hath told us, that God will judge the world in righteousness; now juftice does require, that in taxing the punishment of offenders, every thing fhould be confidered that may be a juft excufe and extenuation of their crimes, and that accordingly their punishment fhould be abated. Now the greateft extenuation of any fault is ignorance, which when it proceeds from no fault of ours, no fault can proceed from it; fo that fo far as any man is innocently ignorant of his duty, fo far he is excufable for the neglect of it for every degree of ignorance takes off fo much from the perverfenefs of the will; nihil ardet in inferno, nifi propria voluntas; " Nothing is punifhed in hell, but what is voluntary, "and proceeds from our wills.'

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I do not intend this discourse for any commendation of ignorance, or encouragement to it. knowledge hath many advantages above it, and is much more defirable, if we use it well; and if we do not, it is our own fault. If we be not wanting to ourfelves, we may be much happier by our knowledge, than any man can be by his ignorance; for though ignorance may plead an excufe, yet it can hope for no reward; and it is always better to need no excufe, than to have the best in the world ready at hand to plead for ourfelves. Besides, that we may do well to confider, that ignorance is no where an excufe where it is cherished; fo that it would be the vaineft thing in the world for any man to fofter it, in hopes thereby to excufe himself; for where it is wilful and chofen, it is a fault, and (as I faid before) it is the most unreasonable thing in the world, that any man's fault fhould prove his excufe. So that this can be no en

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couragement to ignorance, to fay that it extenuates the faults of men: for it does not extenuate them, whenever it is wilful and affected; and whenever it is defigned and chofen, it is wilful; and then no man can reasonably defign to continue ignorant, that he may have an excufe for his faults, because then the ignorance is wilful, and whenever it is fo, it ceafeth to be an excufe.

I the rather fpeak this, because ignorance hath had the good fortune to meet with great patrons in the world, and to be extolled, though not upon this account, yet upon another, for which there is lefs pretence of reafon; as if it were the mother of devotion. Of fuperftition I grant it is, and of this we fee plentiful proof, among thofe who are fo careful to preferve and cherish it: but that true piety and devotion fhould fpring from it, is as unlikely, as that darknefs fhould produce light. I do hope indeed, and charitably believe, that the ignorance in which fome are detained by their teachers and governors, will be a real excufe, to as many of them as are otherwife honeft and fincere; but I doubt not, but the errors and faults which proceed from this ignorance, will ly heavy upon thofe who keep them in it. I proceed to the

Second obfervation, That the greater advantages and opportunities any man hath of knowing the will of God, and his duty, the greater will be his condemnation if he do not do it. The fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not bimfelf, neither did according to it, shall be beaten with many stripes. Which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himfelf; the preparation of our mind to do the will of God, whenever there is occafion and opportunity for it, is accepted with him. A will rightly difpofed to obey God, though it be not brought into act for want of opportunity, does not lofe its reward but when, notwithstanding we know our Lord's will, there are neither of thefe, neither the act, nor the preparation and refolution of doing it, what punishment may we not expect?

The juft God, in punishing the fins of men, pro

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portions the punishment to the crime, and where the crime is greater, the punishment rifeth; as amongst the Jews, where the crime was fmall, the malefactor was fentenced to a few ftripes; where it was great, he was beaten with many. Thus our Saviour reprefents the great Judge of the world dealing with finners; according as their fins are aggravated, he will add to their punishment. Now after all the aggravations of fin, there is none that doth more intrinfically heighten the malignity of it, than when it is committed against the clear knowledge of our duty, and that upon these three accounts:

First, Because the knowledge of God's great an advantage to the doing of it.

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Secondly, Because it is a great obligation upon us to the doing of it.

Thirdly, Because the neglect of our duty in this cafe, cannot be without a great deal of wilfulness and contempt. I fhall fpeak briefly to these three.

First, Because the knowledge of God's will is fo great an advantage to the doing of it; and every advantage of doing our duty, is a certain aggrava tion of our neglect of it. And this is the reafon which our Saviour adds here in the text, For to whom foever much is given, of them much will be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. It was, no doubt, a great dif couragement and difadvantage to the Heathen, that` they were fo doubtful concerning the will of God, and in many cafes left to the uncertainty of their own reafon, by what way and means they might beft apply themselves to the pleasing of him; and this difcouraged feveral of the wifeft of them from all ferious endeavours in religion, thinking it as good to do nothing, as to be mistaken about it. Others that were more naturally devout, and could not fatisfy their confciences without fome expreffions of religion, fell into various fuperftitions, and were ready to embrace any way of worship which custom prefcribed, or the fancies of men could fuggeft to them; and hence sprang all the ftupid and barbarous idolatries of the Heathen. For ignorance growing

upon

upon the world, that natural propenfion which was in the minds of men to religion, and the worship of a Deity, for want of certain direction, exprefled itfelf in thofe foolish and abominable idolatries, which were practised among the Heathen.

And is it not then a mighty advantage to us, that we have the clear and certain direction of divine revelation We have the will of God plainly difcovered to us, and all the parts of our duty clearly defined and determined, fo that no man, that is in any measure free from intereft and prejudice, can eafily mistake in any great and material part of his duty. We have the nature of God plainly revealed to us, and fuch a character of him given, as is most fuitable to our natural conceptions of a Deity, as render him both awful and amiable; for the fcripture reprefents him to us as great and good, powerful and merciful, a perfect hater of fin, and a great lover of mankind; and we have the law and manner of his worship, (fo far as was needful) and the rules of a good life clearly expreffed and laid down; and as a powerful motive and argument to the obedience of thofe laws, a plain difcovery made to us of the endless rewards and punishments of another world. And is not this a mighty advantage to the doing of God's will, to have it fo plainly declared to us, and fo powerfully enforced upon us? fo that our duty lies plainly before us; we fee what we have to do, and the danger of neglecting it fo that confidering the advantage we have of doing God's will, by our clear knowledge of it, we are altogether inexcufable if we do it not.

Secondly, The knowledge of our Lord's will is likewife a great obligation upon us to the doing of it. For what ought in reafon to oblige us more to do any thing, than to be fully affured that it is the will of God, and that it is the law of the great Sovereign of the world, who is able to fave, or to deftroy? That it is the pleafure of him that made us, and who hath declared that he defigns to make us happy, by our obedience to his laws? So that if we know these things to be the will of God, we have

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the greateft obligation to do them, whether we confider the authority of God, or our own intereft; and if we neglect them, we have nothing to fay in our own excufe. We know the law, and the advan tage of keeping it, and the penalty of breaking it; and if after this we will tranfgrefs, there is no apology to be made for us. They have fomething to plead for themfelves, who can fay, that though they had fome apprehenfion of fome parts of their duty, and their minds were apt to dictate to them that they ought to do fome things, yet the different apprehenfions of mankind about feveral of these things, and the doubts and uncertainties of their own minds concerning them, made them eafy to be carried off from their duty, by the vicious inclinations of their own nature, and the tyranny of cuftom and example, and the pleafant temptations of flesh and blood. But had they had a clear and undoubted revelation from God, and had certainly known these things to be his will, this would have conquered and born down all objections and temptations to the contrary; or, if it had not, would have ftopt their mouths, and taken away all excufe from them. There is fome colour in this plea, that in many cafes they did not know certainly what the will of God was: But for us who own a clear revelation from God, and profefs to believe it, what can we fay for ourselves, to mitigate the feverity of God towards us; why he should not pour forth all his wrath, and execute upon us the fiercenefs of his anger?

Thirdly, The neglect of God's will, when we know it, cannot be without a great deal of wilfulness and contempt. If we know it, and do it not, the fault is folely in our wills; and the more wilful any fin is, the more heinously wicked is it. There can hardly be a greater aggravation of a crime, than if it proceed from mere obftinacy and perverfenefs; and if we know it to be our Lord's will and do it not, we are guilty of the highest contempt of the greatest authority in the world. And do we think this to be but a small aggravation, to affront

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