the chief rulers and governors of his church, are reprefented by the ftewards of a great family, ver. 42. Who then is that faithful and wife fteward, whom his Lord Jhall make ruler over his houfhold, to give them their portion of meat in due feafon? if he dif charge his duty, bleffed is he; but if he fhall take occafion in his Lord's abfence to domineer over his fellow-fervants, and riotoufly to wafte his Lord's goods, his Lord, when he comes, will punifh him after a more fevere and exemplary manner.

And then follows the application of the whole, in the words of the text, And that fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten with many ftripes. As if he had faid, and well may fuch a fervant deferve fo fevere a punishment, who having fuch a trust committed to him, and knowing his Lord's will fo much better, yet does contrary to it; upon which our Saviour takes occafion to compare the fault and punishment of those who have greater advantages and opportunities of knowing their duty, with thofe who are ignorant of it; That fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to it, shall be beaten with many ftripes: But he that knew not, but did commit things worthy of ftripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And then he adds the reafon and equity of this proceeding, For unto whomsoever much is given, of him Shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The words in general do allude to that law of the Jews, mentioned Deut. xxv. 2. where the judge is required to fee the malefactor punifhed according to his fault, by a certain number of ftripes; in relation to which known law among the Jews, our Saviour here fays, that those who knew their Lord's will, and did it not, fhould be beaten with many stripes: But those who knew it not, fhould be beaten with few tripes. So that there are two obfervations ly plainly before us in the words:

First, That the greater advantages and opportuni ties any man hath of knowing his duty, if he do it

not,

not, the greater will be his condemnation; the fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to it, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Secondly, That ignorance is a great excufe of mens faults, and will leffen their punishment, but he that knew not, but did commit things worthy of stripes, fhall be beaten with few ftripes.

I fhall begin with the latter of these first, because it will make way for the other, viz. That ignorance is a great excufe of mens faults, and will leffen their punishment; he that knew not, but did commit things worthy of ftripes, shall be beaten with few fripes.

For the clearing of this, it will be requifite to confider what ignorance it is which our Saviour here fpeaks of; and this is neceffary to be enquired into, because it is certain that there is fome fort of ignorance which doth wholly excufe and clear from all manner of guilt; and there is another fort, which doth either not at all, or very little extenuate the faults of men; fo that it must be a third fort different from both thefe, which our Saviour here means.

First, There is an ignorance which doth wholly excufe and clear from all manner of guilt, and that is an abfolute and invincible ignorance, when a perfon is wholly ignorant of the thing, which if he knew, he fhould be bound to do, but neither can nor could have helped it, that he is ignorant of it; that is, he either had not the capacity, or wanted the means and opportunity of knowing it. In this cafe a perfon is in no fault if he did not do what he never knew, nor could know to be his duty. For God measures the faults of men, by their wills, and if there be no defect there, there can be no guilt; for no man is guilty, but he that is confcious to himfelf that he would not do what he knew he ought to do, or would do what he knew he ought not to do: Now if a man be fimply and invincibly ignorant of his duty, his neglect of it is altogether involuntary; for the will hath nothing to do, where the understanding doth not first direct. And this is the cafe of children VOL. V.

who

who are not yet come to the ufe of reafon; for though they may do that which is materially a fault, yet it is none in them, because by reafon of their incapacity, they are at prefent invincibly ignorant of what they ought to do. And this is the cafe likewife of idiots, who are under a natural incapacity of knowledge, and fo far as they are fo, nothing that they do is imputed to them as a fault. The fame may be faid of distracted perfons, who are deprived either wholly, or at fome times of the use of their understandings: fo far, and fo long as they are thus deprived, they are free from all guilt, and to perfons who have the free and perfect ufe of their reafon, no neglect of any duty is imputed, of which they are abfolutely and invincibly ignorant. For instance, it is a duty incumbent upon all mankind, to believe in the Son of God, where he is fufficiently manifefted and revealed to them; but thofe who never heard of him, nor had any opportunity of coming to the knowledge of him, fhall not be condemned for this infidelity, because it is impoffible they fhould believe on him of whom they never heard. They may indeed be condemned upon other accounts, for finning against the light of nature, and for not obeying the law which was written in their hearts; for what the Apoftle fays of the revelation of the law, is as true of any other revelation of God, as many as have finned without law, fhall alfo perish without law; and as many as have finned under the law, shall be judged by the law, Rom. ii. 12. In like manner, thofe who have finned without the gofpel, (that is, who never had the knowledge of it) fhall not be condemned for any offence against that revelation which was never made to them, but for their violation of the law of nature; only they that have finned under the gospel, fhall be judged by it.

Secondly, There is likewife another fort of ignorance, which either does not at all, or very little exzenuate the faults of men, when men are not only ignorant, but chufe to be fo; that is, when they wil fully neglect thofe means and opportunities of knowledge which are afforded to them; fuch as Job fpeaks of, Job xxi. 14. Who say unto God, Depart from

399 from us, for we defire not the knowledge of thy ways. And this fort of ignorance many among the Jews were guilty of, when our Saviour came and preached to them, but they would not be inftructed by him; the light came among them, but they loved darknefs rather than light, as he himself fays of them; and as he fays elsewhere of the Pharifees, they rejected the council of God against themselves, they wilfully fhut their eyes against that light which offered itfelf to them; they would not fee with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts, that they might be converted and healed. Now an ignorance in this degree wilful, can hardly be imagined to carry any excufe at all in it. He that knew not his Lord's will, because he would not know it, becaufe he wilfully rejected the means of coming to the knowledge of it, deferves to be beaten with as many ftripes as if he had known it; because he might have known it, and would not. He that will not take notice of the King's proclamation, or will ftop his ears when it is read, and afterwards offends againft it, does equally deferve punishment with thofe who have read it, and heard it, and difobeyed it; because he was as grofly faulty in not knowing it; and there is no rea fon that any man's grofs fault fhould be his excufe.

So that it is neither of thefe forts of ignorance that our Saviour means, neither abfolute and invincible ignorance, nor that which is grofsly wilful and affected. For the firft, men deserve not be beaten at all, because they cannot help it; for the latter, they deferve not to be excufed, because they might have helped their ignorance, and would not..

But our Saviour here fpeaks of fuch an ignorance as does in a good degree extenuate the fault, and yet not wholly excufe it; for he fays of them, that they knew not their Lord's will, and yet that this igno rance did not wholly excufe them from blame, nor exempt them from punishment, but they should be beaten with few stripes. In the

Third place then, there is an ignorance which is in fome degree faulty, and yet does in a great measure excufe the faults which proceed from it; and this is when

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men are not abfolutely ignorant of their duty, but only in comparison of others, who have a far more clear and diftin&t knowledge of it; and though they do not grofsly and wilfully neglect the means of further knowledge, yet perhaps they do not make the beft ufe they might of the opportunities they have of knowing their duty better; and therefore, in comparifon of others who have far better means and advantages of knowing their Lord's will, they may be faid not to know it, though they are not fimply ignorant of it, but only have a more obfcure and uncertain knowledge of it. Now this ignorance does in a great measure excufe fuch perfons, and extenuate their crimes, in comparison of those who had a clearer and more perfect knowledge of their mafter's will, and yet it does not free them from all guilt; because they did not live up to that degree of knowledge which they had; and perhaps if they had used more care and induftry, they might have known their Lord's will better. And this was the cafe of the Heathen, who, in comparison of those who enjoyed the light of the gofpel, might be faid not to have known their Lord's will, though, as to many parts of their duty, they had fome directions from natural light, and their confciences did urge them to many things by the obfcure apprehenfions and hopes of a future reward, and the fear of a future punishBut this was but a very obfcure and uncertain knowledge, in comparison of the clear light of the gofpel, which hath difcovered to us our duty fo plainly by the laws and precepts of it, and hath prefented us with fuch powerful motives and arguments to obedience in the promifes and threatenings of it. And this likewife is the cafe of many Chriftians, who either through the natural flowness of their understandings, or by the neglect of their parents and teachers, or other circumstances of their education, have had far lefs means and advantages of knowledge than others. God does not expect fo much from thofe, as from others, to whom he hath given greater capacity, and advantages of knowledge; and when our Lord fhall come to call his fervants to an

ment.

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