whom God never revealed any part of his will; yet himself may fare well enough. Is not this a degree beyond madness itself? What does such an one think, that because he lives among religious people, and such as are well acquainted with the way to heaven, that himself shall be sure to go for company? Does he make no doubt of his part in the resurrection of the just, because he was born in England, or in such a year of our Lord, when the gospel flourished? Nay, shall it not be much more tolerable for the worst of heathens than for such a man?

49. For, if the heathens were left without excuse, because they knew not God, or, if they knew him, they did not honour him as God, whereas they were only instructed by the book of nature; the very main principle of all religion, namely—that there is a God, was a business of great labour, and required a good understanding to find out, being a conclusion to be collected and deduced from many experiments of his power, providence, and the like: shall those hope to escape, that pretend ignorance, after they may, if they refuse it not, have use of all that ever reason found out; nay, have before their eyes the sum and effect of all the sermons and instructions that ever any prophet or apostle made since the world began? If, after all this, there be any safety to be hoped for from ignorance, then have the apostles travelled, Christ preached, nay died, in vain.

50. But to return to our business in hand. Knowledge, at least in some measure, there must necessarily be, else no hope of salvation; and with knowledge there must of necessity be joined some proportionable measure of practice, else a

greater and more insupportable burden of woe and destruction. And the reason is evident out of those words of our Saviour, "To whom much is given, of him shall much be required." We must know, that there is not any good thing in the world wherein we have any propriety; we are only stewards, and have such things committed to our trust, and one day there will certainly be exacted a strict account, as of our riches, health, education, but much more our knowledge, and especially that knowledge, which is perfected only in practice such is the wisdom of a Christian.

51. What reason can be imagined, why God should take such pains, give such royal and precious graces to his servants the prophets and apostles, to enable them to make known his good will and pleasure, and what he commands us, and expects at our hands? Was all this performed, think we, to afford us only matter of table-talk? Does he exhort and persuade us, to hear and discourse? No, surely; he gave it us to profit withal both ourselves and others. And, therefore, where there is a more abundant plenty of knowledge lent us, the bill of account must arise proportionably, or for what is wanting in the sum we remain debtors; and when once the creditor catches us by the throat, and casts us into prison, there is no coming out till all, even the uttermost farthing, be discharged: he might well have said never; for it comes all to one end.

52. It will be worth our consideration, and very material to press this so necessary a point, to take notice of the nature and fashion of the judgment which shall befall the fool in my text, and such companions of his as are content to enjoy a fruit

less ineffectual knowledge, how fit and suitable it is to their offence. You shall find it expressed in Luke xiii. 26, &c. in these terms; "Many in that day shall begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets" this is something more than hearing sermons, or learning catechisms by heart. These had heard him preach, nay, were familiarly acquainted with him; and yet in that day will get but a comfortless answer from him in the following verse; "But he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence you are: depart from me, ye workers of iniquity." St. Matthew hath it more sharply; "I never knew ye." They might else have imputed his not knowing them to the weakness of his memory: but he stops that conceit, and professes he never knew them, i. e. he denies not but he had often seen them at sermon when he preached; and, it may be, he had eaten and drunk with them; yet, for all this, he never knew them; they were strangers to him, he never acknowledged them to be his flock, and therefore was not bound to take notice of them: but there is one will own them, even Satan, whom before they acknowledged for their Lord, and to his kingdom they may, nay they must, go.

53. Are not these men rightly served? Are not they justly and righteously dealt withal? They had eaten and drunk in his presence, it is true; nay, peradventure they had eaten him and drunk him in his sacrament; they had oft heard him preach in their streets, and could for a need repeat a great deal of the substance of his sermons; but in very deed they never knew him, nor one word that ever he spoke; that is, they took no

especial notice of him, they did not acknowledge him for their Lord, neither cared they to perform any thing that he commanded. And now he is quit with them, he remembers well enough what kind of people they were, even his very enemies and deriders; and as he never did acknowledge them for his sheep, so neither now will he admit them into his fold. A most righteous, yet withal a most heavy doom.

54. And here I will briefly end my other member of the first general, namely, How dangerous and heavy a burden knowledge will be, where it is fruitless and ineffectual: where you have heard, how poor and worthless a purchase knowledge alone is, nay, how without it a man has scarcely any title at all unto hell; there is no guilt without it alone it is a good qualification, a fair towardly disposition towards our ruin. Our Saviour professes, that the pharisees themselves, (a nation the very proverb of perverseness and infidelity) if they had been blind, i. e. without knowledge, they had had no sin. Yet for all this, though knowledge be so dangerous a ware, (it is something like gunpowder; a man when he has it, must take heed how he uses it) yet this is by no means a sufficient excuse for any one utterly to neglect the purchase of it, at least, in some measure: for it is true, knowledge not used, or ill used, will aggravate our torment, and adds even fire unto hell; yet withal it is true, that an utter neglect of all knowledge, especially in these times of light, when it is to be had at so cheap a rate, will make damnation as sure to a man as the former. Now the reason why knowledge, where it is fruitless in practice, will be abundantly fruitful in torment, is taken

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from that maxim of our Saviour, "To whom much is given, of him much shall be required;" i. e. we being only stewards of God's blessings, no proprietaries in them, must expect one day to give account for them all, but especially knowledge, which is a ware of the chiefest trade. Now where there are great receipts, and no disbursements, the debt must needs be exceeding great; and when once the sergeant hath arrested us for it, the Lord knows when we shall pay it. The last thing that I proposed to your thoughts was, The suitableness of the punishment that will attend such an offence: for the fool in my text, when he would give himself leave to think, knew well enough, that there was a God, and that all his love and service were due to him; but these were melancholic thoughts, and such as would hinder him in the prosecution of his designed projects, and therefore he put them far from him: so that, in effect, and in God's account, he was utterly ignorant of him, did not at all know him. Just so shall they be served. Christ knows all the world better than any man knows his own heart; yet, in that great day, he shall prove to be a very stranger, utterly ignorant of the greatest part of the world, though many of them had been his acquaintance here; nay, though, through faith in his power, they had, unawares, by wonders and miracles, brought many to heaven, and had been good helpers to destroy the infernal kingdoms, whereof before they were in affection, and now for ever must be inhabitants.

55. There remains the other main general, which is indeed the substance of the whole text, namely, The fruit of this folly; and that is, atheism, not in opinion, but practice. In the