Section IV. — Dnct. The second point fisllows. Ifjnorance above other sins enslaves a soul to Satan ; a knowing man may be his slave, but an ignorant one can be no other. Knowledge doth not make the hcai't good, but it is impos- sible that without knowledge it should be good. There are some sins which an ignorant person cannot commit, there are more which he cannot but commit : knowledge is the key, Luke xi. 52, Christ the door, John x. Christ opens heaven, knowledge opens Christ. In three particulars the jioint will appear more fully.
First, Ignorance opens a door for sin to enter.
Secondly, As ignorance lets sin in, so it locks it iip in the soul, and the soul in it.
Thirdly, As it locks it up, so it shuts all means of help out.
First, Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts; where tXiv watch is blind, the city is soon taken : an ignorant man sins, and, like drunken Lot, he knows not when the temjiter comes, nor when he goes : he is like a man that walks in his sleep, knows not where he is, nor what he does. 'Father, forgive them,' saith Christ, 'they know not what they do.' The apostle, 1 Cor. xv., having reproved the sensuality of some, ver. 32, who made the considei'ation of death, by which others are awed from sin, a pro- vocative to sin, ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die,' he gives an account of this absurd reasoning : ' All have not the knowledge of God.' An ignorant person is a man in shape, and a beast in heart. ' There is no knowledge in the land,' saith the prophet Hosea, chap. iv. 1 ; and see what a regiment follows this blind captain, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and what not? We read, 2 Tim. iii. 5, of some ' laden with sin ;' here are trees full of bitter fruit, and what dung shall Ave find at the root, that makes them so fruitful, but ignorance? * silly women,' and such ' who never come to the knowledge of the truth.'
Secondl}', Ignorance, as it lets sin in, so it locks it up, and the soul in it ; such a one lies in Satan's inner dungeon, where no light of conviction comes, darkness inclines to sleep, a blind mind and drowsy conscience go together. When the storm arose, the mariners who were awake fell a praying to their God ; but the sleeper fears nothing. Ignorance lays the soul asleep under the hatches of stupidity. God hath planted in the beast a natural fear of that which threatens to hurt it. Go to thrust a beast into a pit, and it hangs back, nature sliews its abhorrency. Man being of a nobler nature, and subject to more dangers, God hath set a double guard on him, as a natural fear of danger, so a natural shame that covers the face at the doing of any unworthy action. Now an ignorant man hatli slipped from both these his keepers ; he sins and blusheth not, because he knows not his guilt; he wants that magistrate within, who should put him to shame ; neither is he afraid, because he knows not his danger ; therefore he plays with his sin, as the child with the waves, that b}'- and by will swallow him up. Conscience is God's alarm to call the sinner up; it doth not always ring in his ear that hath knowledge, being usually set by God to go off at some special hour ; when God is speaking in an ordinance, or striking in a providence ; but in an ignorant soul this is silent. The clock cannot go when the weights are taken off"; conscience is only a witness to what it knows.
Thirdly, Ignorance shuts out the means of recovery. Friends and ministers, yea, Christ himself stands without, and cannot help the creature, as such threatenings and promises are of no use; he fears not the one, he desires not the other, because he knows neither: heaven-way cannot be found in the dark, and therefore the first thing CJod doth is to spring in with a light, and let the crea- ture know where he is, and what the way is to get out of his j)nson-house, without which all attempts to escape are in vain. There is some glimmering light in all. Noii danlur jJiircc fciiehrcp, I think, is good divinity as well as philo- sophy: and this night-light may discover many sins, produce inward prickings of conscience for them ; yea, stir uj) the creature to step aside, rather than drown in such broad waters. There are some sins so cruel and costly, that the most prostrate soul may in time be weary of their service for low ends: but what will
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