their ignorance, and to leave
them impressed rather with a sense of their danger than of their folly.

It were almost a waste of time to multiply arguments in order to prove
how criminal the voluntary ignorance, of which we have been speaking,
must appear in the sight of God. It must be confessed by all who believe
that we are accountable creatures, and to such only the writer is
addressing himself, that we shall have to answer hereafter to the
Almighty for all the means and occasions we have here enjoyed of
improving ourselves, or of promoting the happiness of others. And if,
when summoned to give an account of our stewardship, we shall be called
upon to answer for the use which we have made of our bodily organs, and
of the means of relieving the wants and necessities of our fellow
creatures; how much more for the exercise of the nobler and more exalted
faculties of our nature, of invention, and judgment, and memory; and for
our employment of all the instruments and opportunities of diligent
application, and serious reflection, and honest decision. And to what
subject might we in all reason be expected to apply more earnestly, than
to that wherein our eternal interests are at issue? When God has of his
goodness vouchsafed to grant us such abundant means of instruction in
that which we are most concerned to know, how great must be the guilt,
and how aweful the punishment of voluntary ignorance!

And why, it may be asked, are we in this pursuit alone to expect
knowledge without inquiry, and success without endeavour? The whole
analogy of nature inculcates on us a different lesson, and our own
judgments in matters of temporal interests and worldly policy confirm
the truth of her suggestions. Bountiful as is the hand of Providence,
its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to
rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of
learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without
vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance.
Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study, or inquiry. This
is the more preposterous, because Christianity, being a revelation from
God, and not the invention of man, discovering to us new relations, with
their correspondent duties; containing also doctrines, and motives, and
practical principles, and rules, peculiar to itself, and almost as new
in their nature as supreme in their excellence, we cannot reasonably