A sermon preached at the funeral of reverend Mr. Will. Whitaker, late minister of…

Proposition 3. Though persons to whom God vouchsafeth the Means of Grace, withdraw themselves from under it, and remain willingly ignorant of their sin and duty, yet the Word will overtake them, and find them out, and they must stand, or fall according to their entertainment of it. How dexterously do many persons distinguish themselves out of their duty? and how industriously do others remain wilfully ignorant of it? little considering, that sins of wilful ignorance are in some respects worse than sins against knowledge: e. g. Sins against knowledge are many times striven against, and so through grace more easily pardoned, than sins of wilful ignorance, which are always industriously committed, and never striven against. Besides, sins of wilful ignorance are also sins against knowledge: for there's so much knowledge and sense of duty, that they think if they knew more, they must do otherwise, or their sin would be aggravated, and therefore they shut their eyes against the light, that they may sin more freely: So that here's sinning against knowledge, in their wilful ignorance; and so there's a double guilt, each kind of which is very dreadful. James 4.17. To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. Sin with a monstrous aggravation. And Job 21.14, 15. for those that say unto God, Depart from us: for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit shall we have, if we pray unto him? God answers him, that for this his wilful ignorance, his eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. God will reward him, and ⟨p. 12⟩he shall know it, Verse 19, 20. Do but see at what a rate men are willing to compound with God, so they might but keep their sin. Mic. 6.7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil? All this for one transgression: A dear bought sin sure! but he'll not stick at more than all this: Shall I give my first born for my transgression, [Greek or Hebrew] Scelus meum, my Rebellion; the fruit of my body for the [Greek or Hebrew] peccatum, my error, or mistake of my soul? Lord, if I may not compound with thee for greater provocations, yet I hope thou wilt compound with me for my lesser sins, the sin that my soul is loth to part with, is but a little one: