of Man cometh at an hour ye think not that is if you are not ready For the very sence of knowing or not knowing the time is being ready or not ready if not ready we are not aware The knowing of time or not knowing is but the cover and outside of this true effective knowing or not so knowing I will therefore first endeavour to open to you the true state of this thing and then lay down to you several particular Directions for the right Exercise of this Watch And in a Second Head give you the Arguments of Persuasion to this Watch and so close the whole with Application 1. To shew you then in the First Place the true sence of this great Proposition from this our Lord's Application of the Parable And in the general You know the Conclusion of a Discourse is the Practical Application and that you know is regularly drawn out of the main substance of it This Application is then drawn out of the substance of the Parable and that most evidently is the having Oil in our Vessels as hath been explain'd The watching is therefore our looking well to that having Oil in our Vessels for they watch'd who were so ready though the Bridegroom delaying his coming they slumbred and lay down in Death they did not watch who so slumbred and went out of the World by Death that they had not a provision ready for the Bridegrooms Coming so that the knowing or not knowing the Time is not at all touched upon But more particularly to attain our Lord's sence in the most plain and practical instances of a Spiritual Life according to the Gospel as Directions to watching 1. Look diligently that we are taken out of the Gall of Bitterness and from under the Bond of Iniquity That we are taken out of the state of Children of Wrath by being implanted into Christ and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom is Redemption in his Bloud even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace that we awake from that sleep and stand up from the dead that Christ may give us life Let us look well that we are brought into the State of Grace for that is the principal and fundamental Point of Watching and the Essential Difference between a wise and a foolish Virgin to be brought into Christ and to have his Spirit 2. Let us be continually carnest and fervent in Prayer watch unto Prayer as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 7. And as our Lord commands Watch and pray that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Luke 21. 36. Pray earnestly with importunate Crys that you may not be given over and found in a state of Ruine and Condemnation at that Great Day Christ was whole Nights in Prayer with strong Crys and Tears he offered up Supplications unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared And how then should we think to meet him without that exercise let us therefore be instant in Prayer 3. Let us be very diligent in meditating on the Word of God Blessed is the Man that meditates in his Law day and night that 's watching to meditate day and night and whereas Christ says I know you not it is said The Lord knows the way of such holy righteous servants of his through his Grace in Christ And it is an evidence of being in him Psal 1. 6. 4. Let us shew our watching by keeping our selves from our iniquity and from all the Temptations to it Watch and pray saith our Lord that ye enter not into Temptation Luke 22. 43. Be sober saith the Apostle Peter and watch unto Prayer Gird up the loins of your mind and hope perfectly for the glory that shall be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. with c. 4. 7. And be sober be vigilant or watchful for your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour c. 5 2. All this shews the great Watchfulness our Souls should maintain against our own Iniquity that we may be upright before him and not be as foolish Virgins And it is the more admonishing that in like Discourses of our Lords with this Parable when he discovers such foolish Virgins he says Depart from me ye that work iniquity 5. Our Watchfulness must be exercis'd in adding Grace to Grace for otherwise as the Apostle saith we shall be blind and not see so afar off as to behold the King in his beauty and the Land that is very far off 2 Pet. 1. 9 c. with Isa 33. 17. Thus an abundant and rich Entrance shall be ministred unto us into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ We shall be ready and not go to buy and find the Door shut 6. We Watch by continual Meditation upon being dissolved and being with Christ and upon the Glory of his Coming We need not be written to of the Times and Seasons for we our selves shall know that the Day of God so cometh as a Thief in the night and as sudden destruction cometh on them that say Peace Peace but they that watch thus and are sober are not in darkness and in the night but are of the Day and not asleep 1 Thes 5. 5. c. 7. We must Watch against the Sin of the very Age and Day wherein we live when we live in a prophane Age take heed of that when you live in a formal hypocritical time take heed of having a Name to live and being dead for Christ comes on such as a Thief at unawares They shall not know at what time he will come upon them Rev. 3. 3. If a Sensual Luxurious Worldly Age Take heed of being overcharged with those evils and the Cares of this Life 8. Let us possess our selves with the most clear and distinct Apprehensions of the Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ as the Kingdom of the Resurrection and of the Appearances of Saints in Bodies of Light and Glory Rev. 16. 15. Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments that is that looketh to the presenting his Body now as a sacrifice a living and acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to God in Christ Rom. 12. Thus we shall appear in Bodies of Glory and not of Contempt in the Redemption of our Bodies and Men cannot see our shame when Christ cometh and all his Saints with him Head 2. I come therefore to the Second Head to lay down the Arguments of Perswasion that we may be moved to this watch Argument 1. The Time of Watch is only the Time of the present Life Whatever we would do for the After State it is to be done in the Present State in the Time of the present Life There is no Counsel nor Device in the Grave whither we are going and therefore whatever Our Hands find to
forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation You see here all the whole World of Mankind at that day of the Coming of Christ they either rise to the Resurrection of Life or to the Resurrection of Damnation nothing is then to be done more This is a most evident and apparent Truth And as I have made out to you Spirits coming in to Bodies come either full of the notices of Eternal life or full of the Notices of Eternal Death They carry all the Characters upon them They rise either to Honour or to Everlasting shame and contempt And therefore as the Apostle speaks Ephe. 5. Awake thou that Sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee life ver 14. We must look well to this That we hear the Voice of the Son of God now and live The time is coming and now is the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Now is the quickning time according to it Men come forth The time is begun now saith he and it shall go on to the very coming of the Bridegroom that they that hear the Voice of the Son of God shall live ver 25. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death unto life We must look whether we have shot that great Gulf of passing from death to life for this is a Gulf to be passed now which in that future state cannot be passed As you know in that 16th of Luke 24. There 's a great Gulph fixed between us and you so that they which would pass from you to us cannot neither doth any pass from us to you that are in those Regions of darkness So I say the Gulf is now to be pass'd There is a Pass now but there shall be none in that State they are past from death to life It is as if our Saviour should say They have shot the Gulf And therefore let us consider whether God hath changed us as it were from West to East Whether he hath turned us to the Rising of the Sun of Righteousness with Healing in his Wings Whether he hath turned our thoughts to Eternity and from the present World and all the Impurities of it Whether the Face of our Spirits are to the Kingdom of God or not Let us look seriously to all those Scriptures that teach us concerning the truth of Conversion concerning the truth of Faith concerning the truth of Repentance It is our duty undoubtedly to trim our Lamps in this reguard now and to search and ransack every thing in our own souls that we may be assured of the truth of Conversion and that our hearts are so turned to God that they can never be turned back again That we turn our hearts back so to Christ That we say Whither should we go thou hast the words of eternal life To find that God hath so engag'd our hearts and thoughts to himself that we can never more revolt from him And though we fall and there are many things that we complain of and bewail and have reason to humble our selves yet notwithstanding this our souls have that Union to Christ we are so knit to him That the Golden Oil still runs out upon us from that great Son of Oil that he empties out of himself to us That Holy anointed one that stands before the Lord of the whole Earth is continually supplying and giving out to us from himself 2. The Second thing that I proposed to you by way of direction to this watching is That you would look to this to be earnest instant in fervent Prayer and to pray especially to this very Point That you may be counted worthy to stand before Jesus Christ at his coming Our Prayers ought to be for the present state of Grace indeed and for all the signs of it but we are to have a continual ardency in Prayer to stand before Christ For if you consider if the very Coming of Christ should be now if he should now be coming and appearing every one would be ready to run to their Prayers to those Prayers they have accustomed themselves to nay those that have used themselves to a common and formal way of Prayer would be ready to stretch out themselves to a higher way Wherefore let us endeavour after this to pray continually as if Christ were coming That we may be delivered from the Guilt of Sin That we may be delivered from all our corruptions That we may be in Robes washed white in his bloud That we may be in the Wedding Garment That we may have every thing suited to the Glory of his Coming and Appearance So you shall find our Saviour directs his Disciples upon this very account Luke 21. Watch ye therefore saith he and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man at his coming Take heed that our hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and with the cares of this life But that we are in a continual posture of expecting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the 12th Chapter of Luke 36 And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for their Lord when he will come because of the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately We should take great care of the state of our hearts now that we may at that very time be found not so as Gluttons Drunkards are but Watching Praying But you know There 's no such thing as Gluttony and Drunkenness in the Future State of Spirits there 's nothing of the cares of this life in that future state but they are the things that now oppress and that now take away the hearts of Men. And this know saith he ver 39. That if the good man of the house had known what hour the Thief would come he would have watched and not have Suffered his house to be broken through Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not The Argument therefore Lies that we should do now what we would do For just so we shall Rise and Appear as hath been made out There ought therefore to be a holy violence upon every ones preparation by Earnest Prayer and Supplication for that Day we ought every one to pray as if just that very day was upon him We should pray with the same Earnestness as if that Day were even now upon us This therefore is that Great Rule that our Saviour gives us in Relation to that Time that we should so pray now That we should not at that Day be in the Confusion and in the Horrour of those Things Luke 21. 35. Watch ye and pray that ye
4. In the fourth Place I beseech you consider the great difference between the City of the Servants of Christ of those that are of the true Wise Virgins in Christianity And between the City of those that are not or are Foolish Virgins I would but very briefly represent that to you in Scripture-Expression and so I will conclude If you consider the City of the Servants of Jesus Christ consider it in that of the last Chapter of Ezekiel and the very last Verse the End of that Prophesie And the Name of the City in that day shall be The Lord is there There shall be the Bridegroom There shall be the Glory of the Prince himself That 's the City wherein Christ will entertain those that have the Bride-like Affection And Rev. 21. 2. I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven Prepared as a Bride adorned for her Bridegroom Here 's the City of those that are Virgins in Spirit to Christ in the sincere Love of him that shall be presented at that day as Chast Virgins to him But now consider on the other side You have the Name of another City And it is very admirable And I cannot but propose my Observation to you that God hath been pleased very lately to cause me to consider and to observe There is the Name of another City I say And it is the Name of the City of the Multitude Ezek. 39. 17. The Name of that City shall be Hamonah And they shall cleanse the Land The Name of that City shall be Hamonah Or The Multitude thereof Or its Multitude That is The Dead Those that are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth The Gog-Magog Tho they are Dead That is as to the sense of Glory and Life and Happiness and Peace and Enjoyment yet they are in Being for they have a City It were but in vain that meer Dead should have a City But those Dead that is they that are not Partakers of the first Resurrection Their City the Name of it is Hamonah the Multitude of the World are of that City and belong to that City and are taken at last into that City Multitudes Multitudes as it is said in Joel 3. Multitudes Multitudes in the Valley of Decision and the Valley of Excision They are not onely Judged but cut off They are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth As it is said Rev. 29. 5. They lived not again till the End of the Thousand Years That is they lay in Chains under the Footstool of Christ At the End of the Thousand Years God gave them leave to move a little and they make a New Attempt And then Fire comes down upon them and casts them into the Lake And if you think all this is too Metaphorical or too Nice and Curious and that you cannot understand so well I 'll conclude all with that of Matth. 7. 13. Where you shall find the very Hamonah in plain Doctrinal Practical Discourse it self Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction And many there be which go in thereat As the New Jerusalem hath its Gates and an Angel before it So the City here is the City of Destruction as it is called Isa 19. It hath its Gate But it is a Wide Gate It lets in every one that is not taken up into the New Jerusalem There be many There is a Hamonah there is a Multitude that go in thereat Therefore let us seriously take heed Look diligently to this lest any of us fail of the Grace of God of the true Bride-like affection by which we may enter with him with the Bridegroom into the Wedding when he comes c. SERMON IV. On Matth. XXV Ver. 1. and so on to Ver. 13. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom I Have you know made entrance into this Great Parable which I told you is in an admirable manner prepared and fitted to be a Representation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ as I have shew'd you First Even from the Begining to the Complement and Perfection of it It is the Kingdom of Heaven I have shewn you that the very meaning of all Christianity is a Going forth to meet the Bridegroom And therefore the present State is a State of Espousals a State wherein we are Contracted and Affianced unto the Great Bridegroom For that the Eye of every Christian the great Aim and Design of those that are Wise Virgins is that they may have a much higher Enjoyment of Christ than they have now And because the Religion that is for the present World and the present State will not serve the great Interest and great purpose of our Immortal beings I shall now proceed to a fourth Doctrine or Proposition from these words They went forth to meet the Bridegroom And they that were ready they went in with him to the Wedding So the Observation that I shall lay down to you is this That all those that are Christ's they are to hold according to the Scripture Expression they are to hold a Great Feast unto Jehovah The great Intention and meaning of the Gospel is to assure us that after the Time of Preparation and the Time of the Espousals there shall be a Glorious Festival A Glorious Feast The Marriage Supper of the Lamb As you know it is called And I shall endeavour to open this to you according to the Scripture-Light concerning it And then I shall compare it with all the Feasts that we read of in Scripture under the Law And so I shall come to make the Application of it to our own State and Condition First therefore to make it evident to you that this is a great Notion of Scripture That there is a Feast to be held a Feast of Joy and Rejoycing and of Happiness to be held to Jehovah And it is this very Marriage-Supper as you shall see of the Lamb. That the Scripture delights in this Representation is very evident by sundry Great Expressions of it Isaiah 25. 6 7 8. And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all People a Feast of Fat things a Feast of Wines on the lees of Fat things full of Marrow Of Wines on the lees well refined And he will destroy in this Mountain the Face of the covering cast over all People and the vail that is spread over all Nations He will swallow up Death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take away from off all the Earth For the Lord hath spoken it There is a great Feast that God will make to all People And it is set out by such Kind of Resemblances and Similitudes as express a Great and a Plentiful and a Rich and a most Delicious Entertainment among Men Fat things full
of Marrow And Wines on the Lees well refined And in this Mountain saith God I 'll destroy the Face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations When this Feast comes there shall be no Pagan Nation There shall be no Mahometan Nation There shall be no Popish Anti-Christian Nation There shall be no unbelieving Jews then in the World God will Draw off the Face of the covering cast over all People And every one shall see in the Clearness and in the Beauty and in the Glory and in the Majesty of the Truth of God and of the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ That the Religion of Christianity shall 〈◊〉 be upbraided with this Why are there so great Nations that are under the Prophet Mahomet as we are under Jesus Christ Are there not great Tracts of the World that are not known And do not the Jews that have the Doctrine of the Scriptures in the Old Testament Do they not deny Christ All these things that I may speak in a Familiar phrase Christianity is twitted with upbraided reproached with But in the day of that Feast All the Darkness of that State shall be drawn off In all our Feasts now there is necessary a sense of Death As I remember the great Prince Philip of Macedon when he had the most Sumptuous and Magnificent Entertainment He had first of all a Deaths Head served up in the Beginning of the Feast As if he should say tho I have entertained you now like a Prince and with all the Imaginable Royalty that you can expect Yet now after all this I and you must Dye So should we do in all our Eating and Drinking if we do but consider it we do but onely feed as we have a Phrase we do but onely feed Death We do but pamper Bodies to make a Feast for the Worms Now saith the Lord in this Feast I will take away all Tears and Shame and Reproach from all People utterly take it off O therefore VVho would not Aim and Design this to be at this great Feast that must be held to Jehovah And that he himself will hold for all his People as the great Prince and Master and Lord of it So you know there is nothing more ordinary in the Gospel than to compare the State of Things to a great Supper Matth. 22. He describes the Kingdom of Heaven by such a Supper as this The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding And they would not come Again he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it And when the King came in to see the guests he saw there a Man which had not on a Wedding-Garment Ver. 11. 12. As I shall after endeavour to enforce in the Application But you see plainly that it is a great Nuptial Feast that the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is Represented by So it is said His Servants wait for him There is a place of great moment to what we are upon that is Dis-advantagiously Translated And therefore I would desire that you would take something the more Notice of it Matth. 13. 34. The Son of Man saith he is as a Man taking a far Journey who left his House and gave Authority to his Servants and to every Man his Work and Commanded the Porter to watch Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh And this in Luk. 12. It is called a coming because of the Wedding ver 46. That 's the Expression I would desire a little that you would take Notice of And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the Wedding VVe Translate But the word in the Greek will very well signifie Because of the Wedding or upon the Account of the Wedding When Christ comes He comes because or upon the Account of the Wedding And that he may be present at that great Feast that is to be held unto the Lord our God I 'll give you but one Scripture more And so I hope you will be fully satisfied that it is the Wi 〈…〉 of the Divine Spirit to Represent to us the State of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ by a great Nuptial-Feast or Entertainment It is in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Prophesie of the Revelation Verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come And Verse 9. And he saith unto me Write Let this thing be taken notice of let it be written in Letters that he that runs may read Blessed are they which are called unto the Marrioge-Supper of the Lamb. Blessed are they which are called and invited to the Marriage-Supper of the Lumb I shall now therefore proceed in these Two Generals before I close all in the Application First of all to shew you what the Importance and meaning of this Great Supper or the Great Feast that we are to hold to Jehovah is And then In the Second Place I shall give you a brief Parallel between all the Feasts that were appointed to the Servants and People of God in the Old Testament and this Great Feast that is to be held to Jehovah To give you therefore the Sense and the Meaning of it in these Two Expressions First It is a Time of the Greatest Solemnity Glory and Lustre and Splendor and Joy and Blessedness that the Creation ever knew or can know in the State of a Creation I say it is a State or a Time of the greatest Magnificence of the greatest Joy and Enjoyment that ever was known in the whole Creation nothing ever like to that Alas the Days that we now know here in the World take those that have been the most Lightsome the most Prosperous they are all Dark and Gloomy and Cloudy Days in comparison of that Day of the Great Glory and the Great Festival that he speaks of Indeed it is very desirable to find the Hearts of any possest seriously with God and with Religion and with Holiness and with Christianity and with Communion with God and Enjoyment of him according to the present State of Things But if we did but know how low the Condition is now wherein we are If we did but consider what a Dark Black Cloud there hangs over all a Cloud of Corruption a Cloud of Unhappiness a Cloud of Sorrow and Affliction it is they live in And it comes upon the most Eminent Servants of God you know in what a Cloud they are wrapt up as to all bodily Appearance when they come to Die and what a Cloud of Corruption hovers over them For take the most Excellent Preachers and the most Holy Men if