Christ doth declare A night should come at that time upon his Church My head saith he is wet with the drops of Dew of the Night Because Christianity was drawing its Ceremonies long they began then at that very time they begun then to draw out the shadows of the Evening A great many Ceremonies came into Christianity and a Form and Way of Prayer suitable and agreeable to it and such ways of Preaching as prepar'd for it And then they came to be more intent upon the Remembrance of such a Saint and such a Martyr and keeping their Days and drawing as many outward Forms and Ceremonies of Religion as they could and they neglected the Power of it And this Christ observes and calls it the Drops of Dew the Drops of the Night upon his Head And then the Church of Christ began to slumber And this is the first Time that is to be taken notice of in regard of the slumbering even of the wise Virgins Of which I shall speak presently more particularly to you The Second is this And I desire that none would be offended or think me censorious in speaking of it For I design nothing I can truly Appeal to God but only to speak the Truth and the Reality of Things in a Point where Scripture calls for the speaking of it That is This Slumber hath been since the Reformation As soon as ever the first Power had shewn it self There was indeed a mighty Spirit of Truth and Spirit of Holiness in the first Reformation Men and Women were then Christians of a high Rate of a high Degree of a high Excellency How willing were they to suffer in the days of Queen Mary in our own Nation How did they love one another How did the Power and Glory of Christianity appear in them But I hope it will be no scandal to say this That it hath been in a decay for a Hundred Years For it is the very express words of one that is Dr. Burnet that we know by the Name of the Bishop of Salisbury he spake it plainly and openly in this City That the Reformation has Sermon Of not falling out by the Way been losing ground for these Hundred Years And whence is this But only a great slumber hath fallen upon the Profession of the Protestant Religion for a Hundred Years And the Glory and Power and Excellency of Christianity we have not yet restored to its own Beauty and to its own Glory And this I have endeavoured several times both in Discourse and in Writing to make plain That the Church of Sardis is the Representation of the Generality of the Christian Churches under the Reformation And I desire that you would but read and weigh the Description that is given of that Church Rev. 3. 1 2. And to the Angel of the Church in Sardis write These things saith he that hath the Seven Spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know thy works that thou hast a Name that thou livest and art dead Be watchful saith he and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die Be watchful What 's the meaning of that But only to shew that the State of the Protestant Churches had fallen into a great slumber a great drowsiness And therefore it is that we know so little of the Power of Christianity at this day And saith he I have not found thy works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch observe that I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee if thou dost not watch Here we plainly see what is opposed to slumbering it is watching And when Christ saith Watch so often and so much it signifies that his Church would fall into a slumbering condition it had a Name to live it was not perfectly dead But it was not vigorous and powerful in the ways of Christianity And therefore watch and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die I 'll give you only two Arguments why I am of this Judgment That this very Parable I am upon does look directly upon the state of the Protestant Churches and so upon our selves as in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this very Time I 'll give you the two Arguments and then I 'll go on in a more practical way of discoursing the particulars of this slumbring of Christians in the Profession of Christianity The First Argument I give you is Because it is now the Time It is now the Time especially when our Lord delays his coming For there shall not be Time Times nor so much as half Time any more whole and entire For at the Reformation Christ began to make an appearance of his Kingdom and of his Coming And it is certain the bringing in of the Reformation as all true Protestants own it was one of the greatest Works of Providence that ever hath been known in the World and especially since the days of Christ It was strange and wonderful in the Times when God did it that he should bring in a Reformation against such high Pretences as that of The Catholick Church as Rome was called and against the Papacy and Hierarchy that took upon themselves to be the great Patrons of and Pretenders to Christian Religion and the true Votaries and Servants of it to have all things good within themselves Now That such a poor inconsiderable Person as Luther was should make opposition to such a Body when as the Kings and Princes of Europe were utter Enemies to the Reformation It was a Mighty Power of God And as I have often shew'd Rev. 10. is the very Representation of the Reformation Christ came down from Heaven clothed with a Cloud and with a Rainbow upon his head And he set his right Foot upon the Sea and his left Foot upon the Earth and cryed with a loud Voice as when a Lyon roareth and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever That Time and Times and even of half Time that it should be no longer Who would not I say but have expected that Christ should immediately have come and changed the World and brought in his Kingdom But our Lord delays his Coming only till the Hundred and Eighty Years are made up of which there wants only now but Five Years And at the present there is a great delay though I make no doubt It will not be long But yet Men think Christ hath delayed his Coming and where is the Promise of it and that he hath quite forgot it In this Time therefore of the Lord 's delaying his Coming there is such a great slumber upon the Christian Church In the second Place I have this great Reason that moves me much to think that the present delay that the Parable speaks of under that spiritual slumber of the Churches of Christ hath run along with the Time since the
THE Parable of the Ten Virgins In its Peculiar Relation to the Coming and Glorious KINGDOM OF OUR Lord Iesus Christ OPENED According to the Analogy of the whole Parable and of Scripture in General and Practically Applied for Exercising all the Churches to Holy Watchfulness Mark iv 13. WITH AN APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing within this Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold byWill Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. A TABLE of the Principal Doctrines of each SERMON The Sermons are Divided into Five and Six Each Part viz. The first Five begin with Page 1. and so go on And the Six Last also with Page 1. and so go on The Doctrine of the First Sermon Page 1. THE Kingdom of Christ is in every Thing and throughout The Kingdom of Heaven SERMON II. Page 21. There is a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and every Particular Believing Soul SERMON III. Page 39. The Preparation for the Glorious Marriage-Solemnity is Now and All Christianity looks to that Solemnity SERMON IV. Page 59. All those that are Christs are to hold the great Feast of the Supper of the Lamb to Jehovah SERMON V. Page 74. That the Coming of Jesus Christ hath not yet been since He was here on Earth neither yet is it immediately to be The Bridegroom Tarried The Second Part. SERMON VI. Page 1. While the Bridegroom tarried All these Virgins both the Wise and the Vnwise Slumber and Sleep SERMON VII Page 18. In the very same Circumstances wherein any of us lye down in the Grave in the very same we must be awaken'd and Rise up again SERMON VIII Page 38. It is a Point of great Consideration What the difference is between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins SERMON IX Page 58. It must be sadly Acknowledged and every one is to take it to himself That a Virgin if a Foolish Virgin shall not be admitted nor suffered to enter into the Glory of that Marriage-Feast the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. SERMON X. Page 24. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ is bound to Watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the Days of Christ and had known certainly that his Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since SERMON XI Page 87. 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Where you may be likewise Supplied with Mr. Rich's Testament and Psalms in Short Hand bound THE Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied SERMON I. On Matth. 25. from Ver. 1 to 13. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be
the Nature of the Type and to fill up all the Parts of it and all the Colours of the Picture For the meaning is no more than this Look well to this That you have a Provision a Treasure of Grace that will last out the whole Time of the Wedding-Solemnity For if you have not you will not be able to make a Provision then you will be as those that are unready Now that this is the meaning of Watching is very plain from hence because the Virgins that had Oil in their Lamps and in their Vessels too they Slumbred and Slept yet they went immediately into the Wedding But all those that had only Oil in their Lamps and not in their vessels they were shut out there was no possibility of making Provision for themselves at that time From all which particulars then that I have given you at this Time but the Generals of I collect Let it be our care let us seriously look to it that we make such a provision now that may last out that whole State that is That we have such Grace as will bear out the Tryal of that Day and that Time That 's the main Importance of this so great Parable so excellent Parable that every one of us should look to it That we have such Treasure such real Riches of Grace in the Blood of Jesus and in the power of his Death and Resurrection upon us that will comport with that great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And let us not say among all the Professions and Ways that there are in the VVorld we have chosen out what we think the best and the purest It is not enough that we are Virgins in our Profession but we must have this rich Treasure this real Treasure of Grace in our Hearts This I say is the main Importance of this great Parable and it Issues into this That we should take heed of pleasing our selves in a Profession and that we should be under the power of this Apprehension That the most excellent Profession that there is in the World in the whole Christian Name whatever it is that shall have the Precedency above any other yet if our Hearts are not Enriched with the true Grace of God and of Jesus Christ we do not know the Truth as it is in Christ effectually And therefore indeed there is not any place of Scripture that Imports a greater Severity or makes more necessary tryal and search into our State and Condition than this very Parable does For when it gives a Representation of the purest State that can be given that is to call all Virgins and yet that some of these are shut out for ever from the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ How should it as our Saviour speaks in a like Parable engage us to strive to enter in at the strait Gate For many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Many of the Children of the Kingdom shall be thrust out as Christ speaks in another place This is the great care therefore that should lie upon us to secure the inward part the vital part the true Power the true Light of Christianity that shall never be as a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness If you look upon the 14 Revel you may see what a high Importance this very Word or Representation of Virgins hath saith the Spirit of God there concerning those that were in the purity of Christian Religion These saith he are VIRGINS and have not defiled themselves with Women as other Professors of the Name of Christ had with the Impurity that others were defiled with For they are Virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth So that though this be so great a Representation of the purity of Christian Religion yet you see here in this Parable our Saviour hath taken this very Representation to set forth the State that yet shall miscarry in the End to Eternity And so the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am Jealous over you with a godly Jealousie for I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ You see sometimes this Representation Metaphor or Emblem of a Virgin is made use of to speak the highest and truest Purity And yet our Lord doth as it were abase and humble it here in speaking of the Foolish Virgins that he might gain his main point and end That is to tell us The most excellent Profession let it be what it will it will not avail us if there be not the truth and power of Christianity in it I shall therefore according to the particulars I have laid down to you endeavour to open this great Point all along by those lively Resemblances that our Lord hath given us in this Parable In the first place I shall consider the State of the Gospel as it is here called the Kingdom in its setting out from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 'till it attains that great Point of Glory its manifestation in the visible Appearance of our Lord Jesus It is all the while the Kingdom of Heaven Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened So as I have Represented to you from Gal. 4. and Ephes 1. Here 's the whole State or Time of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of all the course and motion it runs It begins in the preaching of the Gospel and it ends in the Glory of it Gal. 4. 4. I look upon it to be a great Foundation of all that Discourse that I have endeavoured to Instruct you by concerning the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law The first Appearance of Christ it is called the Fulness of Time that 's the beginning point of it And then there 's the Recapitulation the gathering of all things again into Christ and that is as the Apostle tells us Eph. 1. 10. In the dispensation of the fulness of Times he will gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him In the Fulness of Time Christ came to bear the sins of many In the fulness of Times he gathers all into himself So that the Kingdom of Heaven it hath its beginning in the first Appearance of Christ and it hath its uttermost Glory in the gathering together in one all things into Christ And then it is delivered up into the Kingdom of Eternity We should therefore apprehend our selves even now under the preaching of the Gospel that we are under the motion of the Kingdom of Heaven here 's the beginning of it And then we should look to our selves and draw All to the Issue and last Result For the Kingdom of Heaven lasts till that great Solemnity of the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb it lasts to that very time and so it continues till the Kingdom is delivered up to God all in all You
shall find as soon as ever Christ came to be Preached and to be declared immediately there is the use of this very Phrase The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3 2. John the Baptist went out and said Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And so it is said of Christ that He also went forth to Preach in the very same manner Repent saith he for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4. 17. So that here is the whole State of the Kingdom of Heaven it begins at the Preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and it goes on to the Perfection and to the Glory of the Kingdom Let us therefore observe what is the motion of the Gospel upon our Hearts because it is the Kingdom of Heaven And we should look to the Power and to the mighty Influences that it hath upon our Souls in that very regard because that it is the Kingdom of Heaven in its first beginnings and in its first Preparations till it comes into the Glory of it self I shall therefore Endeavour at this time to Discourse this Point to you concerning this Power of the Gospel as it is the Kingdom and Apply it by way of strong Reflection upon our own Hearts And that we may consider what our own State and Condition is in relation to it First therefore The Kingdom of Heaven is the offer of the Great Salvation of Jesus Christ unto Souls It is the Offer of that great State that shall be hereafter There is a present Offer of it to us now The Gospel comes to this very purpose to invite us by the present Preaching and by the outward Publication and Administration of it It comes to Invite us to that great Kingdom that is called The Kingdom of Heaven The Gospel represents it self now to us with all the earnestness and Wooing-Language that we may be drawn in unto Jesus Christ This is the first thing wherein it is called and worthy to be called The Kingdom of Heaven because it comes with the offer of Heaven and with the offer of Life and Grace unto every Soul Heaven is bowed down God rends the Heavens and comes down to us in the preaching of the Gospel It is called therefore the Kingdom of Heaven taken from one and given to another The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits of it Mat. 2. 43. Because this Kingdom makes an offer of Life and an offer of Grace to every Soul It is that very thing that the Apostle speaks of in 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself and not imputing to them their Trespasses Wherefore saith he we are Ambassadors for Christ ver 20. as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God God is pleased to make an offer to every one that hears of the Kingdom of Heaven He bows the Heaven as I said down to you and to you and to every one of us that are under the preaching of his Gospel The Kingdom of Heaven stoops down it condescends it self to make a gracious Offer to every one that hears it this Day If any one will let him come and take the water of life freely As it is said Rev. 22. 17. If any one hath a Mind and a Desire to the Kingdom of Heaven when it is thus offered Christ therefore laid the Foundation of it in his own Coming He begins it by John the Baptist that was to prepare his way and he carried it on by himself And still by one Series and Course of his Servants after another he hath taken care that in one part of the World or other ever since the Resurrection of Christ there hath been an offer of this Kingdom of Heaven all along to the Sons of Men in the publick Preaching of the Gospel Indeed I know the Wisdom and Glory and Soveraignty of God hath greatly manifested it self in that there are many Nations at this very Day that have not the Kingdom of Heaven Preached to them And even amongst our selves what variety there is in the Dispensation of this Word of the Kingdom unto us As our Saviour calls it The Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13. 19. When any one heareth the Word of the Kingdom So that 's the first Notion that Scripture gives us of the Kingdom of Heaven it is in the offer of Life and Grace and Salvation by Jesus Christ in the publick Preaching of the Gospel Now thus indeed Men may seem as it were at their choice and at their Election whether they will accept the Kingdom of Heaven or not whether any one will open their Ears and hear How many say If this be the Kingdom of Heaven we do not at all desire it They turn their Backs upon it and refuse slight and contemn it because it is not with Majesty enough as they think and it does not bring present Glory and Advantage enough It therefore tells us It is not the present State it is not the present Condition We are ready to say What does it bring us And where is the Power and Glory it brings along with it now This therefore now we are Taught That the Kingdom of Heaven is only now by way of Doctrine by way of Offer by way of gracious Proposal to the Souls of Men it does not yet come in its Majesty Glory and in its Power But as I shall shew you in the third Particular The Kingdom of Heaven never rests till it comes in its Glory and in its Majesty This therefore is the first Expression of it the preaching of the Gospel is the Kingdom of Heaven the Sounding of Christ and Salvation in your Ears telling you of an Everlasting State and Condition of Happiness or Misery if you refuse This is the lifting up of many as our Saviour speaks which is a very lively Consideration upon the Point that I am now upon Mat. 11. 20. He began to upbraid the Cities wherein his mighty Works had been done because they repented not Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto Heaven shalt be brought down to Hell for if the mighty Works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for thee Here you see we have the preaching of the Gospel and the offer of Christ this is the Kingdom of Heaven bowing and stooping to you making an offer of it self freely to you and as we say courting the Acceptance of Souls We should look upon it as so not for the
to be no better than dross and dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ You know the World how Ambitious it is of the Riches of Pearl how desirous of the Glory of the Lustre and Splendour that it gives to them that wear it Now when a Man counts Christ a Pearl beyond all value beyond all Esteem This is the Kingdom of Heaven saith Christ within a Man It is not in Word as the Apostle speaks but in Power It is the Kingdom of God in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit viz. The Righteousness of Christ and that Joy and Peace of Conscience that arises from it by the Spirit of God applying it to our Hearts Now therefore All the Time that we live here in the World we should be gathering our selves into this Kingdom of Heaven and to have the Kingdom of Heaven within us That is indeed the Oil in our Vessels when we have the very Spirit and the very State of the Kingdom of Heaven within us I know that we are now in a State of Imperfection and cannot rise up to the Glory of these Things but yet in the Truth and Reality of it every one that is fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven he hath this value of Christ within him this inward sincere Love of Him and Resignation of his Heart to Him though it be not come into the Glory Though this Mustard-seed hath not yet sprung up into all its Amplitudes and into all its Greatness This therefore apprehend within your selves The Kingdom of Heaven as Christ speaks it does not come with observation that Men should say Lo here or lo there but saith he The Kingdom of God is within you Luke 17. 21. He was demanded When the Kingdom of God should come ver 20. And he answered and said The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you So I say we should look for Heaven within us We can never go to Heaven for that is but an Expression in Comparison except Heaven come down now into our Hearts and except we carry Heaven into Heaven within our selves within our Spirits This as I say is that Oil within our Vessels that will keep up the State of Heaven in us and to us not by any vertue of its own but as it is a Grace given and a Light given from that Supream Light from that Light as the Apostle John saith that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Let us not therefore say Here or there is that Kingdom but let us look what we have of it in our selves That is the Lamp of Profession only when we speak of a Kingdom without us That is the Vessel fill'd with Oil within when we have this Kingdom within us The Kingdom of Heaven as it is a meer Profession it is Separable from us we may be parted from It and It from us It shall be taken from you as Christ saith and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof So all the Kingdom of Heaven in the profession of it will be taken from them that have it as the Talent was taken from the unprofitable Servant That which we have as Christ speaks is taken from us And therefore if any of us say O how ezcellent is it to hear or to speak of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ or of the Kingdom of Heaven It is our Great Delight Then look to this that you have it within you For that Outward Kingdom though you delight in it never so much it shall be taken from you As the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Loâ—d are these And yet that Temple was taken from them So it may be said the Kingdom of Heaven Are These But we must so hear and so speak and so converse as having it within us Else remember the Kingdom will be taken from you separated from you for ever and you cast into that Kingdom of Darkness and Misery to all Eternity 3. The Third Expression with which I will shut up this Discourse concerning the Kingdom of Heaven You must not think that the Kingdom of Heaven lasts onely while you are in the present State But the Kingdom of Heaven will be even throughout that Glory of its Appearance And it is not seen nor known like it self till it be known in that Glory and in the Separation which shall be between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins and between those that have had onely a Profession and those who have had the Power For the Kingdom of Heaven hath its greatest Work Its greatest Effect to shew yet upon every one of us It never ceases to be a Kingdom no not when it hath made this Separation between the one and the other For then it takes into it those that are its own and will throw out of it self those that tho they seem to be of it for a Time yea when all things come into enquiry into that Great Re-search It shall be made known at that Day that they did not indeed pertain to the Kingdom who had it not within Observe Mat. 8. 12. The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter Darkness That is they that have had this Kingdom in Perfection but not the Power of it within them So that I say the great Manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven is when it comes to sepparate between the one and the other and to have its own for ever within it self Observe therefore Matth. 13. Our Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven to such kind of things that still it may be known that it is not a Kingdom in its Glory till it comes to this Separation of things We find ver 24. saith our Lord The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a Man that sowed Seed into his Field But while Men slept the Enemy came and Sowed Tares among the Wheat and went away But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then the tares appeared also So the servant of the house-holder came and said unto him Sir didst not thou sow good Seed in thy field From whence then hath it tares And he said An enemy hath done this The servant said unto him wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said nay let both grow together till the time of harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the Reapers gather you together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn So you see here that there is that great difference between the Kingdom of Heaven now and the Kingdom of Heaven as it shall manifest it self It takes in Tares now as well as Wheat And so in the same manner it is compared unto a Net that drew in both good and bad into it self But then it came to that that the good are separated from the bad and the
Hearts as it were with a Lamp lighting inwards and with Candles that we may know how it is with our own Souls And then 2. Let us look earnestly forward to that Appearance to that Kingdom of Heaven which our Lord hath here presented to us It is to come to another Being to another Representation than is now We see things now but in a very dim and a dark Light As I have often told you we are in the foul and in the dark place of the Apostacy yet The Time is near at hand when every thing shall be seen in its full Light and in its glorious Appearance and Representation And then Though it is a Day of Terrour to all wicked profane and dissolute Persons under general Profession of Christianity And though it be a terrible Day also to Virgins that have Oil in their Vessels that is who make a great deal of their Profession and have no Truth of Grace it will be terrible to them when they come to find themselves so sadly benighted and darkened in the very Heaven of their Profession as the Expression is in the Prophet Their very Lamp goes out in obscure darkness Yet it is a Day of Rejoycing and a Day of Glory in it self And what great Reason have we earnestly to pray every one for our selves and for them that are in such a dark and hopeless condition that they have not so much as Lamps even those that are under the Profession of Christianity and yet are in such a case Now I say in regard to the hopeless state of all those and that we who have a clearer Light of the Gospel breaking out may have more of the power We have Reason to pray for the Approach of that Time when the Kingdoms of this World shall be Proclaimed to be the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ When the Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high and the Everlasting Gospel shall be preached to every Nation and Tongue and People under Heaven O! that our Hearts were earnest for this Time and this State and that our Souls would give God â—â—orest till he come and Rain Righteousness upon us till he be pleased to open as it were the very Windows of Heaven and to Rain down great Showers of Gospel-Truth and Gospel-Grace and Peace as He will do before that Great and Illustrious Day of the Lord come SERMON II. On Matth. XXV Ver. 1. and so on Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have begun to lay before you the great Importance of this Parable and Reduced it to this Proposition as a Foundation of Discourse on the Particulars That even the Purest and most Virgin-Profession of Christianity should look well to it self and take great care that it does not trust even in the best of Appearance of Things I say in the very best of Appearances but that it should look to the inward Treasure and the intrinsick value of Christianity in the Heart Because here the Foolish Virgins were pleased with the Lamp of Profession without the Treasure of Oil in the Vessel and when it came to the great Up-shot and Result their Lamps quickly went out they failed even in the very time and so they were for ever shut out from the Glory and the Joy and the Happiness of the Solemnity of the Wedding Having laid out this Point in the Particulars of the Parable I came to the first Particular and that was to tell you That the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is throughout from first to last The Kingdom of Heaven whether you consider it in the Preaching of the Gospel it is the opening of Heaven and of the great Counsels of the Eternal Wisdom of God in the Heavens Or whether you consider it as it comes into the Heart of every particular Christian so it is the power of Heaven enabling them to set such a value upon Jesus Christ that all the Things of the World are of no Account compared with the Pearl of Great Price Or whether you consider it in the last Glorious Appearance of this Kingdom so it is Heaven It is not a State that doth so much as pretend to any Sensual Enjoyment to any worldly Satisfaction to any of the Grandeur of this World or the Delights of it but it is perfect Heaven it is Heaven throughout This I have spoken of and so I shall not add any Thing to it I come to a Second Particular in This General and that is to let you know from the Representation our Saviour hath here given That the very Intent of Christianity the Great Design and Purport of it is this It is a Preparation to the Enjoyment of Jesus Christ as the Great Bridegroom of our Souls and as the Bridegroom of his Church For so it is said here These Virgins They took their Lamps That is As soon as ever they began to make a Profession of Christ and a Profession of Christianity Immediately in that very moment they had an Eye to the Bridegroom So that this is the Great Purport of Christianity That we should have a Spiritual Marriage-Union with Jesus Christ and in Order to the Enjoyment of him in the Glory of his Kingdom as the Bridegroom of our Souls It is a very Great Emphasis and Weight that the Spirit of God has put upon this Resemblance or Similitude of the Marriage Union between Christ and the Soul and between Christ and his Church And if I should be any thing able to declare and to open it to you at this Time in the Spirituality of it and thereby solicit and draw the Affections of every one of us to Jesus Christ I should in some measure Answer that which John the Baptist Represents John 3. 29. He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom but the Friend of the Bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoyceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's Voice This my Joy therefore is fullfilled That is There is no one Preaching the Gospel who ought to draw the Affection of Souls and of Spirits unto himself but he is to look only to the Great Bridegroom None of the Friends of the Bridegroom That is The Preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ They are not to draw the Hearts of Men to themselves For what are they as the Apostle saith if they are the most Excellent but Ministers by whom ye have believed But as the Apostle saith We preach Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Christ's sake We preach Christ the Bridegroom and our selves only the Friends of the Bridegroom And therefore every one should take heed that there be no Centring in himself that speaks of Christ but onely in Christ Himself And so every one of us should take heed that we do not Rest and Centre in an Ordinance or in a Discourse of Christ but that our Hearts go up to Christ Himself For he
amongst us hath made a great change among those that are called Protestants yet we are not awakened The Bridegroom must be nearer his coming before the Protestant Churches will awake And besides you see even to this day that Men in the Profession of the Gospel in the several ways of Men Make Christianity a Point of Interest in the concernments of the present Life I speak not this by way of Censure or Reproach but to represent things plainly to you how it is and how it comes to pass that we are not more in haste and earnest for the coming of the Bridegroom And then 3. In the third Place And that indeed which in part I have prevented my selfe in the Apostacy hath come to swallow up so great a part of Christianity Even so openly and avowedly in all the Papal parts of the VVorld And there are such Roots and Remainders and Twiggs and Twines of it about the Protestancy That it cannot be till Christ is nearer his coming that the VVorld will be awakened to see the entry of his coming Even the Protestant World and the most professing part of Christianity I come now to the Second Head I proposed And that is to open to you the Answers to the Objections that may be made Obj. 1. You may say in the first Place If this be the tendency of such a Discourse it seems a kind of Monkish superstition a kind of Living alone and minding nothing in the World it brings in a kind of a Pennance an Endurance like that among the Papists whereas the Scripture seems to allow us a free Enjoyment of the World and of the things of it Ans Now in Answer to this I would onely say that one sort of extream is ready to swallow up another if we do not take heed A Man may remove so far from such Ideas and Apprehensions as these are that he may fall into a perfect Worldliness an Enjoyment of this VVorld I dare not say any thing against a VVise and Sober and Holy and Temperate use of the things of this world and a Diligence in our Places and in our Stations But I say we have every one of us great need to take heed For we tread upon the Brinks of danger we tread upon the very Brinks of Destruction And therefore we should walk with the greatest VVariness and with the greatest Jealousy There is undoubtedly an allowance of these things And yet for all that Seeing it is such a State of the world as it is As I shall shew you presently we have Reason upon all Accounts to desire that it should be at an End Because we walk so much upon Snares and Temptations in the present State Notwithstanding I don't say as they take heed ye Touch not Taste not nor come near to any of these things But this I am perswaded There are some Remains of the Purity of Christianity in that which such persons pretend to though they have Debauch'd them They have turned them into abominable Superstition and into Great and Detestable Idleness and Sloth and to Horrible Impurity and Luxury under the pretence of such a Separation from the World But yet still I say at the first there was some Vein of the Contempt of this World and of Despising Things here below In the Justice of God leaving Men to themselves This was corrupted into Hateful and Abominable Superstition it is a Thing very Remarkable You know there are those that are called the Mendicants or those that go up and down and profess nothing but Begging But then on the other side There are no Courts so splendid in the World as that of Cardinals Bishops and Archbishops So that it is a kind of Expedient and Trick to hold up the Pre-eminence of the Roman Church by a seeming Contempt of the World in the other part I told you Religion is necessary for this World for the present state of it so the Beggery and Superstition of those that profess Poverty among the Papists it is absolutely necessary to uphold the Greatness and Splendor of the Court of Rome and those that depend upon it on one side by that Poverty on the other For it seems to Cogg Men into a belief that there 's an excellency in the Popish Church by producing in it such an Example of Contempt of the World These are the Lying Wonders that are amongst them and fair pretences by which they delude But still I say tho we have lost it it cannot but be allowed there ought to be now and much more there shall be a State of the management of the present World according to Christianity so as not to run into Superstition And yet to raise the Glory of Christ and his Kingdom far above this World Object 2. I come to the Second Objection How shall the World be maintained if all were such Earnest Pursuers and Hasters on to the Day of God as now what I have discours'd of seems to lead to Certainly Families would be at an End all Business would cease and the maintaining of Kingdoms of Laws and Rights of Government There would be an End of all These Answ Now therefore I say to you If any Man have his Soul prest upon the Kingdom of God and the Coming of Christ and the Coming of the Bridegroom Let us consider what an Answer Jesus Christ gives Luke 9. 59. Christ had called one to follow him Saith he Whither shall I follow thee I am willing to do it where must I go Saith Christ Verse 58. Foxes have Holes and Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head That is you must not take care for this where you shall have a Rest and whither you shall go you must Resign up All But he said Lord suffer me first to go and bury my Father And Jesus said unto him Let the dead bury their dead but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God That is The Kingdom of God is of Greater Necessity then even that which seems to be so great a peice of Piety and Humanity to Go and bury a Father But you may still urge How great would the Inconvenience of this be if Men should do thus How would there be any support of the present State of the World For that therefore I would refer you to another place that is in the same Evangelist Luke Chap. 14. 16. The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain Man that made a Great Supper and bade many That Supper is the Beginnings of Grace here even to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But they all with one consent began to make excuse The first said unto him I have bought a peice of Ground I am a Purchaser You must excuse me from being so Religious I am upon a Purchase And another said I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused I am an Husbandman and I cannot take
of Conversation and therein to Look for and to Haste on to the Day of God and with the Spirit and under his Influences and with the Bride-like Affection Cry out as Hearers mov'd with an Holy Sympathy or Likeness of Affection Even Cry out in Harmony Come Lord Jesus Come Quickly SERMON VI. On Matthew 25. v. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses led you through the great Importance and Sense of our Lord in this Parable Which is one of those wherein as he speaks Matth. 13. he opened his Mouth in Parables and uttered Things that had been kept secret from the foundation of the World I have spoken of several particulars herein and will go directly upon what is now before us and to be spoken of and that is That while the Bridegroom tarried all these Virgins both the wise and the unwise slumbred and slept Now it is indeed a great difficulty to find out the very meaning and sense of our Lord in this part of the Parable For it seems strange that not only the unwise but that the wise Virgins slumbred and slept And to give a sense of this suitable to the meaning and to the rest of the Parable I shall at this time by the assistance of God undertake and so to Discourse of it accordingly I observe therefore to you That here are two Words used by our Lord They slumbred and they slept I look upon these Words to have two very different senses though they may seem to be perfectly alike And that slumbring and sleeping as indeed Scripture and common Language generally join both together mean one and the same thing But I understand the First concerning the spiritual state of the Churches of Christ during the delay of Christs coming and of the Kingdom of Christ All the whole state of the Christian Church hath been from the very beginning of the working of the Mystery of Iniquity it hath been in a slumbring condition But then the sleeping I look upon that to be an expression of the dying of the Servants of Christ all along from the Time of the Resurrection of Christ to this very Time And the latter is consequent upon the former For I am fully perswaded That if the Power and Glory and vigour of Christianity in a settled state of Christianity if that had immediately followed upon the Resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Spirit that pouring out of the Spirit that was in the Apostles days I do fully believe there had been no such Thing as dying Even as when the Kingdom of Christ comes there shall be no more Death So if the Kingdom of Christ had immediately proceeded upon the first Preaching of the Gospel there had been no sleeping If there had been no slumbring there had been no sleeping And I shall give you two great Reasons why I understand the Word sleeping concerning dying They slumbred that is the Power of Christianity did not shew it self upon them And so they slept that is they died The first Reason I would give you of it is this Because the Intention of our Lord in this Parable is chiefly That we may look to the Power of Christianity in our own hearts to such a power of it as that we should be able to appear with Christ when he comes to the Wedding That our Lamps should not then go out The great Meaning the great Scope of the Parable is this That we should look to have the very Life and Truth of Grace so in our hearts that we may have a Light of it when Christ comes that will not go out in the very time in that very instant Time wherein we should go with him to the Wedding Now it is very plain That the Wise Virgins indeed had this Light For it is said of them ver 10. They that were ready which is spoken of the wise Virgins they went in with him to the Marriage and the Door was shut So that if the wise Virgins had slept in that sense that the foolish Virgins did I say if they had slept in the same sense they would not have been ready to go into the Wedding with Christ So that these wise Virgins they did watch and they did not sleep in the main sense of the Parable For they were ready to go in with him to the Wedding Altho therefore they did die yet in the great concernment of Eternity they did not sleep away their time they did not lose their opportunity of providing a Treasure of Oil. A Second Reason that I give you Why this sleeping is not meant of the spiritual estate of these Virgins but only of their dying is Because it is said At Midnight there was a Cry made And then they arose and trimmed their Lamps Now this Midnight is that state of death in regard of the Body in which all the servants of Christ lie till that Resurrection till that First Resurrection that is spoken of This is indeed like a Midnight For when the Bodies of Saints lie in the Dust it is as if a Midnight were upon them as to that visible state and appearance of Body though their Spirits are indeed with Christ yet their Bodies lie as in a Midnight And if you speak of the Apostles of Christ Peter Paul John and the rest of them they are all of them as it were in a Midnight sleep as to their Bodies And therefore the Midnight is so properly to be understood Whereas in regard of the Spiritual State of the Church of Christ which is before his Coming before the Glory of his Coming it shall not be a Midnight For as I have often endeavoured to make plain unto you That assoon as ever those Time Times and half Time of the Antichristian Power are at an end immediately a great Light and a great Glory of the Gospel shall shine out that it shall not be a Midnight Indeed the Light will not be perfectly clear or precious till the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But I cannot but hope and expect That within very few years there will be such a state of Christianity such a state of the Gospel the Everlasting Gospel preached through the World There will be such a new Mission and Commission of the Servants of Christ That it shall not be to be accounted a Midnight in that regard Nor shall the Coming of Christ be so on the sudden but that there will be great Light concerning it When that Angel that flyes through the midst of Heaven Rev. 14. shall have preach'd the Everlasting Gospel to every Nation c. These are the Reasons why I cannot understand this Word sleeping to be a representation of the spiritual state of the Church and Servants of Christ But I do understand by the slumbring That there is such a deadish such a drousie such a benumm'd state of Christianity as
Reformation Because Christ saith in the first Words Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins When Why it shall be at that Time as in the 24th of Matthew though we divide Chapters yet the sense is not divided nor our Saviour's Sermon divided but our Lord is still going on in his Discourse Mat. 24. 48 49 c. But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth There was never a greater Hypocrisie in the World than the Papacy To which they say you know in Reverence Your Holiness as we say to Princes Your Majesty or Your Highness And they say Your Holiness a Blasphemous Assumption and therefore he shall appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites Because he hath been the Evil Servant that hath said My Lord delayeth his coming And so he begins to Eat and Drink with the Drunken and to Smite the Men-servants and Maid-servants That is to Persecute the true Servants of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likned unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps c. when that Judgment is So that the Time before the punishing of this Bad Servant and the cutting him off and Devoting him to the Wrath and Indignation of God Before this there falls such a Slumber as this Now therefore Having made the way I shall Endeavour to go on and to speak to these two things First To shew wherein as to our particular we are to observe a Spirit of Slumber and that the power of Christianity does take small hold of us And then In the Second place I shall Endeavour to shew you wherein the Wise and Foolish Virgins Differ though they are both in a Slumber and they Die alike they Sleep alike yet there is a very vast and great difference betwixt them In the First place This is a very great Argument that we are under the Slumber of Christianity That we are not really in a Holy Transport in all the Services and Enjoyments and Ordinances of Christianity Indeed we make a shift to pass through the Form to hold up the Form of Prayer and of Preaching and of the Lord's Supper and of good Discourse sometimes one with another But we have not that mighty Affection we are just like Persons in a Slumber You know they understand something of what you say to them and they make some kind of Answer But they are so low and so imperfect herein that we may be sure they are not in the Vigour of their Senses and of their Understanding and of their Reasoning and of their Discourse Surely If we were raised to the Power of Christianity we should have more of those High Elevations of mind that the Apostle speaks of and that the Holy Men of Old in former times speak of We should have such flaming Desires after God and after Christ that our hearts would be Ravished and we should be drawn as it were out of our selves in these things Whereas we do but Nod as I may so express it in our way of Christianity Or when we seem to do something we are presently in a kind of Slumber so that there wants the Power and Life of it When David saith How sweet is thy Word to my taste Sweeter than the Hony or the Hony Comb It was another State than we are in All the 119 Psalm is a perpetual Rapture and Extasie of Heart All that time he was awake So Whom have I in Heaven but Thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire beside Thee And My Heart and my Flesh Faileth but thou art the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgments at all times All our Converse with Christ and with the Holy Ordinances of Christ and all our Drawings nigh to God They would be with a Holy Transport So in the 42. Psalm saith David As the Hart panteth after the water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God You cannot really suppose but that if we were fully possest with Religion indeed we should be carried out of our selves in Love and Service and Thankfulness and Obedience and all the Powers of Holiness and Religion Whereas now If a Person be but Civil to Religion If he will but sit patiently and hear a Discourse of it Or if he can but endure to be called off from the World to God we look upon it as a great Attainment But I say If Christianity were not under Slumber in the Spirits of Men we should be in a high Transport That as the Apostle speaks in the 2 Cor 5. The love of Christ Constrains us because we thus judge The Word as the Learned Observe signifies such a kind of Transports as when Elijah was taken up by the Spirit and carried hither and thither So the love of Christ constrains us that is Transports us every way Ver. 14. Wherefore saith he henceforth know we no man after the Flesh Ver. 16. Yea though we have known Christ after the Flesh yet now henceforth know we him so no more Surely This is the Slumber of Christianity that we are taken so much with outward appearances with out-sides of men The Apostle observed the Slumber of Christianity upon this account in his Day James 2. 2. If there come into your Assembly a man with a Gold Ring in goodly Apparel c. Here Christianity began to be in a Slumber not but that due regard ought to be to the several Ranks of Men But in this regard we know Men too much after the flesh so that it argues Christianity much in a Slumber Do but read I beseech you don 't think I speak either vainly or without due consideration of what I say Do but read those places of Scripture that are so Eminent in setting out the Glory of Christianity While we look not saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 4. 18 at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Now I say who is it that loves thus to look upon the things that are seen as nothing and the things that are not seen as all So saith he We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved chap. 5. 1. we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens ver 2. For in this we groan earnestly saith the Apostle Who groans earnestly I do not speak at all to be censorious or to tax Men beyond Reason or any way to justifie my self
but only this I am clearly sensible of That the General Character of the Church of Sardis is fallen upon all the Protestant Churches and upon all Protestant Persons As David saith in another case There is no one that doth not Slumber I may say no not one Though there are some Christians more lively and more wakeful and more apprehensive than others yet there are none but Slumber for the General Character of any Church it falls upon particular persons in a very great measure Now I say those high Ecstasies of spirituality of Heavenliness of Holiness of Purity that are to be found in Scripture make it plain that the excellent and glorious and powerful Spirit of Christianity is in a Slumber as in us And hereby I would desire you to take notice That the Discourse of the Kingdom of Christ is not as if some sensual or Worldly Glory were to be brought in or that men were to be pleased with that For the thing that I expect when the Kingdoms of this World shall be proclaimed to be the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ are quite of another nature That whoever of us are alive at that day whether I or you or any of us that truly love and fear him and love the Glory of his Kingdom I make no doubt but the Glory and Power of Christianity shall sprout out afresh upon them as the Psalmist saith Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep and like a mighty Man that shouteth by reason of Wine Psal 78. 65 66. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts he put them to a perpetual reproach So we shall be able to smite the Lusts and Corruptions and the power of Temptations that now so prevail upon us we shall be able to chase them and to put them to flight and to drive them before us We shall be able to love God and Christ and to be mortified to this World we shall be able to express our selves abundantly in the ways of holiness and to rejoice in God accordingly and it is no other Kingdom that I expect But all shall bring in this with its happy consequences I say we shall be able to lay off and aside from our selves all the Vanity Pride and Love of this World and all not only the Gross Sins that are in the World in regard of which men are scandalous and Christians evil spoken of every where But those Sins that the World doth colour and varnish over and speak very kindly and fairly of all the deadness in Hearing in Praying and Discoursing Alas our Discourse of Religion it is but a kind of Formality we don't retain any thing of it But when this Slumber is taken off of Christianity it shall be much otherwise In the second Place When the Slumber of Christianity is taken off we shall see much clearer Scripture-Truths and in the Salvation and Redemption of Christ All the Dispute and Anger about these things will go off for the clearness of things will be seen And then that Dispute that is upon us now concerning the Kingdom of Christ Some are utter Enemies to such Discourses of it even good persons and some are ready to scorn and laugh it out of Countenance and few there are that believe it and are in the Truth of it What is the Reason of this but because these Scriptures are not so cleared And so very many excellent and Eminent Servants of God they are afriad to Discourse of the Free Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ without Works lest it should make men loose and make men licentious and therefore they are streightning and curbing and glancing all they can against such Discourses as these are The reason is because the Spirit of Slumber is so much upon Christians Isaiah 29. The Lord hath poured upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes the Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered And the Vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which Men deliver to one that is learned saying read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to one that is not learned saying read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned Now this Spirit of deep sleep I hope is taken off from us by the Reformation and by the clearness of the Gospel in that manner that we enjoy it in the main now in the Protestant Profession but there is a Slumber still remaining Or else Men would hear and learn with far greater ease and in another manner Discourse with one another It will be wonderful when the Tongue of the dumb shall sing as it is said in the Prophet I am verily perswaded That those that say least in Religion now there will be such a change in them by taking off the Spirit of Slumber That the Tongue of the dumb shall sing He that knows not how to speak and is afraid to speak of Religion because he thinks he has not knowledge enough his Tongue shall sing in Discourses of the ways of God That is he shall speak with great clearness and great acceptableness In the Third Place We shall have a greater value for the state of Glory that is to be revealed and a greater undervaluing of the present state of this World We shall not think we are undone if we have not of this World and of the things of it in such an abundance as we would have Or if we cannot lay such foundations of Estates for the time to come Men will begin to say That this present World is like a Cottage that is suddenly to be removed And if Men had foreknown in Jamaica some Days or Weeks before that their Houses should go down as one may say so quick into the Earth and be swallowed up and even the Earth it self so changed what value do you think they would have had for those Houses or Grounds and how many Years Purchace would they have valu'd all at as we ordinarily speak So I say when our present state is like a Cottage that is to be removed that great value and esteem we have of the World shall go off If you will say This is only a sort of Levelling Doctrine or Discourse I do not intend it should move any one as for the present but only to an expectation and to take off our hearts from the present evil World And I only desire to tell you what shall be when you shall see such a Glory and Light of this World to come appearing and shining out I do but desire that you would remember what hath been spoken to you out of the Word and in the Name of Jesus Christ what hath been spoken of these things that are to come to pass I 'll give you but a brief Account of the Difference between the one and the other the Wise and Foolish Virgins and so conclude in the
defire or have a greater value for than to see the Dawns of the Kingdom of Christ Oh! That God would give any of us leave to see this We should have great advantage of making our Calling and Election sure of working out our salvation with fear and trembling of being perswaded of the things that pertain to the Kingdom of God we should have great opportunities every way And therefore as Christ speaks when he propounded the Parable to them Matth. 13. 17. I say unto you That many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them So if God shall continue any of our lives but a few years to see the Kingdom of Christ appearing in this First Glory O happy and blessed shall we be For from the very beginning and foundation of the World to this day Many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which we shall see then and have not seen them and to hear those things that we shall hear and have not heard them In the mean time Let none of us be discouraged if God call us sooner out of the World For as the Apostle saith All those that are Christ's he will certainly bring with him And it will certainly be a happier and securer state to be sleeping in Jesus and dying in Jesus For though we do not see these things here our Spirits shall see them above and our Bodies shall be raised in Glory for us to come with Christ in And as to those who are not as they desire to be for my part I know not any thing can be spoken for better Tydings or any thing that should more earnestly engage our Faith and Prayer than to have that great opportunity to wind up our Faith and Love and Repentance to their own height even that of the Coming of the Kingdom of Christ into its Succession and to see those blessed things and to hear them that many excellent persons have desired to see and hear and have not And therefore let none be offended that the Kingdom of Christ is near at hand for we shall have greater and more blessed advantages and opportunities to make our Calling and Election sure when that time comes Let us therefore desire to hear those loud Voices from Heaven Proclaim That the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ On which will soon follow that pouring out of the Spirit and the Preaching the Everlasting Gospel SERMON VIII On Matthew 25. v. 6 c. And at Midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps And the Foolish said unto the Wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out c. I Have led you through several parts of this great and admirable Parable The last thing I Discoursed to you was concerning the Midnight-Cry and endeavoured to shew you That though there might be some use made of it as a Description of any Judgment that should come upon the Churches of Christ before his Coming Yet That the Principal Intention is That Cry That Voice of the Son of God That Shout that the Lord will descend in That Voice of the Archangel That Trump of God that shall raise all that are asleep in their Graves and shall bring them forth I Endeavoured to open to you That every one shall rise in the very same Circumstances wherein they lay down in Death and in the Grave And therefore That the Day of Judgment coming upon Prophane and Insolent Persons upon the Fools that say in their hearts There is no God will be like the Writing of the Fingers on the Wall before Belshazzar that we read of Dan. 5. And as it comes upon ignorant Persons in Christianity and upon the Worldlings those Fools that say We have much Goods laid up for many Years and therefore Soul Take thy ease Eat Drink and be Merry O! what an Earthquake will it be upon them to see the Kingdom of Christ Now They shall be raised both the Fools that say That there is no God and the Worldlings c. They shall be raised just in the same Terror in the same Consternation as if the Earthquake was now upon them or in the Time of Life now on Earth But I proposed to shew you also Wherein the state of the foolish and the wise Virgins differ wherein this great difference lies That one enter into the Wedding and the other are shut out And that is it which now by the assistance of God I would undertake and go forward to give you a clear Representation of this great Matter For as I told you Virgins bespeaks a being of the Pure and True Religion the true Religion of the Gospel the Doctrine of God in the Gospel For all whatsoever false Doctrine or false Worship does adulterate this it is called in Scripture not by the Name of Virginity but by the Name of Whoredom by the Name of Adultery and Fornication Whatever defiles the Religion of Jesus Christ is not stiled Virginity but by other Names And therefore it is certain That these Virgins must be of the truest and of the purest Religion of Jesus Christ In the second Place I told you That they must needs be of a tollerable sober Conversation They are not of the Prophane the Drunkards or the Swearers or the Sensualists of the World but they are those that walk in such unblameable life that they are worthy to be counted and to be stiled Virgins What a critical Case therefore What a very nice and curious Point is this that distinguishes between the wise and the foolish Virgins If therefore God shall be pleased in any measure to enable me to open this to you and that you may aright conceive and understand so great a Point I hope That by his Blessing our coming together may be for the better and not for the worse I shall therefore apply my self to it First By considering the scope of the Parable in this Matter And I find That it lies here The one had Oyl in their Lamps but they had not Oyl in their Vessels The other had Oyl in their Vessels as well as in their Lamps So that it comes to this One hath a Treasure a Store of Grace beyond the Profession the other hath not I shall Answer very plainly and down-right Discourse in this thing by leading you to some great Expressions of Scripture which do to me assure what our Lord intends In the Third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians v. 16 c. The Apostle in that Great and Excellent Prayer begs of the Father of Glory the Father of Glory An Expression most suitable and agreeable to the Kingdom of Christ appearing in its Glory to which this Parable refers That he would grant you according to the
the Servants of God Oh Revolution It immediately pass'd upon them All and there were Loud Voices in Heaven upon it proclaiming that Revolution The Kingdoms of this World are bocome the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ And this is done at Half Time Ending which signifies Suddenness and Surprise When this is done He who does it Comes with strong Hand His Arm Rules for Him He understands his own Work In the midst of All the Perplexities of it His work is before him He understands it perfectly and throughout Every Spring every Wheel to be moved Every Pin of Connexion But that which may much indeed Terrify and Discourage is the Great Unworthiness of All Sorts and Degrees of Men of Nations and even of Churches so that some very Sweeping Judgment and Desolation rather or at least is first to be expected The Hope yet is That when God works for his Kingdom and seems to be Lifting up his Hand to Destroy He will work for his own Names sake in a Deliverance He will consider He to whom the Kingdom is to be Given is worthy And when the Lord Jesus Christ the Angel of the Covenant comes into his Temple He does not expect to find Refinement ready to his Hand but He comes to Refine He hath given an Example in the Apostle Paul of All Long-suffering and Patience especially prepared for that very Time Those who shall Hereafter in a great distance of Time Believe on Him His Reward is with Him He expects it only from Himself when his work ie so before him And even to Impenitents there is first a time of Warning and Testimony and then the Day that will Burn as an Ouen and the wicked are as Ashes under the Soles of the Feet After this warning is the perdition of ungodly Men reserv'd for punishment I know very well Notwithstanding all this Assurance and the Reason of it I have given It will be said yet to me Seeing this Year 97 is in so near on Approach and there are no Appearances of such a Succession or opening of the Kingdom of Christ ought it not therefore to shake your Confidence and put a diffidence upon such a continued Affirmation of such a Kingdom to make any Entrance at this Time In Answer to this I would make this Humble Profession or Confession in these Three things First I cannot be shaken in my assurance Because I find my Grounds in the Word of God unshakable and unmoveable A False Witness that hath no Foundation Perisheth in this Sense He cannot Bear up to nor continue in his Testimony But He that Heareth and knows on what Grounds He speaks Affirmeth constantly He that hath seen nothing as the Ground of his Prophecy is like a Reed shaken with the Wind But they that have the Word of the Lord Continue to speak it While I am so certain The Kingdom of Christ Enters its Succession without any delay whenever the Last of the Four Kingdoms Ends That the Third Woe of the Seventh Angel that Sounds the Kingdom of Christ Cometh quickly I look to see therefore what assurances there are this Last Kingdom even its Last State is upon giving up I find then the Times and Half Which are the Term of the Last State of the Last Kingdom By the Time since Constantine By the Time since the Christian Empire Demised By the Time since Mahometanism and more Particularly the Ottoman Empire hath entred the World By the Time since the Reformation first entred by Luther just ending All these have such Lively Sculptures and Engravings in the Sure word of Prophecy and their Times so Delineated I do not better know the Course of the Months in the Year the Days in the Month or the Hours in the Day then I know the very Last Year of the 1260 Days of Years is now entring and to Run its Circle and that within its Circle the Kingdom of Christ will come into its Succession The Second thing that I most Humbly desire to be Stedfast Unmoveable Unshaken in and upon is the Exceeding Riches of the Grace and Loving Kindness of God in Jesus Christ the Great High Priest and Apostle of my Profession That Shepherd of the Sheep that is to Shine forth as the Great Prince to have That great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Fold that is a Court One Shepherd and One Fold the Goodness and Faithfulness of the Spirit of Truth Guiding into all Truth Glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ by taking of the Things That are His and so of his Kingdom and shewing them to his Servants and shewing them Things that are to Come I have Great Assurance in his Tenderest Mercies having Led and Guided and Supported me thus far in the Search after his Kingdom and Manifested so much to me He will not Leave me to be ashamed of my Hope I can Humbly say before Him as his Servant Jeremy Oh Lord thy Words have been Found and I have Eaten them and they have been the Joy and the Rejoycing of my Heart I Humbly therefore Expostulate with Him Wilt Thou Wilt Thou be to me as a Lyar I know it is Impossible He should Lye He is God that cannot Lye And therefore herein His Servants may plead with Him The Vision shall not Lye He will not be as Waters that are not sure of which he hath given so Lively a Description in comparing the Unfaithfulness of Friends to Them My Friends have dealt Deceitfully with me as a Brook and as the Streams of Waters that pass away Which are Blackish by Reason of Ice c. But what Time they are warm They Vanish when it is Hot They are Consumed out of their Place the Paths of their way are turned aside They go to nothing and Perish The Troops of Tema Looked and VVaited The Companies of Seba were Confounded Because they had Hoped they came thither and were Ashamed Jer. 15. 15. c. Job 15. 15. c. How fully does this Express what Jeremy understood by Waters not sure And how Applicable to My Case if the Hopes I have of the Kingdom of Christ should prove mistaken It may be said Indeed if I were sure I had the Right Sense of Scripture-Prophecy the Argument were enough sure I therefore herein Rely on his Grace that he hath Guided me into the Truth of his Word that as I am sure His Word cannot Fail He cannot Lie so neither can any Iron any Created Power break the Northern Iron or prepared Steel of his Wisdom Truth and Power But lest any should say If you have such a Fasth have it to your self before God and Happy are you if you do not find Reason to Condemn your self in what you so much approve This therefore is my Third Profession The things that I have so heard and seen by continual search into Meditation upon and seeking Divine Direction in I cannot but speak I look upon the Kingdom as of those Things wherein we should confess Christ and not
likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom 2. And five of them were wise and five were foolish 3. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oil with them 4. But the wise took Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps 5. While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept 6. And at midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him 7. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps 8. And the foolish said unto the wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out 9. But the wise answered saying Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves 10. And while they went to buy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage and the door was shut 11. Afterward came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us 12. But he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Have often had it in my Thoughts and Desires to open this Great Parable of the Kingdom to you Wherein as Christ saith he hath declared things that had been kept secret from the very Foundation of the World But indeed I fear an Inability to open this Parable according to the Greatest Importance and Sense of it I have yet by the Assistance of God and through the Great Author of it undertaken to offer to you the utmost of Light that I can from so Rich a Portion of Scripture But still saying Who is sufficient for these things I know it contains in it self a Point of the Greatest Concernment to every one of us And the Greater and the Fairer our Profession of Christianity is the Greater is our Obligation to consider it For you see here is nothing in the Text but a Virgin-State and that imports the Purity of a Profession the Highest and the Purest Profession of Christ and of his Name And yet as you may easily observe what a great Danger and Hazard there is in the Purest Profession that we should come short of the Great End For why were Five of these Virgins shut for ever out of the Glory and Happiness of the End The Point that I aim at to discourse upon I 'll give you in the General And then shew you in every Particular how the Parable Answers to it And how Great the Wisdom of Christ is He spake indeed as it is said in the Gospel as never man spake No meer Created Man was ever able to find out such Lively Images and Representations of Things as he did and as he hath given us the Instance and Example of in this very Parable I say therefore here is the main Point that I propose to you That even the Highest and most Excellent Professors of Christianity have great need and an Obligation lying upon them to take care that while they make so excellent a Profession they have that that will bear out and will last in that State of the Kingdom of Christ and of the Glory of it I say the Highest and Purest Professors Suppose any of us say We are not as Heathens and we are not as Antichristians and we are not as the Looser and General Professors of Christianity are But we are Virgins we are of the Purest and of the most Refined Profession of Christianity Our Lord here allows it to us we may be so and yet notwithstanding this we are to be under this severe Caution That we are not found foolish Virgins that have not the Truth and Power of Christianity or only a Profession that will go out as a Lamp extinguished and quenched and cast out into utter Darkness when it comes to the strictest and highest Examination Now this our Saviour hath comprized under Three Generals that you may observe in this Parable which I will at this time first of all but in gross and in short deliver to you and then Endeavour by the Assistance of God to be more Exact upon the Particulars of it First Therefore that we may understand it we are to observe That this Parable represents the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven is to be understood First In the opening of it in the Preaching of the Gospel and in the drawing of the Minds and Hearts of those that hear it unto it That 's the first Notion of the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom This speaks the whole State of the Gospel from that Fulness of Time as I have Stiled it from the Apostle Paul to the Fulness of Times or of All Times from the time of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ from that time 'till the Bridegroom himself comes The Kingdom of Heaven It is the Preaching of the Gospel daily and continually to all those to whom it is offered and tendred And as to this He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear Secondly This Kingdom of Heaven it is to be considered As it shall open it self in the Glory of the Appearance of Jesus Christ For the Kingdom of Heaven doth not lose it self when the Preaching of the Gospel is at an end and when that which we count the Day of Judgment comes but it passes then into another State into its Glory and into its visible Appearance It comes then into the highest Celebration of the Nuptials and of the Wedding For they went forth to meet the Bridegtoom And it is said That the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him into the Wedding and the Door was shut So the Kingdom of Heaven lasts from that Preaching of the Gospel from the Death and Resurrection of Christ unto the Glory of the Kingdom in the Appearance of Christ and of all his Saints with him Which as I say and as you shall after hear is the highest Celebration of the Wedding and of the Nuptials The Second Head of Discourse on this Parable in which our Lord hath presented this great Truth to us is the Representation of those that make Profession of him in the purest and in the most refined way and therefore they are all called Virgins Even those that had not Oil in their Lamps yet still they are called Virgins And those that were not only the wise but the foolish still they are called Virgins And what is the Reason of this but that Christ might press the harder and closer upon every one of our Consciences If you say and you know we are ready to value and rate our selves by it we have a better Profession and a better Worship and we do not as others do whose way and whose worship and whose profession we condemn but we are as Virgins in our Worship
bad are cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and wailing And now I may say to you in some humble measure as Christ said to his Hearers Have ye understood all these things They say unto him yea Lord. So I say to you Have you considered and received and in good measure understood what I have been now speaking to you That the Kingdom of Heaven sets out in the Preaching of it But where it is not the Kingdom of Heaven within us we have only a Lamp of Profession And therefore it will certainly come to that That before the Kingdom of Heaven hath done it will separate between one sort of Men and the other The Tares shall be gathered into bundles to be burnt and the bad Fish though they have come to the Net and come within the Net yet they shall be separated and cast into the furnace of fire This is the Kingdom of Heaven and this is the same thing which our Saviour intends in this very Parable I have Explained to you The Kingdom of Heaven never ceases till it hath separated foolish and wise Virgins And therefore it is said Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven Which is a great Key to this Parable in this 25th of Matthew Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven When do you think our Lord meant He meant at that very Time that was spoâ—en of before in the fore-going Chapter and on this occasion I would give you this Note in reading Scripture that you may understand it Observe though we divide Chapters one from another yet many times the Discourse of Christ goes on it is the very same Sermon though in distinct Chapters Now you shall find in the 46 verse it is written Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when be cometh shal find so doing Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his Portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And then at that very time shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins who have indeed their time all along in the several Generations of Men since the Resurrection of Christ the Kingdom of Heaven hath been and shall be in Motion as I tell you from the fulness of Time till the fulness of all Times And then at the fulness of Times it shall be likened unto Ten Virgins Five Wise and Five Foolish Five taken into the Kingdom of Heaven for ever and Five that are thrust out That is whoever they are that are found Foolish Virgins For certainly to make the Parable more capacious and to spread it the wider for the observation and consideration of all the Number is made equal not that they are so in themselves there are not equal Wise and equal Foolish For alas the inequality is very great in comparison the Foolish mightily exceed the Wise in the present State of things Though I make no doubt there will be a different State when the Kingdom of Christ opens it self there will be many and many brought to Christ So that I make doubt whether the number of those that shall be then brought into Christ will not raise the number of the Saved so as to exceed the other but I will let that alone But what I now tell you is That the Kingdom of Heaven will not cease till it hath made a Separation between one and the other and so shine out in the midst of them that are taken into it And I might give you many great Expressions to this purpose but the Parables in Matth. 13. are abundantly sufficient to shew you That till the Lord of the great Harvest comes The Kingdom of Heaven will not cease and then there will be a Separation made of the one from the other I shall now shut up this great Doctrine with Two close Applications 1. That we would First receive this great Doctrine this Thunder and Lightning into out Consciences and Affections What! hath our Lord said That even those that are Virgins may be counted Foolish even those that may be counted of the highest and purest Churches may be Foolish Virgins The Door may be shut upon them They may have Oil in their Lamps only in this World but not able to bear up in this Marriage Supper of the Lamb wherein every one is to have his peculiar Lamp and Oil to feed and nourish an exceeding Light and Flame of Purity of Holiness May Virgins have no Oil to supply at that time Oh then with what serious Caution Fear and Trembling should I look back upon my self and observe whether my Profession hath the inward Riches the intrinsick Value and Worth in it or not Whether there be Oil in my Vessel as well as in my Lamp Whether I have such a Holiness as will bear out in that Glorious Appearance of Christ and of his Angels and of all his Saints with Him Shall I not be put upon it in that Day to run a begging as it were for the Oil in my vessel Have we not Eaten and Drank may we say together at the Table of Christ Have we not made Profession of Christ and the Gospel Must we now be Separated from the real Saints and Servants of God Have I only had that which would serve me to hear and pray with in publick and to receive the Lord's Supper Have I only had that which is the Profession of the Reformed and Protestant Religion and not the Power And must I now be turned out from it and take my Habitation amongst the foulest Antichristian Idolaters and the worst of those Superstitionists Nay must I be turned out among the Heathen among those that have been the profest Enemies of God and Jesus Christ and in a worse case than they These things it is our Faithfulness and love to our selves and to our own Souls to declare them to our selves and to meditate upon them and to search with great consideration into our selves to know whether Christ be in us of a Truth or whether we have the Kingdom of Heaven indeed within us whether we are not running up and down with Observation as Christ said to say where is the Kingdom of Heaven Where is the true Light of the Gospel Where is the best Profession and the best Administration of Ordinances And in the mean time that I do not look for the Truth of Faith the Truth of Repentance the Spirituality of Knowledge the power of Holiness upon my own Heart and upon my own Life O that every one of us might make this use of it to turn that Light of Profession Inward to search our own
Marriage First therefore you must consider that we are all naturally upon this to fix a State here in this World I say we are naturally upon this to fix a State as much as we can here in this World We would have the Interest of this World to stand We would have Buying and Selling and Planting and Building and Marrying and Giving in Marriage We would have these things continue and the Breeding up of Children for it in successive Generations And we never care nor desire to have an End of this but we would have the World go on and we desire to live as long in it every one of us as we can And to have as much Interest in it to have as much Enjoyment of it to have as much of the Riches and of the Grandeur and of the Honour and of the Pleasure and of the Enjoyment of it as we can This is natural to us But now when we come to raise our Christianity indeed We are not so much upon this World but our Great thought is concerning the future State the future Kingdom and the future Glory We are looking beyond this we are dealing with this World as that that must wane that must Decrease and Decay and we desire it should We have inspected it We have weighed it and found it too Light every way And therefore we cannot be content with it But we are weary of the stay and of the delay of it When we go forth indeed with our Lamps to meet the Bridegroom We do thus I say we do thus It is true indeed we all profess this We pretend to it It is the very necessary obligation of our Profession to do thus and to say and to carry it before all that we do thus But now if you do but attend and hearken to the whispers of your own hearts and to the discourses that are in the VVorld and that we have one with another You may plainly find we desire that the VVorld should be Eternal It is noted to be the great mistake and deception of some natural Phylosophers that they believed the VVorld was Eternal was from Eternity That it was always And so it is an Eternal VVorld as they speak a Parte-Ante From the former part of it it hath been always And Indeed it is as Great and as Ruinous a mistake in point of Practice that we desire the World should be for ever that it should continue for ever in this very State wherein it is It is true indeed it is a very Atheistick Principle to think that the World was from Eternity And it would follow if so that it must be to Eternity But I am not minding that Point now but onely allude to it That as they thought the World was from Eternity So we desire it should be to Eternity And it is as strange a thing to us to be made to believe the End of the World and the End of the State of things with any Definitiveness or with any certainty as it was to the Jews when they came to understand that Christ did not intend an immediate Kingdom in their Jewish State and in that present World This present World is so exceeding Natural to us That you see Men Purchase as if the World was still to last Ages And who knows when it shall have an End And therefore Men desire to Propagate all the Worlds concernments even to Perpetuity But now when a Christian comes indeed to consider He always sets the Bounds by his own thoughts to the World he sets Bounds to the present Condition by Powerful and Effective thoughts of Eternity Saith he this World is not to last I must deal with it as with a World that is not to last Observe how the Apostle speaks Indeed I might give you many abundant Scriptures to shew you how much their thoughts were upon the End of things The End of all things is at Hand And the Apostle John tells us the Fashion the Scheme of this World passeth away And in 1 Cor. Chap. 7. That I would desire you to consider of Saith the Apostle Time is short And it shall come very speedily to that That they that Marry should be as if they Marryed not And they that Weep as tho they Wept not And they that Laugh as if they rejoyced not And they that buy as if they possessed not .. Ver. 29. Now this indeed was spoken Sixteen Hundred Years ago But we are now as unwilling to believe that time is shorter as any could be in those Days And are as tender that any one should meddle with such a Point that the present State should be at an End And every one desires Life in his own particular is afraid of dying and afraid of Growing old of growing near to the Grave It is a very Melancholy prospect as we say a Melancholy discourse any thing that looks to this point But now our going forth to meet the Bridegoom it must be much otherwise We read that the time is short And the VVorld continually passing and fleeting away Therefore remember indeed what you pretend to whether you do it or not That you may bring your selves to the very thing to do it that is that you are daily going out To meet the Bridegroom For on this other side A Servant of God he looks as I may say Bolt upright he lifts up his head he raises up himself to look up to that World to come whereof saith the Apostle We speak our Discourse is of that VVe look Bolt upright to that we desire to get above this VVorld and to call for and pray for and Covet that State of the World that is to come It is indeed so great an Expression of the Apostle Peter that I shall onely make use of that in this present Case and so pass on 2 Pet. 3. 12. Saith the Apostle Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God VVhen we are in haste that that day should come This is to go forth to meet the Bridegroom when our earnest desires are to that VVe Love all the Exchangings of this Life the variety of the spending of our Time in it So much in sleeping so much in Eating and Drinking So much in Dressing So much in Buying and Selling So much in visiting and going about to talk of things that are of no moment But now a Christian goes out with his Lamp to meet the Bridegroom Even a Foolish Christian pretends to this But a VVise Christian really doth it And therefore what cause have we to consider this To be ashamed that we bear the Glory of this no more A Second Particular in which I 'll open it to you A Man that is a Christian But onely a Foolish Virgin he considers how much Religion will serve the present Turn the present Case For you know and it is very evident that the VVorld can be no more without Religion than it can be without Meat and Drink and without Light
care so of Religion And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come upon that account And in another Evangelist They went to their Merchandise I have a Great Trade and I cannot carry on the present State if I mind so much the Kingdom of Christ And therefore I say The Purchasing and Husbandry and Merchandise and the Enjoyments of this World and Relations they are great Hinderances indeed to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But then The Second Thing I would say to you which may give you Great Satisfaction as to this If there were such a Spirit poured out from on high Don't think the World would be so Inconvenient by it It would be brought into a more High a Better and more Excellent State I am sure If the Spirit were so poured out upon the World That Men did not excuse themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven by their Trade Relations and Families And by their Interest in the present VVorld I am sure that the Trees of the Wood would yeild forth of themselves to us The Hills would flow down with Milk and the Mountains with Wine VVhenever God will bring the VVorld into a Religious State indeed Don't take care as if the State of the VVorld could not be upheld For it shall be upheld and be more Happy and Blessed than it is now Joel 3. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Mountains shall drop down New Wine and the Hills shall flow down with Milk and all the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters c. Every thing shall be Happy and Prosperous Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir Tree and instead of the Bryar shall come up the Mirtle Tree and it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Memorial When God comes to make the world truely Good to bring in a Profession of Christianity not in Word but in Power I say when that comes to pass there shall be such a strange plenty to the World such a strange Providence over the Creation All that which we take so much care about and with so much Sin and hatred and envy one at another It will come so freely there will be no need of disturbance of and distracting our selves or one another When we come in High sense to be the Servants of God and to be in such a State All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would come and lay down their Service at our Feet The Heavens would hear the Earth and the Earth would hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl And they would hear Jezreel Amos 9. 11. Behold the days come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treaders of Grapes him that soweth the Seed That is the Harvest shall be sooner than the very Plowing All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would offer themselves to us And all the Riches that we dive for now so deep into the Bowels of the Earth and into the bottom of the Sea they would come up and be at our hand in that Day when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall be thus Universally upon the World and when the Desire of Nations shall come I would shut up this in a very Brief Application to you Vse 1. In the First Place Let it move us seriously to fill up our Religion with this Character of it The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom There was the great mark in their Eye the great design in their Eye Now ask your selves I beseech you is your Religion in meeting the Bridegroom Is not your Praying Morning and Evening because it is good Family-Order It is a good thing for Reputation and Credit Is it not because you are afraid if you Rise up and Lie down without Prayer God won't Bless you that Day nor give you good rest that Night He won't succeed you in your Calling And in the Duties and Business of it Is it not because natural Conscience would cry out and say what Do you live like a Heathen yea a Brute and like a Beast I acknowledge these are valuable Reasons in their kind But sure there is a Higher a Greater Reason to go forth to meet the Bridegroom Because throughout all the Account that can be given why Men are Religious if this be not Principal if this be not the Supreme End that I would meet the Bridegroom It is not of the Excellent True Alloy Therefore Buoy up your Spirits raise them wind them up to this great height I 'll go forth to meet the Bridegroom I pray this Morning that I may meet with the Bridegroom I go to hear this day That I may meet with the Bridegroom I would not have these great things wound up onely within the Circle of this Life in this manner Here comes Business and here comes Prayer And so there 's Sleep and Eating and Drinking All comes in a Round and we would have this Round always observed And it calls to Publick Prayer and to other of those Duties Now if we turn about onely in this Circle we run on Endlessly about But our care must be higher Viz. To meet the Bridegroom Vse 2. In the Second Place I Beseech you consider whether your Religion be of this excellent kind that you would be willing to meet the Bridegroom Is it that which I believe in my Soul enlightned by the Spirit of God my Conscience bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost that it will please the Bridegroom Are my Thoughts Affections manner of Conversation such And what reason have we and do we Humble our selves before our Bridegroom when we consider this will not please when we consider this is not fine enough Ornamental enough to his Glory of value enough I would not meet him with Tinsel instead of Gold and real worth I would not meet him with false Diamonds instead of real ones So I would not meet him with Hypocritical formal Prayers without real Grace And then Vse 3. In the third Place I beseech you consider I don't expect there should be many Subscribing to that Account of Time that I have given out Tho it be upon great and strong Foundations in the Word of God Yet I challenge nothing from any but so far as they see in that Light But I would onely ask you this Question upon the occasion of it Suppose it a true and real Scripture Account that I have given out and that within so little a Time there shall be yet so great a change of the World And Men shall begin to unhinge from the Earth and Earthly Foundations Would you be glad of it Or have you not a secret Trouble and Enmity against it And that you would have the World still go on and Ages to run on so I say try your selves as to this I think it cannot be any Injury for any to propose this Seeing we should be continually upon our watch for this very thing when our Lord will come Vse
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
Things Moses therefore must be most careful that he did not make Any Thing but according to the Pattern And so Heb. 9. 9. Which was a Figure saith he speaking of the Old Oeconomy and Frame of Things under Moses for the time then present c. Which stood only in Meats and Drinks and such Things until the Time of Reformation They were for the Time present So we Translate But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies a Time pressing urging and an Insisting Season and as I may say against the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ And indeed so are All the Times from the very Fall of Adam to the Kingdom of Christ Times that press and crowd against the Kingdom of Christ For if this Time present were but at an End that lies as a Bar and hinderance in the way the Kingdom of Christ would immediately break out As when that Time shall come of which the Angel Rev. 10. sware Time shall be no more when once it comes to that Time shall be no more A better State of Things shall come in The Kingdom of Christ shall immediately come in as soon as God hath removed the present Time the Time now pressing against it The Kingdom of Christ will flow in a main As when the Flood-Gates are drawn up when that which is as the Bar in the way is taken away immediately like a great Torrent the Kingdom of Christ will come in When time shall be no more that is such a time as hitherto hath press'd against that Kingdom tho' in the mean Time It is made Subordinate and leads to it But that is a note rather by the way The Thing that I chiefly intend is that all things in the Old Testament were but Figures and Types of things that were to come I shall therefore give you a Brief Compare For I will be as short in it as posssibly I can You shall find that one Great Branch of the Religion of Moses or the Worship of God in the Old Testament and according to the Law of Moses one great Branch of it was the holding of so many Feasts in a Year to the Lord. The 23d of Leviticus does give us a Description of all those Feasts And I shall as I say in Brief compare them First There was the Feast of every Week which was the Sabbath the Jewish Sabbath the Seventh Day And so the Seventh Year and the Seven Seventh Year that is which made up a Seven of Seven Weeks of Years All this there was observ'd in the Time of the Law There is that which we now call the Lords Day It was then the Seventh Day of the Week the Jewish Sabbath That was a Weekly Revolution and then every Seventh Year was a Sabbatical Year And then after Seven Sevens of Years there was the Jubilee every Fiftieth Year Now all this was a Figure of that Great Sabbatism that remains to the People of God So the Seventh both Day and Year and the Seventh of Seven Years the Seventh of Seven Weeks or Weeks of Years that is after every Forty nine Years which is Seven Sevens you know the Fiftieth Year was a Year of Jubilee and Holy to the Lord A Feast of Jubilee of Great Freedom of Great Redemption of Great setting free both the Persons and Estates of Men and all was to represent what the Apostle speaks of Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth c. He went through all kind of Rests that were under the Law and ver 9. Yet beyond all There remaineth a Sabbatism a Great Sabbatising to the People of God So that this is the Great Sabbatism that shall be held to God It shall be in these Thousand Years That 's the State of perfect Sabbatism wherein Persons shall not speak their own Words think their own Thoughts nor do their own Actions but shall be the Servants of God and of Christ with His Name upon their Foreheads Consider therefore this Expression of the Apostle ver 9. indeed we Translate it which is Great Pity that it should be so Disadvantageously Translated There remains a Rest so we say But the Margin being sensible as it were that They did wrong in calling it only a Rest gives the Higher Style of keeping a Sabbath not only such a Sabbath as the Jews kept nor such a Sabbath as Christians keep but beyond all this there Remains the Blessed Festival of a Sabbath in which we shall be free from all the Cumber both of Worldly Business and also of Corruption and Misery and Unhappiness This shall be the Great Sabbatism of the Great Nuptials of Jesus Christ the Great Nuptials of the Lamb. 2. In the second place There was the Great Feast of Passeover which was upon the Deliverance from the Bondage of Egypt I will not spend any time to particularize it you shall find there was the Feast of Passeover of which we read abundantly in Exod. 12. And after the Passeover was slain there was the Offering of the first fruits I 'll give you a Brief Account of all according to the New Testament There is to be the Highest Passeover of that Festival that is A full Table of the Redemption of Jesus Christ A feasting on the Pascal Lamb the Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us as the Apostle speaks And in the Evangelist when Christ had ordain'd the Supper of the Lord even after the ordaining of it This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God As he said of that Fruit of the Vine He would drink it new with them in the Kingdom of the Father So he saith in the Evangelist Luke This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God That is When we shall have the full Enjoyment of Jesus Christ in his Redemption For then the Paschal Lamb shall be set out to us in the Fullness of its Effect in the Fullness and Greatness of His Redemption As He gave Himself a Lamb without Spot Sacrificed to God for us That is the Great Sense of our Saviour in those Words This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God 3. Thirdly For the Feast of the First Fruits You know In two Regards we may say That it is a Feast of the first Fruits or the Sheaf offered both in regard of Christ and also in regard of our selves In regard of Christ It is said in the 1 Cor. 15. 23. Christ the First Fruits and they that are Christ's at his Coming Every Man in his own Order Christ the First Fruits and they that are Christ's at his Coming Then shall that Blessed First Fruits Jesus Christ the First-born of every Creature The First Begotten from the Dead He shall come forth in Glory of His Kingdom and in the Glory of His Appearance It is a Feast of the First Fruits because then Christ who is the first Fruits comes forth in all His Glory and in all His Blessedness And that it is the Feast
of first Fruits in regard of his Servants I shall give you two Scriptures and so pass off James 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first Fruits of his Creatures And in Rev. 14. 4. These saith he speaking of the Hundred forty and four Thousand that were Sealed These are the first Fruits to God and to the Lamb. 4. The fourth Feast that we read of It was the Feast of Weeks As it is called in that Lev. 23. And it was after seven compleat Sabbaths were past Then there was a Feast which is called Pentecost And at that very Feast was the great pouring Out of the Spirit of Christ upon the Disciples Acts 2. 1. And so there shall be the Feast of the Harvest of all the Servants of God gathered in one after the Pouring out of that blessed Spirit of God All this shall be much greater than that was in Acts 2. This was but a Beginning It was but an Entrance of that which is to be done at the Feast of the Great Harvest Surely never was there such a Feast of Pentecost Such a Feast of Weeks as shall be then Every one who shall be admitted to that Feast His mouth shall be Full of the Wonderful works of God He shall speak abundantly of the Glory of God and of Jesus Christ and of the Riches of Grace He shall speak abundantly of the mighty Works of God in that mighty Pouring out of the Spirit of God 5. In the Fifth Place There shall be the Feast of Trumpets As we read Lev. 23. After the Feast of Weeks was the Feast of Trumpets And that Feast was a Type of the Seven Trumpets in the Revelation ending and fill'd up in the Seventh Trumpet that we read of Rev. 11. The Seventh Angel sounded and immediately there were loud Voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever ver 15. With which you may compare what is spoken in 1 Cor. 15. 52. And in 1 Thes 4. 16. Christ shall descend the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible And the Saints shall be changed And he shall come down with the Shout and Voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trampet of God Then shall that great Trumpet sound And then shall be the Feast when all the Dead in Christ and they that have slept In and By Jesus shall arise and shall appear in Glory and shall stand forth in that State of an Incorruptible Resurrection And then is the Blessedness of the Saints changed who live and remain here upon Earth And here all the forenam'd Feasts are together united in one 6. In the Sixth Place There shall be the Day of Attonement the Day of the great Attonement As we read of that also A Day wherein God was reconciled wherein the Entrances into the Holy of Holies were opened All that was to be in the Day of Attonement And so there shall be in the State of the Wedding of Christ The Feast of Attonement of Reconciliation As the Apostle speaks Acts 3. 19. When the times of Refreshing and of Restitution shall come Repent ye therefore and be Convented that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord In that Great Day of Attonement and at the Great Wedding All that make up the Lambs Wife shall meet there if they have been Enemies before to God and Christ they shall be Atton'd They 'll lay aside their Enmity one to another and fall into mutual Kindness and Enjoyment one of another Then all things as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. All things in Heaven and in Earth shall be fully Reconciled by Him Even by Him 6. The last is The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of a Paradisiacal-State The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of Goodly Boughs of Olives and Palms And whatsoever was most valuable among the Plants was brought out to make Boughs with at that time And to this the great Feast of the Kingdom of Christ is compared Because it shall be the State of Paradice Restored All the Glory and Beauty and Excellency of the Creation shall then be restored We read therefore Zech. 14. 16 c. of this Happy and Blessed Feast of Tabernacles It is when all shall be Holiness to Jehovah And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations which come against Jerusalem shall even go up from Year to Year to Worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles It is the Feast of that State of Paradice where Instead of Briars and Thorns shall come up the Fir-Tree and the Mirtle-Tree And it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Perpetual Remembrance Esay 55. 13. I shall now Briefly shut up all this in Application And I desire you that you would refresh these things in your own Thoughts And that you would bring them to mind You will find every particular Feast that of the Passover Exod. 12. You 'll find at large and every other Feast in Lev. 23. And I desire you would consider and read that Chapter And remember that the Glory and Happiness and Blessedness and Spirituality of those Feasts shall be in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Vse 1. The first use therefore that I would make of it shall be this To make a present Invitation to you to this Great Feast that is to be held to the Lord our God Even to Jehovah That you would mind this That you would seriously mind it and consider it that all of us are now Invited For now when we may go as in that Matth. 22. One to our Market Another to our Farm Every one to this or that Entertainment of this World At this very Time the Invitation is made to every one of us that we would consider of it Behold this Sermon and this Discourse this Preaching of the Gospel it is sent to you to invite you to this great Supper He sent forth his Servants ver 3. That is the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel the Expounders and Openers of Scripture to you to call you and to bid you unto this Wedding Now take heed Take heed That you do not go one to your Farm and another to your Merchandize that you don't go every one your own way As it is said They made light of it and went their way They go every one their own way Take heed now Remember when that Wedding-Supper shall be and that it shall then be Proclaimed with that sound of the Trumpet with the Voice of the Arch-angâ—l Blessed are they that are bidden then to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb If any be bidden They must be bidden now They must be perswaded now they must accept the Invitation at this very time For now it is as I tell
you You may go to your Farm and to your Merchandize c. Every one your own way Now is the Invitation made and now it is to be taken Now it is to be closed with now it is to be accepted Hearken therefore every Soul that hears this Discourse Behold thou art Bidden to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb Thou art invited to that Great Feast of the Kings Son Thou art earnestly perswaded that thou wouldest be present there and that thou wouldest partake of the Splendor Glory and Magnificence and of the Happiness of that Day Take heed now that thou don't make Light of it and say what 's this to me You will certainly Repent it another day You will fall to Weeping Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth that you would not be perswaded when you were thus Graciously bidden by Jesus Christ and by the Voice of his Word and the Voice of his Gospel Therefore hearken to this Invitation Hear whoever it be As it is said Isa 55. Where there is a great Description of this very Kingdom of this very State of Paradice As you may find in the last Verse Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir-Tree and instead of the Brier shall come up the Mirtle-Tree And it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for an Everlasting Sign that shall not be cut off Now Ho every one that Thirsteth So the Chapter begins As you know we make publick Sounds and Proclamations So Ho every one that Thirsteth come ye to the Waters c. Wherefore do ye spend your Money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not c And if any should say this is nothing but onely a Noise of Words and of Discourse saith God ver 9. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts For as the Rain cometh down and the Snow from Heaven and returneth not thither but Watereth the Earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give Seed to the Sower and Bread to the Eater So shall my word be that goeth out of my Mouth It shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall Prosper in the thing whereto I sent it Therefore assure your selves that this Word It will not return in vain It will Prosper to that very End You may be sure such a Feast there is to be Therefore take great care concerning your selves what you will do about it how you will order your selves about it Vse 2. In the Second Place I shall point out to you how you may prepare your selves You must take care of this First of all that you get a Wedding-Garment As it is said Mat. 22. He saw one there that had not on a Wedding-Garment And he said unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment And he was speechless The Man was so confounded he was so ashamed of the thing that he had nothing at all to say The King came in to see his Guests and he saw a Man that had not on a Wedding Garment The Man had nothing to say he knew there was no Reason for him to say any thing And what is this Wedding Garment It is an interest in Christ an Interest in His Righteousness a being Cloathed in Linnen White and Pure washed in the Blood of the Lamb. And tho the Person did not despise the Wedding He made a Profession as we do of Christianity to come to it Yet in the next verse ver 13. The King said to his Servants Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer Darkness And There shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth For many are called but few are chosen Therefore look diligently to this thing That tho you seem to speak fair you will come and you will be there and you do make a pretence And yet you have not the Wedding Garment Christ and his Righteousness Oh how sad will it be In the Second Place You must look diligently to this too That you have Oyl in your Vessels and not onely in your Lamps This you see is in Matth. 25. The Foolish Virgins never thought of Oyl in their Vessels but onely in their Lamps That is you must have Grace you must have a Holy and Spiritual Life from Christ That will be able to last out and to endure that very Time But I shall not speak more of it Because I shall come in a full Discourse to Treat of it Vse 3. The third use I would have you make is I would have you observe and consider but a little How this Notion of a Feast hath been Corrupted by the Anti-christian World What a Company of Feasts have there been of Man's Institution The Feast of such a Saint and such a Saint and Feasts that never were appointed by God Yet they have come into use and they remain in observation And how came this It is by that Counterfeit Christianity Antichristianism came in Feasts that never were ordain'd by God And I wish with all my heart there were not Reason to bewail not the Anti-christian World onely but even our Protestant Profession There 's nothing looks more Scandalous and more Strange than setting up Feasts that the Gospel never appointed nor Instituted I say I pray with all my heart that they that have Power and Authority in these things may consider it For when Jereboam departed from the purity of Religion Instituted by God in the Old Testament He made Feasts and Times of his own So the Christian World hath done And the Rellicks and Refuse of it are still among us We keep up Times that never were appointed That there 's no mention nor Signature of in the Gospel I do not speak any way to desire to Reflect or to be Censorious but to speak the Truth of things according to the Word of God For it is onely of Jehovah himself to appoint his own Feasts And He hath kept up to us The Feast of the Lord's Day and the Feast of the Lord's Supper as Preparatory to that Great Festival of the Kingdom of Christ And no other are we to make nor to Devise of our own Hearts Vse 4. The Fourth and Last Application is this That you would seriously consider this Marriage of the Lamb this Great Feast how near it is For as the Jews were mighty careful to keep Account of Days and the Motion of Times and Weeks They were to Account as Scripture-Expression is Lev. 23. 15. In that Case so we ought to Account the Time And methinks it is a very great Amazement and a very great Sadness That there should be no more Diligence nor Care Neither in the Publick Ministry of the Gospel nor in Private Christians to Count the Time and to know how near it is to this Great Festival For tho you may think you are Excused Because it is said
Christ was Revealed first in That as a Saerifice Dying for Sinners And there is the Fullness of Times of All Time wherein all things in Heaven and in Earth are to be gathered together in Him even in Him In which He is to appear without Sin to Salvation Heb. 9. Last A Second Thing that makes it seem very strange that God should continue the World so long even after This Fullness of Time is this Because the Heart of God as I have often said to you cannot be to this World Though He allows some kind of State and Condition to his Servants in it some Enjoyment some Supports some Presence of Himself and of his Glory and Grace in Christ Yet it is far short of what is to be Because This is a World that God cannot Love and therefore the Glory of Things shall not be in the Present State of the World Because I say it is a World that God cannot Love As Christ said My Kingdom is not of this World not meaning That it is not a Kingdom that shall Appear and be Visible in the Creation of God in Heaven and Earth standing in all the Order and Beauty of it That is not the meaning But My Kingdom is not of this World That is Not of this Present Corrupt State in it It must come to that That Time shall be no more as it is said Revel the 10th before the Kingdom of Christ can be There must be not only the Fullness of Time but Time must be no more of such a kind as it hath been And the Fullness of Times must come And Then the Kingdom of Chrsst shall appear But as yet it cannot For the Scripture witnesseth very plainly and evidently to us That though God gives his Servants Food and Rayment and Habitation and gives to many of them Great Conveniencies and Enjoyments of this World Yet it is not because he loves the World or likes their State and Condition in the World For saith the Apostle James Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God James 4. 4. You see what a Great Contest there is between God and the World And it can never be comprimised It can never be reconciled Whosoever will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God And therefore though we value the Things of the VVorld at so High a Rate and the Conveniencies of the VVorld we make so Choice of Yet if we believe This Great Oracle of Truth whoever will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God And the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God O that we could carry the Thoughts and Considerations of This always upon our Minds And so the Apostle John tells us the very same thing 1 John 2. 15. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him For All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life It is not of the Father but it is of the World And because the VVorld is nothing but an Entertainment of Lust and that God cannot love it Therefore the World passeth away The World is continually in a Fleeting Condition It is passing away All this Form and State of things that we now see the Order and Manner of Things now is hastening away as fast as it can But you will say Why does it not make more haste when God doth not Love it and when it is Enmity to Him And when If any Man Love this World he is an Enemy to God and the Love of the Father is not in Him O why should we make it as if it were an Everlasting State when it is not But why is God pleased to continue it thus long To that the Answer is Because there is a Patience of God which is Exercised now in the World and he will Exercise that Patience to the very last of the Time he hath appointed to the World In regard of this It is as if God should say it is true I do not Love this World I do not Love to see Wicked Men Rolling and Tumbling in it in all the Pleasure Voluptuousness Enjoyment and Merriment wherein they live I do not Love to see my Servants so taken up about it and so apt to be Drawn and Tempted with it as they are And yet for all this Notwithstanding it I will let this World stand saith God that my patience may be known and understood As the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some Men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward Not willing that any should Perish but that all should come to Repentance The meaning of which Expression I cannot better expound to you than by examining it what a kind of patience it is that is intended For Wicked Men they are wicked still Notwithstanding the Patience of God and they will not Repent And God takes them away one by one as he sees Good And the VVorld continues very bad from one Generation to another And yet God Exercise his patience towards it You may understand it by comparing this Expression with the first part of the Chapter They say in ver 4. Where is the promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Since the Fathers fell asleep It is very Natural to understand it of those first Long-living Patriarchs before the Flood Since They fell asleep and the Floud came say these Scoffers There hath been no change of things here The VVorld hath stood just as it did from thence And herein is the Patience of God the VVorld was about One Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Six Years when the Flood came Now in Every such Generation of the World Every Thousand Years of the World God hath had as Great Reason to Destroy the World as he had Then For Wickedness hath Grown to such an Heighth as it did then And yet for all this God Exercises the Patience and Long-Suffering that he doth not Destroy the World again and again and leave a few as he did then to people the World a-new But he continueth Summer and Winter and Harvest and the State of the World He hath not Destroyed Every Living Thing as He did then Though there have been Notable Judgments in All Times as I shall presently speak to you A Third Thing that should make us very much wonder That God should keep the World a-foot so long It is in Regard of the Great Insolence and Boldness of Wicked Men. What a Boldness is this That they should say Where is the Promise of his Coming And that they should find something or other to say It is nothing it is only a Thing
indeed we see in the very best to this day Therefore the Observation that I shall lay down and endeavour to open to you is this That Christianity in regard of the present state of Christians and as they have been since Ephesus Rev. 2. left its first love since there was a decay of the Glory and. Purity and presence of the Gospel from the Apostles Time Since then I say Christianity in the Power and Spirit of it though it hath not downright slept yet it hath been as in a slumber For indeed I have often said it and I cannot be in a remove from it That Christianity is not as it was intended by Christ it should be We have not seen the State and Glory of it And therefore I shall make it my business to represent to you by such Representations as the Scripture hath given us how the Power of Christianity hath faultred thus long and that it will come to its perfectly awakened State when the Kingdoms of this World are Proclaimed to be the Lord's and his Christ's And I shall date this failure especially to two Times and one of them will fall directly upon our selves First of all the Time when the Mystery of Iniquity was working in the Apostles days For you may plainly behold that by the very express words of the Apostle that in his own Time there was a working of the Mystery of Iniquity Then began the great decay and bringing down of the Glory of Christianity 2 Thes 2. 'T is a Scripture that I have often turned you to and therefore I hope you are acquainted with it I am perswaded the first Christians in the Apostles days needed as much to be restrained in thinking that the Day of Christ was at hand as we have need to be spurr'd on and to be provoked and to be earnestly perswaded to think that the Day of Christ is at hand For so the Apostle writes We beseech you saith he as if he was in a business of greatest earnestness and that he could not tell how he should prevail enough upon them to whom he wrote in it ver 1. We beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter as from us as that the Day of Christ is at hand They were ready to think The Day of Christ was to come just then Therefore the Apostle makes this earnest entreaty of them that they would not expect it You see what a different posture we are in now It is a hard matter to perswade any one to take off their hearts from the World and from loving it too deep and from thinking here 's a security in this World and we may do as our Fathers have done before us for so many Hundred Years in the Profession of Christianity We may be buying and selling and getting Estates and laying a foundation in this World Who is it that doth not count it a sort of Madness to disswade them from such a thing But the Christians of that Time they needed as earnest a perswasion That they might not think that the Day of Christ was so near at hand And so Christ in the 19th of Luke speaks that Parable that they should not because they did think The Kingdom of Heaven was nigh at hand He spake a Parable on purpose to assure them that it was not so nigh But Alas we need strong perswasions to the contrary And I may say the contrary to the Christians of this Time I beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus and by our gathering together unto him that you would not be shaken in mind by the general way of Peoples Profession and Preaching and Hearing as if the Day of Christ were not at hand And as the Apostle saith Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that Man of Sin be revealed the Son of Perdition So I say to you That day is near approaching For that falling away that Apostacy from Christianity it hath been and it is now very near to its expiring And therefore the great reason why it could not be then it is now a reason why it must speedily be because the Apostacy hath been so long because the Time and the last Date by God and by Christ is almost run out and expired that is the Time Times and half Time Here therefore to speak and bring home the thing to the present purpose I am upon Since this Apostacy began to work since that very Time Christianity hath been in a slumber For in this second Chap. v. 7. saith the Apostle the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work Now as soon as ever the Mystery of Iniquity began to work immediately there began a slumber upon the Christian Religion And therefore one would wonder Indeed it is a place that one would wonder to read and to find in the Epistle to the Philippians what the Apostle speaks Chap. 2. 20. For I have no man saith he like-minded speaking of Timotheus who will naturally genuinely sincerely care for your state For saith he All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's I speak of him as an extraordinary Person saith the Apostle By this we may plainly see it was a great variation from what you read in the second and third Chapters of the Acts where they minded nothing but only the Promotion of Christianity No one called any thing their own they minded nothing but Christianity it self But Christianity hath been in a slumber ever since or else we should be Christians of another Life of another Spirit of another Power I say were it not that Christianity hath been in a slumber so long And this is with a great deal of spiritual Wit if I may so speak and a great deal of spiritual Elegancy set out to us in the Song of Solomon I shall have occasion to make great recourse to the Description that is there given to us Sol. Song c. 5. v. 2. I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh saying open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled for my Head is filled with Dew and my Locks with the Drops of the Night What 's the meaning of this Indeed I know Men are ready to say That these things are only Imaginations and Whimsies and Apprehensions of ones own that speaks of them But I have found a clear Thread and Line drawn from David's time till the very Glorious Coming of Christ in this very Song of Solomon And I find that the Time when the Apostacy came in is just under the very description that we here have As therefore when after a clear Day a Sun-shiny-day at Night the Drops of Dew you know they fall thick upon the heads of those that are in the Air. So
one is awakened out of Sleep And therefore let us earnestly long for that Time And whatever God is doing or seems to do in the World let us observe what Tendencies it has to this Excellent State of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and then this Slumber shall be perfectly taken off And then 3 In the Third and last place Let it comfort us exceedingly in God and in Christ And let us say The Things that God hath prepared and designed they are Things That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive For that in the 64th of Isaiah is to be applied to the Coming of Christ O that thou wouldest Rent the Heavens and that thou wouldest come down and that the Mountains might flow down at thy Presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the Waters to boil c. And then saith he Things that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard yet he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Consider it at your own Freedom This State is near coming forth such an one as hath not been seen or heard of since the Foundation of the World In which we shall no longer complain at the rate we do now That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and That our Iniquities like the Wind take us away And That we do not stir up our selves to take hold of God But then there shall be a General Stirring up of one another to take hold of the Lord our God SERMON VII On Matthew 25. v. 1 Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses endeavoured to express to you the Divine Sense and Meaning of our Lord in this Parable who as I told you Opened his Mouth in Parables and in this Parable in a very Eminent Manner and hath made known things hid from the very Foundation of the World The Points that I have already Discoursed it may be necessary to give you only just a Remembrance of and to come to that that is now to be proposed The first was this That the Kingdom of Christ in all the motions in all the parts in all the Dates and Times of it is the Kingdom of Heaven It is not to be looked upon as an Earthly or a Sensual Kingdom but the Kingdom of Heaven In the second Place That True Christianity is an Espousal unto Jesus Christ The Scripture hath delighted to set it forth under the Resemblance of Marriage and Espousals Thirdly That all the Eye of a Christian is not to the present state though it be necessary in the way but it is to the future and to the higher state For as I opened to you out of the Old Testament it was the Command of God That there should be a Contract between the Person that had taken a Beautiful Woman Captive and her that was taken Captive if he desired to Marry her There was to be a time of Contract Thirty Days God did precisely appoint That it might shadow to us That the present state is but a state of our Espousals and Contract And therefore our chief Intention the Great Eye of the Soul must be to the Solemnity and the Glory of the Nuptials of the Marriage it self The Virgins took their Lamps therefore and went forth to meet the Bridegroom In the Fourth Place I opened to you the great Solemnity Fifthly That notwithstanding the Death and Resurrection and Ascention of Christ into Glory there is a great Delay of his coming And though this seems very strange and unreasonable it should be so I endeavoured to open to you the Reason that Scripture hath given why it is so In the Sixth Place in the last Discourse I opened to you this What a Drousie and Sleepy state of Christianity hath come upon Christians and upon the Profession of Christ by reason of the Bridegroom 's tarrying I shall now go on to speak of this viz. At Midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridgroom cometh Go ye out to meet him I have considered and weighed the Parable in all the parts of it in all the Scope of it and I cannot find that it can relate to any thing but to the very Glory of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ For immediately it comes to this That the Door was shut They that were ready went in with him to the Wedding and the Door was shut Christ profest to them without when once the Door was shut I know you not And there is no such thing as that before the great coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And therefore this Cry at Midnight is no other than that which the Apostle speaks in the 1. Thess 4. 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first This is the great Cry that shall be made it shall be the Cry at the Trump of the Archangel the Voice of the Archangel And so in the 1 Cor. 15. The Apostle speaks the very same thing that it should come to this There should be an immediate Raising of the Dead Ver. 52. In a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall Sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we shall be Changed This therefore is the Midnight-Cry Indeed there may be some Resemblances of it by sudden Judgments and by sudden Affrightments upon the World As we may easily Apprehend of late at Jamaica It was to them like a Day of Judgment I say It must needs be like to such a Midnight-Cry when an immediate stroak of God came upon them A Thundring and Lightning and an Opening of the Earth and a Rising up as it were of the Sea to sweep down the Inhabitants into it self this looked Just like the end of the World And though God gave us a little Item of such a thing though it did not so come upon us as that beyond the Sea yet we may easily Consider it might have been like a Mid-night if God had done with us as he did with them But yet still this would not have been that Midnight-Cry but even to those that are gone down into the Depth in that place Yet still there remains a Midnight-Cry that shall awaken them 'T was like a Midnight-Cry upon Sodom when it was from Heaven Consumed by Fire But yet it is very evident that Midnight-Cry remains still to come upon that very Sodom and Gomorah And therefore I say Though I allow Allusions to such a Scripture as this when any Judgment that has been or may be is set out to us there may
of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the Presence of God for us We Translate it In the Presence of God but the Greek is much more Emphatical He Appears or is made apparent to the Face of God for us Now Christ is present with and makes himself appear to the very Face of God That Face that is Ten Thousand times Brighter than the Sun and that Dazles all Created Righteousness Christ appears to that very Face and he appears now in his own Blood to that very Face for us Herein is our great Comfort when we come before the Face of God Christ appears to that very Face in our Behalf It is further said Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest Offer'd other Sacrifices For then must he often have Suffered since the Foundation of the World It may be you only read this with a General Thought of it and may not have considered the deep Sense and the Importance of it For I ask Why Christ must have Suffered often from the Foundation of the World if he had not been a Lamb slain once for All The Answer is If his Offering had not been an Offering once for All It must have arisen from the Insufficiency of it the Weakness and Imperfection of it to have done All at once and then he must as the Apostle says Have Suffer'd often since the Foundation of the World and not have Died only 1700 Years ago when the World was about 4000 Years old but he must have Suffer'd from the very Foundation of the World He must have begun there where the Sin of Man the Apostacy of Adam enter'd and he must still have been Suffering For the World could not have been born up but by the Efficacy of his Sacrifice and therefore it must still have been renew'd The World hath been variously divided the Old World before the Flood and then before the Law and since the Law till Christ It is capable of more Divisions but divide it as we can I do not see how any Division of it could have been without the Sacrifice of Christ nor how often each Division would have requir'd the Benefit of it if once Offering had not been for All but because once Offering of a Lamb without Spot by the Eternal Spirit doth Perfect and Consecrate for ever to the Enjoyment of God and Freedom from Wrath Them who are Sanctified from the Guilt and the Power of Sin And so it looks backward to all such before it as a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and forward to all who shall be to the Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All and even throughout Eternity supporting Saints in their Union to the Father and his Love by Himself Hence this Great High-Priest chose his Time in the End of the World shewing the Right of Christ to have put an end upon this Sunk Fallen Defiled World but that for Wisest and Holiest Purposes Vision and Prophesie in the Great Efficacy of his Redemption were Seal'd and now of necessity are near to be opened This was the Fulness of Time not far from the Fulness of Times or of all Time That is from the Kingdom of Christ Now on this Foundation of his Sacrifice for ever perfecting Them who are Sanctified we learn That as All is Deriv'd from Christ Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption So it is Conserv'd in him he hath for ever perfected as in himself For all still rests in him and depends upon Fresh Receivings from him as is most evident in this He went immediately into the Holy Places made without Hands there to appear in the Presence of God or according to the Force of the Greek there to be made Illustrious to the very Face of God for us So that notwithstanding what he hath done we could not dare to appear to the Face of God if he were not there for us appearing to that very Face receiving the Grace and Favour of it and Reflecting it on us And so in Sanctification in the strictest and most proper Sense of it It is continually Issuing from his Blood The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant sends forth the Efficacy of making perfect in every good Work working in us that which is well pleasing in his Sight Now then from hence arises a Necessity of continual Looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith in both Justification and Sanctification Take then as in relation to the Point of Justification our Faith our Love our Repentance our Charity our Holiness our Obedience and separate these from the Satisfaction Righteousness of Jesus Christ and how can they stand before God on any account whatever even in the Sense of All that do at all acknowledge Christ But beyond this How pitiful are they compar'd with Everlasting Righteousness with Infinite Righteousness Nay so Imperfect and so Polluted are they that they cannot so much as enter into any the least Consideration in the Point of Righteousness or Justification but they must needs before a Righteous and Holy God Themselves and the Persons in whom they are fall under Condemnation And in point of Holiness if you divide them from Christ They are like a Beam or a Ray cut off from the Sun it immediately vanishes and comes to nothing As therefore The Conscience truly enlightned will say Alas I cannot come before God with this and that which looks like Godliness Holiness or what we call Religion as in Prayer or other Duties I must have the Infinite Righteousness of Jesus Christ else I know my Lamp will immediately go out So in point of Sanctification even that Holiness we receive from Christ all its Excellency and Life is in Union to Christ If it be separate from him it is like a Drop out of the Fountain A Drop in the Fountain is considerable while it is in it If you separate it from it it presently is lost and comes to nothing My Son says he unto Timothy be strong in the Grace that is in Jesus Christ it must be in him Conserv'd in him Else it is as a Ray wandring from the Sun or a Drop from the Fountain or to speak in the Language of the Parable as a Lamp from the Vessel or even the Vessel from the Son of Oil The Sum of all is our dependance is on Christ alone our Union and Communion with him He is the Fountain he is the Great Son of Oil All Lamps go out not so united In Jehovah shall one say Have I Righteousness and Strength strength of Holiness also In him shall all his Seed be Justified and Glory Thus far I have endeavoured to fix and establish this Point to you And from which I hope and am assur'd I shall never find Reason to depart That the Oil in the Vessel is the Heart united to Jesus Christ by Faith The Having the Son and so having Life For he is the Great Son of Oyl the Branch made strong even the
Manner of Speaking that Christ uses Matt. 7. in that Great Sermon of Christ upon the Mount beginning at the 21st Verse Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name And in thy Name have cast out Devils And in thy Name done many Wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye that work Iniquity Here 's the Language Christ uses You pretend saith he to know me to be of my Acquaintance to have a Familiarity with me and to have many Pledges of my Presence with you and of being known to you But I know you not I never knew you It is a very Dreadful and Severe Expression to those that would claim upon Christ by former Acquaintance All of you know it is the Manner among Men when any one that we would have nothing to do with And as we speak in our Ordinary Language that we would shake off when they would desire to lay a fair Challenge or a Claim to our Acquaintance or Friendship We tell them We don't know them A Person comes and would fain Interest himself in us You know it is an ordinary thing to say I don't know you or I have had very little knowledge of you So to those that say Lord Wilt thou Deny us Have we not Hear'd Have we not Preached Have we not Eat and Drunk in thy Presence Have we not Cast out Devils in thy Name What! Wilt thou shake us off Wilt thou deny that ever thou knew'st us Here 's the force of the Expression So Luke 13. 25. When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the Door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the Door saying Lord Lord open to us And he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence you are What! Would you that are Strangers and that I never had any particular Intimacy with would you have the Door opened for you Then shall ye begin to say Ver. 26. We have Eaten and Drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our Streets But he shall say I tell you I know you not whence you are Depart from me all ye Workers of Iniquity There shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your Selves thrust out So you see it is the Language of Scripture the very Language of Scripture I know you not That we may therefore understand the Sense and the Meaning of it I shall open it in Three Particulars very briefly The First is this There is a Knowledge of God from Eternity A Knowledge of Eternal Grace of Eternal Love A Fore-Knowledge as the Scripture speaks whom God hath foreknown Rom. 8. A full and an Excellent Place to this very Purpose Whom he did foreknow ver 29. he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son c. So there is a Knowledge of God from Eternity of every Person I know this is a very hard thing to Flesh and Blood to believe That God should Fore-know some and not Fore-know others And especially except they can hang it upon the Condition That God should foresee who should Believe and who should Repent But as I have formerly endeavoured to clear to you That there is nothing hard when it comes to be considered And that there are more Saints upon the Account of this Fore-knowledge of God than if he had never Fore-known at all For there might not have been one Saint according to Adam's Behaviour in Paradice who had far greater Advantages and yet you know he was lost himself and all his Posterity in him if a Mediator had not come and interposed Let a Man therefore be set in the best or worst circumstances you can suppose And I am sure there 's more particular Hopes from God's Fore-knowledge and Purpose than if there had been no Purpose or no Fore-knowledge of God 2 Tim. 1. 9. So Chap. 2 19. The Foundation of God stands sure Why does it stand sure Because saith he it hath this very Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his So saith Christ I know my Sheep And if we should say Ay he knew them because they were already come into him Saith he I have other Sheep that I have not yet brought in and that I must bring in and them I know too So that there is a Knowledge before the Foundation of the World or coming in And undoubtedly though as you shall see I shall endeavour to make the Thing as plain and as free to your Thoughts as I can in the Progress of this Discourse Yet I desire to give Glory to the Fore-knowledge of God and tell you That it is not your Disadvantage but it s your great Advantage I durst boldly take any Person in this Assembly at this Time and say to him That there 's a great deal more Hopes that God hath foreknown you than that by your own Strength you should prevail for your own Eternal Happiness There 's a Notable Expression in 1 Cor. 8. The Apostle begins thus Saith he We all have Knowledge Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth And if any Man think saith he that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know But if any Man love God the same is known of him If any Man comes truly to understand God then he is known of God first and if any Man Love God the same is known and Loved of him first I do not deny but these Expressions may be taken in the Second and Practical Sense I shall next give you But I look upon it That the Apostle first goes up to the Fountain of Knowledge to that Spring of All-saving Knowledge God's Knowing Men in his Eternal Love in and through Jesus Christ The Second Knowing of Men therefore is that which Men will more easily assent to and take down And that is When we are in the Ways of Love and Service and Obedience to God then he knows with Approbation he knows with Delight God knows every one of us now we are all well known to him and all our Ways and our Thoughts and Actions are all known to him He knows us a great deal better than we know our selves As he speaks Amos 4. last He declareth unto Man what is his Thought As if he should say Would you have me Ignorant of your Thoughts and that you must tell them me or else I cannot know them No He declareth unto Man what is his Thought He unriddles all our Thoughts and Purposes and Intentions in us And so he knows us every one very well As it is said John 2. 25. He needed not that any should testifie of Man For he knew what
of Grace than to look up to Electing Grace Knowing Brethren your Election of God and giving diligence in every Grace to make our Calling and Election sure The Apostle hath given us a great Admonition for Adoring Supream Grace Rom. 11. 32 c. God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all That is upon all that he will have mercy upon He hath shut them up in such a way that they could not stir if his Grace did not open the way O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Who could direct God what he should do in the eternal concernments of Souls Or Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Can any say to God Thou hast done unjustly or unrighteously that thou hast not chosen me Why what hast thou done or any Creature done to oblige him If he hath I dare assure him it shall be recompenced to him to the uttermost But I assure him he that replies thus he is a Bold Man and Proud and Haughty is his Name And as Christ saith Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever And therefore I desire to be among the number of those that do not quarrel with God That dare not enter a contest and a contention with him concerning his Eternal Choice Let us humble our selves every one at his foot and say Of thee and through thee and to thee are all things and I desire to be to thy Glory Thus let us make our selves nothing before God nothing at all but make him all We never did any thing for him we could never lay an Obligation and therefore we have nothing to say but Free Grace Free Grace Free Love and Free foreknowledge of God 2. In the Second Place This Parable in this dreadful part teaches That we should all be beholding to Christ and to the Free Grace that is in him the Pardon of Sin the Righteousness of Christ his Bloud and his Redemption Here 's our all I say here is our all For as I opened to you the Great Point is Whether in Christ or not Whether Christ be in us and whether we are in him Whether we are found in him as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 7 c. Here 's the Point That every one may depend upon the Righteousness of God in Christ It is not the works that we have done but according to his own mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit And here the wise Virgins reached out themselves to be found in Christ and only in him but the Foolish Virgins fell short here 3. Thirdly We can do nothing but by the Spirit of Christ Our only hope is in the Spirit of the Lord our God And therefore the foolish Virgins were mistaken That they did all in their own strength and power They trusted in their own Beauty they trusted in their own Virginity and did not mind the Righteousness of Christ the Free Grace of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ I come to the Fourth thing I proposed and that is To answer the Objections that may be made against this state of this Case I have given you And I desire to speak plainly yet in very short to you in this matter You may say then What can any one do What hope can there be Though I am in the True Religion and in the True Worship of God and though I am in an unblameable Conversation and yet I may be lost and undone because I have not Wisdom because I have not something that I am not able to apprehend or to be sensible of Now therfore I 'll satisfie you in this because you may think In all Religion there lies a discouragement upon us If things be thus Therefore I 'll Answer you in Two things very briefly First Let no man mistake for I am sure Let any thing be preached that can be preached yet there shall not so much as be one Moral Person fewer in the World I am sure that the measure of Restraining Grace of Preventing Grace of Morallizing Grace that God will give to the World nothing of Discourse or Opinion shall be able to straiten it or to lessen it I say I am sure of this There shall not be one Honest Man in the World less because Christ preached to that young Man that had kept all the Commandments from his youth Thou art yet under a great difficulty as to the Kingdom of Heaven A man might have taken the Advantage of that discourse of Christ with this young man and have made a Clamour and noise of it and said here 's one that despises and discourages a good young man for he saith How hardly shall such a young man that hath kept all the Commands from his youth enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but Christ knew very well that he should not hinder or lessen or straiten Moral Honesty or Goodness in the World by what he said for he knew all these things are in God and from God and there shall not one hair from the head of Morality as I may so speak Fall to the Ground because of any thing that can be said for There is a Common Grace of Morality and Honesty given out from God and Christ and whomsoever he thinks fit to Receive it They shall receive it and must receive it and they shall be under the power of it and live suitably to it And so for the Grace of God There shall no one be hindred of his Graee Let men have as many Conceptions as they can have of things and however Discouraging if his Truth be duely spoken and in the season Therefore dont think that the preaching of the Truth of Scripture can do any hurt for God is allwayes present breathing in the Word both with a Spirit of Morality and common Gifts of Righteousness and also with a Spirit of Grace and none shall be ever able to straighten his Spirit in any of the Effects of it And the Truths of God spoken according to his Word shall be subordinated to it In the Second Place I do always acknowledge and Declare with Greatest Freedom and Sincerity That this is the onely way of Preaching the Gospel To preach it so that Every one should be Sensible of True Holiness and True Grace And yet withal They must be Sensible of Free Grace the free Grace of God the free Choice of God Free Grace in the Righteousness of Christ of the Spirit Blowing where it listeth and where it pleaseth as our Lord tells us These things are not to be Divided nor Justled out one by another for they both stand
have the Bible in English or the New Testament in their Houses Then it was a certain sign That that Man was in danger of his Life to have it so Why did not God give it with that freedom as we have it And then if you look back to Sixteen Hundred Years ago there was nothing in the World at large but Idols and serving of Devils And the Gospel was not Preached Till after the Apostles Times it did not come into these Islands of Britain It is not for us to know how to Rule and to Govern Times and Seasons But God hath disposed of every thing Blessed are your Eyes for you see and your Ears for they hear But I would but only give you one or two Scriptures of the great advantage if we should but live to see the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And therefore I beseech you all That you would earnestly pray That that Kingdom may be coming forth In the 29th of Isaiah if you observe the reading at the 15th Verse you shall find that there was a Book offered and the Learned said it was sealed and therefore say they How can we read it And the unlearned said we cannot read it for we are not learned If learned Men cannot read it how should we read it But saith God in the following part of the Chapter This very Book shall be opened it shall come to pass in that day that is when the Kingdom of Christ shall come The deaf shall hear the words of the Book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness that is There shall be so mighty a change of things that that Book that the learned and the unlearned could not meddle with the very deaf shall hear the Words of this Book It is a very wonderful Scripture to this purpose it shews us plainly the great things that shall be done by God at that Day And I make no doubt but that these Scriptures that Men are afraid that any should meddle with and they think it Presumption And how should we meddle with such hard Scriptures I make no doubt but the Eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness And so Isa 35. 8. And an high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those The way-faring men though fools shall not err in that way So great a Light of the Gospel shall shine out Pray therefore don't be so against the Preaching of the Kingdom of Christ in your Judgments or in your Discourses but rather bow your Knees and buckle your hearts and your thoughts down to the very lowest at the Throne of Grace to desire that this Kingdom may come Why do you envy one another the great Happiness that shall be in the Kingdom of Christ For a great Offspring like the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning must at that time be brought home to Christ And many of those that are Virgins but in Form must come to have it in the Truth and Reality and Sincerity of it And therefore let us earnestly pray according to that Prayer stiled the Lords Prayer Let us with earnestness and understanding pray Thy Kingdom O Lord let it come c. SERMON X. On Matth. 25. 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Come now to the Use or as we speak Application which our Lord makes of this Great and Excellent Parable Watch for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh And it may be upon the hearing of the Words you may be ready to say That I am upon a Scripture that overthrows the Attempts of drawing such a Scripture Line of Time as I have endeavoured to hold out and to perswade the Truth of as should lead to the very Coming of the Bridegroom the great Son of Man But indeed the intention of it as I shall shew you is quite another thing and does not concern it self in that matter either one way or other The main Point in it is that great practical one That every one of us ought to be upon our Guard upon our Watch while we are here in the World in relation to that great Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ We are to wait all our days according to our opportunity of enjoying the Gospel in the compass of Time God gives us which may as you know be longer or shorter as our Lives are in the dispose of God he may take us away this very Night if he pleases and yet for all this we must have made such a provision and preparation for the Coming of the Bridegroom which will else be with a dreadful and ruinous surprise upon us whensoever it be We are infinitely obliged give me leave to use so great a Word in so great a Point we are I say infinitely obliged therefore to take heed in so great a matter If it was as many Years to the Coming of Christ as it hath been since he spake these Words and though we were sure it would be so That therefore which I will propose to open to you shall be summ'd in this main Doctrine Doct. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ take it in your own sense as much as you please is bound to watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the days of Christ and had then known certainly that that Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since For the knowing what Day or Hour is not a knowing or not knowing by Computation or Account of Time but by an effectual providing a Treasure of Oil that we may not be found foolish Virgins at that day Our watchful knowing is knowing by Union to the great Son of Oil Christ himself And if any Man did know never so certainly the precise time of the Coming of the Bridegroom yet he would not know in our Lord's sence at what hour he 'll come but would be in the same surprise as if he knew nothing at all That Day most certainly comes unawares upon all overcharged with furfeiting and drunkenness and Cares of this Life upon all that sleep and are not watchful by Faith and Holiness It comes at a day when it is not looked for and at an hour the evil servant is not aware who eats and drinks with the drunken They only know that day whose Loins are girded and whose Lights are burning who when their Lord cometh upon account of the Wedding open to him immediately Blessed are those servants whom their Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily saith Christ he will gird himself and will make them sit down to Meat and will serve them be ye therefore ready for the Son
do for that After-State let us do it now For in dying Spirits going out of Bodies enter into their Determinative State They enter in the State they were in here They carry out the Oil they have whether only in the Lamp of their Profession or in the Vessel the Heart united to Christ the Fountain And so they must abide so they must appear when the Bridegroom cometh This is the holy and wise Decree of God concerning the Human Spirit and who dare controll it From hence then it necessarily follows That this Watch is to be maintained in this Present State and that it can be only here and that therefore it is only in order to and with relation to the Coming of the Bridegroom but not with relation to the Time of his Coming for then the Doctrine of Watching had not been proper to Persons living so many Ages before it but because every person successively living since the Time our Lord spake these words is in the Time of his Life to exercise this Watch that is to see he hath the Oil in his Vessel and not in his Lamp only that he may stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Therefore it is a Doctrine necessary to every Age as well those furthest off as those nearest to his Coming because every one hath but a Life-Time to Watch in and he is much more to be wrought upon by the sence of the shortness and incertainty of his own Life than by the nearness of the Bridegrooms Coming and the incertainty of the time of that as we plainly see by every Days Experience And this is much the more uncontestable by observing the Apostle Paul's earnestness against the Christians of those Times thinking the Day of Christ was then at hand which he solemnly affirms could not be till an Apostacy of 1260 Days of Years should have come in and that not immediately neither and have run out Yea our very Lord himself when They thought the Kingdom of God should immediately have appeared Luke 19. 11 c. gives the Parable of a Nobleman going into a far Country and returning importing a distance of Time all which had been a contradiction to watching because we know not the day nor hour if the meaning had not been a making provision in the present Life for the Bridegrooms Coming how many Ages after soever it should be and that else it would come upon us at unawares and on the sudden and find us unready unprovided for it Argument 2. It further appears That Watching is the making such provision in this present Time for the Bridegrooms Coming as will bear up to the Glory of that Time because in the same State wherein we lie down we shall rise at that day whenever it be and openly appear therein in the face of Heaven and Earth The Judgment of Spirits though it be before God and Christ and Aangels and Saints yet Scripture speaks of it as of a private Judgment for the Day of the Appearance of Christ is spoken of Rom. 2. 5. as the Revelation or uncovering that righteous Judgment of God which as pass'd upon Spirits returning to God that gave them is as covered and secret There is greatest reason to be assured That when Spirits of Saints come into the hand of Christ there is joy in Heaven for if there be joy at their Conversion in the presence of the Angels of God and so of Saints there is much more so in the coming of Spirits to Glory but this Joy and the Shouts of it are not heard down on Earth But at that Appearance of Christ they are presented with exceeding joy before Heaven and Earth And so are All not in Christ with contempt and dishonour And this is the great Mystery and Wonder of the Oeconomy the Order of that Day That persons rise in the very same State wherein they lie down God will have it so for the clearness of his Judgment though persons die in the corner of a Bed as the Prophets expression is yet they shall openly appear in the same circumstances they died God will have every ones Judgment as in all orderly Governments to be sub Dio openly in the Face of Heaven and Earth they shall all appear as in the Fact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day and justified in the Condemnation of all whom he condemns If God should dispose of some to Hell and some to Heaven and that there were no publick account of the matter we might think they were so disposed of by God as by an Arbitrary Power and in secret and so his Justice called in Question But when Spirits that have been so disposed of in private both Spirits so publickly and Bodies are called for together and the Judgment affirmed This is clear and open proceeding and therefore a Day of Judgment and of Resurrection is so often spoken of All shall be brought Face to Face and we shall not only know one another who have conversed together but even of all Ages Abraham Isaac and Jacob Cain and Esau Saul Achitophel and Judas All shall be known and we shall know what becomes of every one to Eternity Death here and Spirits entring into their everlasting state is not All of which we may say Who knows the Spirit of a Saint of a wise Virgin that goes upward of a wicked man of a foolish Virgin that goes downward But at that Day shall be known All the Good Men we have read of in Scripture or in true Accounts of History And the Evil Men and Hypocrites Each Company and Person apart and apart God and Christ will pass upon all openly and in Publick And that which I would further urge every one shall Rise in the very Fact the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which they lay down Belshazzars in their way Diveses in their way the Worldlings in their way and the Foolish Virgins in their way Crying Lord Lord without Truth and Power as here The great Tyrants Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ in their way To that purpose they are describ'd as having laid their Weapons of War under their Heads with their Iniquities upon their Bones Ezek. 32. 17. and so they 'll come to the Battel of Armageddon The Iniquity and the Bones the Persons and Weapons of War will appear together in that Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as even then in actual War against the Lamb and his Saints This is the Great and stupendious management of the Day of Judgment of that Day and Hour of which in this Sense especially and not as relating to Time no one knows no Angels no not the Son as Man The Father only the Eternal Beeing alone had Wisdom to find out Authority Dominion and Power thus to execute It is therefore the great Point of watchfulness to Live so and so to Dye as we would desire to Rise and
such so Educated and Prepared yet to be a Preaching-Soul to our selves none can be scandalized or offended at that 4. In the Fourth Place Let us take heed and keep our selves from our Iniquity that there may be no Sin that we shall be found in at the coming of Christ that we give Indulgence to now no course of known sin or of the neglect of any known Duty Let us take care of this that we do not allow our selves in any way of sin that we search and try our ways continually that we may turn unto God Il'l give you two notable Scriptures to this very purpose though a great many more might be given I was also upright before him and kept my self from mine iniquity Psal 18. 23. That 's a very great Scripture though I have already spake of it that especially that I would direct you to now is in the 139th Psalm 23. 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting You see here It is a very Difficult point For If a Virgin may be shut out for ever what Reason have we to lay our thoughts open before God and to say unto him Search me O God I know not how to Search my Self I am so Dark and Blind to my self in my own peculiar Iniquity That I know it not But do thou Search me and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Any wicked way in me That is The way of living in any Sin or giving up my self to any Lust Let us be mighty Cautious very careful in This to lay our selves before God for Indeed If any one would say to me Which way shall I help my self You say That a Virgin may be a Foolish Virgin You say That Virginity is the Best State in the profession of Christianity And yet There may be such a Worm at the Root of it as may wither it all What then shall I do Does not this Discourage in the way of Religion If I may be so Mistaken and Deceived in it Were not the Foolish Virgins as likely in their own Eyes as the Wise Therefore I say No other way but to lie at the Foot of Christ and of the Spirit of Christ and Earnestly to pray Search me O God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and my Secret Retirements and see if there be any any Secret wickedness in me and lead me in the way Everlasting If we did continually This and if our hearts were fully Set upon it certainly God would bring forth our Righteousness as the Light and our Judgment as the Noon-Day Surely God will Discover This if we are Sincere It is the best counsel that can be given and the best Example that can be laid before us And so That of our Saviour I look upon as the peculiar duty in order to our waiting for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I say I look upon it to be the very peculiar Duty Our Lord saith concerning this Let your Loins be girded about and your Lights burning Luke 12. 35. And so the Apostle Peter expounds this Scripture more fully to us and he directs it to this very Point of Looking to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ Besides all the Grace of the Gospel at the present there is the Crowning-Grace There is the Triumphing-Grace that is to be brought to us at the appearing of Christ Gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for that salvation You know the loins they are taken for those parts of Human Nature wherein is the Seat of Sensuality and Corruption most of all the Bodily-Lust that men are affected with And as the loins are girded a Man is the more expedite and ready for Motion So when all that superfluity of the Flesh and impure sensual affection is girt up and we hope perfectly for the Grace that is to be brought to us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Let us earnestly therefore pray Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous sins that they may not have dominion over me Then shall we lift up our face clear as the Morning and we shall lift up our head without spot as Job If Pride if Lust if any inclination to the love of this World to sensual Pleasures and Delight if any of this we find to be our sin any immoderate Lust or Sin whatever it is Let us gird up the loins of our minds wherein we find any extravagant and impetuous Motion to evil prevail upon us 5. In the Fifth Place Let this be our great care to meditate much upon Death Judgment and Eternity Let those common and general Notions prevail upon us For my part I have always and desire always to Declare That I do not bind up any one to any particular apprehensions of my own in these things although I do fully believe such an appearance of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ Yet I say to every one Let those general and agreed Notions and Principles be strong upon your hearts And the less you can intend and encline to believe such an Appearance and Kingdom of Christ be the more Intent upon those Four Last Things as they are generally called that is Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let those General and acknowledged and impressed Points be always upon your Minds O! What kind of persons should we be if we did but grow up to the acknowledged Points of Christianity Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let us always take these into consideration and there is no Christian but owns them even Papists themselves those of them that have been more Devout than others have written very excellently and very notably upon these things these Principles that run so mightily into all the sence of Christianity God forbid that any thing should be said to take off the plain Consideration and the strong Apprehension and the close Meditation and the mighty influence of those Four Things from us For who can enough speak of them or consider them Take them in the plainest sence that you can And Oh that God would give you to feel even every one of us to feel the full work of them upon our hearts that they may have every one their perfect work upon our hearts That as I may allude the Chariots of our Souls may be always moving upon these Four Wheels and that our Chariots may never stand still but lift us up continually above the Earth It is my earnest Prayer for every one of us speaking and hearing That our Souls may be as the Chariots of Aminadab carried upon these Four Wheels of Death and
are To hear a Man swear against their Religion profanely and to see a Man Drinking and Carousing and saying according to the very usual ways of Mens Discourse To drink as it were Healths to Protestants Is not this an abominable Shame and that speaks our great dishonour And that may make even Papists scandalized at the loose and licentious way of those that call themselves Protestants To hear Men Swear and Damn and blaspheme and yet at the very same time to profess a Zeal against Popery Certainly this we ought to take care of That we are not carried away by the Name of a Wicked Licentious Blasphemous and Prophane Protestantism And beyond this we should look That that Pride Vanity Cruelty Earthliness and Oppression and whatever the Sins are that are among us that we do not cover them and disguise them under the Name of this Why yet for all this I am not a Papist I am a Protestant surely God will Tear that Name out of the Mouths of such Protestants As he saith in Ezekiel You sow Pillows and Kerchiefs that is some Disguising things upon their heads And saith he I 'll tear these Kierchiefs Ezek. 13. So God will tear off from those that have the Profession of Protestantism but have nothing of the Power Life and Zeal of the Reformation and their Open Testimony for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that very Profession from them In the last Place that I may draw to a Conclusion Notwithstanding all that I have said to you concerning the Thoughts of Death and of Judgment and of Heaven and Hell yet I would desire that we may have a sence of the Glory and of the Kingdom of Christ that is to appear and that you would look to have it in your hearts to have the Kingdom of God in your hearts Let me propose a great Scripture to you upon this account And after a short Explanation of it I 'll conclude in a few Words Luke 17. 20. There was a great Question put to Christ in this case He was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come he answered them and said The Kingdom of God cometh not with Observation Neither shall they say lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you That 's the Kingdom of God For in some way certainly there 's none of us but Profess it else why do we pray it should come When that which is the Great Petition the very Central-Petition of the Lord's Prayer surely that 's the very Key that turns all about Now I say if you would believe a Kingdom of God in any sence And that you will be ready to say When shall that Kingdom come Remember what Christ saith it does not come by Observation for Men shall not say Lo here or lo there Though indeed it shall be a Glorious Sight a Glorious Shew as the Apostle saith which in his Time he will shew Yet for all that you shan't say Lo here comes Christ and here come such and such Saints And here comes such a Glory and Heaven and Earth glowing in a flame You shan't say here or there thus and thus it is though you shall have reason to say so yet saith Christ the main thing is The Kingdom of God is within you What will you be the better for that Kingdom of God if it be not within you You must bring it to that Day The Kingdom of God comes not with Observation it does not come with a shew without us but our God will come and all his Saints shall come with him They shall come with Bodies of Glory and Bodies of Light Bodies full of Glory it does not come with an outward shew but within us Every one that hath not the Kingdom of God within him at that Day they will appear by that very thing to be foolish Virgins for they must bring that Kingdom in the Righteousness of Christ with peace of Conscience through his Bloud by Grace and by Vertue of his Holy Spirit And now I beseech you That you would ballance these two things continually one with another You pray that the Kingdom of Christ may come The Kingdom of Christ comes when his Day comes when the Day and Appearance of Christ comes 2 Tim. 4. 1. Now Amos. 5. 18. Saith God Wo unto you that desire the Day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him It is just such a thing saith the Prophet as if a man in a storm should go into a house and take shelter there and when he found the storm ready to carry him away he goes and leans upon a Wall and there a Serpent comes out of a Hole and bites him to Death Even so shall the Kingdom and Day of Christ be It is in vain to say Thy Kingdom come If that Kingdom be not within us for It comes not with Observation but it is within us O Therefore That we could be perswaded to get out of the formality of that Petition and to look for that Kingdom within Thy Kingdom come by my Enjoyment of such a presence of thy Kingdom within my own heart That when it comes I may come with it and it may come along with me for else I say it will be darkness and not light I make no doubt there was a great many that the Prophet spake usually to them of the Day of the Lord. You know it is an usual expression in Scripture The Day of the Lord And upon the often hearing of it Men come to say We would fain see it And so many are ready to say concerning that Kingdom if it be such a Glorious State and Thing we would fain see it Now remember it comes not with observation but you must have it within you for if you have it not within you it is in vain for you for for what end do you desire the day of the Lord To shut up this in a brief Recollection of all In the First Place I desire you seriously often to meditate upon this Parable as I have in some weak manner endeavoured to open it to you And to remember also That even my Christianity say to your selves will not do me any service I had as good have been a Heathen as to the main purpose of my Eternal Condition if I have not Oil in my Vessel if I have not truly a great replenishing of my Soul from the Great Son of Oil And so if you speak of Protestantism If you have not Oil in your Vessel it will be but a very empty thing and do you no good except you have Oil in your Vessels except you are united to Jesus Christ except you have the Kingdom of God within you And then In the Second Place Another great Use for
I only draw out the main scope of the Parable by way of Recollection unto you and so conclude I say seriously consider What ever you think to do for your souls do it now because there is no Time after Work while it is day the night cometh when none can work All the time that persons have lain in the Grave as we speak or that their Spirits have been in Happiness or in Misery they have not done the least thing for their souls they have not added one Cubit nay not one Hairs breadth to their Stature they have not made one Hair as our Lord speaks Proverbially either white or black as to the State of their Spirits And when Spirits come to meet their Bodies in the Day of the Resurrection every thing will be in such a speed such a World in highest motion That you cannot stay to change one ill Posture or Appearance ot Representation of your souls You must not stay I would speak according to the Language of the Parable Can the Bride forget her Attire If any of us have forgot our Attire we cannot mind any thing that is amiss We cannot fasten one Pin in that distress of our souls We must be in the Wedding Garment perfectly attired and arrayed For what is done then as I have often said is done in an Atome of Time The dead shall be raised incorruptible Wicked Men and Foolish Virgins shall be raised just as they die And therefore mind seriously to do for your souls what you 'd do in this present state And then Lastly As I have said I say again That you would earnestly pray for the Preparation of that Time Pray earnestly for the pouring out of the Spirit Do you think it will not be better for you when God shall pour out his Spirit upon all flesh when your Sons and your Daughters shall Prophesie when your old men shall dream Dreams and your young men shall see Visions When there shall be an universal Prophesie upon the People of God as I have greatest reason to hope that the time is very near Why should we not earnestly pray for it and desire it You think there will be too much Clutter and ado about Religion then don't mistake Whatsoever is done shall run so easie and quiet then with such advantage and the Great Cares and Disadvantages of the World shall be taken off and every thing shall be in a merciful order that we may be prepared for that Great and Notable Day of the Lord. And therefore Let us earnestly pray and wait That a better state both of Christianity in General and the Reformation in particular may come forth That those Thunders that have been Sealed since the Reformation for almost an Hundred and Eighty Years That their Mouths may be open and their Voices may utter themselves That every thing may be that tends to increase and promote Holiness Purity and Spirituality and Heavenliness for I am not speaking nor never did speak to you of a Kingdom of Eating and Drinking and putting on Glorious Apparel but that there shall be an universal knowledge of God and Jesus Christ And that none but those that are resolved to be filthy should remain filthy and those who give up themselves in Holy ways should be Encouraged and should mount up with Eagles Wings and Grow stronger and stronger And therefore that there is but the Hopes of these things Let us Bless God Exceedingly For many Prophets and Wisemen and Kings and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them And yet for all that If any of us are called to Die who are Sincere and faithfull God will give us so much certainly of that Spirit of Prophesie of Illumination of Revelation That shall carry us safe to Heaven and shall Search and Try us so That we shall be led out of any wicked way into the way that is Everlasting And therefore Let not these things Discourage you But let them Enflame our Care Zeal Endeavours and Desires That we may Watch Because Nothing con be done when our Lord comes but only They that are Ready Go in with Him to the Wedding FINIS AN APOLOGY For the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing Within This Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold by Will Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. An APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Entring Its Succession within this Now Beginning 1697. And an Answer of Principal Objections presented with It. To the Archbishops and Bishops as in Parliament at This Time Assembled Most Reverend Right Reverend I Have now by the Space of Fourteen or Two Weeks of Years been Serving for that Beautiful Rachel-State of the Church of Christ in the place of that Rachel in the Wilderness weeping for her Children in Sackcloth and under Death and would not be comforted Because They were not I have set my self all along by Meditation and Supplication to the Father of Lights to search out and by the Assistance of the Spirit of Prophecy to Find What or What Manner of Time the Spirit of Christ did signify for the Fullfilling that Grand Petition of his Servants Thy Kingdom come That thy Name may be Sanctified and Thy Will done as in Heaven and upon Earth and I am now Wrestling to the Break of Day and I Hope the Dawn of the Morning and Resolv'd not to Let Go Till I obtain the Blessing of it The Time that from the First and throughout it pleased the Lord of Time to fix upon my Mind as the Time of That Kingdom Entring into its Succession and Preparation for its Glory was and is This Approaching 1697. A Year to which I could have no Temptation either in Regard of Nearness or Distance or on any Account whatever but as a Scripture-Line of Time and Concurrent Reasons of Prophecy and History very many and in a Series and Continuation have Led me On this Foundation having Setled I have by Gracious Vouchsafements of Help from God Turn'd my Self to All the Grand Prophetick Points of Scripture and Found New Confirmations and have Given as Publick Accounts of them as I could attain and presented some of Them to Your Selves and to the Great Councel of the Nation And in as much as Supreme Goodness hath Granted me to Set up an Eben Ezer now at the Portal of 97. I have Thought it my Duty to offer this Apology for the Kingdom of Christ so near Approaching And that The Great Isaac The Son of Promise of
Universal Laughter and Rejoycing The Desire of all Nations will Appear at a Set Time this Next Year the very Last of those Three Set Seasons Time Times Half Time Eleven Times expresly or Vertually Recorded in Scripture Prophecy and therefore I can have no Doubt But in the observing These so often Repetitions Remarking close upon Them and on what Accounts They are Recalled and to what Applied and Ballancing These One with Another I have Arriv'd to Full Assurance They are Assign'd to the Papal Last State of the Roman Monarchy the Last of the Four Kingdoms or Monarchies and the Four now Expiring in the Expiration of These Times and Half Indeed I look upon no Truth of Scripture to be more Plain and Certain except the Articles of Faith and Rules of Holy Practice necessary to Salvation Then that Those Four Monarchies are given as a Calendar of Time for the Embarrassment of the Kingdom of Christ or that Glorious State of Christianity which even the Prayers styl'd Establish'd by Law oblige the Belief Desire and Expectation of Scripture takes therefore so particular Notice of the Four viz. the Babylonian and Perfian as is well known and Takes Account of Their Time of the Grecian more obscurely Yet the very New Testament in that Language and the so often Division of the People of that Time into Jews and Greeks is a very undoubted Owning Them as one of the Monarchies Out of which through a Great Part of the 70 Weeks the State of the World had been sliding into the Fourth the Roman Monarchy which Surrounds the whole New Testament History and Prophecy as is undeniable But assoon as ever the Time allowed to the last of these is at an End The Kingdom of Christ will immediately succeed and there can be no Inter-Reign Nor can any other Kingdom Interpose The Vision is so sure and its Interpretation so certain And such a kind of Kingdom it must be as was Congenially to have its succession so Connexed to those before it that tho it is a Holy a Heavenly a Spiritual yet it must be also a Visible Sensible Kingdom as to the Dominion and Glory of it and no Metaphor or Allegorical sense can satisfy without it And we know the Nations to which we belong are a part of the Ancient Roman Empire and Remaine still of the Ten into which it was canton'd Which Division hath been to me an Infallible Reason of Confidence France should no more prevail to an Vniversal Monarchy then the House of Austria hath done And herein for the keeping it within the Figure allowed its King by Prophecy I know God hath made our K. an Instrument All the Iron of it could never break the Northern Iron and Steel of the sure Word of Prophecy But seeing we I say are such a part of the Ancient Roman Empire we are the more concern'd and ought to be the more Awake on the Fullfilling of Prophecy as of the first of the Kingdoms of the World which is to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. I have the same assurance that this Time Times and Half Time must be just on the Expiration By Prophecy we might rather have expected their End sooner The Wisdom of the Divine Spirit draws them so very near to the Time of the Roman Empire Becoming Christian in all its Portraitures of the Anti-christian State As I know my self able by Divine Assistance to make out to the satisfaction of Any that will allow themselves the thought they know and yield necessary in any more retired Parts of Science That had I not the Faithful Evidence of the Scripture Line of Time I have already mention'd together with uncontestable Events I should Fourteen Years ago have pitch'd upon some nearer Time For to mention one of the most obvious the very Casting the 1260 and Additional 75 so manifestly into Indictions or Fifteens of Years a Character of Time not Regulated and known till soon after Constantine would have Enclin'd to have commenced them sooner I know the Hope for which I Apologize cannot but Encounter Great Objections but I am assured God hath set it and myself as a Minister of it as a Brazen Wall that tho it be Fought against It shall not be prevail'd over The Objections and Solutions I shall very much in short thus Account for First It will be pretended against it It is a Presumptuous Curiosity to undertake to Pry into Prophetick Times and that it ought to be immediately check'd with that of our Lord It is not for you to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath Set in his own Power But as to that Particular Scripture it is evident it was an Importune Enquiry of the Apostles not in the order of Scripture Researches nor in the due waiting for of the promise of the Spirit which was the Duty of that very Juncture And therefore tho our Lord is quick upon their disorderly question yet he implies there would be a Gracious method for their Resolution in it and commands them to Jerusalem to wait for The promise of the Spirit from the Father which saith He you have heard of me One Branch of which was The shewing them things to come Joh. 16. 14. And in general we find the search of Prophetick Times is much more under the Favour then the Displeasure of Scripture It is recorded with Honour to the Children of Issachar that they had understanding of Times and knew what Israel was to do Particularly 1 Chron. 2. 32. concerning Davids Kingdom which was the concernment of that Time And in which I doubt not they laid together the Prediction of Jacob and other Revelations of God peculiar to that People and those Times by which they were able to give a Judgment And it is observed Their Brethren were at their Command This sway'd no doubt in the Union of Israel in David The Prophet Daniel was not satisfied with what he found by Immediate C. 9. 1. Revelation but understood by Books of Scripture and civil Records It is a Recommendation of that method the Number of Years God had Determin'd for the Desolations of the Sanctuary The Prophets in the same manner search'd What and what manner of Time the Spirit which was in them did signify The Apostle by 1 Pet. 1. 11. the Spirit Praises the Giving heed to the sure Word of Prophecy as doing well Seeing then the Account of Time is one eminent Branch of that sure Word It is Praise-worthy to give heed to that and no Presumption to do so Our Lord charges it as Hypocrisy not to discern the Signs of the Times those Characters and Notes of Impression God hath set upon them by Prophecy How often is there Encouragement given in that Great Prophecy of the New Testament Blessed is he that Readeth and they that hear the Words of the Prophecy of this Book Let Him that hath Wisdom Count. Here Rev. c. 1. 3 is the Mind that hath Wisdom
Let any one now Impartially lay these things together and it will plainly appear There is waranty for searching Times revealed in Scripture And They are still in the Fathers Power when the Knowledge of them is waited for by the assistance of his Spirit in the understanding of his Word It may be further Argued against the Defining of Time from Scripture-Prophecy That the Scripture-Prophecies are so Dark and Enigmatical that it appears most probable The Spirit of God did not intend They should be understood or Laid Open till the very End of All Things at the Day of Judgment or in the Kingdom of Heaven in Eternity And therefore The Soberest Gravest Men though very Learned and of Great Sagaciousness do not engage themselves therein and Least of All in the Accounts of Time To This I would by way of Defence Rejoyn in the First Place That it is most True That in the Darkness of the Present State while the Apostacy of the Papal State so much Eclipses the Glory of Christianity There is a Great Indisposition and a Great Inability to Interpret Scripture-Prophecies The Vnlearned say They are not Learned and the Learned say The Book Esa 29. 12. it Sealed And This Begets a Prejudice against Any Undertakers herein and they are Charged with Boldness and Presumption or with Madness or Enthusiasm It is said to Them Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from us to you How come you to be wiser than others And this will in a very Great Measure continue till the Kingdom of Christ come into t is Succession that the Ears of the Deaf shall hear the Words of this Book and the Eyes of the Blind see out of obscurity But yet in the second place it is undeniable That which is most Enigmatical and under what we call Riddle if it be wisely contriv'd and design'd must have sense under it tho not so open but that it shall require close Attendance the most Exercised Thought And on those Terms it is so prepar'd that it may be understood and excellent Sense found under it tho a Riddle Samsons Riddle had a very certain Determinate sense and if we knew fully the meaning of it advances beyond the First Unriddling very admirable Instructions All retired Parts of Knowledge in Anatomy Astronomy Mathematicks Algebra Call for Understandings peculiarly fitted to them and most attent Application and Curious Instruments Microscopes Telescopes and yet the Knowledge and Assurance that rises from them when understood is the most Refined and Satisfactory And so it is in Prophecy of Scripture altho it does not offer it self at so easie a Rate as some other Points of Scripture-Knowledge Yet by deep and fixed Meditation by comparing of its parts one with another and especially waiting upon the Spirit of Prophecy for its Illumination we shall find it is prepar'd and weigh'd out with the greatest Severity of Truth Divine Sense and leads into very sublime Discoveries of Divine Wisdom in the Government of the World in Relation to his Church the Times and Seasons of it And tends to the Greatest Aws of God and obedience to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth and to know That he is God In the Third Place It is affirm'd by the Spirit of God that it is intended it should be understood For it affirms 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. It is a Light that shines in a Dark Place Now if it be darker than the Dark Place How can it be call'd a Light Or how can it enlighten such a Dark place And it is not of Private Interpretation as I have heretofore given an Account publickly The very meaning is It is not of a Reserv'd or Apart-Interpretation As it is said Christ privately or apart Interpreted his Parables to his Disciples God says of Himself Esa 45. 19. I have not spoken in secret or in a Dark Place of the Earth like the Dark dubious Oracles of Devils I Jehovah speak Righteousness I declare the things that are Right of Greatest Sincerity Vprightness and Truth not perplex'd but plain to them that understand most Right Straight and direct to Him that understandeth Right to them that find knowledge And I have not said saith our God to any of the Seed of Jacob Seek ye my Face in Vain Even for the understanding of the Prophecies of my Word And in the very same Chapter God Encourages to Ask of Him Things to Come Even as his Spirit is said to shew to his Servants Things to Come All which I hope will appear a sufficient Answer to the Suspicion That God gave the Prophesies of his Word and so Eminent a Part of them Numbers of Time and did not intend they should be understood If it be taken as in this very Joinct and Objected How comes it to pass That All who hitherto have Writ on Prophetical Scripture have much differed one from another and they who Fix'd Time have either liv'd to see themselves mistaken or it hath appear'd after their Death They have been so I desire it should be considered Those who as the Holy Servants of Christ and Ministers of his Word have Sett Themselves to Understand have Given Great Light and Broken the Way for Those who have Followed and Their Memory and Services are precious to All Wife and Good Men notwithstanding some Mistakes and thereupon Differences which are yet not more or Greater than Those we Find in most Points not Fundamental and in All Interpretation of Scriptureâ— And as to their Mistakes in Point of Time It is to be Allowed Their Distances some of Them from the Time of Completion might be their Disadvantage God not vouchsafing such Light concerning that Time till nearer upon it as not to Daniel but upon the very Year of the 70 Years Ending It is further to be considered That there are some Eminent and Learned Persons who have though upon somewhat Different Grounds yet concentred upon this very 97. and some so near it as upon 98 99 and especially 1700. That their Expectations are yet as I may say in Abeyance and Things most probably will be so Conducted as easily to Reconcile so small Disagreements by the First Breakin gs out of Light and further Illustrations But Herein I Humbly Magnifie and Adore the Freeness of Grace and Divine Assistance to his Unworthiest Servant That He hath Granted to me to Lay before me the Whole and Entire Prophetical Table of his Word which is the Greatest Security against Mistake that can be vouchsafed Because by the View and Survey of things together They are seen in their Just Scituations and Allowances of Room and placed Equally one in proportion to another That there may be no Croud Confusion Justle upon or Interfere one with another Whereas if this be not a plausible Semblance or Sound of Agreement may mislead If such a Scheme be Reflected upon as Imaginary and the Work of Fancy I make an Humble Challenge to all the Wit the Fancy the Learning that is in the
be ashamed of him before Men whoso despise his Kingdom and of those of which Confession is to be made with the Mouth uneo Salvation And therefore as I have Humble Hopes That Jesus Christ hath been Graciously pleas'd to draw out my Heart Thoughts Meditations to search Every Retirement of his Word therein above All that have been before me And to give me Greater Confidence and Assurance and a more open Profession and Publication of what I have Found So that he will graciously Accept Remember Pardon spare me through the Multitude of his Mercies and not deliver up to shame and Confusion of Face before Men and confess me before his Father and before his Holy Angels That such a State of his Kingdom and such a Revolution with it and by it shall this very Year Appear to All the World as hath never been since the Apostacy of Humane Nature and that therefore All Mighty Works shall shew forth Themselves in it The Spirit shall be poured out from on High The Wilderness shall Become a Fruitful Field viz. in the highest Purity and Prosperity of his Churches and that which look'd like a Fruitful Field become Desert even the Antichristian State and whatever partakes of it the Glory of All this World and the Grandeur of it and so the Everlasting Gospel shall be preached to every Nation Tongue and People and every Thing move to the Glory of that Kingdom To whom then Most Reverend and Right Reverend could I present equally as to you the consideration of these things who I am assured are so Richly Furnished with all Advantages of Learning both in that Sure word of Prophecy and in History and Chronology Correspondent therewith And whose very Title Imports the Office of Those who are on the VVatch Tower waiting for the Speaking of the Vision which will not Tarry beyond its Time And therefore should be able to Answer the Question VVatchman VVatchman what of the Night Or how Near is the Morning and who as Persons of an Elevated Station ought to Vindicate your selves by a Higher Zeal for the Kingdom of Christ and even by a Holy Haste to bring Him to his Throne above others That you may not Fall under any Ombrage of the Anti-christian Hierarchy who as Feet of Clay are found in the Undermine of the Kingdom of Christ and are Broken by the very First Openings of it as upon which that Image Rests that Stands in delay of that Kingdom How therefore should you be able to answer that Question What do you more than others for the Kingdom of the Chief Shepherd who hath it on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords and who Profess to Attend upon him more Near and in Ordinary I most Humbly therefore submit this Apology to your Severest Examination and that as Prophets that is Persons above Ordinary Instructed in the 〈◊〉 Word of Prophecy for no otherwise can it be done you would Judge The Grounds Themselves I freely tender to so Sage and Learned a Christian a Protestant Presidency There is a kind of Intuitive Knowledge and Plerophory of Satisfaction I must with all Reverence yet and Humble Fear Hope I have a Right unto as proper to the having seen together the Curious Lines of Prophecy equal to the Curious Lines and Symmetry in the Works of God which the most Exact Astronomer Anatomist Naturalist 〈◊〉 hath or can Observe I desire the Things I offer might be brought into Seriousest Consultation and Debate as in the Days of Herod concerning the place where Christ should be born so now concerning the Time of his Kingdom Appearing It cannot be but most Great to be near the 〈◊〉 of the Kingdoms of this world to be the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ How would it releive in All the most Inextricable Labyrinths of the present Difficulties of Nations to our Nation particularly to our King to the Councel of the Nation in Parliament That He whose Right it is is now about to take to Himself his Great Power and to Reign and to destroy them who have been so long destroying the Earth I know the Paganizing Nations and Spirits will be very Angry even at the Mention of these Things as Vtopian Imaginary Fanatical and think to Scoff it off But as an Hidden and Concealed Train that Gives Fire and hath its Effect in a Moment so the Chain of Divine Councels the Predictions of Omnisciency in All Times take Full Effect in their own Just Moments how Unawares soever the World be concerning them For He who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working can neither be out-witted nor over ruled What I offer can be onely from Sense of Duty to declare what I have so Full Assurance of Duty as to the Great Revealer of Prophetical Secrets the wonderful Numberer of the Times of Prophecy so Duty to the Publick in the so Generally Acknowledged Distress of Affairs For which my Constant Supplications Ascend as also for You whose Most Christian Assistance and Administration according to Your Higher Sphere I Beseech and who I Hope Count it Your Greatest Honour to Serve Him who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth 〈◊〉 and therefore will not with a Gaâ—â—iâ— like Spirit not Care for any of these Things This First Month of the Year 1697. Most Reverend Right Reverend Your Most Humble Servant In That Kingdom of our Lord T. BEVERLEY FINIS
worthiness of those that Speak or for the Ability with which they speak but the Source of all is this excellent Doctrine of the Gospel that we have in the Word of God And indeed If we had not a Tongue to speak it or Ears to hear it yet to behold the mighty Government of God and Christ the evil of Sin and the excellency of Grace and of the Spirit of God and of the Salvation of Christ throughout it is to put you into Heaven to introduce you into Heaven even while you are here upon Earth Do not think that it is a small thing that these excellent Promises these excellent Doctrines these excellent Exhortations and Counsels are Administred unto you For it is even Heaven upon Earth this very Word of God and for the preaching of it that is only a further Ordination of God that every one may have it spoken unto them and be persuaded In season and out of season and that there might be a more forcible Application upon the Souls of Men. But if we have but the Word of God this Scripture lying in our Houses we have the Kingdom of Heaven I may say lying in our Houses in this Sense I am now speakjng of it to you You have it because you have this excellent Doctrine of Christ And there are Scriptures there are many Scriptures that are so exceeding clear and plain that he may run that reads No one that hath but this Book of God either that he Reads or that is ordinarily read to him but he may say I am exalted herein to Heaven because I have such an excellent Scripture such an excellent Gospel continually before me So the very Sound of it the very Motion of it in the World it is the great Happiness of those parts of the World that have it And we have great Reason to say in this place in this City in this Nation and especially wherever God lights up a clearer Taper and Torch of his Gospel we have Reason to say That Heaven is come down to us and that we can go when we please and Read one of the excellent Sermous and Discourses of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel That we can go to the Epistles and read those admirable Things that the Spirit of God hath given out by the Apostle Paul James and John These things you do not Apprehend the great Advantage of them We talk of Heaven and we would be glad to go to Heaven and Heaven is the great Burden of all our wishes and all our hopes Behold saith Christ the Kingdom of Heaven is here among us the Truth of his Word lying open to us How dreadful therefore will even that Dust that gathers upon our Bibles from day to day be I say what a Testimony will it be And as our Saviour saith to those that he sent out to Preach his Gospel It shall be more tolerable saith he for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those that refuse it And the very dust of your feet saith he when you depart out of that City shake off as a witness against them Mat. 10. 14. So the very dust of our Bibles will rise up in Judgment against us because when God hath opened the Windows of Heaven to us in it we have refused and scorned and despised and to Speak in our ordinary Language counted it as a Book out of date because we have had it so long O! If you did but know what a value the Martyrs in the Days of Queen Mary set upon it when the Light was but just sprung out what a value did they put upon the Scriptures And indeed if God were cutting us short and a Famine of his Word coming upon us we should then say what a great Treasure is God taking from us And yet how many Hours do we pass in the Day and not read of Christ and of the Kingdom of Heaven that is so pourtrayed and explained in the Gospel to us There is a Time that is set out to us by Prophecy and there 's great Reason to hope that it is very near when this Kingdom of Heaven in the Everlasting Gospel shall Ride as it were Circuit or rather at one time be heard from the midst of Heaven throughout the whole Earth Rev. 14. 6. I saw an Angel fly through the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to Preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Kindred and Tongue and People This Everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven It shall be preached to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People Whereas now in many parts of America and whereas now in the whole Plat of the Regions where the Mahometan Power is and where Antichrist is There is a concealment of this Gospel a denial a shutting of it up from the Acquaintance and Knowledge and Reading and Hearing of the generality of the People it is here Preached in such a way as to make known the great Counsels and Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to Men. But In the Second Place The Kingdom of Heaven is in the mighty work and operation of the Gospel of Christ upon our Hearts Then when we find Christ to be the Pearl of great Price and sell all to buy him when we look upon him as the onely Treasure and the onely Riches when our Hearts are under the beginnings of Grace and the powerful Operations of it then is the Kingdom of Heaven come to be within us Matth. 13. 31. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a Man took and sowed in his Field which indeed is the least of Seeds but when it is grown is the greatest among Herbs and becometh a Tree so that the Fowls of Heaven lodge in the Branches of it This is an Expression of the Preaching of the Gospel which if it be received and taken in in the power of the Gospel upon the Heart It is indeed a little thing in the beginning but it spreads more and more upon the Heart and Life And the Kingdom of Heaven ver 33. is like unto Leaven which a Woman took and hid in three measures of Meal till the whole was leavened This is the Preaching of the Gospel and also the power of it upon the Hearts of Men. And when it is a Seed that takes upon hearts and brings forth abundantly Fruit to Eternal Life that also is the Kingdom of Heaven And ver 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hid in a field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant Man seeking goodly Pearls who when he had found one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it This is the Kingdom of Heaven coming within a Man giving him such a value of Jesus Christ that he looks upon all things else as the Apostle saith
that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom And the Friend of the Bridegroom rejoyceth when he hears the voice of the Bridegroom That is when he finds that he speaks to any Heart and draws any Soul to him How Happy would it be if in this Discourse the voice of the Bridegroom might be heard and discovered in any of our Hearts and that it might be known that this Preaching of Christ hath prevail'd at all upon any Soul This is to Rejoice in hearing the voice of the Bridegroom O therefore that this Joy might be fullfilled in you that hear and in me that am speaking to you But as he goes on he must encrease and I must decrease That is In all wherein we may seem to be serviceable to Christ or serviceable to the Souls of Men that must go off And then the Kingdom and Glory of Christ Himself that is It that must encrease And therefore for those that hear and those that speak to meet one another in that Great Solemnity and in that Great Glory and to find that all is gone off but only Christ How Glosious and how Blessed will this State be I shall therefore endeavour to open this Great Point in some measure unto you Though I know it is not possible to speak of it as it is to be spoken of But I shall therefore First Lay down this as a Great Scripture-Point as a Great Scrippture Truth That there is such a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and betwixt Christ and every particular Soul In the second place I shall endeavour to shew you wherein it stands at the present First In the Opening of it I shall shew you That there is a State of it Now. And then That there is to be the Glory and the Heighth of this State in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Therefore I shall endeavour to shew you wherein it stands now And then In the third place How the Glory of it shall break out and in what Expressions the Scripture hath assured that to us And therefore that every one of us should look upon our Profession as a Fitting and a Preparation to that Great Solemnity of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I. The first Scripture by which I shall make it evident to you is indeed a Scripture full of Mystery full of Figure of Metaphor and Emblem and therefore it may not be so eaâ—ie to your Apprehension It 's that of the Song of Solomon It is an hard thing almost to advise you to the Reading of it because it lies hid under Veils It â—ies hid under curious Allegories and Representations But that is the very â—ense of it Chap. 1. 3. Thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wâ—ne the upright love thee Ver. 3 4. All this it is but Metaphor Representing Christ as Drawing with the Savour of his Good Ointments As Persons make themselves Acceptable by those things that draw and win upon the Sense and so upon the Sense of Smelling This Savour of his Good Oyntment draws Souls to Christ That is those Rich Spiritual Excellencies in Him win upon the Souls of those that are indeed truly his that are indeed Virgins They draw the Love of Souls after Christ The Pardon of Sin His Righteousness His Resurrection in the Power of it His Death in the Power of it His Life in the Power of it The Glory of His Kingdom These Draw Souls Draw me we will run after thee And the upright love thee All that have Sincerity in the Profession of Christianity they truely love him And thus there is a Thread drawn throughout that whole Book till it comes to the very Glory of the Kingdom of Christ The last Words signifie it Make haste my beloved and be thou like a Roe or to a Young Hart upon the Mountains of Spices That is The State of the Kingdom of Christ is just like a Mount of the most Aromatick of the Sweetest Perfumes of Glory and Happiness This is the first Scripture that lays this great Point down before us And there are many Expressions especially in that Evangelical Prophet the Prophet Isaiah comparing the Union betwixt Christ and his Servants to a Marriage and to a Marriage that shall be solemnized at last in Glory But the second Scripture that I would give you concerning it is Ephes 5. Where the Apostle does draw or delineate this very whole Representation before us in the Beginning and in the Perfection of it And indeed he introduces the very first Institution and Appointment of Marriage to bring it all to this That there was in it a much more Glorious Purpose to prepare for and to Represent the Union betwixt Christ and his Church In speaking therefore of the Duty of Husbands to their Wives he enters into this Great Discourse saith he The Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the Body Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing And Christ as an Husband ver 25. He loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word That he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish For indeed as I shall presently shew you out of a Great Type of the Law of Moses in this Thing Christ takes those whom he must Beautifie He takes those whom he must every way fit for so great an Enjoyment as that of Himself He takes them out of Corruption out of Impurity and Defilement in a Miserable and Loathsome and Captivated State and Condition But he never leaves till he brings it to this That he may present them to Himself That he may take them to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And then saith he for this Cause a Man shall leave his Father and Mother and shall be Joyned to his Wife and they shall be one flesh This is a Great Mystery But I speak concerning Christ and the Church That is Here lies the Mystery the Great Point that I intend to present to you that close Union that is betwixt Christ and his Saints And it comes as I told you to that Gloty that He presents it to Himself a Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And if you would know when this is It is at the time of the Kingdom of Christ at the time when he hath destroyed False Christianity that Christianity that is called in the Professors and Profession of it The Whore When that is quite taken away that is when all False Christianity shall be driven out of the
World and forced out by the Power and by the Glory of Christ Then shall be this Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of Christ Rev. 19. 1 2. And so on in the Chapter And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in Heaven saying Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lordour God For true and righteous are his Judgments for he hath judged the Great Whore What is the Great Whore but only False Christianity called Babylon the Great that hath defiled the Doctrine and defiled the Worship and defiled the Holiness of Conversation and defiled the Spirituality of the Enjoyment of Christ That 's the meaning of the Great Whore When therefore you see Christianity is All Spirit is All Heaven is All Life is All Purity and Truth and Glory and Babylon destroyed when you see that then Immediately shall the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb follow As you shall find in the 7th Verse Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white For the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of Saints And he saith unto me Write Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me These are the true Sayings of God That you may not say as the World is ready to do even the Sober World even that which is the Professing World of Christians are ready to say these things are nothing but Whimsie nothing but Fancy it is said These are the true sayings of God To shew us that the things shall certainly and must needs come to pass And it shall be when Christianity shall be no longer in Form and it shall be no longer in Rites and Ceremonies when it shall be no longer in Humane Institutions and Commands and it shall be no longer in the shining Grandeur of the World For Men cannot see the Glory of Christianity because they see such a Glister of this World But all this must go off and what is Glorious indeed must come in its place It shall be all Spiritual Pure and Divine And If any of us can Love such a Jesus if we have such upright Hearts and are drawn with the Savour of His Good Oyntments and such a Name as His be to us as Oyntment poured forth It is certain our State is Good we are of those upright that do indeed Love Christ But If we say Here 's nothing of the Bravery of this World Here 's nothing of the Wit and of the Pass-time and of the Gaudery and of the Retinue and what the World is so pleased with and meeting together to talk of nothing that signifies any thing but shrivells into meer Emptiness and into perfect Vanity and Froth I say except we have these things we don't know what to make of this Jesus and of this Christianity VVhy then we are but Foolish Virgins that while we pretend we have nothing but a Lamp and our Lamp at the proper time for its shining in Glory will go out And so suitably and agreeably to this you may see and I desire you may take notice of it how Scriptures do agree and Breath the very same thing The Apostle John in the Revelation speaks as Solomon who lived many Hundred Years before John yet they both came into the very same Spirit and into the very same Representation For you see that which Solomon Celebrates under a Song of Marriage a Song of Love The Apostle John does in the very same manner Represent I saw saith he The New Jerusalem come down That is the State of Saints in this High and Pure and perfect Enjoyment of Christ I saw it come down as a Bride adorned for her Husband Chap. 22. 2. I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem Which is nothing but the Pure and Holy and Perfect and Happy State of Saints I saw it coming down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband And now the earnestness of all our desires should be after it As it is said ver 17. The Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come That is let them who hear say so as struck with a Symphony even as one Lute Answers another the Lute upon the Wall Answers that is struck and Tuned and Play'd upon So every Soul Tuned aright by Grace doth sound alike with the Spirit and with the Bride when he does but hear it say Come It immediately saith Come Thus I have shew'd you that this Allusion Representation and Figure is a Figure Representing this great thing Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church and every Particular Soul the Bride or Lambs Wife For it is a wild sort of Notion that some people have of a Church Who by it Principally mean a kind of Jurisdiction and Authority and Power and a sort and sett of Men who should enjoy it They mean this by the Church they speak so much of Whereas the Spirit of God means by the Church chiefly Real Christians sound sincere-hearted Professors of Jesus Christ and Lovers of him The upright Love thee This is the meaning of a Church by Christ and not a kind of Authority and Jurisdiction that looks more like a Train and a Court of this World than any thing of the Power of Christianity and the Power of the Gospel I shall therefore come in proceeding in this Discourse to open to you these two things First That there is a State of this Marriage-Relation to Christ understand every thing as I hope you do spiritually and of the Power of Holiness in our Hearts and of the free Communication of the Righteousness and Grace and Spirit of Christ Till all appears in Glory understanding it thus I say There are two great Spaces Two Great States of it one that is Here and then the other that shall be in the Glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And it hath pleased God to take great care that both these should be Represented to us First of all the State of the Soul here It is like an Espousal it is like a Betrothing it is like that that we call among us a Contract of Marriage And according to Scripture there is a distance between it and the Solemnity and Compleating and Consummation of the Marriage And this is very necessary for us to consider that now is the time of preparing and fitting Souls for that Great Solemnity And therefore we read of a Virgin Betrothed to an Husband before the Solemnity of the Marriage upon which Account to the Jews it was appointed by Moses that there should be at least Thirty days between the one and the other And they looked upon it as a Breach and an Infraction upon the Mosaick-Law If there was not such a Time of Preparation And some very Conscientious Ministers of the Gospel have been
was in Man He knoweth our Thoughts afar off But now this is a Knowing as Scripture speaks afar off in another Sense He knows our Thoughts long before we conceive them He tells to Man his Thoughts that hereafter will arise up and how they will rise up As it is said in the Prophet Ezekiel concerning Gog and Magog Thoughts shall come up in thee I tell thee long before thou camest into Being God knows our Thoughts at the uttermost Distance But he knows with Approbation all those that are his And therefore that may be the Sense of the Form and Expression of being known of God If any Man Love God he is known of him If any Man be in the Way of Holiness and Righteousness God knows him He knows him with great Approbation For so Knowledge in Scripture does several times speak Psal 1. 6. For the Lord knoweth the Way of the Righteous But the Way of the Vngodly shall Perish The Lord knoweth That is He takes delight to Contemplate as Men desire to know a Thing they like and Love they search into it by Study Meditation and Contemplation The Lord knoweth the Way of the Righteous He knoweth it so as to delight in it Thou most upright doest weigh the Path of the Just As it is said Isa 26. A Third Way of Knowing is The acknowledging of Persons at the Day of the Marriage-Feast He knows them that is he will confess them As Christ saith Whosoever denieth me before Men him will I deny I will not know him And I will confess his Name If any Man takes care to watch and to keep his Garments and not to defile them saith Christ I will know that Person I will Confess him I will not Disown him I will not say I do not know him but I will acknowledge him at that time Rev. 3. 5. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in White Raiment And I will not blot out his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confess his Name before my Father and before his Angels And therefore here we may find why Christ useth this Expression I know you not Because the Persons that were lost they were not known to God in his Eternal Love and Grace from Everlasting And They were never approved by Christ even in their very professing him And Lastly Christ is ashamed to own such Acquaintance when they say to him Lord Have we not been often with Thee in thy House in thy Ordinances in Prayer and Preaching and Hearing and in the Lord's Supper and in all the Duties of thy Worship Lord Do'st thou not know us Can'st thou not Remember we were at such and such a Time Hearing and Receiving the Lord's Supper and Praying unto Thee Can'st thou not Remember this And Christ is ashamed that ever it was so That we not having departed from Iniquity that we could ever make a Pretence to him That we could ever say That he had any thing to do with us or we with him And so I have dispatcht the First Particular to open to you the Sense of these Words I know you not I come to the Second And that is of the Persons of whom it is said I never knew you I know you not They are Virgins tho foolish And certainly it speaks the highest Reach that any one can make without True Grace that is spoken of here This must be said and acknowledged though I confess it is one of the Dreadfullest Things that I know in Scripture and the most Discouraging as it may seem in the Ways of Religion That Christ should say of Persons that have been Virgins That he doth not know that there hath been such a particular Acquaintance and as it were Endearment between Christ and them They owned themselves to him and to be his And yet for all that he should say I know you not They are the highest Attainers in Christianity and in the Profession of God in Natural or in Revealed Religion and yet Christ says I know you not I 'll give you a little clearing of this to you a Lustre of this Truth upon your Minds in very great briefness First therefore I would consider Persons that are Profane and Wicked and that live loosly under the whole Heavens Let their Religion be what it will They that are Cruel and Unjust and Unmerciful They that are Intemperate and Sensual and Debauched They that are Profane and Contemners of God according to the Light that they have let it be what it will it is no wonder that Christ should say to them I know you not I never knew any of you You by your Profession of the Name called Mahometanism or by the Name of this or that Paganism What have I to do with you As God saith to his People You have I known above all the Families of the Earth c. As if God should say I do not know the Heathen or Pagan or obstinate Jew Because he never came into the Profession of my Name But now one would think the Name of Christian should Envelop should gather all within Salvation and Happiness that they that Name the Name of Jesus Christ as a Saviour and Redeemer and Call upon it should be Saved But yet even among Christians there are such kind of Persons as are Blasphemers Common Swearers Common Drunkards Common Impure Persons Covetous Extortioners Unmerciful Unjust Idolaters And of these it is no wonder Christ should say to such I know you not Even Natural Conscience will Justifie Christ in that in saying I know you not But it seems hard when Persons professing the Name of Christ Sober that had lived better than others when they have not an Acknowledgment and owning from Jesus Christ And therefore it is worthy our Consideration that we read of Matth. 19. of the young Man that had done every thing when the Commandments were reckoned up and repeated to him saith he All these have I kept from my youth He was so sober a man so just a liver what lack I yet says he Here was a plain good Liver a man of a good Life You know it is very much spoken of a Good Life a Good Life And it is true it ought to be required and every one ought to mind this of himself nothing can be spoken in derogation or diminution to it in it self And yet this young man that had kept all this and was so good that Christ looked upon him and loved him He saw a great amiableness and loveliness in his Person and Deportment And yet for all this Christ intimates very severely he animadverts and makes very harsh notes upon this Person when Christ proposes to sell all he went away sorrowful And Christ makes this sharp Remark upon him With great difficulty such men shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Verily I say unto you it is hardly possible that a rich man should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Nay though he be such a good Liver If a
man that is look'd upon as a Religious Man and that makes a great Figure in the World and that God hath blest Now this Man living so sober in regard of all the Commandments in outward acts all these commandments have I kept from my youth up One would think it were not possible that such a Man should not go to Heaven And yet saith Christ Verily I say unto you with relation to this lovely young man it is a hard thing for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly he did not come up to that was properly the Virgin-state in the acknowledgment of Christ however he was of unspotted unblameable external conversation he had too an acknowledgment of Christ as a very Excelling man and a Great Master of Divine Knowledg but He had not a Sense of his Divine Glory nor the very power of Christianity so as to Grasp the Inside of it to Lay Hold upon the very Spirit and Life of it as in Christ and so to devest Himself of every thing for Chrst if Called to it Nay he was unwilling to Own and Follow Christ in the very Outward Profession and herein he came short of the Foolish Virgins who yet Fall short of Heaven and therefore Christ preaches upon him this General Doctrine How Hard is it for a Rich man to Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven In the Third place I might Name to you the men of Tradition the men of Superstition that look upon it as their Glory and Security for Heaven to add many things to the Commands of God and of Christ as if they either exceeded or made more perfect or more beautiful decent and honourable the Religion of Divine Institution by their own super-added observations but this needs not to be much insisted upon because Christ hath declared from the Word of God in the Old Testament by the Prophet Esay This People draw nigh to me with their Lips but their hearts are far from me But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandmens of men Matth. 15 c. But now these Virgins as they hold the Truth so the purity of the Worship of the Gospel and were also of an unblameable outward Conversation as was before opened concerning the Virgin State From all this we may plainly perceive it is a very nice Case to distinguish either in Doctrine or in Practice between Virginity enlivened with Wisdom and Virginity that hath the dead Fly of Folly in it I come therefore to the Third Head of Discourse to give you the Reasons of this even Tremendous Dispensation of God That there should be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins For to speak the very bottom and foundation of the matter This Resemblance of our Lords of the Case of Souls or Spirits not accepted by Christ compared with the Apostles Expression of presenting them as chast Virgins to Christ and yet that some Virgins presented to him he charges according to those expressions in Job with folly It seems to carry an Allusion in a spiritual sence to that Case Deut. 24. 1 c. Those that are espoused as Virgins to Christ and yet they are not clean in his sight they are for ever eternally separated from him even divorced from him He sends them a Renunciation a Bill of Divorcement from himself This is dreadfully stupendious These Two Accounts I would give hereof according to Scripture why there is such a severity of the Gospel towards those who are Virgins and are found foolish Virgins 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ would hereby Remonstrate to us the great Corruption and Depravation of Human Nature we do not enough apprehend what a Nature and what Hearts thereupon we carry about us Hearts deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know them It is strange so excellent so pure a thing as a Virgin State should be defiled and made wholly unacceptable to Christ by Folly our Lord therefore hereby calls upon us to be aware what Natures and Hearts we bear about with us since that very time that God made Man Vpright in Knowledge Wisdom Righteousness and true Holiness and he defiled his Nature with the folly of many inventions The Nature of Man Taints and defiles every thing even Virginity it self though not by a false Religion a false Worship or grosly polluted Conversation yet by the folly of insincerity and want of the Treasure of Grace standing in Union to Christ This should carry us to fear our own Hearts Blessed is the Man that feareth always but he that trusteth in his own heart is a Fool he deceiveth himself as the Apostle James saith Many ways seem right enough in our own Eyes but the issue and end thereof is death Let us therefore as the Apostle Peter warns Pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and as the Apostle Paul saith be jealous over our selves least while we think we present our selves as chast Virgins to Christ that we are Espoused to him there should be any corruption from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus Christ is one most single simple Jesus without Multiplicity as in Doctrine and Worship so in our Union to him whoever misses him in that uncompounded Faith and undivided Affection defiles the Virgin-State and looses the Glory and Purity of it You may be Virgins as to the Chastity of Profession and outward Conversation and yet you may loose the Wisdom of Virginity if there be not a singleness of Eye and Heart to Christ which cannot be but in Union to himself from thence arises the simplicity that is in Christ and our conformity to it A Second Reason why so severe and dreadful a Dispensation is offered to you in this Parable that I shall now give you is That we might learn Three great Lessons from it it is not to discourage or beat you off from your Profession but that you may bow down your Ears and Hearts to these three things 1. That you may depend upon the Free Grace of Electing Love every one ought to humble himself ond to lie in the Dust before God in the sence of this It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy And who art thou Oh Man that repliest against God All this speaks the necessity of lying low before God in the sence of this supream Grace And what can tend more thus to humble us that to consider Virgins may be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins This should make us look to a Love and Grace above and beyond any thing in our selves or that is wrought in our selves we should keep our Eye on this The Apostle after the Description of the Antichristian Apostacy retires to Election God hath chosen us to Salvation This is not to draw off our minds from any of those Graces that are the fruits of Election but to carry up our Minds above them to the Fountain of them And there is no greater assurance of the Truth