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
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
you could follow them into all the Retirements of their Thoughts and Ways you would see that there is a Deadness there is an Emptiness of God There is a Low State wherein they now are taâ—â—n up with many thoughts with Variety of Imaginations here against which they wrestle and are in Combate And though it is most Desirable to Them to be Holy and Religious to the very uttermost yet alas This Uttermost here is such a Nothing compared with what shall be That we have Reason earnestly to look to that Great Festival to that great Marriage-Supper And to desire that things might be Brighter Clearer and Purer and more Transcendent than ever they have yet been Surely there is some Divine purpose tho we may not easily find it VVhy the Divine Spirit of God makes so great the Feast and Preparation of Ahasuerus Esther 1. 1. Ahasuerus which Reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over an Hundred and Seven and Twenty Provinces That in those days when the King Ahasuerus sate on the Throne of his Kingdom which was in Shushan the Palace c. VVhen he shewed ver 4. the Riches of his Glorious Kingdom and the Honour of his excellent Majesty many days even an Hundred and Fourscore Days and when those days were expired the King made a Feast unto all the People that were present And there was the most excellent Furniture the most Splendid and Glorious Furniture and Entertainment All that they were served in were Vessels of Gold And Royal Wines in abundance In all this State of it Surely there is a Diviner purpose in Scripture relating it Tho I shall not venture to give any Judgment concerning it Yet I make no doubt that it was Intended to be a Representation of the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ For Indeed those four Monarchies tho they have kept the Kingdom of Christ thus long from its Glory and from its Appearance yet there was some kind of Image and Representation of the Kingdom of Christ in them And it is very observable that the Persian Monarchs above all others Were greatly serviceable to the Temple of God the Type of the Kingdom of Christ And so God chose I am perswaded I will not engage far in it this great Feast of Ahasuerus with such a care of Sobriety And it was given to Represent the Glory and Riches and Magnificence in a Spiritual sense wherein the Marriage Supper of the Lamb shall be held So I say All is a signification of that Life of that Light of that Glory of that Blessedness of that Holiness of that Purity that shall be in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ It Represents that exceeding Joy As it is said in Psalm 16. Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life In thy presence is fullness of Joy And at thy Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Indeed it is first applyed to Christ and in him to all His Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see Corruption For at this time The Lord our God shall come and all his Saints with him All his Dead Saints shall be raised to this great Feast He will not leave their Souls in Hell nor suffer his Holy ones to see Corruption He 'll swallow up Death in Victory In that Feast he 'll shew them the Path of Life And the Entertainment of that Feast is fullness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore And so in that Place of Isaiah I read to you Where God wâ—â—es Tears from all Faces And the reproach and rebuke of his People he shall take off All the Glory of the whole Creation of God and of his mighty Power in it is made use of to set forth a visible State of Joy and Glory It shall be on purpose brought out for that day for the Glory and for the Honour of that Feast 2. In the Second Place Hereby is signified to us that even this Festival it is but for an appointed Time It is for a Limited Time In regard of the manner of it in regard of the visibility of it As it is a thing to be seen so it is for a Limited Time For it is received into absolute Eternity And the Kingdom is delivered up As the Apostle speaks to God and to the Father It is for a Limited Time and it is in Preparation to that Union with God to all Eternity And therefore it is Represented to us by a Thousand Years It is a Feast of a Thousand Years As Ahasuerus held a Feast of One Hundred and Fourscore Days Jehovah for Jesus Christ his Son for the Nuptials betwixt him and his Church holds a Feast of a Thousand Years And when that is at an End Then as the Apostle speaks in the 1 Cor. 15. That most Notable Place of Scripture that I have so often endeavoured to Imprint the Sense of upon you Then cometh the End Verse 24. when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power And Then Verse 28. when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all So I say It is a Limited Time Even though That be a Great Time and it is called a Kingdom that never ends because the Glory does not go off But as when the Nuptial Feast is over Persons of Great Condition and of Princely Estate you know They are still in Glory and still in Lustre though it be in a more setled State So Christ and all his Saints they are in a perpetual Joy in perpetual Happiness that does not end But only the Glory and Magnificence of the Wedding and Nuptials ends I shall now endeavour to parallel to you the Feasts of the Old Testament and to shew you That the Spiritual Sense and the Spiritual Meaning of them is This Great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ That you may know therefore That those Feasts that we read of in the Old Testament are truely and indeed the Emblems and the Figures and the Types and the Shadows of Spiritual Things Even of this Great Kingdom of Jesus Christ I shall give you that Standard of Scripture that ought to be a Rule to us in all things concerning the Types of the Old Testament Saith the Apostle Heb. 8. It is a Thing he often takes notice of Verse 5. Which serve unto the Example and Shadow of Heavenly Things As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle For See saith he that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed thee in the Mount Because God understood his own Kingdom and this Great Feast that he would hold Moses was to do nothing without special Command and Precepâ— and Direction for it All was to Answer Exactly to what was to come All was a Shadow and Example of Heavenly
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
that comes by Chance or it is a Natural Cause that the World continues Now let it be granted That it is only a Natural Cause Who is the Great Ruler and Conducter of Natural Causes but God And who hath suited Natural Causes to Times and Seasons but God Let the greatest Atheist find out as Good Natural Causes as he can As for Example the Causes of the Great Earthquake at Jamaica There is nothing not the least Thing that comes to pass but by His Wisdom and by his Power And that it goes so far and no farther It is fully attributed to be to himself and to no other And therefore I beseech you keep as an Antidote against all the Atheistical Talk that you meet with in the World concerning these Things keep continually in your Mind what we read of in the Book of Daniel Several times indeed we read of Great Things spoken of God Dan. 3. Nebuchadnezzar made This Acknowledgment to God Whoever saith he shall speak a word against the God of Shaderach Mesech and Abednego shall be cut in peices He owned and was convinced of such a Mighty Power of God that he would not endure there should be a Mouth opened against him Indeed It were very well if Christian Nations would learn by the Example of an Heathen Prince That they would not suffer the Tongue of Atheists to walk about so brikly as it does in the World They set their Mouths against the Heavens and their Tongue rangeth through the whole Earth as the Expression is in the Psalms I say 'T were well that the Mouths of Atheists were stopt and that they had such notice from the Supreme Powers that they might be Daunted and afraid to Dishonour the Great God of Heaven and Earth and to make nothing of his Name and the Works he doth in the World So in the 34th Verse of the 4th of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar This Heathen Prince says I Nebuchadnezzar lift up mine Eyes unto Heaven and mine Vnderstanding returned unto me And I blessed the most High and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever whose Dominion is an Everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom is from Generation to Generation And all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his Will in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his Hand That 's a great Expression that I desire you to keep in your Minds None can stay his Hand He can stay it Himself but no other can stay it I would desire you but to consider in regard of the late Remarkable Providence toward This City Of which most People I perceive were Sensible some in Greater and some in Lesser Degree This Place of Scripture does very much affect my Thoughts concerning it Who can stay God's Hand If He had said Let it tear up the Foundations of this City and the Houses in it who could have stay'd his Hand I beseech you consider Why might it not have been so much more as well as so much or so little And yet Men are ready to say Because God did no more he could do no more except Natural Causes had been prepared to go on and to go further And because the Earth Did give a kind of a Little Nodd and no more We are not sensible of the Great Hand of God and who it was that was pleased to stay his Hand It was His Own Grace and His own Mercy to stay his Hand As if he should say I 'll let you see the Danger and no more than Just let you see it And therefore O that Men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his Wonderful Works to the Children of Men And that they would stand in Awe of Him and consider his Doings For God forbears you see with an Infinite Patience and Long-Suffering He lets Men Open their Mouths against Himself and does not cut them off in the very moment through his Mercies But if you say Will God always put up these Wrongs and Reproaches Shall Right to this Great Name of God never be done Yes He will make the World sensible of Him by Repentance Or else there 's a Day of Dreadful Recompence As if God should say I have Time enough I have an Eternity to shew my Displeasure upon Them in I have it Seal'd in my Treasures Their Foot shall slide in Due Time And therefore I 'll bear with them a little Time Because There 's a Day of Perdition of Vngodly Men As the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Peter 3. The Day of the Lord will come Men say Where is it Saith the Apostle Verse 10. The Day of the Lord will come And there is a Reserving of Heaven and Earth unto Fire against that Day and the Perdition of ungodly men And then There is a Gracious Purpose of God I desire that you would take notice of that Place Which ought indeed to be very much upon our Thoughts in this very regard That it is Prophesied and foretold That they shall come from the Ends of the Earth Jer. 16. 20. Saying shall a Man make Gods unto himself and they are no Gods Therefore behold I will this once It is a very notable Expression Like that of shaking Heaven and Earth yet once more saith the Apostle I shake not the Earth onely but also Heaven That those things which cannot be shaken may remain And that the things which can be shaken may be taken away at once Therefore behold I will this once cause them to know I will cause them to know mine hand and my might and they shall know that my Name is the Lord. And this seems to be a Gracious and a Merciful Intention For in Verse 19. O Lord my Strength and my Fortress and my Refuge in the Day of Affliction the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the Ends of the Earth and shall say surely our Fathers have Inherited Lies Vanity and things wherein there is no profit Jeremy apprehends great Grace in God upon this Prospect and so applies to Him in his own Case O Lord my Strength c. So you may see why God bears the Reproaches of them that contemn him Wherefore do the Wicked contemn God Saith God I 'll have a Day of Perdition for Ungodly Men And I 'll have a Day when the Gentiles shall come from the Ends of the Earth And for once they shall know my Might and my Power And that my Name is Jehovah I 'll bring all mine Home my Patience is for them that they might not Perish but come to Repentance c. A Fourth thing that makes it very strange that God continues the World so long is Because there are so many Prayers of his Saints for the Kingdom of Christ to come And that the Wickedness of the Wicked may be brought to an End And that the Oppression and Persecution of his Church may be at an End It is a wonder therefore that God should not
hear the Prayers of his Servants and bring all these things to their great Issue But now our Lord Jesus Christ hath given us an Account of this Luk. 18. 7 8. And shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry Day and Night unto him tho he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth He will avenge them speedily tho he tarry long You may think those things Contradict one another To tarry long and yet to avenge them speedily Yet he will come and he will avenge As it was said concerning the Souls under the Altar Stay till the rest of your Brethren are filled up And then there shall be Vengeance indeed to the Enemy and a Recompence to his Servants And yet how little Faith concerning this even among the Servants of God! The last thing why you may think it very strange is this Because the Apostle said so long ago The Ends of the World were come I confess it may seem to give an Atheist some hold some advantage You know how many places of Scripture speak to this purpose 1 Cor. 10. 12. Saith the Apostle All these things happened unto them for Ensamples And they are Written for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the World are come And saith the Apostle John This is the Last time and hereby we know it this is the last hour And these are the last Days All this is spoken and yet for all this the Kingdom of Christ hath not come And Sixteen Hundred Years and more are passed since these things have been spoken Now Indeed these things look very strange and might make Men think that there is no such thing as the Coming of Christ For tho the Apostles Preached it and they may say indeed Men that are Preachers may perswade Men so And indeed they say so But we see nothing coming to pass Did not the Apostle John speak of the last Day the last Hour and the last Time And the Apostle Peter of the very last of Times As the word is very Emphatical in the Greek And yet for all that it is not come To all this I would onely say these two things Or rather give you two places of Scripture how these things come to pass In the 2 Thes ch 2. v. 3. The Apostle tells us plainly there was such a Noise as I may so express it of the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning the last Times That all Christians then were upon the Expectation were upon the Gaze when that Coming of Christ should be Now saith the Apostle Let no Man deceive you by any means For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first Except there be an Apostacy in the Christian Church first That Day shall not come And therefore don't wonder tho it be called the last Time in regard of the Fullness of Time and Christ coming at it and because of the last of the four Monarchies Yet it is not so the last Time but that it must give Room to an Apostacy to come upon it And so in the Revelation as I have often spoken to you Chap. 11. And in the 12th and 13th Chapters There are to be Time Times and Half a Time A Thousand two Hundred and Sixty Days Fourty and two Months All which as I have said often to you make up Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years between the Preaching of the Gospel the Christian Empire and the coming of Jesus Christ And so I have spoken of the first thing why there may arise such thoughts upon this that the Kingdom of Christ is not come yet to this very Day I come now to the Second thing to give you very Great Reasons besides what I have intimated already to you Why Christ hath not yet come 1. The First Account I would give is That so very Agreeable Representation of the Time of the Duration of the Creation and of the Kingdom of Christ in Compare with it The Apostle Peter hath Given in his Second Epistle c. 3. 8. when he was speaking of the Coming of Christ and of the Long Delay of it at which Atheists took Advantage and Antichristian Scoffers to play upon it Saying Where is the Promise of his Coming The Apostle Resolves the Objection by pressing Earnestly on Christians not to be Ignorant of One Thing or not to let it lie Hid from them Viz. That One Day is with the Lord as a Thousand Years Referring to Each Day of the Creation Designed by God as a Type of a Thousand Years Duration of the Creation They being then Six before the Seventh then Sanctified and Blessed by God as a SABBATH the Type of the Grand Sabbath They pourtray Six Thousand Years Duration of the Creation before the Great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ And that being Given under the Representation of a Thousand Years Revel 20. Yet those Thousand Years are in the Designation of God That One Day of the Lord That Illustrious Day That Day of Judgment The Great Day The Day if then Jesus Christ comes in the End of the Fourth Millenary or Thousand of Years as in the Fullness of Time And God hath Laid out Six Thousand for the Duration of the World until that Thousand Years Except what Shortning shall be for the Elects Sake in the End of the Sixth Millenary as the Fullness of Times or of All Time It is very Evident The Coming of the Bridegroom after His Death and Resurrection must be under the Delay of about Two Thousand Years as have now Already so near Run out Argum. 2. If there be such a Number of the Elect to be brought Home to God and to Christ And that They have lain scattered through these near Two Thousand Years and must be brought in before the Kingdom of Christ Then the Kingdom of Christ cannot be till they are Brought in But so the Apostle shews Heb. 4. 4 5 6 7 c. Some must Enter into Rest to the Last And of this the Apostle Peter speaks in the same Discourse as a Further Resolution of the Scoffers Question Where is the Promise of His Coming 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 Verse 9. That This hath in some General Latitude a Respect to All Men I would not Deny but that is the Lowest and Least Part of its Intention For so it hath not its Efficacy nor its Effect but take it with Relation to the Elect of God And so it hath Full Effect Not One Perishes but Every Single One comes to Repentance If therefore there is such a Number of Elect to be Brought Home to Repentance who shall have their Lot in the Kingdom of Christ at his Coming His Coming then must needs be Delayed till All the Children of the Bride-Chamber be Brought
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
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
of Man cometh at an hour ye think not that is if you are not ready For the very sence of knowing or not knowing the time is being ready or not ready if not ready we are not aware The knowing of time or not knowing is but the cover and outside of this true effective knowing or not so knowing I will therefore first endeavour to open to you the true state of this thing and then lay down to you several particular Directions for the right Exercise of this Watch And in a Second Head give you the Arguments of Persuasion to this Watch and so close the whole with Application 1. To shew you then in the First Place the true sence of this great Proposition from this our Lord's Application of the Parable And in the general You know the Conclusion of a Discourse is the Practical Application and that you know is regularly drawn out of the main substance of it This Application is then drawn out of the substance of the Parable and that most evidently is the having Oil in our Vessels as hath been explain'd The watching is therefore our looking well to that having Oil in our Vessels for they watch'd who were so ready though the Bridegroom delaying his coming they slumbred and lay down in Death they did not watch who so slumbred and went out of the World by Death that they had not a provision ready for the Bridegrooms Coming so that the knowing or not knowing the Time is not at all touched upon But more particularly to attain our Lord's sence in the most plain and practical instances of a Spiritual Life according to the Gospel as Directions to watching 1. Look diligently that we are taken out of the Gall of Bitterness and from under the Bond of Iniquity That we are taken out of the state of Children of Wrath by being implanted into Christ and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom is Redemption in his Bloud even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace that we awake from that sleep and stand up from the dead that Christ may give us life Let us look well that we are brought into the State of Grace for that is the principal and fundamental Point of Watching and the Essential Difference between a wise and a foolish Virgin to be brought into Christ and to have his Spirit 2. Let us be continually carnest and fervent in Prayer watch unto Prayer as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 7. And as our Lord commands Watch and pray that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Luke 21. 36. Pray earnestly with importunate Crys that you may not be given over and found in a state of Ruine and Condemnation at that Great Day Christ was whole Nights in Prayer with strong Crys and Tears he offered up Supplications unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared And how then should we think to meet him without that exercise let us therefore be instant in Prayer 3. Let us be very diligent in meditating on the Word of God Blessed is the Man that meditates in his Law day and night that 's watching to meditate day and night and whereas Christ says I know you not it is said The Lord knows the way of such holy righteous servants of his through his Grace in Christ And it is an evidence of being in him Psal 1. 6. 4. Let us shew our watching by keeping our selves from our iniquity and from all the Temptations to it Watch and pray saith our Lord that ye enter not into Temptation Luke 22. 43. Be sober saith the Apostle Peter and watch unto Prayer Gird up the loins of your mind and hope perfectly for the glory that shall be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. with c. 4. 7. And be sober be vigilant or watchful for your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour c. 5 2. All this shews the great Watchfulness our Souls should maintain against our own Iniquity that we may be upright before him and not be as foolish Virgins And it is the more admonishing that in like Discourses of our Lords with this Parable when he discovers such foolish Virgins he says Depart from me ye that work iniquity 5. Our Watchfulness must be exercis'd in adding Grace to Grace for otherwise as the Apostle saith we shall be blind and not see so afar off as to behold the King in his beauty and the Land that is very far off 2 Pet. 1. 9 c. with Isa 33. 17. Thus an abundant and rich Entrance shall be ministred unto us into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ We shall be ready and not go to buy and find the Door shut 6. We Watch by continual Meditation upon being dissolved and being with Christ and upon the Glory of his Coming We need not be written to of the Times and Seasons for we our selves shall know that the Day of God so cometh as a Thief in the night and as sudden destruction cometh on them that say Peace Peace but they that watch thus and are sober are not in darkness and in the night but are of the Day and not asleep 1 Thes 5. 5. c. 7. We must Watch against the Sin of the very Age and Day wherein we live when we live in a prophane Age take heed of that when you live in a formal hypocritical time take heed of having a Name to live and being dead for Christ comes on such as a Thief at unawares They shall not know at what time he will come upon them Rev. 3. 3. If a Sensual Luxurious Worldly Age Take heed of being overcharged with those evils and the Cares of this Life 8. Let us possess our selves with the most clear and distinct Apprehensions of the Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ as the Kingdom of the Resurrection and of the Appearances of Saints in Bodies of Light and Glory Rev. 16. 15. Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments that is that looketh to the presenting his Body now as a sacrifice a living and acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to God in Christ Rom. 12. Thus we shall appear in Bodies of Glory and not of Contempt in the Redemption of our Bodies and Men cannot see our shame when Christ cometh and all his Saints with him Head 2. I come therefore to the Second Head to lay down the Arguments of Perswasion that we may be moved to this watch Argument 1. The Time of Watch is only the Time of the present Life Whatever we would do for the After State it is to be done in the Present State in the Time of the present Life There is no Counsel nor Device in the Grave whither we are going and therefore whatever Our Hands find to
to Appear we are not therefore on this Account so sensible as we ought to be how great a thing it is to Dye We know it is a common Thing appointed to all once to Dye and it 's no disgrace to dye the common Death of Men because all Dye and some Sense Men have of a Private Judgment at that Time but to consider thus we must Rise and Appear as we Dye Oh how should it oblige us to Watch to get into Jesus Christ to be found in him justified by his Blood sanctified by his Spirit full of Faith Repentance every Grace to Dye and Sleep in and by Jesus that we may so Rise and Appear Come with him This is indeed the knowing so as that that Day should not take us at unawares and unready as having not Oyl in the Vessel For if you get it not now you can never get it afterward Let none of us therefore Dye with such vain Hopes Arg. 4. All things at the Coming of the Bridegroom shall be carried by such a Rapid Motion That no Tongue can express the swiftness of it That Saints and wicked men are immediately Body and Spirit in that condition as to Essential Happiness or Misery wherein they shall be for ever and with all the circumstances in which they lived and died it is incredible upon any account but of Divine Power There are many Motions so swift that a Man cannot know them The greatest Naturalist cannot give an exact account of The great speed of a Bullet in the Air is wonderfully swift the motion of the Sun measur'd either by Hours Quarters Minutes or Seconds No one can conceive what way the Sun makes in the Heavens in each of them when he comes as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a Race and yet it is nothing in compare with this illustrious Bridegroom of which that is but a dark shadow I would mention some Scriptures giving account of this swiftness Prov. 1. 27. The Destruction of Wicked Men is compared to a Whirlwind a Motion so sudden none can express Malach. 3. 5. I will be a swift Witness A Witness ought to be considerate and a Judge patient in hearing and it is their commendation But it is the Glory of God who is both Witness and Judge all in one that he is both most just and yet most swift I 'll do all saith God in a very little moment of time again you know of what a swift Motion the Lightning is from one End of Heaven to the other end of Heaven in a Moment The Motion of the Sun is exceeding swift and yet the Motion of Lightning even as of Light from the Sun is much swifter now of such a swift Motion shall all the Carriage of the Day of the Son of Man be or the Son of Man in his day shall move as Lightning Luke 17. 24. What a little time is an Atom of Time it is the smallest most undividible for littleness we can conceive Now saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 1 2. In an Atom or Moment of Time in the Twinkling of an Eye the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we the living Saints shall be changed None can express or think this swiftness Now from all this it follows beyond all denial That if a man could give all the World he cannot change himself on such a sudden How can a Man change himself in the Twinkling of an Eye and that therefore there is no possibility that any should make a Change then If we have run therefore with the Footmen and they have wearied us how shall we run with the Horsemen and if while we were in a Land of Peace we could not draw nigh what shall we do in the swelling of Jordan surely in the Floods of these great Waters we cannot draw nigh to God and therefore our watch is to be with relation to the Coming of the Bridegroom perfected while we are here before we are gone out of the Body for in our Rising again all will be so sudden there will be nothing to be done And this is a plain and downright sence of not knowing at what hour our Lord cometh and does no ways concern a Scripture Line of Time to his Coming For thus understanding the Day of the Son of Man the Bridegrooms Coming will not be more sudden on those who shall be alive at it than on those who lived an Hundred Years ago or any time since or at this very Preaching of Christ or indeed never so long before it for all shall be raised to feel the suddenness of it as David says Psal 58. 9. Before your Pots can feel the Thorns he shall take them away living and in his Wrath All shall be done so suddenly and in a moment And on the other side take any of the Saints of God at what time soever they lived nearer or further off from that Day that Day or Coming of the Bridegroom is no more sudden to those that live nearest than to those who live furthest off because they are ready with Oil in their Vessels if this were not so there had been no force of our Lord 's commanding those to whom he spake to Watch For in his Discourses he tells them of Judea and Jerusalems being led Captive of all Nations till the Time of the Gentiles should be fulfilled and that very Captivation was Forty Years about from the Preaching of Christ and before that came the Apostle Paul assures That Day could not come except the Apostacy came first as was before said The sum therefore is The truth of Grace standing in Union to Christ by his Spirit and Holiness flowing from thence is the true watching and such a knowing as to be ready and that Day not to come as a snare and at unawares Thus Christ keeps his from the hour of Temptation that shall come upon all the Word to try them that dwell upon the Earsh Rev. 3. 10. Application The General Application of so great a Point that I shall conclude the Discourse of it with is That we would search the Scriptures as those noble Bereans did whether those things are so or not I would desire no other Judge but the Scripture that excellent Book that I hope we have all in so great esteem now by this it will appear That I have not spoken these things of my self and that I have not spoken the half of the Wisdom of that blessed Word therein And seeing we have so great reason to hope the Kingdom of Christ is so near how earnest should we be for the advantage of the Time How should we desire to see one that is in Scripture way of speaking the first of the Days of the Son of Man Oh! What a change would such a one Day make in the World If we say Why hath not God vouchsafed the World so great an Advantage sooner The Answer is Times in this regard The Father hath set or
constituted in his own power He distributes them as he pleases Why did not our Lord Jesus appear sooner in the World He came in the End of the World and in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son And saith our Lord to his Disciples Many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see the things you see and have not seen them and to hear the things you hear and have not heard them But when that Time comes how will the Bridegrooms near approach change the World Converts will come in as the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning which is stiled The Dew of Christs youth Then shall the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped and the Tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly Isa 29. 18. 32. 3 4. The Lame shall leap as an Hart and the Tongue of the dumb shall sing and there shall be a way it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it It shall be so plain and easie that wayfaring Men though fools shall not err therein it shall be so secure That no Lion nor ravenous Beast shall be there it shall be for those viz. the servants of Christ Oh! how shall all this flowing from the powring out of the Spirit from on high awaken to make provision of Oil in the Vessel to look to the truth of union to Christ and secure against Foolish Virginity For the Wilderness shall become a fruitful field But the more particular Application I reserve for the following Discourse as conclusive of the whole SERM. XI On Matth. 25. 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Shall at this Time by the assistance of God fully conclude the long Discourse that I have had upon this Great Parable by recollecting all that hath been spoken in practical Applications of it wherein I cannot but remember what I have so often mentioned of our Lord's saying I will open my mouth in Parables and utter things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the World By Jesus Christ himself it is applied to himself And surely this is an exceeding great Parable and it is especially fitted to every one that draws near to God and to Christ in the profession of the Gospel For so as I have told you it is very evident That this Name of Virgins necessarily implies the most Excellent State of Profession of Christianity that is not truly and thoroughly and universally sound for were it not that the word Foolish comes in and like a dead Fly as I told you makes the whole Box of oyntment to send forth a stinking savour the very name of Virginity every where in Scripture is on purpose to set forth the reality of Grace and of a State in Christ It is said therefore The Virgins shall be brought unto thee in Rayment of Needle-work Psal 45. It is a Great State So I have espoused you as a chaste Virgin to Christ It is said of the 144000 on Mount Sion with the Lamb They have not defiled themselves with Women for they are Virgins Rev. 14. 4. So that if Christ did not diminish and abate this of Virgins with Folly it could not but import the perfect and best state of Christianity And therefore the more we look upon our selves as Christians and Christians of the right stamp the more we must look that we be not Foolish Virgins that our Virginity be not turned into folly As it is said of Achitophel God turned the counsel of Achitophel into foolishness the very Virginity of his Counsel and Wisdom that was esteemed as an Oracle and never disgrac'd till that time So when the Virginity of the Soul is turned into foolishness It is a very great Judgment and the very expression of it ought to awaken and rouze all our Spirits Not to discourage the thoughts of the sincere servants of Christ and to make them sorrowful whom God would have to be made glad and to rejoice But that there may be a holy Jealousie in every one over our selves and that we may not take Counterfeit for Gold indeed and for Pearl indeed I have therefore closed with this Application our Saviour hath made of his whole Discourse Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh That is as if Christ should say as I told you there will be nothing done at that time you can make no advantage you cannot command that day and that hour there 's nothing at all to be done All shall be in so speedy a Motion that there will be nothing to be done by way of Amendment or Reparation of the Errors that we have committed Now therefore as I proposed to you the last day several great particulars so I shall pursue them at this time in a way of fuller and more close Application First Take notice of that which is especially meant by watching It must be that very thing wherein the foolish Virgins fell short for though the wise as well as the foolish in the sence I have given to you slumbred and slept yet for all that the foolish Virgins only did not watch They are they that our Saviour grounds the Application upon Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh The wise Virgins did watch in the main Point because they looked to it that all was done that was necessary to be done to meet Jesus Christ at his coming and to go in with him to the Wedding And therefore The First particular wherein we are to exercise this Watch is to look That we have the Divine and Spiritual Life in us For no Man hath watched that hath not looked well to this That he is as our Saviour expresses it passed from death to life If any of us go out of the World as I told you In this very life every thing is to be looked unto For though the Day of Judgment and the Coming of Christ be a different thing in many reguards from dying yet notwithstanding whatever we would do for that Day of the Coming of Christ we must do it now while we are here in the World All is sealed for Judgment and Eternity at Death There 's no purpose nor counsel in the Grave concerning this point whither we are going When any rise from the dead our Saviour makes it very apparent John 5. They rise either to Life or Condemnation There 's no arising so as with any possibility of passing from death to life at that time v. 28. Marvel not at this At what it is plain what viz. at the mighty quickning Voice of Christ now for of that Christ had spoken just before for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come
may be accounted worthy to escape those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man You see here that ye may stand before the Son of Man there must be a watching to prayer and a watching upon this very account O! that we could be sensible of that Day and stir up our supplications in that very point So the Apostle Peter For I would endeavour to argue the Scripture upon you that the great Intention and Earnestness of our Prayer should run to that very Point of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand and therefore watch unto Prayer Let us be continually watching unto Prayer upon this very account because the end of all things is at hand If we considered that it would engage and stir up our Prayers Be sober and watch unto Prayer for our Prayers will meet us then we shall rise in them at that Day 3. In the Third Place Our Watchfulness should stand in this in a constant living sence of the Word of God especially in this great point upon us That we should have a Meditation upon the Word of God It is a very hard thing for us to entertain our thoughts in the Night when we are awake or when we are alone it is a hard thing to know how to employ our Thoughts and to engage them And therefore if we could take the Word of God That would keep us in an awful sence of God and of eternal things David often speaks of his Meditation in the Word of God Psal 119. I meditate in thy Word I meditate in thy Statutes it is my meditation all the day And Psal 1. 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly c. but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night Saith David I stir up my self I awake in the night that I might meditate in thy statutes If we could seriously bring into our thoughts the Meditations of the end of all things but we are so concern'd for this little spot of Time even for that next Moment that is before us what we shall eat and what we shall drink and what we shall put on and how this and that shall be maintained If our hearts were but suitably and proportionably fixt upon that What shall we do for our Eternal Condition How shall we bear that Day Would not any one set that Day before him if he were really possest of it If a Man were to Plead his Cause and whole condition in this World who of us could keep his Heart and Thoughts from oft running into 't Now if we could keep our Meditations upon those Scriptures that speak of this Eternal Condition I beseech you endeavour to get up your selves and to aspire to it by the Grace of God and that you would meditate on these things as the Apostle Paul teaches Timothy Meditate on these things that thy profiting may appear to all men He speaks indeed there of the preparation for the work of Preaching of the Gospel But let us apply it for we are every one concerned in this Great Point to be Preachers to our selves Certainly if every one be not a Preacher to himself all other Preachers can do him no good at all And the Excellent Truths that lie in the Word of God can do no good till a Man comes to Preach them to himself The Book of Ecclesiastes is in the English of it the Book of the Preaching soul that Book of Solomon which we call the Book of the Preacher it was the Book of the Preacher first to himself Eccl. 1. 1. It is observed by Learned Men the Word signifies The Preaching Soul Every one should be a Preaching Soul to himself and Preaching this Great Point Of the Coming and Kingdom of Christ And this would engage our Watch this would be like the snuffing the Lamps of our dark Apprehensions and blowing up the Flame of our cold and benumm'd affections It would make the Light more clear and it would be like the blowing up the fire it would enflame and warm us with the strength and vigour of those great apprehensions that pertain to the Coming of Christ Indeed it is very sad That the present state of the World is so covered and so darkned and so eclipsed and so chill'd and even frozen in these things We can go into no Company nay we our selves though we are sensible of these Truths we speak them and hear of them yet we don't know how to converse like the Servants of God That we might be all Preachers to our selves and one to another in them It is earnestly to be hoped and prayed for That a betterstate of things may come on and that the Spirit may be poured out abundantly And Would as Moses said all the Lords People were Prophets I cannot reasonably think that Moses spake of a thing that was impossible But surely there shall be a time that every one of the Servants of God shall have something to say as Prophets of the Lord one to another And this is the time that is earnestly to be expected and to be Prayed for I make no doubt but the World shall have such a Time of preparation in order to the Great and Glorious Coming of Christ Acts 2. 17. Pray observe God will pour out his Spirit to this very end to this very purpose saith the Apostle I will pour out my Syirit upon all flesh and your Sons and you Daughters shall Prophesie and your young men shall see Visions and your old men shall dream Dreams Every one shall have something to offer to another concerning God And on my servants and on my hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit and they shall Prophesie And I will shew Wonders in Heaven above and Signs in the Earth beneath c. And the Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Bloud before that Great pray observe that before that Great and illustrious Day of the Lord come He will come in the still Voice of his Spirit poured out and of every one being enabled as Moses saith as a Prophet For would Moses do you think have said Would every Atome of Dust upon the Earth could be a Star he would not have wish'd such a thing or That all the Drops of Water in the Sea might be turned into Gold and Pearls These things would have been strange in Moses because they are things that never shall be But now That all the Lord's People shall be Prophets That 's a thing God will certainly do and awaken the World with before that Great and Illustrious Day of the Lord come In the mean time Let us endeavour to be Preaching-Souls unto our selves This is a thing I am sure that no one can have reason to be offended at Let Men be never so severe that none must Preach but such 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
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
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. The Whole is drawn up into Practical Application and Inference A Catalogue of Mr. Beverley's Books Sold at the Bible in Newgate-Street and at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1. THE Catechism of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Thousand Years Shewing by Scripture 2. That the great Articles of Redemption 2. The Resurrection 3. The Mystery of the Saints not Dying but Changed 4. The Judgment 5. The Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All cannot be Explained at full Dimensions without it The Second Edit with Adis Price 6 d. 2. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ entring its Succession this 1697. According to a Calendar of Time Price 1 s. 3. The Scripture Line of Time from the first Sabbath to the great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ with the Vision of the Wheels explain'd c. Price 6 d. 4. A fresh Memorial of the Kingdom of Christ demonstrated Price 6 d. 5. 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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
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
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
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
into a Condition to meet the Bridegroom with Oil in their Vessels as well as in their Lamps Argum. 3. There is such a Space of Time Determined by God Settled Fixed and Declared in the Sure Word of Prophecy Lin'd out by Four Monarchies that must Runn out Themselves And there is a Particular Assignation of Time to the Last State of the Fourth the Last of Them Viz. Time Times and Half a Time Expounded into One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days of Years Revel 12. 6. 14. And in this Time Wickedness Fills up its Ephah or Measure and is carried as by the Wings of a Stork and Settled for Ever upon its own Base And to this Assignation of Time Jesus Christ Consented and Testified his Consent by Lifting up Both his Hands to Heaven and Swearing There should be this Time Times and Half And therefore no Injury is Done to Him And that then and not before All the Wonders of his Kingdom shall be Finished On this very Account the Apostle so Solemnly Declares 2 Thess c. 2. 1 c. That That Day of Christ could not come Except that Apostacy the Last State of the Fourth Monarchy was Revealed and Blown off by the Spirit of Christ's own Mouth and at Last utterly Consumed by the Brightness and Glory of his Appearance at that his Coming Before it could come to this those Times and Half must be Expired Immediately therefore after the Death and Resurrection of Christ Vision and Prophecy were Sealed Daniel 9. 24. with Relation to that Greatest and Richest Effect of Prophecy Viz. the Kingdom of Christ It was Sealed But then Immediately at the very Beginning of Half Time Christ took the First Opportunity of making a Seizure viz. at the Reformation and of Swearing there should be Time of such sort no more but in the Days of the Seventh Trumpet When he shall begin to found the Mystery of God Viz. The Kingdom of Christ shall be Finishing as he hath spoken by all his Servants the Prophets Which shall begin at 1697 So near approaching All which things have been fully by the Assistances of God made out and publickly set forth And are now onely so far briefly Represented as to give satisfaction to this doubt How comes it to pass that the Coming of the Bridegroom hath been thus long Delay'd And no further Insisted upon in these Sermons Sett for Preaching the Gospel especially under the Grace of the Divine Spirit to work upon the Heart and to engage in all Holiness of Conversation I come therefore to the Practical Reflection on what hath been spoken in these short Applications Appli 1. That we would take heed of the Atheistick and prophane boldness of Scoffers Who because the Bridegroom on so Holy and Wise Reasons as Scripture hath given us Delays his Coming say where is the promise of his Coming They believe no such thing And indeed all Discourses against the Kingdom of Christ and the Prophesies of Scripture or turning them into Allegory and Metaphor Give Countenance and Assurance to such Prophaneness and Boldness of Scoffing Let us aherefore be mindful of the Words of the Holy Prophets and of the Doctrines of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour 2 Peter c. 3. v 1 c. Appli 2. Let us beware of the Accounting the delay of the Bridegrooms Coming to any thing in the Course of Nature or as if the World could bear up it self or Perpetuate it self As they of whom the Apostle speaks who are willfully Ignorant that the World by the very Word of God was settled so out of and yet in such a Neighbourhood to the Water that it depended wholly on the Word of his Power not to be overflown by it And that the Heavens and Earth that now are are so Reserv'd are Treasured up for Fire at the Time Appointed by God for Perdition of such and of All Ungodly Men That we may be in a continual Dependence upon Him and Preparation for the Bridegroom 's Coming Applicat 3. Let us have Just Apprehensions of the Patience and Long-Suffering of God in the Delay of the Bridegroom 's Coming And that it is no Sluckness concerning his Promise As if He were altogether such a one as our Selves And Let us Account it Salvation And so it will be if we are His For He will let None of His Perish but Every One of Them shall come to Repentance But if we are not His though we Know it not Yet His Goodness Leads to Repentance by its Gracious Invitations and Excitements And if through our Hard and Impenitent Hearts It does not Lead us so we Treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath and the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God at this Coming of the Bridegroom Rom. 2. 3 4 c. Applicat 4. Let us not Think it Boldness or Presumption to Search the Scriptures and 2 Peter 1. 19 c. to Give Heed to the Sure Word of Prophecy as to a Light that shineth in a Dark Place Till the Day Dawn and the Day-Star Rise in our Hearts Especially to that Line of TIME Times and Half Time For our Lord charges it as Hypocrisie not to Discern the Signs of the Times That is the Characters of Time Scripture hath Impress'd upon it And though there are many Providential Signs as Wars Commotions Earthquakes Yet these will not Define Time to us Onely the Line of Time can Do that And let us Humbly wait upon God therein and take in All Other Marks God hath Given by His Providence therein But as I say The Line of Time is the Sure Rule by which we are to walk and I have full Assurance if we behold according to that the Course of Scripture-Prophecies the Emblems or Prophetical Types and Figures given therein the Numbers of Time proportion'd to and Running all along from Time to Time through those Figures and compare All with the Providences and Great Events God hath taken Care should be Recorded in History brought to our Knowledge or be coming down to our very sight we may be fully Confirmed as by a Threefold Cord not to be Broken and that it is a Line Reaching to 1697. Applicat 5. Let us have Continual Apprehensions of the Glory and Greatness of That Day Let us consider That Day Malac. 3. 18. When we shall Return and Descern between the Righteous and the Wicked Him that Serveth God and Serveth Him not Him that Sweareth and Him that Feareth an Oath and between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins and not put off the Thoughts of it Because we see the World so Earnest in Eating and Drinking Buying and Selling Building and Planting Marrying and Giving in Marriage For so it was in the Days of Noah and of Lot until the very Day And so our Lord saith It shall be in the Day of the Son of Man Applicat 6. Let us so Consider and Apply our Selves to the Examining what manner of Men we ought to be in All Holiness and Godliness
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
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
with relation to God and Religion a Virgin And yet notwithstanding this because he is a foolish Virgin all the Misery here exprest comes upon him Let us therefore consider our selves I would hope That we might have a very good Title and Pretension to this Stile of a Virgin and that we hold the Truth of the Gospel and the Purity of Worship and the Holiness of Conversation in regard of all outward Appearance and yet let us look well to this That we are not Fools therein And therefore I 'll set out to you in several particulars according to the Wisdom of our Lord Jesus in this Parable I 'll shew you the danger of being a foolish Virgin and in what kind of Circumstances they shall rise and how it shall be with them as it were from first to last as our Lord hath here given to us and yet I 'll do it with brevity for the things will be very plain And if we would be but faithful to our selves in taking notice of them and laying them up in our hearts and examining our hearts according to them There needs not much to be said but thought and considered and meditated upon much by every one of us in relation to each particular The First thing which expresses the circumstances in which foolish Virgins shall arise is this They will presently begin to make the best of that Name of Profession and that Name Virginity that hath been upon them They 'll be ready to say I have had a Lamp I carry that to be sure with me I have had a Name of Profession and Christianity upon me I have Endeavoured to Hear and to Pray and to Receive the Lords Supper and to keep the Lord's Day I 'll be certain to take that along with me for all the Virgins arose and Trimmed their Lamps The wise indeed had Right to do it and they did it upon good grounds and the foolish did the very same thing and therefore it is significantly exprest in the Text All those Virgins not only wise but foolish They arose and Trimmed their Lamps That is they set out their Profession as large and as favourable and with as much advantage as they could Now therefore Here is our great Point to look to this That we have not only the Lamp of Profession but that we have the Truth and Sincerity of Faith and Repentance of Holiness of an Interest in Christ and in his Bloud I 'll give you two Scriptures to this case one on the side of the wise Virgins and one on the side of the foolish Virgins and so pass on And I would desire you would take notice of these Scriptures that may be helpful to bring these things to your Minds That all of us may enter into deep Reflection and serious Examination upon it In the 1 Pet. 1. 22. saith the Apostle speaking of these things seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren c. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God and now observe how he had Discoursed of this Point before ver 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear In what fear does he mean not in a slavish fear as I shall shew you presently but in a holy care in a holy awe in a wise and judicious search into things and so he speaks ver 7. That the Tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with Fire might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ O let every one take this Scripture into Mind into serious consideration and pass the time of our sojourning here in a holy and wise and judicious Awe and Fear That the Tryal of our Faith though it be tryed with Fire c. Observe how notably the Apostle speaks as if he should say Your Faith will be tryed with Fire with the Fire of that Day whether it be true and right Faith or not And it will be tryed in a moment and instantly because a short work will the Lord make upon the Earth For as I told you it will appear presently by the Thoughts we have about us by the Company we come with by the Bodies we have on And this will be in the Face of the Fire you must come and if it be only a drossy-Faith it won't stand the Fire it won't be able to endure If it be only a painted Faith it will presently come to nothing And therefore saith the Apostle look that your Faith be found to Honour and Glory and Praise at the appearing of Jesus Christ And then on the Side of the Foolish Virgins Consider That in the 13th Chapter of Luke 26. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our streets They shall begin to say when they find the Door shut upon them They shall begin to say Lord We have Eat 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 ver 24. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able I expound it Especially though I don't deny that at this time there are some Half-seekers that cannot enter But it is especially at that time of the coming of the Bridegroom They shall seek to enter and they shall not be able When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut the Door c. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets So here 's the First thing they endeavour to make the best of their profession that they have had here in the World So will all foolish Virgins do in all their Duties of all that they have said for God or any good works but If the power of these things have not been it will not be able to carry any out though we shall endeavour to make the best of our Profession that 's the first Description of the State of the foolish Virgins when they arose 2. I come to the Second thing that our Lord here mentions And that is They shall presently be sensible pray observe that that their Grace doth not hold out that they were but counterfeit that they were but dross that they were but Tinsel For presently they say they want supply Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out It is a sad and woful thing That a Man should lose all the Prayers and all the Profession that he made here in the World And yet when he comes into his Body again though he was sent out of the
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