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A58607 The parable of the ten virgins in a sermon preached before Her Royal Highness Princess Ann of Denmark at Tunbridge-Wells, September the 2d, 1688 / by John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. 1694 (1694) Wing S1205; ESTC R28124 15,203 31

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went in wi●h him to the marriage and the door was shut Afterwards came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us But he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not Fifthly I observe that there is no such thing as Works of Super-erogation That no man can do more than needs and is his duty to do by way of preparation for another World For when the foolish Virgins would have begg'd of the wise some Oyl for their Lamps the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you It was only the foolish Virgins that had entertain'd this foolish conceit that there might be an over-plus of Grace and Merit in others sufficient to supply their want But the wise knew not of any they had to spare but suppos'd all that they had little enough to qualify them for the reward of eternal life Not so say they {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} lest at any time lest when there should be need and occasion all that we have done or could do should prove little enough for our selves Sixthly and lastly I observe That if we could suppose any persons to be so over-good as to have more grace and goodness than needs to qualify them for the reward of eternal life yet there is no assigning and transferring of this over-plus of Grace and Virtue from one man to another For we see verse 9 10. that all the ways which they could think of of borrowing or buying Oyl of others did all prove ineffectual because the thing is in its own nature impracticable that one Sinner should be in a condition to merit for another All these Observations seem to have some fair and probable foundation in some part or other of this Parable and most of them I am sure are agreeable to the main scope and intention of the whole I shall speak to them severally and as briefly as I can First I observe the charitable Decorum which our B. Saviour keeps in this as well as in the rest of his Parables as if he would fain suppose and hope that among those who enjoy the Gospel and make Prof●ssion of it the number of those who make a firm and sincere Profession of it and persevere in goodness to the end is equal to the number of those who do not make good their Profession or who fall off from it I shall not be long upon this because I lay the least stress upon it of all the rest I shall only take notice that our B. Saviour in this Parable represents the whole number of the Professors of Christianity by ten Virgins the half of which the Parable seems to suppose to have sincerely embraced the Christian Profession and to have persever'd therein to the last The Kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten Virgin which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish And this Decorum our B. Saviour seems carefully to observe in his other Parables As in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. where for one Son that left his Father and took riotous courses there was another that stayed always with him and continued constant to his duty And in the Parable of the ten Talents which immediately follows that of the ten Virgins two are supposed to improve the Talents committed to them for one that made no improvement of his He that had five Talents committed to him made them five more and he that had two gained other two and only he that had but one Talent hid it in the earth and made no improvement of it And in the Parable which I am now upon the number of the Professors of Christianity who took care to fit and prepare themselves for the coming of the Bridegroom is supposed equal to the number of those who did not And whether this be particularly intended in the Parable or not it may however be thus far instructive to us That we should be so far from lessening the number of true Christians and from confining the Church of Christ within a narrow compass so as to exclude out of its Communion the far greatest part of the Professors of Christianity that on the contrary we should enlarge the Kingdom of Christ as much as we can and extend our charity to all Churches and Christians of what Denomination soever as far as regard to Truth and to the foundations of the Christian Religion will permit us to believe and hope well of them and rather be contented to err a little on the favourable and charitable part than to be mistaken on the censorious and damning side And for this reason perhaps it is that our B. Saviour thought fit to frame his Parables with so remarkable a Byass to the charitable side Partly to instruct us to extend our charity towards all Christian Churches and Professors of the Christian Religion and our good hopes concerning them as far as with reason we can And partly to reprove the uncharitableness of the Jews who positively excluded all the rest of Mankind besides themselves from all hopes of Salvation An odious temper which to the infinite Scandal of the Christian Name and Profession hath prevail'd upon some Christians to that notorious degree as not only to shut out all the Reform'd Part of the Western Church almost equal in number to themselves from all hopes of Salvation under the notion of Hereticks but likewise to un-church all the other Churches of the Christian World which are of much greater extent and number than themselves that do not own subjection to the Bishop of Rome And this they do by declaring it to be of necessity to Salvation for every Creature to be subject to the Roman Bishop And this Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over all Christian Churches Bellarmin calls the Sum of the Christian Religion So that the Roman Communion is plainly founded in Schism that is in the most unchristian and uncharitable Principle that can be namely that they are the only true Church of Christ out of which none can be saved which was the very Schism of the Donatists And in this they are so positive that the Learned men of that Church in their Disputes and Writings are much more inclinable to believe the Salvation of Heathens to be possible than of any of those Christians whom they are pleas'd to call Hereticks The Faith of the Church of Rome is certainly none of the best but of one of the greatest and most essential Vertues of the Christian Religion I mean Charity I doubt they have the least share of any Christian Church this day in the World Secondly I observe not from any particular circumstance but from the main Scope and design of this Parable How very apt a great part of Christians are to neglect this great concernment of their Souls viz. a careful and due preparation for another World and how willing they are to deceive themselves in this matter