World and forced out by the Power and by the Glory of Christ Then shall be this Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of Christ Rev. 19. 1 2. And so on in the Chapter And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in Heaven saying Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lordour God For true and righteous are his Judgments for he hath judged the Great Whore What is the Great Whore but only False Christianity called Babylon the Great that hath defiled the Doctrine and defiled the Worship and defiled the Holiness of Conversation and defiled the Spirituality of the Enjoyment of Christ That 's the meaning of the Great Whore When therefore you see Christianity is All Spirit is All Heaven is All Life is All Purity and Truth and Glory and Babylon destroyed when you see that then Immediately shall the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb follow As you shall find in the 7th Verse Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white For the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of Saints And he saith unto me Write Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me These are the true Sayings of God That you may not say as the World is ready to do even the Sober World even that which is the Professing World of Christians are ready to say these things are nothing but Whimsie nothing but Fancy it is said These are the true sayings of God To shew us that the things shall certainly and must needs come to pass And it shall be when Christianity shall be no longer in Form and it shall be no longer in Rites and Ceremonies when it shall be no longer in Humane Institutions and Commands and it shall be no longer in the shining Grandeur of the World For Men cannot see the Glory of Christianity because they see such a Glister of this World But all this must go off and what is Glorious indeed must come in its place It shall be all Spiritual Pure and Divine And If any of us can Love such a Jesus if we have such upright Hearts and are drawn with the Savour of His Good Oyntments and such a Name as His be to us as Oyntment poured forth It is certain our State is Good we are of those upright that do indeed Love Christ But If we say Here 's nothing of the Bravery of this World Here 's nothing of the Wit and of the Pass-time and of the Gaudery and of the Retinue and what the World is so pleased with and meeting together to talk of nothing that signifies any thing but shrivells into meer Emptiness and into perfect Vanity and Froth I say except we have these things we don't know what to make of this Jesus and of this Christianity VVhy then we are but Foolish Virgins that while we pretend we have nothing but a Lamp and our Lamp at the proper time for its shining in Glory will go out And so suitably and agreeably to this you may see and I desire you may take notice of it how Scriptures do agree and Breath the very same thing The Apostle John in the Revelation speaks as Solomon who lived many Hundred Years before John yet they both came into the very same Spirit and into the very same Representation For you see that which Solomon Celebrates under a Song of Marriage a Song of Love The Apostle John does in the very same manner Represent I saw saith he The New Jerusalem come down That is the State of Saints in this High and Pure and perfect Enjoyment of Christ I saw it come down as a Bride adorned for her Husband Chap. 22. 2. I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem Which is nothing but the Pure and Holy and Perfect and Happy State of Saints I saw it coming down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband And now the earnestness of all our desires should be after it As it is said ver 17. The Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come That is let them who hear say so as struck with a Symphony even as one Lute Answers another the Lute upon the Wall Answers that is struck and Tuned and Play'd upon So every Soul Tuned aright by Grace doth sound alike with the Spirit and with the Bride when he does but hear it say Come It immediately saith Come Thus I have shew'd you that this Allusion Representation and Figure is a Figure Representing this great thing Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church and every Particular Soul the Bride or Lambs Wife For it is a wild sort of Notion that some people have of a Church Who by it Principally mean a kind of Jurisdiction and Authority and Power and a sort and sett of Men who should enjoy it They mean this by the Church they speak so much of Whereas the Spirit of God means by the Church chiefly Real Christians sound sincere-hearted Professors of Jesus Christ and Lovers of him The upright Love thee This is the meaning of a Church by Christ and not a kind of Authority and Jurisdiction that looks more like a Train and a Court of this World than any thing of the Power of Christianity and the Power of the Gospel I shall therefore come in proceeding in this Discourse to open to you these two things First That there is a State of this Marriage-Relation to Christ understand every thing as I hope you do spiritually and of the Power of Holiness in our Hearts and of the free Communication of the Righteousness and Grace and Spirit of Christ Till all appears in Glory understanding it thus I say There are two great Spaces Two Great States of it one that is Here and then the other that shall be in the Glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And it hath pleased God to take great care that both these should be Represented to us First of all the State of the Soul here It is like an Espousal it is like a Betrothing it is like that that we call among us a Contract of Marriage And according to Scripture there is a distance between it and the Solemnity and Compleating and Consummation of the Marriage And this is very necessary for us to consider that now is the time of preparing and fitting Souls for that Great Solemnity And therefore we read of a Virgin Betrothed to an Husband before the Solemnity of the Marriage upon which Account to the Jews it was appointed by Moses that there should be at least Thirty days between the one and the other And they looked upon it as a Breach and an Infraction upon the Mosaick-Law If there was not such a Time of Preparation And some very Conscientious Ministers of the Gospel have been
of Marrow And Wines on the Lees well refined And in this Mountain saith God I 'll destroy the Face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations When this Feast comes there shall be no Pagan Nation There shall be no Mahometan Nation There shall be no Popish Anti-Christian Nation There shall be no unbelieving Jews then in the World God will Draw off the Face of the covering cast over all People And every one shall see in the Clearness and in the Beauty and in the Glory and in the Majesty of the Truth of God and of the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ That the Religion of Christianity shall 〈◊〉 be upbraided with this Why are there so great Nations that are under the Prophet Mahomet as we are under Jesus Christ Are there not great Tracts of the World that are not known And do not the Jews that have the Doctrine of the Scriptures in the Old Testament Do they not deny Christ All these things that I may speak in a Familiar phrase Christianity is twitted with upbraided reproached with But in the day of that Feast All the Darkness of that State shall be drawn off In all our Feasts now there is necessary a sense of Death As I remember the great Prince Philip of Macedon when he had the most Sumptuous and Magnificent Entertainment He had first of all a Deaths Head served up in the Beginning of the Feast As if he should say tho I have entertained you now like a Prince and with all the Imaginable Royalty that you can expect Yet now after all this I and you must Dye So should we do in all our Eating and Drinking if we do but consider it we do but onely feed as we have a Phrase we do but onely feed Death We do but pamper Bodies to make a Feast for the Worms Now saith the Lord in this Feast I will take away all Tears and Shame and Reproach from all People utterly take it off O therefore VVho would not Aim and Design this to be at this great Feast that must be held to Jehovah And that he himself will hold for all his People as the great Prince and Master and Lord of it So you know there is nothing more ordinary in the Gospel than to compare the State of Things to a great Supper Matth. 22. He describes the Kingdom of Heaven by such a Supper as this The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding And they would not come Again he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it And when the King came in to see the guests he saw there a Man which had not on a Wedding-Garment Ver. 11. 12. As I shall after endeavour to enforce in the Application But you see plainly that it is a great Nuptial Feast that the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is Represented by So it is said His Servants wait for him There is a place of great moment to what we are upon that is Dis-advantagiously Translated And therefore I would desire that you would take something the more Notice of it Matth. 13. 34. The Son of Man saith he is as a Man taking a far Journey who left his House and gave Authority to his Servants and to every Man his Work and Commanded the Porter to watch Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh And this in Luk. 12. It is called a coming because of the Wedding ver 46. That 's the Expression I would desire a little that you would take Notice of And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the Wedding VVe Translate But the word in the Greek will very well signifie Because of the Wedding or upon the Account of the Wedding When Christ comes He comes because or upon the Account of the Wedding And that he may be present at that great Feast that is to be held unto the Lord our God I 'll give you but one Scripture more And so I hope you will be fully satisfied that it is the Wi 〈…〉 of the Divine Spirit to Represent to us the State of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ by a great Nuptial-Feast or Entertainment It is in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Prophesie of the Revelation Verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come And Verse 9. And he saith unto me Write Let this thing be taken notice of let it be written in Letters that he that runs may read Blessed are they which are called unto the Marrioge-Supper of the Lamb. Blessed are they which are called and invited to the Marriage-Supper of the Lumb I shall now therefore proceed in these Two Generals before I close all in the Application First of all to shew you what the Importance and meaning of this Great Supper or the Great Feast that we are to hold to Jehovah is And then In the Second Place I shall give you a brief Parallel between all the Feasts that were appointed to the Servants and People of God in the Old Testament and this Great Feast that is to be held to Jehovah To give you therefore the Sense and the Meaning of it in these Two Expressions First It is a Time of the Greatest Solemnity Glory and Lustre and Splendor and Joy and Blessedness that the Creation ever knew or can know in the State of a Creation I say it is a State or a Time of the greatest Magnificence of the greatest Joy and Enjoyment that ever was known in the whole Creation nothing ever like to that Alas the Days that we now know here in the World take those that have been the most Lightsome the most Prosperous they are all Dark and Gloomy and Cloudy Days in comparison of that Day of the Great Glory and the Great Festival that he speaks of Indeed it is very desirable to find the Hearts of any possest seriously with God and with Religion and with Holiness and with Christianity and with Communion with God and Enjoyment of him according to the present State of Things But if we did but know how low the Condition is now wherein we are If we did but consider what a Dark Black Cloud there hangs over all a Cloud of Corruption a Cloud of Unhappiness a Cloud of Sorrow and Affliction it is they live in And it comes upon the most Eminent Servants of God you know in what a Cloud they are wrapt up as to all bodily Appearance when they come to Die and what a Cloud of Corruption hovers over them For take the most Excellent Preachers and the most Holy Men if
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
take him in who is the Great Melchisedeck that King of Righteousness that King of Peace Let us never go without him let us never say Here 's such and such a Grace and such and such a good Action but let it lead us to the Spring and to the Fountain If we can but Chatter as Hezekiah the Name of Christ It is the Blessed Name that is poured forth It is the Savour of the Knowledge of Christ that makes acceptable to God If we can but only lie down at the Foot of God and Christ and earnestly beg for his Sake according to the Great Expressions of Scripture in Prayer If we want Quickning if we want Comfort if we want Humiliation if we want the Sense of Sin Sorrow for it I have no Intention in these Discourses that you should throw these Things away or think lightly of them But that you should have them all from the Fountain and in the Fountain by a continual Union with him and Communication from him Therefore if any of us want any of these the more we should cry to him If such a Sin grow too hard and such a Lust and Corruption will take hold upon us and Domineer in our Souls whether should we go but to the Great Redeemer And when we come to have a continual Converse with him and to have all our Graces from him and in him consisting wholly in him this will bring us to such a Love such an Acquaintance with him that it will cast out fear As those that we continually Converse with our Love arises far above our Fear and so when we Converse thus with Jesus Christ I beseech you that you would take the Name of Christ And if you cannot get your Hearts so affected as you desire yet let not that Name go but press it upon your Hearts in Prayer to God through Christ I am surely perswaded the Flinty Rock will be turned into a Standing-Water If you say How There 's no need to give a Man Satisfaction if a Man slights it and has no care about this But if our Souls are indeed and in earnest Affected as Bartimeus cry more earnestly And if any thing bids you hold your Peace yet you 'll find that it will be said to you He calleth thee And so stand up and lay the Weight and Burden of all upon him as I said before From the Off-spring to the Issue from Flagons of great Quantity even to little Cups the least Thing in Religion let all be hung upon this Nail in the sure Place And then The Second Thing Because I desire still to make mention to you of the Great and Gladsome Expectation of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus to come into its Succession Let us all earnestly beg That it may be so And then I am sure these Things will be cleared there will be no clashing then For the Name of Christ will swallow up every thing The Glory of the Doctrine of Christ when a Few years are but over I make no Question the Name of Christ will sound so loud that all Things will be drawn up to him and be united into that Blessed and Excellent Name of Christ And therefore we will say with which I 'll conclude this Discourse Thy Name is as Oyntment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love Thee c. SERMON IX On Matthew 25. Beginning at the First Verse but more particularly at the Tenth Verse 10. And while they that is the Foolish Virgins went to Buy the Bridegroom came And they that were Ready went in with him to the Marriage and the Door was shut 11. Afterward came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us 12. But he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not I Have past through this Parable And there remain only Two Points that I proposed further to Discuss And that is First Concerning the Peremptory and Positive Answer that our Lord gives the Foolish Virgins They cry Lord Lord open to us The Door was shut while they went to Buy of which I have spoken to you before And when they came and knocked to have the Door opened the Positive and Peremptory Answer that they received was this Verily I say unto you I know you not And then The Last Point is the Application of all Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour when the Son of Man cometh I intend by the Assistance of God to speak to you of the First of these two Latter Propositions at this time That is Concerning the Positive Answer I know you not Both the Shortness and the Irrevocableness and Irreversableness of it is dreadful It is in vain any further to make Application For I know you not And then The Phrase or the Term in which it is conveyed It is not in any thing but this I know you not So then the Proposition or Doctrine that I shall lay down to you is this That 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 that Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. For that 's the Meaning of the Door being shut where a Great Festival-Room is and where those that are Ushered in as Guests are Received and Entertained The Door is shut And they that have not a Right to Enter are for ever Debarred They cannot Enter The Door is shut and no Entreaty will prevail Christ Answers them plainly That he knows them not Now therefore I would propose these several Things to Discourse to you at this Time First I would take notice of our Lord's Language I know you not And then In the Second Place I would open to you who these are by way of Earnest pressing the Consideration upon you who these are to whom Christ saith I know you not Which may very well Startle and Amaze In the Third Place I would Discourse to you the Reasons Why Foolish Virgins though Virgins cannot have the Door opened to them And then In the Fourth Place I 'll Answer the Scruples and Objections that may arise in your Thoughts against the Great Doctrine of the Gospel upon this Account And then In the Last Place I would conclude with the Application of it First Concerning the Phrase that is here used by Christ And it is very Remarkable That whenever Persons that seem to have a Claim and a Challenge and a Right to Christ upon the Account of Profession and upon the best Profession as I shall shew you Whenever they make Approach to Christ as if he were mistaken he does not consider who they are that knock at the Door and desire him to open yet still he Represents himself and Remonstrates to them in this very Phrase I know you not And so I shall enter into a Brief Consideration of the Meaning and Importance of it First That it is the Ordinary or Stated Phrase and
such so Educated and Prepared yet to be a Preaching-Soul to our selves none can be scandalized or offended at that 4. In the Fourth Place Let us take heed and keep our selves from our Iniquity that there may be no Sin that we shall be found in at the coming of Christ that we give Indulgence to now no course of known sin or of the neglect of any known Duty Let us take care of this that we do not allow our selves in any way of sin that we search and try our ways continually that we may turn unto God Il'l give you two notable Scriptures to this very purpose though a great many more might be given I was also upright before him and kept my self from mine iniquity Psal 18. 23. That 's a very great Scripture though I have already spake of it that especially that I would direct you to now is in the 139th Psalm 23. 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting You see here It is a very Difficult point For If a Virgin may be shut out for ever what Reason have we to lay our thoughts open before God and to say unto him Search me O God I know not how to Search my Self I am so Dark and Blind to my self in my own peculiar Iniquity That I know it not But do thou Search me and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Any wicked way in me That is The way of living in any Sin or giving up my self to any Lust Let us be mighty Cautious very careful in This to lay our selves before God for Indeed If any one would say to me Which way shall I help my self You say That a Virgin may be a Foolish Virgin You say That Virginity is the Best State in the profession of Christianity And yet There may be such a Worm at the Root of it as may wither it all What then shall I do Does not this Discourage in the way of Religion If I may be so Mistaken and Deceived in it Were not the Foolish Virgins as likely in their own Eyes as the Wise Therefore I say No other way but to lie at the Foot of Christ and of the Spirit of Christ and Earnestly to pray Search me O God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and my Secret Retirements and see if there be any any Secret wickedness in me and lead me in the way Everlasting If we did continually This and if our hearts were fully Set upon it certainly God would bring forth our Righteousness as the Light and our Judgment as the Noon-Day Surely God will Discover This if we are Sincere It is the best counsel that can be given and the best Example that can be laid before us And so That of our Saviour I look upon as the peculiar duty in order to our waiting for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I say I look upon it to be the very peculiar Duty Our Lord saith concerning this Let your Loins be girded about and your Lights burning Luke 12. 35. And so the Apostle Peter expounds this Scripture more fully to us and he directs it to this very Point of Looking to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ Besides all the Grace of the Gospel at the present there is the Crowning-Grace There is the Triumphing-Grace that is to be brought to us at the appearing of Christ Gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for that salvation You know the loins they are taken for those parts of Human Nature wherein is the Seat of Sensuality and Corruption most of all the Bodily-Lust that men are affected with And as the loins are girded a Man is the more expedite and ready for Motion So when all that superfluity of the Flesh and impure sensual affection is girt up and we hope perfectly for the Grace that is to be brought to us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Let us earnestly therefore pray Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous sins that they may not have dominion over me Then shall we lift up our face clear as the Morning and we shall lift up our head without spot as Job If Pride if Lust if any inclination to the love of this World to sensual Pleasures and Delight if any of this we find to be our sin any immoderate Lust or Sin whatever it is Let us gird up the loins of our minds wherein we find any extravagant and impetuous Motion to evil prevail upon us 5. In the Fifth Place Let this be our great care to meditate much upon Death Judgment and Eternity Let those common and general Notions prevail upon us For my part I have always and desire always to Declare That I do not bind up any one to any particular apprehensions of my own in these things although I do fully believe such an appearance of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ Yet I say to every one Let those general and agreed Notions and Principles be strong upon your hearts And the less you can intend and encline to believe such an Appearance and Kingdom of Christ be the more Intent upon those Four Last Things as they are generally called that is Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let those General and acknowledged and impressed Points be always upon your Minds O! What kind of persons should we be if we did but grow up to the acknowledged Points of Christianity Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let us always take these into consideration and there is no Christian but owns them even Papists themselves those of them that have been more Devout than others have written very excellently and very notably upon these things these Principles that run so mightily into all the sence of Christianity God forbid that any thing should be said to take off the plain Consideration and the strong Apprehension and the close Meditation and the mighty influence of those Four Things from us For who can enough speak of them or consider them Take them in the plainest sence that you can And Oh that God would give you to feel even every one of us to feel the full work of them upon our hearts that they may have every one their perfect work upon our hearts That as I may allude the Chariots of our Souls may be always moving upon these Four Wheels and that our Chariots may never stand still but lift us up continually above the Earth It is my earnest Prayer for every one of us speaking and hearing That our Souls may be as the Chariots of Aminadab carried upon these Four Wheels of Death and
Judgment Heaven and Hell And indeed though I look upon it as a great Scripture-Truth and which hath so great Evidence as cannot be contradicted yet I am far from pressing any one to take into Consideration I mean those Apprehensions concerning such a Kingdom of Christ So that they should take off any thing from the serious Meditation of Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell And I would desire only those persons to take them into Consideration that find they are more enlivened and more enlarged and more enflamed by the strong Consideration of the Great Things Scripture hath spoken and that are in a visible and apparent way to bring forth the Glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And therefore I hope there is nothing that can be justly Taxed in endeavouring to seek further into the Doctrines of Christianity beyond those that are but the Beginning Principles of the Doctrine of Christ I would exhort every serious Christian to make these it his continual Meditation and that nothing may take off the edge of his Spirit in these things Say now Am I not to die And must I not come to Judgment Is it not said It is appointed to all men once to die and after this the Judgment Am I not immediately to come into a Judgment and determination of my Eternal Condition And am I not to stand before Christ in Judgment Don't we all own that And is there not a Heaven and an Eternity of Happiness And is there not on the other hand a black and dark Eternity even utter darkness and for ever O that God would enable us to carry this all in our Minds the Eternity of Happiness and the Eternity of Misery You know great Princes are Pictured with great Globes in their hands but Jesus Christ hath those Two great Globes the Keys of Death and Hell and Eternal Life to give Let these things be our plain and constant Meditation Let us cut off every thing that we think is singularity I am still of the same Apprehension that the Scripture hath declared a visible Kingdom and Glory that is near Yet I beseech you that you would get these into your constant Apprehension And O that they might fall upon every one Let nothing of Notion or Opinion take off from these Great Things Let us continually take our Walk and Meditation into those Regions beyond this World Let us say I am to go out of this World and this State and O how Great must the Change be That I must immediately enter into an Eternity of Happiness or an Eternity of Misery Nothing will make the Doctrine of Christ so powerful as to have a strong Meditation of these Things And then In the Seventh Place Let us take heed of the sins of the Time wherein we live though by all means we are to take heed of the open Prophanenesses that are in the Wortd but I beseech you That we may all look to this There are the peculiar Sins of those that are called Virgins There 's something peculiar to every Time And therefore as I have intimated to you in that Rev. 3. 1. That Church of Sardis I have for some time look'd upon it to be the Pourtraiture of these very Times and this very State we are upon It is a Picture of the Church of Christ in that State we call Protestant and in that State we call The Reformation And therefore observe how that is described and let us look very diligently that we don't fall into those very sins And unto the Angel of the Church in Sardis Write These things saith he that hath the Seven Spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know thy works That thou hast a Name that thou livest and art dead O Let us take heed of having a Name To be a Protestant is a Name to live To be of the Reformed Churches is a Name to live Take heed Is it not the General State of this very Age of this very Time We have a Name to live and yet are dead Among all the several Professions and Churches of Christianity in the Reformed way at this Day surely it is a Sin that lies upon every one They have a Name to live and yet are dead We find it one in another but every one may find too much that he hath a Name to live but is dead We may say to our selves Is this like one that is come out of Popery upon the account of Conscience and upon the account of Truth and the Word of God This is a Name to live because say we the things that Papists profess and that they do are not according to the Word of God Why now if it be a Name to live to come out from among them Take heed that we are not dead If we have not the Power of Godliness in the Profession of the Reformed and Protestant Religion It is but a Name to live be watchful and strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die O! how truly may we say That the Things in order to the Kingdom of Christ they are ready to die every where among all sorts of Professors How ready is the Publick Way of Worship to die for want of the Power of what they Profess And if you look upon the Congregated Professors with what reason do they complain They are grown very Proud very Worldly very Vain notwithstanding all their Profession So here 's a Name to live in order to the Kingdom of Christ but they are ready to die Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die Here 's that Watch that Christ speaks of We should take heed and watch that the things which remain and are ready to die might be quickned and have a new life For saith he I have not found thy Works perfect before God I have not found them filled out and filled up They are just like a Stalk of Wheat that looks as if it were something and yet like one of Pharaoh's lean Ears if we come to search and enquire into it and to Rub it as we speak in our hands we find it to be nothing so indeed we may sadly complain when we come to Rub Profession either in others or in our selves it is very thin and lean and lank And therefore our works are not filled up before God Now what saith Christ I will come upon thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee Let us therefore be very diligent in this thing to look to have the Power of our Profession to have the Power of the Protestant Religion to have the Power of the Reformation For indeed It is a very sad thing that so many of us as have a Zeal against Popery a Zeal against the Corruption of that State That yet we should sink so much below some of the Devotionists among them For undoubtedly There are some among them that seem to be under a greater Profession than many Protestants
THE Parable of the Ten Virgins In its Peculiar Relation to the Coming and Glorious KINGDOM OF OUR Lord Iesus Christ OPENED According to the Analogy of the whole Parable and of Scripture in General and Practically Applied for Exercising all the Churches to Holy Watchfulness Mark iv 13. WITH AN APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing within this Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold byWill Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. A TABLE of the Principal Doctrines of each SERMON The Sermons are Divided into Five and Six Each Part viz. The first Five begin with Page 1. and so go on And the Six Last also with Page 1. and so go on The Doctrine of the First Sermon Page 1. THE Kingdom of Christ is in every Thing and throughout The Kingdom of Heaven SERMON II. Page 21. There is a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and every Particular Believing Soul SERMON III. Page 39. The Preparation for the Glorious Marriage-Solemnity is Now and All Christianity looks to that Solemnity SERMON IV. Page 59. All those that are Christs are to hold the great Feast of the Supper of the Lamb to Jehovah SERMON V. Page 74. That the Coming of Jesus Christ hath not yet been since He was here on Earth neither yet is it immediately to be The Bridegroom Tarried The Second Part. SERMON VI. Page 1. While the Bridegroom tarried All these Virgins both the Wise and the Vnwise Slumber and Sleep SERMON VII Page 18. In the very same Circumstances wherein any of us lye down in the Grave in the very same we must be awaken'd and Rise up again SERMON VIII Page 38. It is a Point of great Consideration What the difference is between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins SERMON IX Page 58. It must be sadly Acknowledged and every one is to take it to himself That a Virgin if a Foolish Virgin shall not be admitted nor suffered to enter into the Glory of that Marriage-Feast the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. SERMON X. Page 24. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ is bound to Watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the Days of Christ and had known certainly that his Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since SERMON XI Page 87. 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Where you may be likewise Supplied with Mr. Rich's Testament and Psalms in Short Hand bound THE Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied SERMON I. On Matth. 25. from Ver. 1 to 13. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be
likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom 2. And five of them were wise and five were foolish 3. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oil with them 4. But the wise took Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps 5. While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept 6. And at midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him 7. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps 8. And the foolish said unto the wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out 9. But the wise answered saying Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves 10. And while they went to buy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage and the door was shut 11. Afterward came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us 12. But he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Have often had it in my Thoughts and Desires to open this Great Parable of the Kingdom to you Wherein as Christ saith he hath declared things that had been kept secret from the very Foundation of the World But indeed I fear an Inability to open this Parable according to the Greatest Importance and Sense of it I have yet by the Assistance of God and through the Great Author of it undertaken to offer to you the utmost of Light that I can from so Rich a Portion of Scripture But still saying Who is sufficient for these things I know it contains in it self a Point of the Greatest Concernment to every one of us And the Greater and the Fairer our Profession of Christianity is the Greater is our Obligation to consider it For you see here is nothing in the Text but a Virgin-State and that imports the Purity of a Profession the Highest and the Purest Profession of Christ and of his Name And yet as you may easily observe what a great Danger and Hazard there is in the Purest Profession that we should come short of the Great End For why were Five of these Virgins shut for ever out of the Glory and Happiness of the End The Point that I aim at to discourse upon I 'll give you in the General And then shew you in every Particular how the Parable Answers to it And how Great the Wisdom of Christ is He spake indeed as it is said in the Gospel as never man spake No meer Created Man was ever able to find out such Lively Images and Representations of Things as he did and as he hath given us the Instance and Example of in this very Parable I say therefore here is the main Point that I propose to you That even the Highest and most Excellent Professors of Christianity have great need and an Obligation lying upon them to take care that while they make so excellent a Profession they have that that will bear out and will last in that State of the Kingdom of Christ and of the Glory of it I say the Highest and Purest Professors Suppose any of us say We are not as Heathens and we are not as Antichristians and we are not as the Looser and General Professors of Christianity are But we are Virgins we are of the Purest and of the most Refined Profession of Christianity Our Lord here allows it to us we may be so and yet notwithstanding this we are to be under this severe Caution That we are not found foolish Virgins that have not the Truth and Power of Christianity or only a Profession that will go out as a Lamp extinguished and quenched and cast out into utter Darkness when it comes to the strictest and highest Examination Now this our Saviour hath comprized under Three Generals that you may observe in this Parable which I will at this time first of all but in gross and in short deliver to you and then Endeavour by the Assistance of God to be more Exact upon the Particulars of it First Therefore that we may understand it we are to observe That this Parable represents the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven is to be understood First In the opening of it in the Preaching of the Gospel and in the drawing of the Minds and Hearts of those that hear it unto it That 's the first Notion of the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom This speaks the whole State of the Gospel from that Fulness of Time as I have Stiled it from the Apostle Paul to the Fulness of Times or of All Times from the time of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ from that time 'till the Bridegroom himself comes The Kingdom of Heaven It is the Preaching of the Gospel daily and continually to all those to whom it is offered and tendred And as to this He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear Secondly This Kingdom of Heaven it is to be considered As it shall open it self in the Glory of the Appearance of Jesus Christ For the Kingdom of Heaven doth not lose it self when the Preaching of the Gospel is at an end and when that which we count the Day of Judgment comes but it passes then into another State into its Glory and into its visible Appearance It comes then into the highest Celebration of the Nuptials and of the Wedding For they went forth to meet the Bridegtoom And it is said That the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him into the Wedding and the Door was shut So the Kingdom of Heaven lasts from that Preaching of the Gospel from the Death and Resurrection of Christ unto the Glory of the Kingdom in the Appearance of Christ and of all his Saints with him Which as I say and as you shall after hear is the highest Celebration of the Wedding and of the Nuptials The Second Head of Discourse on this Parable in which our Lord hath presented this great Truth to us is the Representation of those that make Profession of him in the purest and in the most refined way and therefore they are all called Virgins Even those that had not Oil in their Lamps yet still they are called Virgins And those that were not only the wise but the foolish still they are called Virgins And what is the Reason of this but that Christ might press the harder and closer upon every one of our Consciences If you say and you know we are ready to value and rate our selves by it we have a better Profession and a better Worship and we do not as others do whose way and whose worship and whose profession we condemn but we are as Virgins in our Worship
Therefore I say Christ hath given us the whole Frame of the Doctrine in a Parable of Virgins in a Representation of a Virgin-state Indeed in some places of Scripture this Metaphor or Resemblance of a Virgin imports the Truth and the power of Grace and where there is no want of all that Excellency of Christianity that is necessary to the Perfection and to the Glory of it in this present State but here it is otherwise and it is to this very purpose that none of us might rest in an outward Profession And therefore we may observe the several particulars under this Virgin-state that our Lord hath Represented First of all That Five were Wise and Five were Foolish And then In the Second Place Wherein the Wisdom of the one and Folly of the other consisted The Wisdom was in taking Oil in the Vessel with their Lamps The Folly was in taking no Oil with them but only in their Lamps but thinking to make a shift as we say with what was in the Profession In the Third Place We have the Consideration of their Behaviour or of their State in the Time between the Preaching of the Gospel first and then the Glory of the Nuptials While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbred and slept I must indeed let you know That I Interpret this otherwise than the Generality of those that have Spoken or Written upon it have done For this Slumbring and Sleeping I do not look upon as the same that they were in a Spiritual Slumber not Sleep but I look upon it only as suitable to the Parable to be a Representation of the dying of those that make Profession of Christianity that is throughout the Time that great Space of Time between those two Points viz. the fulness of Time and the fulness of all Times There are many gone out of the World many of those that were Virgins in their Profession and they then Slumbred then Slept that is they have died and gone out of the World in this State of Profession Now the Reason that I give why I should so Interpretet is this Because it is very plain by what our Saviour speaks That the wise Virgins did never Spiritually Sleep they were not in a Spiritual Sleep that is It was not the Character of their State And therefore I look upon it only thus as Solomon saith They had come and gone from the place of Judgment So I say they had come and gone out of the State of the World and the Profession of Christianity and they have entred into a State which to us that are here in the World looks like Mid-Night Sleeping As now if we speak of the Apostles that have died they have as it were deeply Slept ever since the time that they went out of the World And so the Saints that we have known here in the World we may say as the Scripture doth They fell asleep and there has been a Slumber upon them as to their Profession they have not manifested that LIFE and POWER of Christianity And then in the Fourth Place here 's the Case and the State of these Virgins upon the coming of the Bridegroom At Midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh Go ye forth to meet him And that I look upon to be intended of the Resurrection That voice of the Son of God That they that are in the Graves shall hear and they that hear shall live and they shall come forth out of their Graves The wise and the foolish Virgins they die alike and they come forth out of their Graves that is both the one and the other Rise again and appear before Christ In the Fifth Place as soon as the Bodies and Souls or Spirits are Re-united immediately all those that are raised go to the Trimming of their Lamps that is they immediately Reflect upon what they had been doing here in the World how they had Lived what they had Acted how they had answered their Profession They arise and Trim their Lamps they come with that Profession of Christianity they have made And that 's the Second Head of Discourse in this Parable And then The Third is the Result Issue and Event of all this What was the different State then of the Wise and of the Foolish As soon as ever the Foolish Virgins came to tryal of their Lamps immediately they found a want of Oil. They found a want of that Power of that Glory of that Life of Christianity that should bear them up in the Time of the Wedding of the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ And therefore that you may understand this Parable you must consider That amongst those Eastern Nations their great Solemnities were in the Night their great Nuptial Feasts and their great Entertainments they were in the Night And so every one did as it were bring their Lamps Here is the curious Colour and Art of the Parable or the Picture every Person that came to those Night-Entertainments which were their greatest As I tell you They brought with them a Lamp a Light to stand by them and that so the Glory of the Feast or of the Entertainment might arise from those many Lights that were shining together that every one brought Now therefore saith Christ the Foolish Virgins came with their Lamps and they had no Oil they had no Oil to bear out the Glory of the Feast the Glory of the Wedding of that great Nuptial the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb as it is called Rev. 19. So as soon as ever they found the want of Oil they were in an Amazement they were immediately upon the earnest pursuit and care of the supply of that want When they found we shall never be able to bear out with the Glory of the Wedding immediately they say to the Wise Give us of your Oil. But the Wise said unto them Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves Go and provide it go and take care for it This is spoken only to fill up the Parable not that the thing could be so but only to represent the thing as lively as might be And while they went to buy the Bridegroom came And they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage and the Door was shut presently shut That is they went into the great Hall to the great Room of Entertainment to the Palace of the Bridegroom They went in that were ready and the Door was presently shut If any one was not ready if they had not Oil in their Lamps the Door was presently shut If they had not such a Provision as would bear out that Entertainment and went to provide they were presently shut out And here In the last place That is the great Use and Application that Christ makes of it Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour when the Son of Man cometh Wherein our Saviour still bears out according to
the Nature of the Type and to fill up all the Parts of it and all the Colours of the Picture For the meaning is no more than this Look well to this That you have a Provision a Treasure of Grace that will last out the whole Time of the Wedding-Solemnity For if you have not you will not be able to make a Provision then you will be as those that are unready Now that this is the meaning of Watching is very plain from hence because the Virgins that had Oil in their Lamps and in their Vessels too they Slumbred and Slept yet they went immediately into the Wedding But all those that had only Oil in their Lamps and not in their vessels they were shut out there was no possibility of making Provision for themselves at that time From all which particulars then that I have given you at this Time but the Generals of I collect Let it be our care let us seriously look to it that we make such a provision now that may last out that whole State that is That we have such Grace as will bear out the Tryal of that Day and that Time That 's the main Importance of this so great Parable so excellent Parable that every one of us should look to it That we have such Treasure such real Riches of Grace in the Blood of Jesus and in the power of his Death and Resurrection upon us that will comport with that great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And let us not say among all the Professions and Ways that there are in the VVorld we have chosen out what we think the best and the purest It is not enough that we are Virgins in our Profession but we must have this rich Treasure this real Treasure of Grace in our Hearts This I say is the main Importance of this great Parable and it Issues into this That we should take heed of pleasing our selves in a Profession and that we should be under the power of this Apprehension That the most excellent Profession that there is in the World in the whole Christian Name whatever it is that shall have the Precedency above any other yet if our Hearts are not Enriched with the true Grace of God and of Jesus Christ we do not know the Truth as it is in Christ effectually And therefore indeed there is not any place of Scripture that Imports a greater Severity or makes more necessary tryal and search into our State and Condition than this very Parable does For when it gives a Representation of the purest State that can be given that is to call all Virgins and yet that some of these are shut out for ever from the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ How should it as our Saviour speaks in a like Parable engage us to strive to enter in at the strait Gate For many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Many of the Children of the Kingdom shall be thrust out as Christ speaks in another place This is the great care therefore that should lie upon us to secure the inward part the vital part the true Power the true Light of Christianity that shall never be as a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness If you look upon the 14 Revel you may see what a high Importance this very Word or Representation of Virgins hath saith the Spirit of God there concerning those that were in the purity of Christian Religion These saith he are VIRGINS and have not defiled themselves with Women as other Professors of the Name of Christ had with the Impurity that others were defiled with For they are Virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth So that though this be so great a Representation of the purity of Christian Religion yet you see here in this Parable our Saviour hath taken this very Representation to set forth the State that yet shall miscarry in the End to Eternity And so the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am Jealous over you with a godly Jealousie for I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ You see sometimes this Representation Metaphor or Emblem of a Virgin is made use of to speak the highest and truest Purity And yet our Lord doth as it were abase and humble it here in speaking of the Foolish Virgins that he might gain his main point and end That is to tell us The most excellent Profession let it be what it will it will not avail us if there be not the truth and power of Christianity in it I shall therefore according to the particulars I have laid down to you endeavour to open this great Point all along by those lively Resemblances that our Lord hath given us in this Parable In the first place I shall consider the State of the Gospel as it is here called the Kingdom in its setting out from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 'till it attains that great Point of Glory its manifestation in the visible Appearance of our Lord Jesus It is all the while the Kingdom of Heaven Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened So as I have Represented to you from Gal. 4. and Ephes 1. Here 's the whole State or Time of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of all the course and motion it runs It begins in the preaching of the Gospel and it ends in the Glory of it Gal. 4. 4. I look upon it to be a great Foundation of all that Discourse that I have endeavoured to Instruct you by concerning the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law The first Appearance of Christ it is called the Fulness of Time that 's the beginning point of it And then there 's the Recapitulation the gathering of all things again into Christ and that is as the Apostle tells us Eph. 1. 10. In the dispensation of the fulness of Times he will gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him In the Fulness of Time Christ came to bear the sins of many In the fulness of Times he gathers all into himself So that the Kingdom of Heaven it hath its beginning in the first Appearance of Christ and it hath its uttermost Glory in the gathering together in one all things into Christ And then it is delivered up into the Kingdom of Eternity We should therefore apprehend our selves even now under the preaching of the Gospel that we are under the motion of the Kingdom of Heaven here 's the beginning of it And then we should look to our selves and draw All to the Issue and last Result For the Kingdom of Heaven lasts till that great Solemnity of the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb it lasts to that very time and so it continues till the Kingdom is delivered up to God all in all You
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
that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom And the Friend of the Bridegroom rejoyceth when he hears the voice of the Bridegroom That is when he finds that he speaks to any Heart and draws any Soul to him How Happy would it be if in this Discourse the voice of the Bridegroom might be heard and discovered in any of our Hearts and that it might be known that this Preaching of Christ hath prevail'd at all upon any Soul This is to Rejoice in hearing the voice of the Bridegroom O therefore that this Joy might be fullfilled in you that hear and in me that am speaking to you But as he goes on he must encrease and I must decrease That is In all wherein we may seem to be serviceable to Christ or serviceable to the Souls of Men that must go off And then the Kingdom and Glory of Christ Himself that is It that must encrease And therefore for those that hear and those that speak to meet one another in that Great Solemnity and in that Great Glory and to find that all is gone off but only Christ How Glosious and how Blessed will this State be I shall therefore endeavour to open this Great Point in some measure unto you Though I know it is not possible to speak of it as it is to be spoken of But I shall therefore First Lay down this as a Great Scripture-Point as a Great Scrippture Truth That there is such a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and betwixt Christ and every particular Soul In the second place I shall endeavour to shew you wherein it stands at the present First In the Opening of it I shall shew you That there is a State of it Now. And then That there is to be the Glory and the Heighth of this State in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Therefore I shall endeavour to shew you wherein it stands now And then In the third place How the Glory of it shall break out and in what Expressions the Scripture hath assured that to us And therefore that every one of us should look upon our Profession as a Fitting and a Preparation to that Great Solemnity of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I. The first Scripture by which I shall make it evident to you is indeed a Scripture full of Mystery full of Figure of Metaphor and Emblem and therefore it may not be so eaâ—ie to your Apprehension It 's that of the Song of Solomon It is an hard thing almost to advise you to the Reading of it because it lies hid under Veils It â—ies hid under curious Allegories and Representations But that is the very â—ense of it Chap. 1. 3. Thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wâ—ne the upright love thee Ver. 3 4. All this it is but Metaphor Representing Christ as Drawing with the Savour of his Good Ointments As Persons make themselves Acceptable by those things that draw and win upon the Sense and so upon the Sense of Smelling This Savour of his Good Oyntment draws Souls to Christ That is those Rich Spiritual Excellencies in Him win upon the Souls of those that are indeed truly his that are indeed Virgins They draw the Love of Souls after Christ The Pardon of Sin His Righteousness His Resurrection in the Power of it His Death in the Power of it His Life in the Power of it The Glory of His Kingdom These Draw Souls Draw me we will run after thee And the upright love thee All that have Sincerity in the Profession of Christianity they truely love him And thus there is a Thread drawn throughout that whole Book till it comes to the very Glory of the Kingdom of Christ The last Words signifie it Make haste my beloved and be thou like a Roe or to a Young Hart upon the Mountains of Spices That is The State of the Kingdom of Christ is just like a Mount of the most Aromatick of the Sweetest Perfumes of Glory and Happiness This is the first Scripture that lays this great Point down before us And there are many Expressions especially in that Evangelical Prophet the Prophet Isaiah comparing the Union betwixt Christ and his Servants to a Marriage and to a Marriage that shall be solemnized at last in Glory But the second Scripture that I would give you concerning it is Ephes 5. Where the Apostle does draw or delineate this very whole Representation before us in the Beginning and in the Perfection of it And indeed he introduces the very first Institution and Appointment of Marriage to bring it all to this That there was in it a much more Glorious Purpose to prepare for and to Represent the Union betwixt Christ and his Church In speaking therefore of the Duty of Husbands to their Wives he enters into this Great Discourse saith he The Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the Body Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing And Christ as an Husband ver 25. He loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word That he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish For indeed as I shall presently shew you out of a Great Type of the Law of Moses in this Thing Christ takes those whom he must Beautifie He takes those whom he must every way fit for so great an Enjoyment as that of Himself He takes them out of Corruption out of Impurity and Defilement in a Miserable and Loathsome and Captivated State and Condition But he never leaves till he brings it to this That he may present them to Himself That he may take them to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And then saith he for this Cause a Man shall leave his Father and Mother and shall be Joyned to his Wife and they shall be one flesh This is a Great Mystery But I speak concerning Christ and the Church That is Here lies the Mystery the Great Point that I intend to present to you that close Union that is betwixt Christ and his Saints And it comes as I told you to that Gloty that He presents it to Himself a Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And if you would know when this is It is at the time of the Kingdom of Christ at the time when he hath destroyed False Christianity that Christianity that is called in the Professors and Profession of it The Whore When that is quite taken away that is when all False Christianity shall be driven out of the
I Have entered into this Great Parable of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And to shew you That the Kingdom of Christ is from the very Beginning to the End of it The Kingdom of Heaven And that the Principal Point of the Kingdom as Now is The Espousing of the Spirits of his Saints unto Himself That in the Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of the Lamb They may be Bidden to that Marriage-Supper As the Expression is in the Revelation I shall now go on as I intimated to you the Last Day to shew you That This Preparation for the Marriage or for the Vnion with Christ in that Great Glory and Solemnity of his Kingdom is Now And all Christianity looks to That I say It looks to that Glorious Solemnity The Preparation is begun Now and then is the Glorious Solemnity But in the Time of the Preparation in the very present Time the Souls and Spirits of the Servants of Christ move with an Earnest Desire towards that Glory They are They ought to be moved to a desire of the Glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And All our Religion All our Christianity All our Praying and Hearing and Preaching All the Graces that we Labour after our Faith and Repentance our Holiness our Obedience All these they are to be Erected they are to be lifted up to be raised up to the Glory and to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ So that we ought to have an Eye in Every Thing to that State For so you see it is here said Ver. 1. There were Virgins going forth to meet the Bridegroom They took their Lamps and they went forth to meet the Bridegroom Though the Bridegroom delayed his coming and did not come so soon as they might think yet still they went forth to meet the Bridegroom All True Power of Grace and Holiness and as we speak of Religion To be Religious It is to go forth to meet the Bridegroom This is the Great Sense of it Not that we shall be perfect here in any Regard But our Perfection is in that Kingdom and Glory of Christ It is in that Solemnity And therefore it is our Great Mistake if we lay our Christianity lower than This If we don't Elevate and Lift it up to This very Great Point to meet the Bridegroom Our Lamp that is our Profession and our Dealing in Christianity now and in all the Ordinances of it and in all the Graces of it is to this very purpose That we might be Daily meeting of the Bridegroom That we might be fit to meet the Bridegroom and might bear up with the Glory Greatness and Excellency of that Solemnity I spoke to you the Last Day of the Captive Person that appeared Beautiful in the Eyes of Him that had taken her captive And if it was so that he desired to Espouse her she was to abide Thirty Days before the Marriage That is There was to be a Time of Preparation But now I beseech you to consider All that very Time which we read of in Deut. 21. 10. Her Head was to be shaved and her Nails to be pared and the Rayment of her Captivity was to be taken off from her and she was to continue in the house of him that loved her and to bewail her Father and her Mother a full month That is Because she was taken Captive and taken from her nearest Relations and was thus to be washed and her Head shaven and her Nails pared She was to be under such a Preparation all that full Month because a Pagan a Stranger from the Commonwealth of Israel As I said to you in the Expression of David Forget thine own People and thy Father's House So Christ gives us a Time of Preparation a Time of shaving our Heads and paring our Nails and taking off the Garments of our Captivity of our Corrupt and Impure State We have a Month for this That is such a Time as God allows his Servants here in the World and such a Time as his Church hath before the Glory of the Nuptials of the Wedding and of his Kingdom And they are all this Time to bewail that State that lost and undone State wherein they are by Nature And all rhat Time now that such Captives were under this Months Delay under this Months Preparation Undoubtedly they had a Great Respect to the Honour and to the Glory of the Nuptial Solemnity they did every thing with an Eye to that and with an Order to that And if it had not been so to be Accomplished All the Intention All that was meant by that of shaving the Hair and paring the Nails and taking off the Garments of Captivity had been to no purpose she had been turned out again and been a Slave for ever All these methods had been in vain But because there was so Honourable an Intention as that of Marriage That made all this easy and sweet and there was an Eye to it all along In the very same manner if we have not an Eye to the Wedding If we Love and Desire to stay in the State on Earth and not to come to the Honour of the Nuptials to be the Bride and the Spouse of Christ We lay all our Religion and Profession too low And therefore I shall desire to discourse this Point to you so as may move you most to draw up your hearts not to a Christianity as it is now but as it shall be in Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of the Lamb And to teach you that our Eye is to be all along upon that and to discover to you the Greatness of the mistake in doing otherwise I shall therefore discourse these Heads upon it First To open to you what it is to be a Christian and to be Religious and to be Godly as we usually speak with an Eye to that future State to that Glorious State of the Wedding of our Lord Jesus And of our selves to be Married in Glory to Him And then In the Second Place I shall shew you the Great Reasons why this and nothing else is the Truth and Reality of Christianity And then In the Third Place I 'll shew you how it hath come to pass that this great Aim and Designation of Christianity is fallen so very low as it is in the World And then In the Fourth Place I will Answer Objections to you by which you may seem to think or it may seem to you that this is not so necessary and absolutely needful Doctrine as I hope it will appear to you And then In the Last Place I 'll close with the application of it First therefore I begin to explain it to you what it is to order our selves so as if there was nothing to come after or as if we did not care how long the Month of Preparation and Purification were drawn out And what it is in every thing to have our hearts raised and lifted up to this excellent end to this Glorious Point and Conclusion of the
Marriage First therefore you must consider that we are all naturally upon this to fix a State here in this World I say we are naturally upon this to fix a State as much as we can here in this World We would have the Interest of this World to stand We would have Buying and Selling and Planting and Building and Marrying and Giving in Marriage We would have these things continue and the Breeding up of Children for it in successive Generations And we never care nor desire to have an End of this but we would have the World go on and we desire to live as long in it every one of us as we can And to have as much Interest in it to have as much Enjoyment of it to have as much of the Riches and of the Grandeur and of the Honour and of the Pleasure and of the Enjoyment of it as we can This is natural to us But now when we come to raise our Christianity indeed We are not so much upon this World but our Great thought is concerning the future State the future Kingdom and the future Glory We are looking beyond this we are dealing with this World as that that must wane that must Decrease and Decay and we desire it should We have inspected it We have weighed it and found it too Light every way And therefore we cannot be content with it But we are weary of the stay and of the delay of it When we go forth indeed with our Lamps to meet the Bridegroom We do thus I say we do thus It is true indeed we all profess this We pretend to it It is the very necessary obligation of our Profession to do thus and to say and to carry it before all that we do thus But now if you do but attend and hearken to the whispers of your own hearts and to the discourses that are in the VVorld and that we have one with another You may plainly find we desire that the VVorld should be Eternal It is noted to be the great mistake and deception of some natural Phylosophers that they believed the VVorld was Eternal was from Eternity That it was always And so it is an Eternal VVorld as they speak a Parte-Ante From the former part of it it hath been always And Indeed it is as Great and as Ruinous a mistake in point of Practice that we desire the World should be for ever that it should continue for ever in this very State wherein it is It is true indeed it is a very Atheistick Principle to think that the World was from Eternity And it would follow if so that it must be to Eternity But I am not minding that Point now but onely allude to it That as they thought the World was from Eternity So we desire it should be to Eternity And it is as strange a thing to us to be made to believe the End of the World and the End of the State of things with any Definitiveness or with any certainty as it was to the Jews when they came to understand that Christ did not intend an immediate Kingdom in their Jewish State and in that present World This present World is so exceeding Natural to us That you see Men Purchase as if the World was still to last Ages And who knows when it shall have an End And therefore Men desire to Propagate all the Worlds concernments even to Perpetuity But now when a Christian comes indeed to consider He always sets the Bounds by his own thoughts to the World he sets Bounds to the present Condition by Powerful and Effective thoughts of Eternity Saith he this World is not to last I must deal with it as with a World that is not to last Observe how the Apostle speaks Indeed I might give you many abundant Scriptures to shew you how much their thoughts were upon the End of things The End of all things is at Hand And the Apostle John tells us the Fashion the Scheme of this World passeth away And in 1 Cor. Chap. 7. That I would desire you to consider of Saith the Apostle Time is short And it shall come very speedily to that That they that Marry should be as if they Marryed not And they that Weep as tho they Wept not And they that Laugh as if they rejoyced not And they that buy as if they possessed not .. Ver. 29. Now this indeed was spoken Sixteen Hundred Years ago But we are now as unwilling to believe that time is shorter as any could be in those Days And are as tender that any one should meddle with such a Point that the present State should be at an End And every one desires Life in his own particular is afraid of dying and afraid of Growing old of growing near to the Grave It is a very Melancholy prospect as we say a Melancholy discourse any thing that looks to this point But now our going forth to meet the Bridegoom it must be much otherwise We read that the time is short And the VVorld continually passing and fleeting away Therefore remember indeed what you pretend to whether you do it or not That you may bring your selves to the very thing to do it that is that you are daily going out To meet the Bridegroom For on this other side A Servant of God he looks as I may say Bolt upright he lifts up his head he raises up himself to look up to that World to come whereof saith the Apostle We speak our Discourse is of that VVe look Bolt upright to that we desire to get above this VVorld and to call for and pray for and Covet that State of the World that is to come It is indeed so great an Expression of the Apostle Peter that I shall onely make use of that in this present Case and so pass on 2 Pet. 3. 12. Saith the Apostle Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God VVhen we are in haste that that day should come This is to go forth to meet the Bridegroom when our earnest desires are to that VVe Love all the Exchangings of this Life the variety of the spending of our Time in it So much in sleeping so much in Eating and Drinking So much in Dressing So much in Buying and Selling So much in visiting and going about to talk of things that are of no moment But now a Christian goes out with his Lamp to meet the Bridegroom Even a Foolish Christian pretends to this But a VVise Christian really doth it And therefore what cause have we to consider this To be ashamed that we bear the Glory of this no more A Second Particular in which I 'll open it to you A Man that is a Christian But onely a Foolish Virgin he considers how much Religion will serve the present Turn the present Case For you know and it is very evident that the VVorld can be no more without Religion than it can be without Meat and Drink and without Light
care so of Religion And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come upon that account And in another Evangelist They went to their Merchandise I have a Great Trade and I cannot carry on the present State if I mind so much the Kingdom of Christ And therefore I say The Purchasing and Husbandry and Merchandise and the Enjoyments of this World and Relations they are great Hinderances indeed to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But then The Second Thing I would say to you which may give you Great Satisfaction as to this If there were such a Spirit poured out from on high Don't think the World would be so Inconvenient by it It would be brought into a more High a Better and more Excellent State I am sure If the Spirit were so poured out upon the World That Men did not excuse themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven by their Trade Relations and Families And by their Interest in the present VVorld I am sure that the Trees of the Wood would yeild forth of themselves to us The Hills would flow down with Milk and the Mountains with Wine VVhenever God will bring the VVorld into a Religious State indeed Don't take care as if the State of the VVorld could not be upheld For it shall be upheld and be more Happy and Blessed than it is now Joel 3. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Mountains shall drop down New Wine and the Hills shall flow down with Milk and all the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters c. Every thing shall be Happy and Prosperous Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir Tree and instead of the Bryar shall come up the Mirtle Tree and it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Memorial When God comes to make the world truely Good to bring in a Profession of Christianity not in Word but in Power I say when that comes to pass there shall be such a strange plenty to the World such a strange Providence over the Creation All that which we take so much care about and with so much Sin and hatred and envy one at another It will come so freely there will be no need of disturbance of and distracting our selves or one another When we come in High sense to be the Servants of God and to be in such a State All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would come and lay down their Service at our Feet The Heavens would hear the Earth and the Earth would hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl And they would hear Jezreel Amos 9. 11. Behold the days come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treaders of Grapes him that soweth the Seed That is the Harvest shall be sooner than the very Plowing All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would offer themselves to us And all the Riches that we dive for now so deep into the Bowels of the Earth and into the bottom of the Sea they would come up and be at our hand in that Day when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall be thus Universally upon the World and when the Desire of Nations shall come I would shut up this in a very Brief Application to you Vse 1. In the First Place Let it move us seriously to fill up our Religion with this Character of it The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom There was the great mark in their Eye the great design in their Eye Now ask your selves I beseech you is your Religion in meeting the Bridegroom Is not your Praying Morning and Evening because it is good Family-Order It is a good thing for Reputation and Credit Is it not because you are afraid if you Rise up and Lie down without Prayer God won't Bless you that Day nor give you good rest that Night He won't succeed you in your Calling And in the Duties and Business of it Is it not because natural Conscience would cry out and say what Do you live like a Heathen yea a Brute and like a Beast I acknowledge these are valuable Reasons in their kind But sure there is a Higher a Greater Reason to go forth to meet the Bridegroom Because throughout all the Account that can be given why Men are Religious if this be not Principal if this be not the Supreme End that I would meet the Bridegroom It is not of the Excellent True Alloy Therefore Buoy up your Spirits raise them wind them up to this great height I 'll go forth to meet the Bridegroom I pray this Morning that I may meet with the Bridegroom I go to hear this day That I may meet with the Bridegroom I would not have these great things wound up onely within the Circle of this Life in this manner Here comes Business and here comes Prayer And so there 's Sleep and Eating and Drinking All comes in a Round and we would have this Round always observed And it calls to Publick Prayer and to other of those Duties Now if we turn about onely in this Circle we run on Endlessly about But our care must be higher Viz. To meet the Bridegroom Vse 2. In the Second Place I Beseech you consider whether your Religion be of this excellent kind that you would be willing to meet the Bridegroom Is it that which I believe in my Soul enlightned by the Spirit of God my Conscience bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost that it will please the Bridegroom Are my Thoughts Affections manner of Conversation such And what reason have we and do we Humble our selves before our Bridegroom when we consider this will not please when we consider this is not fine enough Ornamental enough to his Glory of value enough I would not meet him with Tinsel instead of Gold and real worth I would not meet him with false Diamonds instead of real ones So I would not meet him with Hypocritical formal Prayers without real Grace And then Vse 3. In the third Place I beseech you consider I don't expect there should be many Subscribing to that Account of Time that I have given out Tho it be upon great and strong Foundations in the Word of God Yet I challenge nothing from any but so far as they see in that Light But I would onely ask you this Question upon the occasion of it Suppose it a true and real Scripture Account that I have given out and that within so little a Time there shall be yet so great a change of the World And Men shall begin to unhinge from the Earth and Earthly Foundations Would you be glad of it Or have you not a secret Trouble and Enmity against it And that you would have the World still go on and Ages to run on so I say try your selves as to this I think it cannot be any Injury for any to propose this Seeing we should be continually upon our watch for this very thing when our Lord will come Vse
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
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
Watch For ye know not the Time Yet I shall shew you That hath quite another sense And that it speaks that every one should look that they have the Truth of Grace and Oyl in the Vessel and the Wedding Garment This is the Watchfulness that the Spirit of God confines us to But in the mean time we ought to be upon our Watch-Tower and to know the Times appointed by God For it is great Hypocrisie However we may think it Great Modesty that we do not Discern the Signs of the Times To be Instructed in the Times from the Signs the Scripture hath given us from Time to Time That we may come to know when this Great Coming of the Kingdom of Christ shall be And that our Hearts may be greatly preparing and in a Readiness for that Great Day c. is one Branch of the great Duty of Waiting for his Appearance SERMON V. Near the Time of the Shaking in London c. 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 THE Words that I shall place the present Discourse upon are those Viz. While the Bridegroom Tarried while the Bridegroom delayed While the Bridegroom Delayed his coming While He whiled out the Time As we in our English Language speak and as the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifys While the Bridegroom Delay'd or Tarried or spent Time They all Slumbred and Slept I have you know in this Parable shewn you the Great Intention of it That it Represents the Glory of that Nuptial Feast That Wedding That Marriage of the Lamb. And I have already opened the several Preparatory Particulars in it I shall now at this Time Discourse upon what I have proposed The Bridegroom Tarried And so I shall endeavour to lay this Foundation That the coming of Jesus Christ hath not been since He spoke this Parable Neither is it yet immediately to be The Bridegroom Tarried And therefore herein I shall endeavour to open to you First How strange it is according to Scripture-Discourse that the coming of Christ has been so long delay'd And I shall Answer to you the Objections that arise from it against the Truth of Scripture concerning the Bridegroom's coming And so how this delay and many Scriptures can be reconciled In the Second Place I shall give you the two Great Reasons especially why the Bridegroom 's coming is Delay'd And then In the Third Place I shall enquire the Signs when this Tarrying of the Bridegroom is like to be at an End And I shall endeavour so to Discourse this as to resolve you concerning the Present Face of the World That we are in a Time you know all very well of very great Commotions of the Nations and as the Scripture Expression is We hear of Wars and Rumours of Wars continually And you know God hath both in other Nations and in a part of this Nation the beyond the Sea given us Great Reason to consider that shaking of the Earth that was so dreadful in a part of our Nation tho beyond the Sea And that gentle Admonition that he hath given us of it so lately in this very place In this very City I would therefore Discourse that point to you how far we may look upon these as Signs of the near Coming of the Bridegroom And then I shall close up the whole in the Application of it I begin with the First And that is to Discourse to you how strange it may seem and disagreeable to Scripture that the Bridegroom hath so long Delayed his Coming And I shall remove the Objectons against the Truth and Verity of Scripture Notwithstanding the Delay of the coming First therefore it seems very strange that such an Evil State of the World should continue beyond the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ Seeing there is such an Infinite Grace of God in a Mediator and that he pleased to give his own Son to Lost Man That whoever believes in him should not perish bat have Eternal Life It is no wonder we may be ready truly to say That the World continued till Christ came till He Dyed and Rose again and till there was an Universal Preaching of the Gospel in His Name But why should it last any longer So Great a Thing was done Then in the World that there can be no Expectation of such another And therefore sure there was nothing now to do but for Christ to have a Kingdom as Great and as Large and as Glorious as the Scripture assures he shall have For as I have noted to you and I desire that you would bear as I have said before That Scripture in your Mind Gal. 4. 4. When the Fullness of Time was come God sent forth his Son It is no wonder that Time should last till The Fullness of Time came But that it should last beyond is very strange God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Children And God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son to all those that are his Children to cry Abba Father These were so Great Things that till this Fullness indeed it is no Wonder at all that God bore up the World because he had such a Great Discovery of his Love and of his Grace to make and by which Men had been Saved all along before even the Fathers in the Old Testament And by which Salvation is to be alone expected and received 'T was no Wonder therefore I say that God bore up the World to that Fullness of Time But now it is strange that it should last any longer than that It is Wonder there has not been a Kingdom of Redemption and of Glory ever since But now to Answer you in that Particular and by a Place of Scripture as Notable as this Fullness of Time is There is another far Greater Appearance of the Glory of the Redemption of Christ For you know All That was in Humiliation It was in an Incognito-State in a Disguise of the Son of God Humbling Himself into the Form of a Servant and to Death the Death of the Cross But All This is to Appear in Glory And as there was a Fullness of Time for that First Manifestation of Christ So there is Ephes 1. 10. a Dispensation of the Fullness of Times not only of Time but of Times or of All Time That he might gather together in One all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in Him Till that Date be come the Kingdom of Christ cannot be Let me therefore desire of you That you would keep these Two Places of Scripture always in your Thoughts with Relation to the First Coming of Christ and with Relation to his Second Glorious Coming and Appearance There is the Fullness of Time and
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
indeed we see in the very best to this day Therefore the Observation that I shall lay down and endeavour to open to you is this That Christianity in regard of the present state of Christians and as they have been since Ephesus Rev. 2. left its first love since there was a decay of the Glory and. Purity and presence of the Gospel from the Apostles Time Since then I say Christianity in the Power and Spirit of it though it hath not downright slept yet it hath been as in a slumber For indeed I have often said it and I cannot be in a remove from it That Christianity is not as it was intended by Christ it should be We have not seen the State and Glory of it And therefore I shall make it my business to represent to you by such Representations as the Scripture hath given us how the Power of Christianity hath faultred thus long and that it will come to its perfectly awakened State when the Kingdoms of this World are Proclaimed to be the Lord's and his Christ's And I shall date this failure especially to two Times and one of them will fall directly upon our selves First of all the Time when the Mystery of Iniquity was working in the Apostles days For you may plainly behold that by the very express words of the Apostle that in his own Time there was a working of the Mystery of Iniquity Then began the great decay and bringing down of the Glory of Christianity 2 Thes 2. 'T is a Scripture that I have often turned you to and therefore I hope you are acquainted with it I am perswaded the first Christians in the Apostles days needed as much to be restrained in thinking that the Day of Christ was at hand as we have need to be spurr'd on and to be provoked and to be earnestly perswaded to think that the Day of Christ is at hand For so the Apostle writes We beseech you saith he as if he was in a business of greatest earnestness and that he could not tell how he should prevail enough upon them to whom he wrote in it ver 1. We beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter as from us as that the Day of Christ is at hand They were ready to think The Day of Christ was to come just then Therefore the Apostle makes this earnest entreaty of them that they would not expect it You see what a different posture we are in now It is a hard matter to perswade any one to take off their hearts from the World and from loving it too deep and from thinking here 's a security in this World and we may do as our Fathers have done before us for so many Hundred Years in the Profession of Christianity We may be buying and selling and getting Estates and laying a foundation in this World Who is it that doth not count it a sort of Madness to disswade them from such a thing But the Christians of that Time they needed as earnest a perswasion That they might not think that the Day of Christ was so near at hand And so Christ in the 19th of Luke speaks that Parable that they should not because they did think The Kingdom of Heaven was nigh at hand He spake a Parable on purpose to assure them that it was not so nigh But Alas we need strong perswasions to the contrary And I may say the contrary to the Christians of this Time I beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus and by our gathering together unto him that you would not be shaken in mind by the general way of Peoples Profession and Preaching and Hearing as if the Day of Christ were not at hand And as the Apostle saith Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that Man of Sin be revealed the Son of Perdition So I say to you That day is near approaching For that falling away that Apostacy from Christianity it hath been and it is now very near to its expiring And therefore the great reason why it could not be then it is now a reason why it must speedily be because the Apostacy hath been so long because the Time and the last Date by God and by Christ is almost run out and expired that is the Time Times and half Time Here therefore to speak and bring home the thing to the present purpose I am upon Since this Apostacy began to work since that very Time Christianity hath been in a slumber For in this second Chap. v. 7. saith the Apostle the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work Now as soon as ever the Mystery of Iniquity began to work immediately there began a slumber upon the Christian Religion And therefore one would wonder Indeed it is a place that one would wonder to read and to find in the Epistle to the Philippians what the Apostle speaks Chap. 2. 20. For I have no man saith he like-minded speaking of Timotheus who will naturally genuinely sincerely care for your state For saith he All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's I speak of him as an extraordinary Person saith the Apostle By this we may plainly see it was a great variation from what you read in the second and third Chapters of the Acts where they minded nothing but only the Promotion of Christianity No one called any thing their own they minded nothing but Christianity it self But Christianity hath been in a slumber ever since or else we should be Christians of another Life of another Spirit of another Power I say were it not that Christianity hath been in a slumber so long And this is with a great deal of spiritual Wit if I may so speak and a great deal of spiritual Elegancy set out to us in the Song of Solomon I shall have occasion to make great recourse to the Description that is there given to us Sol. Song c. 5. v. 2. I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh saying open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled for my Head is filled with Dew and my Locks with the Drops of the Night What 's the meaning of this Indeed I know Men are ready to say That these things are only Imaginations and Whimsies and Apprehensions of ones own that speaks of them But I have found a clear Thread and Line drawn from David's time till the very Glorious Coming of Christ in this very Song of Solomon And I find that the Time when the Apostacy came in is just under the very description that we here have As therefore when after a clear Day a Sun-shiny-day at Night the Drops of Dew you know they fall thick upon the heads of those that are in the Air. So
Christ doth declare A night should come at that time upon his Church My head saith he is wet with the drops of Dew of the Night Because Christianity was drawing its Ceremonies long they began then at that very time they begun then to draw out the shadows of the Evening A great many Ceremonies came into Christianity and a Form and Way of Prayer suitable and agreeable to it and such ways of Preaching as prepar'd for it And then they came to be more intent upon the Remembrance of such a Saint and such a Martyr and keeping their Days and drawing as many outward Forms and Ceremonies of Religion as they could and they neglected the Power of it And this Christ observes and calls it the Drops of Dew the Drops of the Night upon his Head And then the Church of Christ began to slumber And this is the first Time that is to be taken notice of in regard of the slumbering even of the wise Virgins Of which I shall speak presently more particularly to you The Second is this And I desire that none would be offended or think me censorious in speaking of it For I design nothing I can truly Appeal to God but only to speak the Truth and the Reality of Things in a Point where Scripture calls for the speaking of it That is This Slumber hath been since the Reformation As soon as ever the first Power had shewn it self There was indeed a mighty Spirit of Truth and Spirit of Holiness in the first Reformation Men and Women were then Christians of a high Rate of a high Degree of a high Excellency How willing were they to suffer in the days of Queen Mary in our own Nation How did they love one another How did the Power and Glory of Christianity appear in them But I hope it will be no scandal to say this That it hath been in a decay for a Hundred Years For it is the very express words of one that is Dr. Burnet that we know by the Name of the Bishop of Salisbury he spake it plainly and openly in this City That the Reformation has Sermon Of not falling out by the Way been losing ground for these Hundred Years And whence is this But only a great slumber hath fallen upon the Profession of the Protestant Religion for a Hundred Years And the Glory and Power and Excellency of Christianity we have not yet restored to its own Beauty and to its own Glory And this I have endeavoured several times both in Discourse and in Writing to make plain That the Church of Sardis is the Representation of the Generality of the Christian Churches under the Reformation And I desire that you would but read and weigh the Description that is given of that Church Rev. 3. 1 2. And to the Angel of the Church in Sardis write These things saith he that hath the Seven Spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know thy works that thou hast a Name that thou livest and art dead Be watchful saith he and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die Be watchful What 's the meaning of that But only to shew that the State of the Protestant Churches had fallen into a great slumber a great drowsiness And therefore it is that we know so little of the Power of Christianity at this day And saith he I have not found thy works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch observe that I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee if thou dost not watch Here we plainly see what is opposed to slumbering it is watching And when Christ saith Watch so often and so much it signifies that his Church would fall into a slumbering condition it had a Name to live it was not perfectly dead But it was not vigorous and powerful in the ways of Christianity And therefore watch and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die I 'll give you only two Arguments why I am of this Judgment That this very Parable I am upon does look directly upon the state of the Protestant Churches and so upon our selves as in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this very Time I 'll give you the two Arguments and then I 'll go on in a more practical way of discoursing the particulars of this slumbring of Christians in the Profession of Christianity The First Argument I give you is Because it is now the Time It is now the Time especially when our Lord delays his coming For there shall not be Time Times nor so much as half Time any more whole and entire For at the Reformation Christ began to make an appearance of his Kingdom and of his Coming And it is certain the bringing in of the Reformation as all true Protestants own it was one of the greatest Works of Providence that ever hath been known in the World and especially since the days of Christ It was strange and wonderful in the Times when God did it that he should bring in a Reformation against such high Pretences as that of The Catholick Church as Rome was called and against the Papacy and Hierarchy that took upon themselves to be the great Patrons of and Pretenders to Christian Religion and the true Votaries and Servants of it to have all things good within themselves Now That such a poor inconsiderable Person as Luther was should make opposition to such a Body when as the Kings and Princes of Europe were utter Enemies to the Reformation It was a Mighty Power of God And as I have often shew'd Rev. 10. is the very Representation of the Reformation Christ came down from Heaven clothed with a Cloud and with a Rainbow upon his head And he set his right Foot upon the Sea and his left Foot upon the Earth and cryed with a loud Voice as when a Lyon roareth and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever That Time and Times and even of half Time that it should be no longer Who would not I say but have expected that Christ should immediately have come and changed the World and brought in his Kingdom But our Lord delays his Coming only till the Hundred and Eighty Years are made up of which there wants only now but Five Years And at the present there is a great delay though I make no doubt It will not be long But yet Men think Christ hath delayed his Coming and where is the Promise of it and that he hath quite forgot it In this Time therefore of the Lord 's delaying his Coming there is such a great slumber upon the Christian Church In the second Place I have this great Reason that moves me much to think that the present delay that the Parable speaks of under that spiritual slumber of the Churches of Christ hath run along with the Time since the
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
one is awakened out of Sleep And therefore let us earnestly long for that Time And whatever God is doing or seems to do in the World let us observe what Tendencies it has to this Excellent State of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and then this Slumber shall be perfectly taken off And then 3 In the Third and last place Let it comfort us exceedingly in God and in Christ And let us say The Things that God hath prepared and designed they are Things That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive For that in the 64th of Isaiah is to be applied to the Coming of Christ O that thou wouldest Rent the Heavens and that thou wouldest come down and that the Mountains might flow down at thy Presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the Waters to boil c. And then saith he Things that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard yet he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Consider it at your own Freedom This State is near coming forth such an one as hath not been seen or heard of since the Foundation of the World In which we shall no longer complain at the rate we do now That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and That our Iniquities like the Wind take us away And That we do not stir up our selves to take hold of God But then there shall be a General Stirring up of one another to take hold of the Lord our God SERMON VII On Matthew 25. v. 1 Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses endeavoured to express to you the Divine Sense and Meaning of our Lord in this Parable who as I told you Opened his Mouth in Parables and in this Parable in a very Eminent Manner and hath made known things hid from the very Foundation of the World The Points that I have already Discoursed it may be necessary to give you only just a Remembrance of and to come to that that is now to be proposed The first was this That the Kingdom of Christ in all the motions in all the parts in all the Dates and Times of it is the Kingdom of Heaven It is not to be looked upon as an Earthly or a Sensual Kingdom but the Kingdom of Heaven In the second Place That True Christianity is an Espousal unto Jesus Christ The Scripture hath delighted to set it forth under the Resemblance of Marriage and Espousals Thirdly That all the Eye of a Christian is not to the present state though it be necessary in the way but it is to the future and to the higher state For as I opened to you out of the Old Testament it was the Command of God That there should be a Contract between the Person that had taken a Beautiful Woman Captive and her that was taken Captive if he desired to Marry her There was to be a time of Contract Thirty Days God did precisely appoint That it might shadow to us That the present state is but a state of our Espousals and Contract And therefore our chief Intention the Great Eye of the Soul must be to the Solemnity and the Glory of the Nuptials of the Marriage it self The Virgins took their Lamps therefore and went forth to meet the Bridegroom In the Fourth Place I opened to you the great Solemnity Fifthly That notwithstanding the Death and Resurrection and Ascention of Christ into Glory there is a great Delay of his coming And though this seems very strange and unreasonable it should be so I endeavoured to open to you the Reason that Scripture hath given why it is so In the Sixth Place in the last Discourse I opened to you this What a Drousie and Sleepy state of Christianity hath come upon Christians and upon the Profession of Christ by reason of the Bridegroom 's tarrying I shall now go on to speak of this viz. At Midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridgroom cometh Go ye out to meet him I have considered and weighed the Parable in all the parts of it in all the Scope of it and I cannot find that it can relate to any thing but to the very Glory of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ For immediately it comes to this That the Door was shut They that were ready went in with him to the Wedding and the Door was shut Christ profest to them without when once the Door was shut I know you not And there is no such thing as that before the great coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And therefore this Cry at Midnight is no other than that which the Apostle speaks in the 1. Thess 4. 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first This is the great Cry that shall be made it shall be the Cry at the Trump of the Archangel the Voice of the Archangel And so in the 1 Cor. 15. The Apostle speaks the very same thing that it should come to this There should be an immediate Raising of the Dead Ver. 52. In a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall Sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we shall be Changed This therefore is the Midnight-Cry Indeed there may be some Resemblances of it by sudden Judgments and by sudden Affrightments upon the World As we may easily Apprehend of late at Jamaica It was to them like a Day of Judgment I say It must needs be like to such a Midnight-Cry when an immediate stroak of God came upon them A Thundring and Lightning and an Opening of the Earth and a Rising up as it were of the Sea to sweep down the Inhabitants into it self this looked Just like the end of the World And though God gave us a little Item of such a thing though it did not so come upon us as that beyond the Sea yet we may easily Consider it might have been like a Mid-night if God had done with us as he did with them But yet still this would not have been that Midnight-Cry but even to those that are gone down into the Depth in that place Yet still there remains a Midnight-Cry that shall awaken them 'T was like a Midnight-Cry upon Sodom when it was from Heaven Consumed by Fire But yet it is very evident that Midnight-Cry remains still to come upon that very Sodom and Gomorah And therefore I say Though I allow Allusions to such a Scripture as this when any Judgment that has been or may be is set out to us there may
and so far as any of us have Opportunity to Propogate the koowledge of this thing among all the Prophane and Wicked of the World so far as I say they will bear it or that we can have place to speak so much to them To consider if foolish Virgins will not be accepted in that Day O! What will be the End of those that are so boldly and insolently prophane and wicked It were a happy thing indeed in regard of the present state of things and of the hopes of something better That we could prevail upon Persons that we know are prodigiously Contemners of God and bold in Sin and Railers at and Scoffers of every thing that is good and that wallow like Swine in the Mire and that are drinking up the Vomit of their Sins perpetually and doing the same things over and over again O that Persons would be prevailed with to read the First of the Proverbs And to draw the Land-scaph of their Case by looking upon Belshazzar and reading his Story I say That they would be prevailed with Men that are Carousing and shewing their Contempt of God and of every thing sacred Oh that they might be prevailed with For as the Apostle saith If the righteous be scarcely saved and foolish Virgins perish where shall the Wicked and Vngodly appear And 2. In the Second Place Then let every one of us as I hope upon the generality there may be drawn this Title of a Virgin without any injury done to Christ I hope we do make a Profession of God and Christ seriously We do Pray and Hear and wait upon God in his Word and read the Scripture and we are serious in drawing nigh to Christ at his Table I say I hope the Title of the Virgin may be put upon many of us in these regards But Let it not be grievous to any of us either Hearer or Speakers to consider this That there are Foolish Virgins as well as Wise You may have a very desirable and commendable Profession of Christianity upon you We may have this and yet be foolish Virgins Consider seriously If there be folly in our Virginity it will utterly spoil it it will be such a Dead Fly in the Ointment of Virginity that it will certainly spoil and poison all As our Lord speaks If the Salt have lost its savour The Word in the Greek is if it be foolish Salt it goes to the Dunghil There may be Virginity but if it be foolish Virginity it will come to be said Our Lamps are gone out We have heard and profest Christianity with you but lo now Our Lamps are gone out We cannot hold out Immediately the Fire of that Day as we say the Sun will put out those little Fires So the Fire of that Day the Glory of that Day will put out our Lamps But this is that Point That I shall especially Discourse to you next To shew you Wherein is the difference between a Lamp that goes out and a Lamp that is furnished with the Treasure of Oil still within it self That hath still new supply that hath a Fountain to supply it That doth not go out upon the very spot as we say And if the Lord enable me to clear so great a Point to the Conviction of every one that both hears and speaks How great might the advantage be For I would not discourage any from his Profession God forbid that any one should be stopp'd or hinder'd in the way of Christianity so far as they have proceeded but yet you see this is a necessary faithfulness to be told of our danger and perswaded and convinced of it if by any means we might escape out of the Snare that the Snare might be broken and we escape The Third Application I make is this 3. That according to the assurance I have given you and that I profess in the Presence of God with greatest sincerity upon duest Consideration to be more and more assured That the Kingdom of Jesus Christ draws very near and very hard and very fast upon us That therefore you would have another Consideration of these things than those that lived a great way of of the Time For though it is true if any of us come to die it will be the same case as if the Day of Judgment were just now upon him but yet still the Scripture makes use of this as a further and higher Argument It is high time now to awake the Night passeth the Day is at hand your Salvation is nearer And therefore I beseech you That you would seriously take it into Consideration and to Heart That the ends of the World must needs be upon us For if the Apostle said that the Ends of the World came upon them so many Hundred Years since how can it be but that the Ends of the World must be upon us We are on the very last Sands of the Glass of the World And therefore Let this Preaching of John the Baptist and Christ be in all your Ears and Hearts Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Look to be wise Virgins for the Bridegroom will not long delay his coming He hath delay'd it so long but will not delay it long now And then 4. In the last Place I beseech you be not so afraid of the Coming of the Kingdom of Christ This will be your great advantage If any would choose they would choose to see the Kingdom of Christ in its succession For I have always taken care to distinguish to you these two There is a great Difference betwixt the Kingdom of Christ coming in its Glory as it shall be at the Time designed by this Text and Parable and another thing intended by its Succession Rev. 11. 15. As a King Entring upon his Reign which you know is immediately and as soon as the former King went off and as they speak Demised It is another thing his Inauguration You know there is a distance of Time between the Entring in of the Reign and Succession and the Coronation the great Time of Glory And so there 's a difference betwixt Christ's coming when the Midnight-Cry shall be and his coming into the Succession of his Kingdom For there shall be a wonderful pouring out of the Spirit of God as soon as ever the Kingdom of Christ shall come into its Succession There shall be a mighty Preaching of the Everlasting Gospel Christianity shall grow much higher much more pure much more efficacious there shall be bringing in multitudes of Gentiles that are now Unbelievers in Christ Mahometan or Pagan Antichristians and the Ancient Israel coming in as I have often said Who then can be perswaded that it shall be possible to see the Jews and Gentiles flocking in to Christ and that there should be any that should not believe in Christ and receive his Gospel And therefore I say know assuredly That it will be a great advantage to you And for my part There 's nothing that I more earnestly
defire or have a greater value for than to see the Dawns of the Kingdom of Christ Oh! That God would give any of us leave to see this We should have great advantage of making our Calling and Election sure of working out our salvation with fear and trembling of being perswaded of the things that pertain to the Kingdom of God we should have great opportunities every way And therefore as Christ speaks when he propounded the Parable to them Matth. 13. 17. I say unto you That many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them So if God shall continue any of our lives but a few years to see the Kingdom of Christ appearing in this First Glory O happy and blessed shall we be For from the very beginning and foundation of the World to this day Many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which we shall see then and have not seen them and to hear those things that we shall hear and have not heard them In the mean time Let none of us be discouraged if God call us sooner out of the World For as the Apostle saith All those that are Christ's he will certainly bring with him And it will certainly be a happier and securer state to be sleeping in Jesus and dying in Jesus For though we do not see these things here our Spirits shall see them above and our Bodies shall be raised in Glory for us to come with Christ in And as to those who are not as they desire to be for my part I know not any thing can be spoken for better Tydings or any thing that should more earnestly engage our Faith and Prayer than to have that great opportunity to wind up our Faith and Love and Repentance to their own height even that of the Coming of the Kingdom of Christ into its Succession and to see those blessed things and to hear them that many excellent persons have desired to see and hear and have not And therefore let none be offended that the Kingdom of Christ is near at hand for we shall have greater and more blessed advantages and opportunities to make our Calling and Election sure when that time comes Let us therefore desire to hear those loud Voices from Heaven Proclaim That the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ On which will soon follow that pouring out of the Spirit and the Preaching the Everlasting Gospel SERMON VIII On Matthew 25. v. 6 c. And at Midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps And the Foolish said unto the Wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out c. I Have led you through several parts of this great and admirable Parable The last thing I Discoursed to you was concerning the Midnight-Cry and endeavoured to shew you That though there might be some use made of it as a Description of any Judgment that should come upon the Churches of Christ before his Coming Yet That the Principal Intention is That Cry That Voice of the Son of God That Shout that the Lord will descend in That Voice of the Archangel That Trump of God that shall raise all that are asleep in their Graves and shall bring them forth I Endeavoured to open to you That every one shall rise in the very same Circumstances wherein they lay down in Death and in the Grave And therefore That the Day of Judgment coming upon Prophane and Insolent Persons upon the Fools that say in their hearts There is no God will be like the Writing of the Fingers on the Wall before Belshazzar that we read of Dan. 5. And as it comes upon ignorant Persons in Christianity and upon the Worldlings those Fools that say We have much Goods laid up for many Years and therefore Soul Take thy ease Eat Drink and be Merry O! what an Earthquake will it be upon them to see the Kingdom of Christ Now They shall be raised both the Fools that say That there is no God and the Worldlings c. They shall be raised just in the same Terror in the same Consternation as if the Earthquake was now upon them or in the Time of Life now on Earth But I proposed to shew you also Wherein the state of the foolish and the wise Virgins differ wherein this great difference lies That one enter into the Wedding and the other are shut out And that is it which now by the assistance of God I would undertake and go forward to give you a clear Representation of this great Matter For as I told you Virgins bespeaks a being of the Pure and True Religion the true Religion of the Gospel the Doctrine of God in the Gospel For all whatsoever false Doctrine or false Worship does adulterate this it is called in Scripture not by the Name of Virginity but by the Name of Whoredom by the Name of Adultery and Fornication Whatever defiles the Religion of Jesus Christ is not stiled Virginity but by other Names And therefore it is certain That these Virgins must be of the truest and of the purest Religion of Jesus Christ In the second Place I told you That they must needs be of a tollerable sober Conversation They are not of the Prophane the Drunkards or the Swearers or the Sensualists of the World but they are those that walk in such unblameable life that they are worthy to be counted and to be stiled Virgins What a critical Case therefore What a very nice and curious Point is this that distinguishes between the wise and the foolish Virgins If therefore God shall be pleased in any measure to enable me to open this to you and that you may aright conceive and understand so great a Point I hope That by his Blessing our coming together may be for the better and not for the worse I shall therefore apply my self to it First By considering the scope of the Parable in this Matter And I find That it lies here The one had Oyl in their Lamps but they had not Oyl in their Vessels The other had Oyl in their Vessels as well as in their Lamps So that it comes to this One hath a Treasure a Store of Grace beyond the Profession the other hath not I shall Answer very plainly and down-right Discourse in this thing by leading you to some great Expressions of Scripture which do to me assure what our Lord intends In the Third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians v. 16 c. The Apostle in that Great and Excellent Prayer begs of the Father of Glory the Father of Glory An Expression most suitable and agreeable to the Kingdom of Christ appearing in its Glory to which this Parable refers That he would grant you according to the
of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the Presence of God for us We Translate it In the Presence of God but the Greek is much more Emphatical He Appears or is made apparent to the Face of God for us Now Christ is present with and makes himself appear to the very Face of God That Face that is Ten Thousand times Brighter than the Sun and that Dazles all Created Righteousness Christ appears to that very Face and he appears now in his own Blood to that very Face for us Herein is our great Comfort when we come before the Face of God Christ appears to that very Face in our Behalf It is further said Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest Offer'd other Sacrifices For then must he often have Suffered since the Foundation of the World It may be you only read this with a General Thought of it and may not have considered the deep Sense and the Importance of it For I ask Why Christ must have Suffered often from the Foundation of the World if he had not been a Lamb slain once for All The Answer is If his Offering had not been an Offering once for All It must have arisen from the Insufficiency of it the Weakness and Imperfection of it to have done All at once and then he must as the Apostle says Have Suffer'd often since the Foundation of the World and not have Died only 1700 Years ago when the World was about 4000 Years old but he must have Suffer'd from the very Foundation of the World He must have begun there where the Sin of Man the Apostacy of Adam enter'd and he must still have been Suffering For the World could not have been born up but by the Efficacy of his Sacrifice and therefore it must still have been renew'd The World hath been variously divided the Old World before the Flood and then before the Law and since the Law till Christ It is capable of more Divisions but divide it as we can I do not see how any Division of it could have been without the Sacrifice of Christ nor how often each Division would have requir'd the Benefit of it if once Offering had not been for All but because once Offering of a Lamb without Spot by the Eternal Spirit doth Perfect and Consecrate for ever to the Enjoyment of God and Freedom from Wrath Them who are Sanctified from the Guilt and the Power of Sin And so it looks backward to all such before it as a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and forward to all who shall be to the Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All and even throughout Eternity supporting Saints in their Union to the Father and his Love by Himself Hence this Great High-Priest chose his Time in the End of the World shewing the Right of Christ to have put an end upon this Sunk Fallen Defiled World but that for Wisest and Holiest Purposes Vision and Prophesie in the Great Efficacy of his Redemption were Seal'd and now of necessity are near to be opened This was the Fulness of Time not far from the Fulness of Times or of all Time That is from the Kingdom of Christ Now on this Foundation of his Sacrifice for ever perfecting Them who are Sanctified we learn That as All is Deriv'd from Christ Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption So it is Conserv'd in him he hath for ever perfected as in himself For all still rests in him and depends upon Fresh Receivings from him as is most evident in this He went immediately into the Holy Places made without Hands there to appear in the Presence of God or according to the Force of the Greek there to be made Illustrious to the very Face of God for us So that notwithstanding what he hath done we could not dare to appear to the Face of God if he were not there for us appearing to that very Face receiving the Grace and Favour of it and Reflecting it on us And so in Sanctification in the strictest and most proper Sense of it It is continually Issuing from his Blood The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant sends forth the Efficacy of making perfect in every good Work working in us that which is well pleasing in his Sight Now then from hence arises a Necessity of continual Looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith in both Justification and Sanctification Take then as in relation to the Point of Justification our Faith our Love our Repentance our Charity our Holiness our Obedience and separate these from the Satisfaction Righteousness of Jesus Christ and how can they stand before God on any account whatever even in the Sense of All that do at all acknowledge Christ But beyond this How pitiful are they compar'd with Everlasting Righteousness with Infinite Righteousness Nay so Imperfect and so Polluted are they that they cannot so much as enter into any the least Consideration in the Point of Righteousness or Justification but they must needs before a Righteous and Holy God Themselves and the Persons in whom they are fall under Condemnation And in point of Holiness if you divide them from Christ They are like a Beam or a Ray cut off from the Sun it immediately vanishes and comes to nothing As therefore The Conscience truly enlightned will say Alas I cannot come before God with this and that which looks like Godliness Holiness or what we call Religion as in Prayer or other Duties I must have the Infinite Righteousness of Jesus Christ else I know my Lamp will immediately go out So in point of Sanctification even that Holiness we receive from Christ all its Excellency and Life is in Union to Christ If it be separate from him it is like a Drop out of the Fountain A Drop in the Fountain is considerable while it is in it If you separate it from it it presently is lost and comes to nothing My Son says he unto Timothy be strong in the Grace that is in Jesus Christ it must be in him Conserv'd in him Else it is as a Ray wandring from the Sun or a Drop from the Fountain or to speak in the Language of the Parable as a Lamp from the Vessel or even the Vessel from the Son of Oil The Sum of all is our dependance is on Christ alone our Union and Communion with him He is the Fountain he is the Great Son of Oil All Lamps go out not so united In Jehovah shall one say Have I Righteousness and Strength strength of Holiness also In him shall all his Seed be Justified and Glory Thus far I have endeavoured to fix and establish this Point to you And from which I hope and am assur'd I shall never find Reason to depart That the Oil in the Vessel is the Heart united to Jesus Christ by Faith The Having the Son and so having Life For he is the Great Son of Oyl the Branch made strong even the
man that is look'd upon as a Religious Man and that makes a great Figure in the World and that God hath blest Now this Man living so sober in regard of all the Commandments in outward acts all these commandments have I kept from my youth up One would think it were not possible that such a Man should not go to Heaven And yet saith Christ Verily I say unto you with relation to this lovely young man it is a hard thing for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly he did not come up to that was properly the Virgin-state in the acknowledgment of Christ however he was of unspotted unblameable external conversation he had too an acknowledgment of Christ as a very Excelling man and a Great Master of Divine Knowledg but He had not a Sense of his Divine Glory nor the very power of Christianity so as to Grasp the Inside of it to Lay Hold upon the very Spirit and Life of it as in Christ and so to devest Himself of every thing for Chrst if Called to it Nay he was unwilling to Own and Follow Christ in the very Outward Profession and herein he came short of the Foolish Virgins who yet Fall short of Heaven and therefore Christ preaches upon him this General Doctrine How Hard is it for a Rich man to Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven In the Third place I might Name to you the men of Tradition the men of Superstition that look upon it as their Glory and Security for Heaven to add many things to the Commands of God and of Christ as if they either exceeded or made more perfect or more beautiful decent and honourable the Religion of Divine Institution by their own super-added observations but this needs not to be much insisted upon because Christ hath declared from the Word of God in the Old Testament by the Prophet Esay This People draw nigh to me with their Lips but their hearts are far from me But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandmens of men Matth. 15 c. But now these Virgins as they hold the Truth so the purity of the Worship of the Gospel and were also of an unblameable outward Conversation as was before opened concerning the Virgin State From all this we may plainly perceive it is a very nice Case to distinguish either in Doctrine or in Practice between Virginity enlivened with Wisdom and Virginity that hath the dead Fly of Folly in it I come therefore to the Third Head of Discourse to give you the Reasons of this even Tremendous Dispensation of God That there should be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins For to speak the very bottom and foundation of the matter This Resemblance of our Lords of the Case of Souls or Spirits not accepted by Christ compared with the Apostles Expression of presenting them as chast Virgins to Christ and yet that some Virgins presented to him he charges according to those expressions in Job with folly It seems to carry an Allusion in a spiritual sence to that Case Deut. 24. 1 c. Those that are espoused as Virgins to Christ and yet they are not clean in his sight they are for ever eternally separated from him even divorced from him He sends them a Renunciation a Bill of Divorcement from himself This is dreadfully stupendious These Two Accounts I would give hereof according to Scripture why there is such a severity of the Gospel towards those who are Virgins and are found foolish Virgins 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ would hereby Remonstrate to us the great Corruption and Depravation of Human Nature we do not enough apprehend what a Nature and what Hearts thereupon we carry about us Hearts deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know them It is strange so excellent so pure a thing as a Virgin State should be defiled and made wholly unacceptable to Christ by Folly our Lord therefore hereby calls upon us to be aware what Natures and Hearts we bear about with us since that very time that God made Man Vpright in Knowledge Wisdom Righteousness and true Holiness and he defiled his Nature with the folly of many inventions The Nature of Man Taints and defiles every thing even Virginity it self though not by a false Religion a false Worship or grosly polluted Conversation yet by the folly of insincerity and want of the Treasure of Grace standing in Union to Christ This should carry us to fear our own Hearts Blessed is the Man that feareth always but he that trusteth in his own heart is a Fool he deceiveth himself as the Apostle James saith Many ways seem right enough in our own Eyes but the issue and end thereof is death Let us therefore as the Apostle Peter warns Pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and as the Apostle Paul saith be jealous over our selves least while we think we present our selves as chast Virgins to Christ that we are Espoused to him there should be any corruption from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus Christ is one most single simple Jesus without Multiplicity as in Doctrine and Worship so in our Union to him whoever misses him in that uncompounded Faith and undivided Affection defiles the Virgin-State and looses the Glory and Purity of it You may be Virgins as to the Chastity of Profession and outward Conversation and yet you may loose the Wisdom of Virginity if there be not a singleness of Eye and Heart to Christ which cannot be but in Union to himself from thence arises the simplicity that is in Christ and our conformity to it A Second Reason why so severe and dreadful a Dispensation is offered to you in this Parable that I shall now give you is That we might learn Three great Lessons from it it is not to discourage or beat you off from your Profession but that you may bow down your Ears and Hearts to these three things 1. That you may depend upon the Free Grace of Electing Love every one ought to humble himself ond to lie in the Dust before God in the sence of this It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy And who art thou Oh Man that repliest against God All this speaks the necessity of lying low before God in the sence of this supream Grace And what can tend more thus to humble us that to consider Virgins may be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins This should make us look to a Love and Grace above and beyond any thing in our selves or that is wrought in our selves we should keep our Eye on this The Apostle after the Description of the Antichristian Apostacy retires to Election God hath chosen us to Salvation This is not to draw off our minds from any of those Graces that are the fruits of Election but to carry up our Minds above them to the Fountain of them And there is no greater assurance of the Truth
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