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
to be no better than dross and dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ You know the World how Ambitious it is of the Riches of Pearl how desirous of the Glory of the Lustre and Splendour that it gives to them that wear it Now when a Man counts Christ a Pearl beyond all value beyond all Esteem This is the Kingdom of Heaven saith Christ within a Man It is not in Word as the Apostle speaks but in Power It is the Kingdom of God in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit viz. The Righteousness of Christ and that Joy and Peace of Conscience that arises from it by the Spirit of God applying it to our Hearts Now therefore All the Time that we live here in the World we should be gathering our selves into this Kingdom of Heaven and to have the Kingdom of Heaven within us That is indeed the Oil in our Vessels when we have the very Spirit and the very State of the Kingdom of Heaven within us I know that we are now in a State of Imperfection and cannot rise up to the Glory of these Things but yet in the Truth and Reality of it every one that is fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven he hath this value of Christ within him this inward sincere Love of Him and Resignation of his Heart to Him though it be not come into the Glory Though this Mustard-seed hath not yet sprung up into all its Amplitudes and into all its Greatness This therefore apprehend within your selves The Kingdom of Heaven as Christ speaks it does not come with observation that Men should say Lo here or lo there but saith he The Kingdom of God is within you Luke 17. 21. He was demanded When the Kingdom of God should come ver 20. And he answered and said The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you So I say we should look for Heaven within us We can never go to Heaven for that is but an Expression in Comparison except Heaven come down now into our Hearts and except we carry Heaven into Heaven within our selves within our Spirits This as I say is that Oil within our Vessels that will keep up the State of Heaven in us and to us not by any vertue of its own but as it is a Grace given and a Light given from that Supream Light from that Light as the Apostle John saith that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Let us not therefore say Here or there is that Kingdom but let us look what we have of it in our selves That is the Lamp of Profession only when we speak of a Kingdom without us That is the Vessel fill'd with Oil within when we have this Kingdom within us The Kingdom of Heaven as it is a meer Profession it is Separable from us we may be parted from It and It from us It shall be taken from you as Christ saith and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof So all the Kingdom of Heaven in the profession of it will be taken from them that have it as the Talent was taken from the unprofitable Servant That which we have as Christ speaks is taken from us And therefore if any of us say O how ezcellent is it to hear or to speak of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ or of the Kingdom of Heaven It is our Great Delight Then look to this that you have it within you For that Outward Kingdom though you delight in it never so much it shall be taken from you As the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Loâ—d are these And yet that Temple was taken from them So it may be said the Kingdom of Heaven Are These But we must so hear and so speak and so converse as having it within us Else remember the Kingdom will be taken from you separated from you for ever and you cast into that Kingdom of Darkness and Misery to all Eternity 3. The Third Expression with which I will shut up this Discourse concerning the Kingdom of Heaven You must not think that the Kingdom of Heaven lasts onely while you are in the present State But the Kingdom of Heaven will be even throughout that Glory of its Appearance And it is not seen nor known like it self till it be known in that Glory and in the Separation which shall be between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins and between those that have had onely a Profession and those who have had the Power For the Kingdom of Heaven hath its greatest Work Its greatest Effect to shew yet upon every one of us It never ceases to be a Kingdom no not when it hath made this Separation between the one and the other For then it takes into it those that are its own and will throw out of it self those that tho they seem to be of it for a Time yea when all things come into enquiry into that Great Re-search It shall be made known at that Day that they did not indeed pertain to the Kingdom who had it not within Observe Mat. 8. 12. The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter Darkness That is they that have had this Kingdom in Perfection but not the Power of it within them So that I say the great Manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven is when it comes to sepparate between the one and the other and to have its own for ever within it self Observe therefore Matth. 13. Our Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven to such kind of things that still it may be known that it is not a Kingdom in its Glory till it comes to this Separation of things We find ver 24. saith our Lord The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a Man that sowed Seed into his Field But while Men slept the Enemy came and Sowed Tares among the Wheat and went away But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then the tares appeared also So the servant of the house-holder came and said unto him Sir didst not thou sow good Seed in thy field From whence then hath it tares And he said An enemy hath done this The servant said unto him wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said nay let both grow together till the time of harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the Reapers gather you together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn So you see here that there is that great difference between the Kingdom of Heaven now and the Kingdom of Heaven as it shall manifest it self It takes in Tares now as well as Wheat And so in the same manner it is compared unto a Net that drew in both good and bad into it self But then it came to that that the good are separated from the bad and the
THE Parable of the Ten Virgins In its Peculiar Relation to the Coming and Glorious KINGDOM OF OUR Lord Iesus Christ OPENED According to the Analogy of the whole Parable and of Scripture in General and Practically Applied for Exercising all the Churches to Holy Watchfulness Mark iv 13. WITH AN APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing within this Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold byWill Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. A TABLE of the Principal Doctrines of each SERMON The Sermons are Divided into Five and Six Each Part viz. The first Five begin with Page 1. and so go on And the Six Last also with Page 1. and so go on The Doctrine of the First Sermon Page 1. THE Kingdom of Christ is in every Thing and throughout The Kingdom of Heaven SERMON II. Page 21. There is a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and every Particular Believing Soul SERMON III. Page 39. The Preparation for the Glorious Marriage-Solemnity is Now and All Christianity looks to that Solemnity SERMON IV. Page 59. All those that are Christs are to hold the great Feast of the Supper of the Lamb to Jehovah SERMON V. Page 74. That the Coming of Jesus Christ hath not yet been since He was here on Earth neither yet is it immediately to be The Bridegroom Tarried The Second Part. SERMON VI. Page 1. While the Bridegroom tarried All these Virgins both the Wise and the Vnwise Slumber and Sleep SERMON VII Page 18. In the very same Circumstances wherein any of us lye down in the Grave in the very same we must be awaken'd and Rise up again SERMON VIII Page 38. It is a Point of great Consideration What the difference is between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins SERMON IX Page 58. It must be sadly Acknowledged and every one is to take it to himself That a Virgin if a Foolish Virgin shall not be admitted nor suffered to enter into the Glory of that Marriage-Feast the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. SERMON X. Page 24. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ is bound to Watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the Days of Christ and had known certainly that his Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since SERMON XI Page 87. The Whole is drawn up into Practical Application and Inference A Catalogue of Mr. Beverley's Books Sold at the Bible in Newgate-Street and at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1. THE Catechism of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Thousand Years Shewing by Scripture 2. That the great Articles of Redemption 2. The Resurrection 3. The Mystery of the Saints not Dying but Changed 4. The Judgment 5. The Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All cannot be Explained at full Dimensions without it The Second Edit with Adis Price 6 d. 2. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ entring its Succession this 1697. According to a Calendar of Time Price 1 s. 3. The Scripture Line of Time from the first Sabbath to the great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ with the Vision of the Wheels explain'd c. Price 6 d. 4. A fresh Memorial of the Kingdom of Christ demonstrated Price 6 d. 5. 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Where you may be likewise Supplied with Mr. Rich's Testament and Psalms in Short Hand bound THE Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied SERMON I. On Matth. 25. from Ver. 1 to 13. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be
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