Manner of Speaking that Christ uses Matt. 7. in that Great Sermon of Christ upon the Mount beginning at the 21st Verse Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name And in thy Name have cast out Devils And in thy Name done many Wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye that work Iniquity Here 's the Language Christ uses You pretend saith he to know me to be of my Acquaintance to have a Familiarity with me and to have many Pledges of my Presence with you and of being known to you But I know you not I never knew you It is a very Dreadful and Severe Expression to those that would claim upon Christ by former Acquaintance All of you know it is the Manner among Men when any one that we would have nothing to do with And as we speak in our Ordinary Language that we would shake off when they would desire to lay a fair Challenge or a Claim to our Acquaintance or Friendship We tell them We don't know them A Person comes and would fain Interest himself in us You know it is an ordinary thing to say I don't know you or I have had very little knowledge of you So to those that say Lord Wilt thou Deny us Have we not Hear'd Have we not Preached Have we not Eat and Drunk in thy Presence Have we not Cast out Devils in thy Name What! Wilt thou shake us off Wilt thou deny that ever thou knew'st us Here 's the force of the Expression So Luke 13. 25. When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the Door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the Door saying Lord Lord open to us And he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence you are What! Would you that are Strangers and that I never had any particular Intimacy with would you have the Door opened for you Then shall ye begin to say Ver. 26. We have Eaten and Drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our Streets But he shall say I tell you I know you not whence you are Depart from me all ye Workers of Iniquity There shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your Selves thrust out So you see it is the Language of Scripture the very Language of Scripture I know you not That we may therefore understand the Sense and the Meaning of it I shall open it in Three Particulars very briefly The First is this There is a Knowledge of God from Eternity A Knowledge of Eternal Grace of Eternal Love A Fore-Knowledge as the Scripture speaks whom God hath foreknown Rom. 8. A full and an Excellent Place to this very Purpose Whom he did foreknow ver 29. he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son c. So there is a Knowledge of God from Eternity of every Person I know this is a very hard thing to Flesh and Blood to believe That God should Fore-know some and not Fore-know others And especially except they can hang it upon the Condition That God should foresee who should Believe and who should Repent But as I have formerly endeavoured to clear to you That there is nothing hard when it comes to be considered And that there are more Saints upon the Account of this Fore-knowledge of God than if he had never Fore-known at all For there might not have been one Saint according to Adam's Behaviour in Paradice who had far greater Advantages and yet you know he was lost himself and all his Posterity in him if a Mediator had not come and interposed Let a Man therefore be set in the best or worst circumstances you can suppose And I am sure there 's more particular Hopes from God's Fore-knowledge and Purpose than if there had been no Purpose or no Fore-knowledge of God 2 Tim. 1. 9. So Chap. 2 19. The Foundation of God stands sure Why does it stand sure Because saith he it hath this very Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his So saith Christ I know my Sheep And if we should say Ay he knew them because they were already come into him Saith he I have other Sheep that I have not yet brought in and that I must bring in and them I know too So that there is a Knowledge before the Foundation of the World or coming in And undoubtedly though as you shall see I shall endeavour to make the Thing as plain and as free to your Thoughts as I can in the Progress of this Discourse Yet I desire to give Glory to the Fore-knowledge of God and tell you That it is not your Disadvantage but it s your great Advantage I durst boldly take any Person in this Assembly at this Time and say to him That there 's a great deal more Hopes that God hath foreknown you than that by your own Strength you should prevail for your own Eternal Happiness There 's a Notable Expression in 1 Cor. 8. The Apostle begins thus Saith he We all have Knowledge Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth And if any Man think saith he that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know But if any Man love God the same is known of him If any Man comes truly to understand God then he is known of God first and if any Man Love God the same is known and Loved of him first I do not deny but these Expressions may be taken in the Second and Practical Sense I shall next give you But I look upon it That the Apostle first goes up to the Fountain of Knowledge to that Spring of All-saving Knowledge God's Knowing Men in his Eternal Love in and through Jesus Christ The Second Knowing of Men therefore is that which Men will more easily assent to and take down And that is When we are in the Ways of Love and Service and Obedience to God then he knows with Approbation he knows with Delight God knows every one of us now we are all well known to him and all our Ways and our Thoughts and Actions are all known to him He knows us a great deal better than we know our selves As he speaks Amos 4. last He declareth unto Man what is his Thought As if he should say Would you have me Ignorant of your Thoughts and that you must tell them me or else I cannot know them No He declareth unto Man what is his Thought He unriddles all our Thoughts and Purposes and Intentions in us And so he knows us every one very well As it is said John 2. 25. He needed not that any should testifie of Man For he knew what
that comes by Chance or it is a Natural Cause that the World continues Now let it be granted That it is only a Natural Cause Who is the Great Ruler and Conducter of Natural Causes but God And who hath suited Natural Causes to Times and Seasons but God Let the greatest Atheist find out as Good Natural Causes as he can As for Example the Causes of the Great Earthquake at Jamaica There is nothing not the least Thing that comes to pass but by His Wisdom and by his Power And that it goes so far and no farther It is fully attributed to be to himself and to no other And therefore I beseech you keep as an Antidote against all the Atheistical Talk that you meet with in the World concerning these Things keep continually in your Mind what we read of in the Book of Daniel Several times indeed we read of Great Things spoken of God Dan. 3. Nebuchadnezzar made This Acknowledgment to God Whoever saith he shall speak a word against the God of Shaderach Mesech and Abednego shall be cut in peices He owned and was convinced of such a Mighty Power of God that he would not endure there should be a Mouth opened against him Indeed It were very well if Christian Nations would learn by the Example of an Heathen Prince That they would not suffer the Tongue of Atheists to walk about so brikly as it does in the World They set their Mouths against the Heavens and their Tongue rangeth through the whole Earth as the Expression is in the Psalms I say 'T were well that the Mouths of Atheists were stopt and that they had such notice from the Supreme Powers that they might be Daunted and afraid to Dishonour the Great God of Heaven and Earth and to make nothing of his Name and the Works he doth in the World So in the 34th Verse of the 4th of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar This Heathen Prince says I Nebuchadnezzar lift up mine Eyes unto Heaven and mine Vnderstanding returned unto me And I blessed the most High and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever whose Dominion is an Everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom is from Generation to Generation And all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his Will in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his Hand That 's a great Expression that I desire you to keep in your Minds None can stay his Hand He can stay it Himself but no other can stay it I would desire you but to consider in regard of the late Remarkable Providence toward This City Of which most People I perceive were Sensible some in Greater and some in Lesser Degree This Place of Scripture does very much affect my Thoughts concerning it Who can stay God's Hand If He had said Let it tear up the Foundations of this City and the Houses in it who could have stay'd his Hand I beseech you consider Why might it not have been so much more as well as so much or so little And yet Men are ready to say Because God did no more he could do no more except Natural Causes had been prepared to go on and to go further And because the Earth Did give a kind of a Little Nodd and no more We are not sensible of the Great Hand of God and who it was that was pleased to stay his Hand It was His Own Grace and His own Mercy to stay his Hand As if he should say I 'll let you see the Danger and no more than Just let you see it And therefore O that Men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his Wonderful Works to the Children of Men And that they would stand in Awe of Him and consider his Doings For God forbears you see with an Infinite Patience and Long-Suffering He lets Men Open their Mouths against Himself and does not cut them off in the very moment through his Mercies But if you say Will God always put up these Wrongs and Reproaches Shall Right to this Great Name of God never be done Yes He will make the World sensible of Him by Repentance Or else there 's a Day of Dreadful Recompence As if God should say I have Time enough I have an Eternity to shew my Displeasure upon Them in I have it Seal'd in my Treasures Their Foot shall slide in Due Time And therefore I 'll bear with them a little Time Because There 's a Day of Perdition of Vngodly Men As the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Peter 3. The Day of the Lord will come Men say Where is it Saith the Apostle Verse 10. The Day of the Lord will come And there is a Reserving of Heaven and Earth unto Fire against that Day and the Perdition of ungodly men And then There is a Gracious Purpose of God I desire that you would take notice of that Place Which ought indeed to be very much upon our Thoughts in this very regard That it is Prophesied and foretold That they shall come from the Ends of the Earth Jer. 16. 20. Saying shall a Man make Gods unto himself and they are no Gods Therefore behold I will this once It is a very notable Expression Like that of shaking Heaven and Earth yet once more saith the Apostle I shake not the Earth onely but also Heaven That those things which cannot be shaken may remain And that the things which can be shaken may be taken away at once Therefore behold I will this once cause them to know I will cause them to know mine hand and my might and they shall know that my Name is the Lord. And this seems to be a Gracious and a Merciful Intention For in Verse 19. O Lord my Strength and my Fortress and my Refuge in the Day of Affliction the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the Ends of the Earth and shall say surely our Fathers have Inherited Lies Vanity and things wherein there is no profit Jeremy apprehends great Grace in God upon this Prospect and so applies to Him in his own Case O Lord my Strength c. So you may see why God bears the Reproaches of them that contemn him Wherefore do the Wicked contemn God Saith God I 'll have a Day of Perdition for Ungodly Men And I 'll have a Day when the Gentiles shall come from the Ends of the Earth And for once they shall know my Might and my Power And that my Name is Jehovah I 'll bring all mine Home my Patience is for them that they might not Perish but come to Repentance c. A Fourth thing that makes it very strange that God continues the World so long is Because there are so many Prayers of his Saints for the Kingdom of Christ to come And that the Wickedness of the Wicked may be brought to an End And that the Oppression and Persecution of his Church may be at an End It is a wonder therefore that God should not
the Nature of the Type and to fill up all the Parts of it and all the Colours of the Picture For the meaning is no more than this Look well to this That you have a Provision a Treasure of Grace that will last out the whole Time of the Wedding-Solemnity For if you have not you will not be able to make a Provision then you will be as those that are unready Now that this is the meaning of Watching is very plain from hence because the Virgins that had Oil in their Lamps and in their Vessels too they Slumbred and Slept yet they went immediately into the Wedding But all those that had only Oil in their Lamps and not in their vessels they were shut out there was no possibility of making Provision for themselves at that time From all which particulars then that I have given you at this Time but the Generals of I collect Let it be our care let us seriously look to it that we make such a provision now that may last out that whole State that is That we have such Grace as will bear out the Tryal of that Day and that Time That 's the main Importance of this so great Parable so excellent Parable that every one of us should look to it That we have such Treasure such real Riches of Grace in the Blood of Jesus and in the power of his Death and Resurrection upon us that will comport with that great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And let us not say among all the Professions and Ways that there are in the VVorld we have chosen out what we think the best and the purest It is not enough that we are Virgins in our Profession but we must have this rich Treasure this real Treasure of Grace in our Hearts This I say is the main Importance of this great Parable and it Issues into this That we should take heed of pleasing our selves in a Profession and that we should be under the power of this Apprehension That the most excellent Profession that there is in the World in the whole Christian Name whatever it is that shall have the Precedency above any other yet if our Hearts are not Enriched with the true Grace of God and of Jesus Christ we do not know the Truth as it is in Christ effectually And therefore indeed there is not any place of Scripture that Imports a greater Severity or makes more necessary tryal and search into our State and Condition than this very Parable does For when it gives a Representation of the purest State that can be given that is to call all Virgins and yet that some of these are shut out for ever from the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ How should it as our Saviour speaks in a like Parable engage us to strive to enter in at the strait Gate For many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Many of the Children of the Kingdom shall be thrust out as Christ speaks in another place This is the great care therefore that should lie upon us to secure the inward part the vital part the true Power the true Light of Christianity that shall never be as a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness If you look upon the 14 Revel you may see what a high Importance this very Word or Representation of Virgins hath saith the Spirit of God there concerning those that were in the purity of Christian Religion These saith he are VIRGINS and have not defiled themselves with Women as other Professors of the Name of Christ had with the Impurity that others were defiled with For they are Virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth So that though this be so great a Representation of the purity of Christian Religion yet you see here in this Parable our Saviour hath taken this very Representation to set forth the State that yet shall miscarry in the End to Eternity And so the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am Jealous over you with a godly Jealousie for I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ You see sometimes this Representation Metaphor or Emblem of a Virgin is made use of to speak the highest and truest Purity And yet our Lord doth as it were abase and humble it here in speaking of the Foolish Virgins that he might gain his main point and end That is to tell us The most excellent Profession let it be what it will it will not avail us if there be not the truth and power of Christianity in it I shall therefore according to the particulars I have laid down to you endeavour to open this great Point all along by those lively Resemblances that our Lord hath given us in this Parable In the first place I shall consider the State of the Gospel as it is here called the Kingdom in its setting out from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 'till it attains that great Point of Glory its manifestation in the visible Appearance of our Lord Jesus It is all the while the Kingdom of Heaven Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened So as I have Represented to you from Gal. 4. and Ephes 1. Here 's the whole State or Time of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of all the course and motion it runs It begins in the preaching of the Gospel and it ends in the Glory of it Gal. 4. 4. I look upon it to be a great Foundation of all that Discourse that I have endeavoured to Instruct you by concerning the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law The first Appearance of Christ it is called the Fulness of Time that 's the beginning point of it And then there 's the Recapitulation the gathering of all things again into Christ and that is as the Apostle tells us Eph. 1. 10. In the dispensation of the fulness of Times he will gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him In the Fulness of Time Christ came to bear the sins of many In the fulness of Times he gathers all into himself So that the Kingdom of Heaven it hath its beginning in the first Appearance of Christ and it hath its uttermost Glory in the gathering together in one all things into Christ And then it is delivered up into the Kingdom of Eternity We should therefore apprehend our selves even now under the preaching of the Gospel that we are under the motion of the Kingdom of Heaven here 's the beginning of it And then we should look to our selves and draw All to the Issue and last Result For the Kingdom of Heaven lasts till that great Solemnity of the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb it lasts to that very time and so it continues till the Kingdom is delivered up to God all in all You
shall find as soon as ever Christ came to be Preached and to be declared immediately there is the use of this very Phrase The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3 2. John the Baptist went out and said Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And so it is said of Christ that He also went forth to Preach in the very same manner Repent saith he for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4. 17. So that here is the whole State of the Kingdom of Heaven it begins at the Preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and it goes on to the Perfection and to the Glory of the Kingdom Let us therefore observe what is the motion of the Gospel upon our Hearts because it is the Kingdom of Heaven And we should look to the Power and to the mighty Influences that it hath upon our Souls in that very regard because that it is the Kingdom of Heaven in its first beginnings and in its first Preparations till it comes into the Glory of it self I shall therefore Endeavour at this time to Discourse this Point to you concerning this Power of the Gospel as it is the Kingdom and Apply it by way of strong Reflection upon our own Hearts And that we may consider what our own State and Condition is in relation to it First therefore The Kingdom of Heaven is the offer of the Great Salvation of Jesus Christ unto Souls It is the Offer of that great State that shall be hereafter There is a present Offer of it to us now The Gospel comes to this very purpose to invite us by the present Preaching and by the outward Publication and Administration of it It comes to Invite us to that great Kingdom that is called The Kingdom of Heaven The Gospel represents it self now to us with all the earnestness and Wooing-Language that we may be drawn in unto Jesus Christ This is the first thing wherein it is called and worthy to be called The Kingdom of Heaven because it comes with the offer of Heaven and with the offer of Life and Grace unto every Soul Heaven is bowed down God rends the Heavens and comes down to us in the preaching of the Gospel It is called therefore the Kingdom of Heaven taken from one and given to another The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits of it Mat. 2. 43. Because this Kingdom makes an offer of Life and an offer of Grace to every Soul It is that very thing that the Apostle speaks of in 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself and not imputing to them their Trespasses Wherefore saith he we are Ambassadors for Christ ver 20. as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God God is pleased to make an offer to every one that hears of the Kingdom of Heaven He bows the Heaven as I said down to you and to you and to every one of us that are under the preaching of his Gospel The Kingdom of Heaven stoops down it condescends it self to make a gracious Offer to every one that hears it this Day If any one will let him come and take the water of life freely As it is said Rev. 22. 17. If any one hath a Mind and a Desire to the Kingdom of Heaven when it is thus offered Christ therefore laid the Foundation of it in his own Coming He begins it by John the Baptist that was to prepare his way and he carried it on by himself And still by one Series and Course of his Servants after another he hath taken care that in one part of the World or other ever since the Resurrection of Christ there hath been an offer of this Kingdom of Heaven all along to the Sons of Men in the publick Preaching of the Gospel Indeed I know the Wisdom and Glory and Soveraignty of God hath greatly manifested it self in that there are many Nations at this very Day that have not the Kingdom of Heaven Preached to them And even amongst our selves what variety there is in the Dispensation of this Word of the Kingdom unto us As our Saviour calls it The Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13. 19. When any one heareth the Word of the Kingdom So that 's the first Notion that Scripture gives us of the Kingdom of Heaven it is in the offer of Life and Grace and Salvation by Jesus Christ in the publick Preaching of the Gospel Now thus indeed Men may seem as it were at their choice and at their Election whether they will accept the Kingdom of Heaven or not whether any one will open their Ears and hear How many say If this be the Kingdom of Heaven we do not at all desire it They turn their Backs upon it and refuse slight and contemn it because it is not with Majesty enough as they think and it does not bring present Glory and Advantage enough It therefore tells us It is not the present State it is not the present Condition We are ready to say What does it bring us And where is the Power and Glory it brings along with it now This therefore now we are Taught That the Kingdom of Heaven is only now by way of Doctrine by way of Offer by way of gracious Proposal to the Souls of Men it does not yet come in its Majesty Glory and in its Power But as I shall shew you in the third Particular The Kingdom of Heaven never rests till it comes in its Glory and in its Majesty This therefore is the first Expression of it the preaching of the Gospel is the Kingdom of Heaven the Sounding of Christ and Salvation in your Ears telling you of an Everlasting State and Condition of Happiness or Misery if you refuse This is the lifting up of many as our Saviour speaks which is a very lively Consideration upon the Point that I am now upon Mat. 11. 20. He began to upbraid the Cities wherein his mighty Works had been done because they repented not Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto Heaven shalt be brought down to Hell for if the mighty Works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for thee Here you see we have the preaching of the Gospel and the offer of Christ this is the Kingdom of Heaven bowing and stooping to you making an offer of it self freely to you and as we say courting the Acceptance of Souls We should look upon it as so not for the
worthiness of those that Speak or for the Ability with which they speak but the Source of all is this excellent Doctrine of the Gospel that we have in the Word of God And indeed If we had not a Tongue to speak it or Ears to hear it yet to behold the mighty Government of God and Christ the evil of Sin and the excellency of Grace and of the Spirit of God and of the Salvation of Christ throughout it is to put you into Heaven to introduce you into Heaven even while you are here upon Earth Do not think that it is a small thing that these excellent Promises these excellent Doctrines these excellent Exhortations and Counsels are Administred unto you For it is even Heaven upon Earth this very Word of God and for the preaching of it that is only a further Ordination of God that every one may have it spoken unto them and be persuaded In season and out of season and that there might be a more forcible Application upon the Souls of Men. But if we have but the Word of God this Scripture lying in our Houses we have the Kingdom of Heaven I may say lying in our Houses in this Sense I am now speakjng of it to you You have it because you have this excellent Doctrine of Christ And there are Scriptures there are many Scriptures that are so exceeding clear and plain that he may run that reads No one that hath but this Book of God either that he Reads or that is ordinarily read to him but he may say I am exalted herein to Heaven because I have such an excellent Scripture such an excellent Gospel continually before me So the very Sound of it the very Motion of it in the World it is the great Happiness of those parts of the World that have it And we have great Reason to say in this place in this City in this Nation and especially wherever God lights up a clearer Taper and Torch of his Gospel we have Reason to say That Heaven is come down to us and that we can go when we please and Read one of the excellent Sermous and Discourses of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel That we can go to the Epistles and read those admirable Things that the Spirit of God hath given out by the Apostle Paul James and John These things you do not Apprehend the great Advantage of them We talk of Heaven and we would be glad to go to Heaven and Heaven is the great Burden of all our wishes and all our hopes Behold saith Christ the Kingdom of Heaven is here among us the Truth of his Word lying open to us How dreadful therefore will even that Dust that gathers upon our Bibles from day to day be I say what a Testimony will it be And as our Saviour saith to those that he sent out to Preach his Gospel It shall be more tolerable saith he for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those that refuse it And the very dust of your feet saith he when you depart out of that City shake off as a witness against them Mat. 10. 14. So the very dust of our Bibles will rise up in Judgment against us because when God hath opened the Windows of Heaven to us in it we have refused and scorned and despised and to Speak in our ordinary Language counted it as a Book out of date because we have had it so long O! If you did but know what a value the Martyrs in the Days of Queen Mary set upon it when the Light was but just sprung out what a value did they put upon the Scriptures And indeed if God were cutting us short and a Famine of his Word coming upon us we should then say what a great Treasure is God taking from us And yet how many Hours do we pass in the Day and not read of Christ and of the Kingdom of Heaven that is so pourtrayed and explained in the Gospel to us There is a Time that is set out to us by Prophecy and there 's great Reason to hope that it is very near when this Kingdom of Heaven in the Everlasting Gospel shall Ride as it were Circuit or rather at one time be heard from the midst of Heaven throughout the whole Earth Rev. 14. 6. I saw an Angel fly through the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to Preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Kindred and Tongue and People This Everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven It shall be preached to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People Whereas now in many parts of America and whereas now in the whole Plat of the Regions where the Mahometan Power is and where Antichrist is There is a concealment of this Gospel a denial a shutting of it up from the Acquaintance and Knowledge and Reading and Hearing of the generality of the People it is here Preached in such a way as to make known the great Counsels and Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to Men. But In the Second Place The Kingdom of Heaven is in the mighty work and operation of the Gospel of Christ upon our Hearts Then when we find Christ to be the Pearl of great Price and sell all to buy him when we look upon him as the onely Treasure and the onely Riches when our Hearts are under the beginnings of Grace and the powerful Operations of it then is the Kingdom of Heaven come to be within us Matth. 13. 31. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a Man took and sowed in his Field which indeed is the least of Seeds but when it is grown is the greatest among Herbs and becometh a Tree so that the Fowls of Heaven lodge in the Branches of it This is an Expression of the Preaching of the Gospel which if it be received and taken in in the power of the Gospel upon the Heart It is indeed a little thing in the beginning but it spreads more and more upon the Heart and Life And the Kingdom of Heaven ver 33. is like unto Leaven which a Woman took and hid in three measures of Meal till the whole was leavened This is the Preaching of the Gospel and also the power of it upon the Hearts of Men. And when it is a Seed that takes upon hearts and brings forth abundantly Fruit to Eternal Life that also is the Kingdom of Heaven And ver 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hid in a field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant Man seeking goodly Pearls who when he had found one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it This is the Kingdom of Heaven coming within a Man giving him such a value of Jesus Christ that he looks upon all things else as the Apostle saith
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
bad are cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and wailing And now I may say to you in some humble measure as Christ said to his Hearers Have ye understood all these things They say unto him yea Lord. So I say to you Have you considered and received and in good measure understood what I have been now speaking to you That the Kingdom of Heaven sets out in the Preaching of it But where it is not the Kingdom of Heaven within us we have only a Lamp of Profession And therefore it will certainly come to that That before the Kingdom of Heaven hath done it will separate between one sort of Men and the other The Tares shall be gathered into bundles to be burnt and the bad Fish though they have come to the Net and come within the Net yet they shall be separated and cast into the furnace of fire This is the Kingdom of Heaven and this is the same thing which our Saviour intends in this very Parable I have Explained to you The Kingdom of Heaven never ceases till it hath separated foolish and wise Virgins And therefore it is said Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven Which is a great Key to this Parable in this 25th of Matthew Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven When do you think our Lord meant He meant at that very Time that was spoâ—en of before in the fore-going Chapter and on this occasion I would give you this Note in reading Scripture that you may understand it Observe though we divide Chapters one from another yet many times the Discourse of Christ goes on it is the very same Sermon though in distinct Chapters Now you shall find in the 46 verse it is written Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when be cometh shal find so doing Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his Portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And then at that very time shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins who have indeed their time all along in the several Generations of Men since the Resurrection of Christ the Kingdom of Heaven hath been and shall be in Motion as I tell you from the fulness of Time till the fulness of all Times And then at the fulness of Times it shall be likened unto Ten Virgins Five Wise and Five Foolish Five taken into the Kingdom of Heaven for ever and Five that are thrust out That is whoever they are that are found Foolish Virgins For certainly to make the Parable more capacious and to spread it the wider for the observation and consideration of all the Number is made equal not that they are so in themselves there are not equal Wise and equal Foolish For alas the inequality is very great in comparison the Foolish mightily exceed the Wise in the present State of things Though I make no doubt there will be a different State when the Kingdom of Christ opens it self there will be many and many brought to Christ So that I make doubt whether the number of those that shall be then brought into Christ will not raise the number of the Saved so as to exceed the other but I will let that alone But what I now tell you is That the Kingdom of Heaven will not cease till it hath made a Separation between one and the other and so shine out in the midst of them that are taken into it And I might give you many great Expressions to this purpose but the Parables in Matth. 13. are abundantly sufficient to shew you That till the Lord of the great Harvest comes The Kingdom of Heaven will not cease and then there will be a Separation made of the one from the other I shall now shut up this great Doctrine with Two close Applications 1. That we would First receive this great Doctrine this Thunder and Lightning into out Consciences and Affections What! hath our Lord said That even those that are Virgins may be counted Foolish even those that may be counted of the highest and purest Churches may be Foolish Virgins The Door may be shut upon them They may have Oil in their Lamps only in this World but not able to bear up in this Marriage Supper of the Lamb wherein every one is to have his peculiar Lamp and Oil to feed and nourish an exceeding Light and Flame of Purity of Holiness May Virgins have no Oil to supply at that time Oh then with what serious Caution Fear and Trembling should I look back upon my self and observe whether my Profession hath the inward Riches the intrinsick Value and Worth in it or not Whether there be Oil in my Vessel as well as in my Lamp Whether I have such a Holiness as will bear out in that Glorious Appearance of Christ and of his Angels and of all his Saints with Him Shall I not be put upon it in that Day to run a begging as it were for the Oil in my vessel Have we not Eaten and Drank may we say together at the Table of Christ Have we not made Profession of Christ and the Gospel Must we now be Separated from the real Saints and Servants of God Have I only had that which would serve me to hear and pray with in publick and to receive the Lord's Supper Have I only had that which is the Profession of the Reformed and Protestant Religion and not the Power And must I now be turned out from it and take my Habitation amongst the foulest Antichristian Idolaters and the worst of those Superstitionists Nay must I be turned out among the Heathen among those that have been the profest Enemies of God and Jesus Christ and in a worse case than they These things it is our Faithfulness and love to our selves and to our own Souls to declare them to our selves and to meditate upon them and to search with great consideration into our selves to know whether Christ be in us of a Truth or whether we have the Kingdom of Heaven indeed within us whether we are not running up and down with Observation as Christ said to say where is the Kingdom of Heaven Where is the true Light of the Gospel Where is the best Profession and the best Administration of Ordinances And in the mean time that I do not look for the Truth of Faith the Truth of Repentance the Spirituality of Knowledge the power of Holiness upon my own Heart and upon my own Life O that every one of us might make this use of it to turn that Light of Profession Inward to search our own
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
care so of Religion And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come upon that account And in another Evangelist They went to their Merchandise I have a Great Trade and I cannot carry on the present State if I mind so much the Kingdom of Christ And therefore I say The Purchasing and Husbandry and Merchandise and the Enjoyments of this World and Relations they are great Hinderances indeed to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But then The Second Thing I would say to you which may give you Great Satisfaction as to this If there were such a Spirit poured out from on high Don't think the World would be so Inconvenient by it It would be brought into a more High a Better and more Excellent State I am sure If the Spirit were so poured out upon the World That Men did not excuse themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven by their Trade Relations and Families And by their Interest in the present VVorld I am sure that the Trees of the Wood would yeild forth of themselves to us The Hills would flow down with Milk and the Mountains with Wine VVhenever God will bring the VVorld into a Religious State indeed Don't take care as if the State of the VVorld could not be upheld For it shall be upheld and be more Happy and Blessed than it is now Joel 3. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Mountains shall drop down New Wine and the Hills shall flow down with Milk and all the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters c. Every thing shall be Happy and Prosperous Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir Tree and instead of the Bryar shall come up the Mirtle Tree and it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Memorial When God comes to make the world truely Good to bring in a Profession of Christianity not in Word but in Power I say when that comes to pass there shall be such a strange plenty to the World such a strange Providence over the Creation All that which we take so much care about and with so much Sin and hatred and envy one at another It will come so freely there will be no need of disturbance of and distracting our selves or one another When we come in High sense to be the Servants of God and to be in such a State All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would come and lay down their Service at our Feet The Heavens would hear the Earth and the Earth would hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl And they would hear Jezreel Amos 9. 11. Behold the days come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treaders of Grapes him that soweth the Seed That is the Harvest shall be sooner than the very Plowing All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would offer themselves to us And all the Riches that we dive for now so deep into the Bowels of the Earth and into the bottom of the Sea they would come up and be at our hand in that Day when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall be thus Universally upon the World and when the Desire of Nations shall come I would shut up this in a very Brief Application to you Vse 1. In the First Place Let it move us seriously to fill up our Religion with this Character of it The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom There was the great mark in their Eye the great design in their Eye Now ask your selves I beseech you is your Religion in meeting the Bridegroom Is not your Praying Morning and Evening because it is good Family-Order It is a good thing for Reputation and Credit Is it not because you are afraid if you Rise up and Lie down without Prayer God won't Bless you that Day nor give you good rest that Night He won't succeed you in your Calling And in the Duties and Business of it Is it not because natural Conscience would cry out and say what Do you live like a Heathen yea a Brute and like a Beast I acknowledge these are valuable Reasons in their kind But sure there is a Higher a Greater Reason to go forth to meet the Bridegroom Because throughout all the Account that can be given why Men are Religious if this be not Principal if this be not the Supreme End that I would meet the Bridegroom It is not of the Excellent True Alloy Therefore Buoy up your Spirits raise them wind them up to this great height I 'll go forth to meet the Bridegroom I pray this Morning that I may meet with the Bridegroom I go to hear this day That I may meet with the Bridegroom I would not have these great things wound up onely within the Circle of this Life in this manner Here comes Business and here comes Prayer And so there 's Sleep and Eating and Drinking All comes in a Round and we would have this Round always observed And it calls to Publick Prayer and to other of those Duties Now if we turn about onely in this Circle we run on Endlessly about But our care must be higher Viz. To meet the Bridegroom Vse 2. In the Second Place I Beseech you consider whether your Religion be of this excellent kind that you would be willing to meet the Bridegroom Is it that which I believe in my Soul enlightned by the Spirit of God my Conscience bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost that it will please the Bridegroom Are my Thoughts Affections manner of Conversation such And what reason have we and do we Humble our selves before our Bridegroom when we consider this will not please when we consider this is not fine enough Ornamental enough to his Glory of value enough I would not meet him with Tinsel instead of Gold and real worth I would not meet him with false Diamonds instead of real ones So I would not meet him with Hypocritical formal Prayers without real Grace And then Vse 3. In the third Place I beseech you consider I don't expect there should be many Subscribing to that Account of Time that I have given out Tho it be upon great and strong Foundations in the Word of God Yet I challenge nothing from any but so far as they see in that Light But I would onely ask you this Question upon the occasion of it Suppose it a true and real Scripture Account that I have given out and that within so little a Time there shall be yet so great a change of the World And Men shall begin to unhinge from the Earth and Earthly Foundations Would you be glad of it Or have you not a secret Trouble and Enmity against it And that you would have the World still go on and Ages to run on so I say try your selves as to this I think it cannot be any Injury for any to propose this Seeing we should be continually upon our watch for this very thing when our Lord will come Vse
4. In the fourth Place I beseech you consider the great difference between the City of the Servants of Christ of those that are of the true Wise Virgins in Christianity And between the City of those that are not or are Foolish Virgins I would but very briefly represent that to you in Scripture-Expression and so I will conclude If you consider the City of the Servants of Jesus Christ consider it in that of the last Chapter of Ezekiel and the very last Verse the End of that Prophesie And the Name of the City in that day shall be The Lord is there There shall be the Bridegroom There shall be the Glory of the Prince himself That 's the City wherein Christ will entertain those that have the Bride-like Affection And Rev. 21. 2. I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven Prepared as a Bride adorned for her Bridegroom Here 's the City of those that are Virgins in Spirit to Christ in the sincere Love of him that shall be presented at that day as Chast Virgins to him But now consider on the other side You have the Name of another City And it is very admirable And I cannot but propose my Observation to you that God hath been pleased very lately to cause me to consider and to observe There is the Name of another City I say And it is the Name of the City of the Multitude Ezek. 39. 17. The Name of that City shall be Hamonah And they shall cleanse the Land The Name of that City shall be Hamonah Or The Multitude thereof Or its Multitude That is The Dead Those that are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth The Gog-Magog Tho they are Dead That is as to the sense of Glory and Life and Happiness and Peace and Enjoyment yet they are in Being for they have a City It were but in vain that meer Dead should have a City But those Dead that is they that are not Partakers of the first Resurrection Their City the Name of it is Hamonah the Multitude of the World are of that City and belong to that City and are taken at last into that City Multitudes Multitudes as it is said in Joel 3. Multitudes Multitudes in the Valley of Decision and the Valley of Excision They are not onely Judged but cut off They are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth As it is said Rev. 29. 5. They lived not again till the End of the Thousand Years That is they lay in Chains under the Footstool of Christ At the End of the Thousand Years God gave them leave to move a little and they make a New Attempt And then Fire comes down upon them and casts them into the Lake And if you think all this is too Metaphorical or too Nice and Curious and that you cannot understand so well I 'll conclude all with that of Matth. 7. 13. Where you shall find the very Hamonah in plain Doctrinal Practical Discourse it self Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction And many there be which go in thereat As the New Jerusalem hath its Gates and an Angel before it So the City here is the City of Destruction as it is called Isa 19. It hath its Gate But it is a Wide Gate It lets in every one that is not taken up into the New Jerusalem There be many There is a Hamonah there is a Multitude that go in thereat Therefore let us seriously take heed Look diligently to this lest any of us fail of the Grace of God of the true Bride-like affection by which we may enter with him with the Bridegroom into the Wedding when he comes c. SERMON IV. On Matth. XXV Ver. 1. and so on to Ver. 13. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom I Have you know made entrance into this Great Parable which I told you is in an admirable manner prepared and fitted to be a Representation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ as I have shew'd you First Even from the Begining to the Complement and Perfection of it It is the Kingdom of Heaven I have shewn you that the very meaning of all Christianity is a Going forth to meet the Bridegroom And therefore the present State is a State of Espousals a State wherein we are Contracted and Affianced unto the Great Bridegroom For that the Eye of every Christian the great Aim and Design of those that are Wise Virgins is that they may have a much higher Enjoyment of Christ than they have now And because the Religion that is for the present World and the present State will not serve the great Interest and great purpose of our Immortal beings I shall now proceed to a fourth Doctrine or Proposition from these words They went forth to meet the Bridegroom And they that were ready they went in with him to the Wedding So the Observation that I shall lay down to you is this That all those that are Christ's they are to hold according to the Scripture Expression they are to hold a Great Feast unto Jehovah The great Intention and meaning of the Gospel is to assure us that after the Time of Preparation and the Time of the Espousals there shall be a Glorious Festival A Glorious Feast The Marriage Supper of the Lamb As you know it is called And I shall endeavour to open this to you according to the Scripture-Light concerning it And then I shall compare it with all the Feasts that we read of in Scripture under the Law And so I shall come to make the Application of it to our own State and Condition First therefore to make it evident to you that this is a great Notion of Scripture That there is a Feast to be held a Feast of Joy and Rejoycing and of Happiness to be held to Jehovah And it is this very Marriage-Supper as you shall see of the Lamb. That the Scripture delights in this Representation is very evident by sundry Great Expressions of it Isaiah 25. 6 7 8. And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all People a Feast of Fat things a Feast of Wines on the lees of Fat things full of Marrow Of Wines on the lees well refined And he will destroy in this Mountain the Face of the covering cast over all People and the vail that is spread over all Nations He will swallow up Death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take away from off all the Earth For the Lord hath spoken it There is a great Feast that God will make to all People And it is set out by such Kind of Resemblances and Similitudes as express a Great and a Plentiful and a Rich and a most Delicious Entertainment among Men Fat things full
of Marrow And Wines on the Lees well refined And in this Mountain saith God I 'll destroy the Face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations When this Feast comes there shall be no Pagan Nation There shall be no Mahometan Nation There shall be no Popish Anti-Christian Nation There shall be no unbelieving Jews then in the World God will Draw off the Face of the covering cast over all People And every one shall see in the Clearness and in the Beauty and in the Glory and in the Majesty of the Truth of God and of the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ That the Religion of Christianity shall 〈◊〉 be upbraided with this Why are there so great Nations that are under the Prophet Mahomet as we are under Jesus Christ Are there not great Tracts of the World that are not known And do not the Jews that have the Doctrine of the Scriptures in the Old Testament Do they not deny Christ All these things that I may speak in a Familiar phrase Christianity is twitted with upbraided reproached with But in the day of that Feast All the Darkness of that State shall be drawn off In all our Feasts now there is necessary a sense of Death As I remember the great Prince Philip of Macedon when he had the most Sumptuous and Magnificent Entertainment He had first of all a Deaths Head served up in the Beginning of the Feast As if he should say tho I have entertained you now like a Prince and with all the Imaginable Royalty that you can expect Yet now after all this I and you must Dye So should we do in all our Eating and Drinking if we do but consider it we do but onely feed as we have a Phrase we do but onely feed Death We do but pamper Bodies to make a Feast for the Worms Now saith the Lord in this Feast I will take away all Tears and Shame and Reproach from all People utterly take it off O therefore VVho would not Aim and Design this to be at this great Feast that must be held to Jehovah And that he himself will hold for all his People as the great Prince and Master and Lord of it So you know there is nothing more ordinary in the Gospel than to compare the State of Things to a great Supper Matth. 22. He describes the Kingdom of Heaven by such a Supper as this The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding And they would not come Again he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it And when the King came in to see the guests he saw there a Man which had not on a Wedding-Garment Ver. 11. 12. As I shall after endeavour to enforce in the Application But you see plainly that it is a great Nuptial Feast that the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is Represented by So it is said His Servants wait for him There is a place of great moment to what we are upon that is Dis-advantagiously Translated And therefore I would desire that you would take something the more Notice of it Matth. 13. 34. The Son of Man saith he is as a Man taking a far Journey who left his House and gave Authority to his Servants and to every Man his Work and Commanded the Porter to watch Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh And this in Luk. 12. It is called a coming because of the Wedding ver 46. That 's the Expression I would desire a little that you would take Notice of And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the Wedding VVe Translate But the word in the Greek will very well signifie Because of the Wedding or upon the Account of the Wedding When Christ comes He comes because or upon the Account of the Wedding And that he may be present at that great Feast that is to be held unto the Lord our God I 'll give you but one Scripture more And so I hope you will be fully satisfied that it is the Wi 〈…〉 of the Divine Spirit to Represent to us the State of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ by a great Nuptial-Feast or Entertainment It is in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Prophesie of the Revelation Verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come And Verse 9. And he saith unto me Write Let this thing be taken notice of let it be written in Letters that he that runs may read Blessed are they which are called unto the Marrioge-Supper of the Lamb. Blessed are they which are called and invited to the Marriage-Supper of the Lumb I shall now therefore proceed in these Two Generals before I close all in the Application First of all to shew you what the Importance and meaning of this Great Supper or the Great Feast that we are to hold to Jehovah is And then In the Second Place I shall give you a brief Parallel between all the Feasts that were appointed to the Servants and People of God in the Old Testament and this Great Feast that is to be held to Jehovah To give you therefore the Sense and the Meaning of it in these Two Expressions First It is a Time of the Greatest Solemnity Glory and Lustre and Splendor and Joy and Blessedness that the Creation ever knew or can know in the State of a Creation I say it is a State or a Time of the greatest Magnificence of the greatest Joy and Enjoyment that ever was known in the whole Creation nothing ever like to that Alas the Days that we now know here in the World take those that have been the most Lightsome the most Prosperous they are all Dark and Gloomy and Cloudy Days in comparison of that Day of the Great Glory and the Great Festival that he speaks of Indeed it is very desirable to find the Hearts of any possest seriously with God and with Religion and with Holiness and with Christianity and with Communion with God and Enjoyment of him according to the present State of Things But if we did but know how low the Condition is now wherein we are If we did but consider what a Dark Black Cloud there hangs over all a Cloud of Corruption a Cloud of Unhappiness a Cloud of Sorrow and Affliction it is they live in And it comes upon the most Eminent Servants of God you know in what a Cloud they are wrapt up as to all bodily Appearance when they come to Die and what a Cloud of Corruption hovers over them For take the most Excellent Preachers and the most Holy Men if
of Conversation and therein to Look for and to Haste on to the Day of God and with the Spirit and under his Influences and with the Bride-like Affection Cry out as Hearers mov'd with an Holy Sympathy or Likeness of Affection Even Cry out in Harmony Come Lord Jesus Come Quickly SERMON VI. On Matthew 25. v. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses led you through the great Importance and Sense of our Lord in this Parable Which is one of those wherein as he speaks Matth. 13. he opened his Mouth in Parables and uttered Things that had been kept secret from the foundation of the World I have spoken of several particulars herein and will go directly upon what is now before us and to be spoken of and that is That while the Bridegroom tarried all these Virgins both the wise and the unwise slumbred and slept Now it is indeed a great difficulty to find out the very meaning and sense of our Lord in this part of the Parable For it seems strange that not only the unwise but that the wise Virgins slumbred and slept And to give a sense of this suitable to the meaning and to the rest of the Parable I shall at this time by the assistance of God undertake and so to Discourse of it accordingly I observe therefore to you That here are two Words used by our Lord They slumbred and they slept I look upon these Words to have two very different senses though they may seem to be perfectly alike And that slumbring and sleeping as indeed Scripture and common Language generally join both together mean one and the same thing But I understand the First concerning the spiritual state of the Churches of Christ during the delay of Christs coming and of the Kingdom of Christ All the whole state of the Christian Church hath been from the very beginning of the working of the Mystery of Iniquity it hath been in a slumbring condition But then the sleeping I look upon that to be an expression of the dying of the Servants of Christ all along from the Time of the Resurrection of Christ to this very Time And the latter is consequent upon the former For I am fully perswaded That if the Power and Glory and vigour of Christianity in a settled state of Christianity if that had immediately followed upon the Resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Spirit that pouring out of the Spirit that was in the Apostles days I do fully believe there had been no such Thing as dying Even as when the Kingdom of Christ comes there shall be no more Death So if the Kingdom of Christ had immediately proceeded upon the first Preaching of the Gospel there had been no sleeping If there had been no slumbring there had been no sleeping And I shall give you two great Reasons why I understand the Word sleeping concerning dying They slumbred that is the Power of Christianity did not shew it self upon them And so they slept that is they died The first Reason I would give you of it is this Because the Intention of our Lord in this Parable is chiefly That we may look to the Power of Christianity in our own hearts to such a power of it as that we should be able to appear with Christ when he comes to the Wedding That our Lamps should not then go out The great Meaning the great Scope of the Parable is this That we should look to have the very Life and Truth of Grace so in our hearts that we may have a Light of it when Christ comes that will not go out in the very time in that very instant Time wherein we should go with him to the Wedding Now it is very plain That the Wise Virgins indeed had this Light For it is said of them ver 10. They that were ready which is spoken of the wise Virgins they went in with him to the Marriage and the Door was shut So that if the wise Virgins had slept in that sense that the foolish Virgins did I say if they had slept in the same sense they would not have been ready to go into the Wedding with Christ So that these wise Virgins they did watch and they did not sleep in the main sense of the Parable For they were ready to go in with him to the Wedding Altho therefore they did die yet in the great concernment of Eternity they did not sleep away their time they did not lose their opportunity of providing a Treasure of Oil. A Second Reason that I give you Why this sleeping is not meant of the spiritual estate of these Virgins but only of their dying is Because it is said At Midnight there was a Cry made And then they arose and trimmed their Lamps Now this Midnight is that state of death in regard of the Body in which all the servants of Christ lie till that Resurrection till that First Resurrection that is spoken of This is indeed like a Midnight For when the Bodies of Saints lie in the Dust it is as if a Midnight were upon them as to that visible state and appearance of Body though their Spirits are indeed with Christ yet their Bodies lie as in a Midnight And if you speak of the Apostles of Christ Peter Paul John and the rest of them they are all of them as it were in a Midnight sleep as to their Bodies And therefore the Midnight is so properly to be understood Whereas in regard of the Spiritual State of the Church of Christ which is before his Coming before the Glory of his Coming it shall not be a Midnight For as I have often endeavoured to make plain unto you That assoon as ever those Time Times and half Time of the Antichristian Power are at an end immediately a great Light and a great Glory of the Gospel shall shine out that it shall not be a Midnight Indeed the Light will not be perfectly clear or precious till the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But I cannot but hope and expect That within very few years there will be such a state of Christianity such a state of the Gospel the Everlasting Gospel preached through the World There will be such a new Mission and Commission of the Servants of Christ That it shall not be to be accounted a Midnight in that regard Nor shall the Coming of Christ be so on the sudden but that there will be great Light concerning it When that Angel that flyes through the midst of Heaven Rev. 14. shall have preach'd the Everlasting Gospel to every Nation c. These are the Reasons why I cannot understand this Word sleeping to be a representation of the spiritual state of the Church and Servants of Christ But I do understand by the slumbring That there is such a deadish such a drousie such a benumm'd state of Christianity as
Reformation Because Christ saith in the first Words Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins When Why it shall be at that Time as in the 24th of Matthew though we divide Chapters yet the sense is not divided nor our Saviour's Sermon divided but our Lord is still going on in his Discourse Mat. 24. 48 49 c. But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth There was never a greater Hypocrisie in the World than the Papacy To which they say you know in Reverence Your Holiness as we say to Princes Your Majesty or Your Highness And they say Your Holiness a Blasphemous Assumption and therefore he shall appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites Because he hath been the Evil Servant that hath said My Lord delayeth his coming And so he begins to Eat and Drink with the Drunken and to Smite the Men-servants and Maid-servants That is to Persecute the true Servants of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likned unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps c. when that Judgment is So that the Time before the punishing of this Bad Servant and the cutting him off and Devoting him to the Wrath and Indignation of God Before this there falls such a Slumber as this Now therefore Having made the way I shall Endeavour to go on and to speak to these two things First To shew wherein as to our particular we are to observe a Spirit of Slumber and that the power of Christianity does take small hold of us And then In the Second place I shall Endeavour to shew you wherein the Wise and Foolish Virgins Differ though they are both in a Slumber and they Die alike they Sleep alike yet there is a very vast and great difference betwixt them In the First place This is a very great Argument that we are under the Slumber of Christianity That we are not really in a Holy Transport in all the Services and Enjoyments and Ordinances of Christianity Indeed we make a shift to pass through the Form to hold up the Form of Prayer and of Preaching and of the Lord's Supper and of good Discourse sometimes one with another But we have not that mighty Affection we are just like Persons in a Slumber You know they understand something of what you say to them and they make some kind of Answer But they are so low and so imperfect herein that we may be sure they are not in the Vigour of their Senses and of their Understanding and of their Reasoning and of their Discourse Surely If we were raised to the Power of Christianity we should have more of those High Elevations of mind that the Apostle speaks of and that the Holy Men of Old in former times speak of We should have such flaming Desires after God and after Christ that our hearts would be Ravished and we should be drawn as it were out of our selves in these things Whereas we do but Nod as I may so express it in our way of Christianity Or when we seem to do something we are presently in a kind of Slumber so that there wants the Power and Life of it When David saith How sweet is thy Word to my taste Sweeter than the Hony or the Hony Comb It was another State than we are in All the 119 Psalm is a perpetual Rapture and Extasie of Heart All that time he was awake So Whom have I in Heaven but Thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire beside Thee And My Heart and my Flesh Faileth but thou art the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgments at all times All our Converse with Christ and with the Holy Ordinances of Christ and all our Drawings nigh to God They would be with a Holy Transport So in the 42. Psalm saith David As the Hart panteth after the water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God You cannot really suppose but that if we were fully possest with Religion indeed we should be carried out of our selves in Love and Service and Thankfulness and Obedience and all the Powers of Holiness and Religion Whereas now If a Person be but Civil to Religion If he will but sit patiently and hear a Discourse of it Or if he can but endure to be called off from the World to God we look upon it as a great Attainment But I say If Christianity were not under Slumber in the Spirits of Men we should be in a high Transport That as the Apostle speaks in the 2 Cor 5. The love of Christ Constrains us because we thus judge The Word as the Learned Observe signifies such a kind of Transports as when Elijah was taken up by the Spirit and carried hither and thither So the love of Christ constrains us that is Transports us every way Ver. 14. Wherefore saith he henceforth know we no man after the Flesh Ver. 16. Yea though we have known Christ after the Flesh yet now henceforth know we him so no more Surely This is the Slumber of Christianity that we are taken so much with outward appearances with out-sides of men The Apostle observed the Slumber of Christianity upon this account in his Day James 2. 2. If there come into your Assembly a man with a Gold Ring in goodly Apparel c. Here Christianity began to be in a Slumber not but that due regard ought to be to the several Ranks of Men But in this regard we know Men too much after the flesh so that it argues Christianity much in a Slumber Do but read I beseech you don 't think I speak either vainly or without due consideration of what I say Do but read those places of Scripture that are so Eminent in setting out the Glory of Christianity While we look not saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 4. 18 at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Now I say who is it that loves thus to look upon the things that are seen as nothing and the things that are not seen as all So saith he We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved chap. 5. 1. we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens ver 2. For in this we groan earnestly saith the Apostle Who groans earnestly I do not speak at all to be censorious or to tax Men beyond Reason or any way to justifie my self
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