Things Moses therefore must be most careful that he did not make Any Thing but according to the Pattern And so Heb. 9. 9. Which was a Figure saith he speaking of the Old Oeconomy and Frame of Things under Moses for the time then present c. Which stood only in Meats and Drinks and such Things until the Time of Reformation They were for the Time present So we Translate But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies a Time pressing urging and an Insisting Season and as I may say against the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ And indeed so are All the Times from the very Fall of Adam to the Kingdom of Christ Times that press and crowd against the Kingdom of Christ For if this Time present were but at an End that lies as a Bar and hinderance in the way the Kingdom of Christ would immediately break out As when that Time shall come of which the Angel Rev. 10. sware Time shall be no more when once it comes to that Time shall be no more A better State of Things shall come in The Kingdom of Christ shall immediately come in as soon as God hath removed the present Time the Time now pressing against it The Kingdom of Christ will flow in a main As when the Flood-Gates are drawn up when that which is as the Bar in the way is taken away immediately like a great Torrent the Kingdom of Christ will come in When time shall be no more that is such a time as hitherto hath press'd against that Kingdom tho' in the mean Time It is made Subordinate and leads to it But that is a note rather by the way The Thing that I chiefly intend is that all things in the Old Testament were but Figures and Types of things that were to come I shall therefore give you a Brief Compare For I will be as short in it as posssibly I can You shall find that one Great Branch of the Religion of Moses or the Worship of God in the Old Testament and according to the Law of Moses one great Branch of it was the holding of so many Feasts in a Year to the Lord. The 23d of Leviticus does give us a Description of all those Feasts And I shall as I say in Brief compare them First There was the Feast of every Week which was the Sabbath the Jewish Sabbath the Seventh Day And so the Seventh Year and the Seven Seventh Year that is which made up a Seven of Seven Weeks of Years All this there was observ'd in the Time of the Law There is that which we now call the Lords Day It was then the Seventh Day of the Week the Jewish Sabbath That was a Weekly Revolution and then every Seventh Year was a Sabbatical Year And then after Seven Sevens of Years there was the Jubilee every Fiftieth Year Now all this was a Figure of that Great Sabbatism that remains to the People of God So the Seventh both Day and Year and the Seventh of Seven Years the Seventh of Seven Weeks or Weeks of Years that is after every Forty nine Years which is Seven Sevens you know the Fiftieth Year was a Year of Jubilee and Holy to the Lord A Feast of Jubilee of Great Freedom of Great Redemption of Great setting free both the Persons and Estates of Men and all was to represent what the Apostle speaks of Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth c. He went through all kind of Rests that were under the Law and ver 9. Yet beyond all There remaineth a Sabbatism a Great Sabbatising to the People of God So that this is the Great Sabbatism that shall be held to God It shall be in these Thousand Years That 's the State of perfect Sabbatism wherein Persons shall not speak their own Words think their own Thoughts nor do their own Actions but shall be the Servants of God and of Christ with His Name upon their Foreheads Consider therefore this Expression of the Apostle ver 9. indeed we Translate it which is Great Pity that it should be so Disadvantageously Translated There remains a Rest so we say But the Margin being sensible as it were that They did wrong in calling it only a Rest gives the Higher Style of keeping a Sabbath not only such a Sabbath as the Jews kept nor such a Sabbath as Christians keep but beyond all this there Remains the Blessed Festival of a Sabbath in which we shall be free from all the Cumber both of Worldly Business and also of Corruption and Misery and Unhappiness This shall be the Great Sabbatism of the Great Nuptials of Jesus Christ the Great Nuptials of the Lamb. 2. In the second place There was the Great Feast of Passeover which was upon the Deliverance from the Bondage of Egypt I will not spend any time to particularize it you shall find there was the Feast of Passeover of which we read abundantly in Exod. 12. And after the Passeover was slain there was the Offering of the first fruits I 'll give you a Brief Account of all according to the New Testament There is to be the Highest Passeover of that Festival that is A full Table of the Redemption of Jesus Christ A feasting on the Pascal Lamb the Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us as the Apostle speaks And in the Evangelist when Christ had ordain'd the Supper of the Lord even after the ordaining of it This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God As he said of that Fruit of the Vine He would drink it new with them in the Kingdom of the Father So he saith in the Evangelist Luke This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God That is When we shall have the full Enjoyment of Jesus Christ in his Redemption For then the Paschal Lamb shall be set out to us in the Fullness of its Effect in the Fullness and Greatness of His Redemption As He gave Himself a Lamb without Spot Sacrificed to God for us That is the Great Sense of our Saviour in those Words This Passeover shall be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God 3. Thirdly For the Feast of the First Fruits You know In two Regards we may say That it is a Feast of the first Fruits or the Sheaf offered both in regard of Christ and also in regard of our selves In regard of Christ It is said in the 1 Cor. 15. 23. Christ the First Fruits and they that are Christ's at his Coming Every Man in his own Order Christ the First Fruits and they that are Christ's at his Coming Then shall that Blessed First Fruits Jesus Christ the First-born of every Creature The First Begotten from the Dead He shall come forth in Glory of His Kingdom and in the Glory of His Appearance It is a Feast of the First Fruits because then Christ who is the first Fruits comes forth in all His Glory and in all His Blessedness And that it is the Feast
hear the Prayers of his Servants and bring all these things to their great Issue But now our Lord Jesus Christ hath given us an Account of this Luk. 18. 7 8. And shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry Day and Night unto him tho he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth He will avenge them speedily tho he tarry long You may think those things Contradict one another To tarry long and yet to avenge them speedily Yet he will come and he will avenge As it was said concerning the Souls under the Altar Stay till the rest of your Brethren are filled up And then there shall be Vengeance indeed to the Enemy and a Recompence to his Servants And yet how little Faith concerning this even among the Servants of God! The last thing why you may think it very strange is this Because the Apostle said so long ago The Ends of the World were come I confess it may seem to give an Atheist some hold some advantage You know how many places of Scripture speak to this purpose 1 Cor. 10. 12. Saith the Apostle All these things happened unto them for Ensamples And they are Written for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the World are come And saith the Apostle John This is the Last time and hereby we know it this is the last hour And these are the last Days All this is spoken and yet for all this the Kingdom of Christ hath not come And Sixteen Hundred Years and more are passed since these things have been spoken Now Indeed these things look very strange and might make Men think that there is no such thing as the Coming of Christ For tho the Apostles Preached it and they may say indeed Men that are Preachers may perswade Men so And indeed they say so But we see nothing coming to pass Did not the Apostle John speak of the last Day the last Hour and the last Time And the Apostle Peter of the very last of Times As the word is very Emphatical in the Greek And yet for all that it is not come To all this I would onely say these two things Or rather give you two places of Scripture how these things come to pass In the 2 Thes ch 2. v. 3. The Apostle tells us plainly there was such a Noise as I may so express it of the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning the last Times That all Christians then were upon the Expectation were upon the Gaze when that Coming of Christ should be Now saith the Apostle Let no Man deceive you by any means For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first Except there be an Apostacy in the Christian Church first That Day shall not come And therefore don't wonder tho it be called the last Time in regard of the Fullness of Time and Christ coming at it and because of the last of the four Monarchies Yet it is not so the last Time but that it must give Room to an Apostacy to come upon it And so in the Revelation as I have often spoken to you Chap. 11. And in the 12th and 13th Chapters There are to be Time Times and Half a Time A Thousand two Hundred and Sixty Days Fourty and two Months All which as I have said often to you make up Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years between the Preaching of the Gospel the Christian Empire and the coming of Jesus Christ And so I have spoken of the first thing why there may arise such thoughts upon this that the Kingdom of Christ is not come yet to this very Day I come now to the Second thing to give you very Great Reasons besides what I have intimated already to you Why Christ hath not yet come 1. The First Account I would give is That so very Agreeable Representation of the Time of the Duration of the Creation and of the Kingdom of Christ in Compare with it The Apostle Peter hath Given in his Second Epistle c. 3. 8. when he was speaking of the Coming of Christ and of the Long Delay of it at which Atheists took Advantage and Antichristian Scoffers to play upon it Saying Where is the Promise of his Coming The Apostle Resolves the Objection by pressing Earnestly on Christians not to be Ignorant of One Thing or not to let it lie Hid from them Viz. That One Day is with the Lord as a Thousand Years Referring to Each Day of the Creation Designed by God as a Type of a Thousand Years Duration of the Creation They being then Six before the Seventh then Sanctified and Blessed by God as a SABBATH the Type of the Grand Sabbath They pourtray Six Thousand Years Duration of the Creation before the Great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ And that being Given under the Representation of a Thousand Years Revel 20. Yet those Thousand Years are in the Designation of God That One Day of the Lord That Illustrious Day That Day of Judgment The Great Day The Day if then Jesus Christ comes in the End of the Fourth Millenary or Thousand of Years as in the Fullness of Time And God hath Laid out Six Thousand for the Duration of the World until that Thousand Years Except what Shortning shall be for the Elects Sake in the End of the Sixth Millenary as the Fullness of Times or of All Time It is very Evident The Coming of the Bridegroom after His Death and Resurrection must be under the Delay of about Two Thousand Years as have now Already so near Run out Argum. 2. If there be such a Number of the Elect to be brought Home to God and to Christ And that They have lain scattered through these near Two Thousand Years and must be brought in before the Kingdom of Christ Then the Kingdom of Christ cannot be till they are Brought in But so the Apostle shews Heb. 4. 4 5 6 7 c. Some must Enter into Rest to the Last And of this the Apostle Peter speaks in the same Discourse as a Further Resolution of the Scoffers Question Where is the Promise of His Coming The Lord is not Slack concerning his Promise as some Men count Slackness but is Long-Suffering to us-ward Not willing that Any should perish but that All should come to Repentance Verse 9. That This hath in some General Latitude a Respect to All Men I would not Deny but that is the Lowest and Least Part of its Intention For so it hath not its Efficacy nor its Effect but take it with Relation to the Elect of God And so it hath Full Effect Not One Perishes but Every Single One comes to Repentance If therefore there is such a Number of Elect to be Brought Home to Repentance who shall have their Lot in the Kingdom of Christ at his Coming His Coming then must needs be Delayed till All the Children of the Bride-Chamber be Brought
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
with relation to God and Religion a Virgin And yet notwithstanding this because he is a foolish Virgin all the Misery here exprest comes upon him Let us therefore consider our selves I would hope That we might have a very good Title and Pretension to this Stile of a Virgin and that we hold the Truth of the Gospel and the Purity of Worship and the Holiness of Conversation in regard of all outward Appearance and yet let us look well to this That we are not Fools therein And therefore I 'll set out to you in several particulars according to the Wisdom of our Lord Jesus in this Parable I 'll shew you the danger of being a foolish Virgin and in what kind of Circumstances they shall rise and how it shall be with them as it were from first to last as our Lord hath here given to us and yet I 'll do it with brevity for the things will be very plain And if we would be but faithful to our selves in taking notice of them and laying them up in our hearts and examining our hearts according to them There needs not much to be said but thought and considered and meditated upon much by every one of us in relation to each particular The First thing which expresses the circumstances in which foolish Virgins shall arise is this They will presently begin to make the best of that Name of Profession and that Name Virginity that hath been upon them They 'll be ready to say I have had a Lamp I carry that to be sure with me I have had a Name of Profession and Christianity upon me I have Endeavoured to Hear and to Pray and to Receive the Lords Supper and to keep the Lord's Day I 'll be certain to take that along with me for all the Virgins arose and Trimmed their Lamps The wise indeed had Right to do it and they did it upon good grounds and the foolish did the very same thing and therefore it is significantly exprest in the Text All those Virgins not only wise but foolish They arose and Trimmed their Lamps That is they set out their Profession as large and as favourable and with as much advantage as they could Now therefore Here is our great Point to look to this That we have not only the Lamp of Profession but that we have the Truth and Sincerity of Faith and Repentance of Holiness of an Interest in Christ and in his Bloud I 'll give you two Scriptures to this case one on the side of the wise Virgins and one on the side of the foolish Virgins and so pass on And I would desire you would take notice of these Scriptures that may be helpful to bring these things to your Minds That all of us may enter into deep Reflection and serious Examination upon it In the 1 Pet. 1. 22. saith the Apostle speaking of these things seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren c. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God and now observe how he had Discoursed of this Point before ver 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear In what fear does he mean not in a slavish fear as I shall shew you presently but in a holy care in a holy awe in a wise and judicious search into things and so he speaks ver 7. That the Tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with Fire might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ O let every one take this Scripture into Mind into serious consideration and pass the time of our sojourning here in a holy and wise and judicious Awe and Fear That the Tryal of our Faith though it be tryed with Fire c. Observe how notably the Apostle speaks as if he should say Your Faith will be tryed with Fire with the Fire of that Day whether it be true and right Faith or not And it will be tryed in a moment and instantly because a short work will the Lord make upon the Earth For as I told you it will appear presently by the Thoughts we have about us by the Company we come with by the Bodies we have on And this will be in the Face of the Fire you must come and if it be only a drossy-Faith it won't stand the Fire it won't be able to endure If it be only a painted Faith it will presently come to nothing And therefore saith the Apostle look that your Faith be found to Honour and Glory and Praise at the appearing of Jesus Christ And then on the Side of the Foolish Virgins Consider That in the 13th Chapter of Luke 26. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our streets They shall begin to say when they find the Door shut upon them They shall begin to say Lord We have Eat and Drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our streets But he shall say I tell you I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity ver 24. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able I expound it Especially though I don't deny that at this time there are some Half-seekers that cannot enter But it is especially at that time of the coming of the Bridegroom They shall seek to enter and they shall not be able When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut the Door c. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets So here 's the First thing they endeavour to make the best of their profession that they have had here in the World So will all foolish Virgins do in all their Duties of all that they have said for God or any good works but If the power of these things have not been it will not be able to carry any out though we shall endeavour to make the best of our Profession that 's the first Description of the State of the foolish Virgins when they arose 2. I come to the Second thing that our Lord here mentions And that is They shall presently be sensible pray observe that that their Grace doth not hold out that they were but counterfeit that they were but dross that they were but Tinsel For presently they say they want supply Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out It is a sad and woful thing That a Man should lose all the Prayers and all the Profession that he made here in the World And yet when he comes into his Body again though he was sent out of the
do for that After-State let us do it now For in dying Spirits going out of Bodies enter into their Determinative State They enter in the State they were in here They carry out the Oil they have whether only in the Lamp of their Profession or in the Vessel the Heart united to Christ the Fountain And so they must abide so they must appear when the Bridegroom cometh This is the holy and wise Decree of God concerning the Human Spirit and who dare controll it From hence then it necessarily follows That this Watch is to be maintained in this Present State and that it can be only here and that therefore it is only in order to and with relation to the Coming of the Bridegroom but not with relation to the Time of his Coming for then the Doctrine of Watching had not been proper to Persons living so many Ages before it but because every person successively living since the Time our Lord spake these words is in the Time of his Life to exercise this Watch that is to see he hath the Oil in his Vessel and not in his Lamp only that he may stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Therefore it is a Doctrine necessary to every Age as well those furthest off as those nearest to his Coming because every one hath but a Life-Time to Watch in and he is much more to be wrought upon by the sence of the shortness and incertainty of his own Life than by the nearness of the Bridegrooms Coming and the incertainty of the time of that as we plainly see by every Days Experience And this is much the more uncontestable by observing the Apostle Paul's earnestness against the Christians of those Times thinking the Day of Christ was then at hand which he solemnly affirms could not be till an Apostacy of 1260 Days of Years should have come in and that not immediately neither and have run out Yea our very Lord himself when They thought the Kingdom of God should immediately have appeared Luke 19. 11 c. gives the Parable of a Nobleman going into a far Country and returning importing a distance of Time all which had been a contradiction to watching because we know not the day nor hour if the meaning had not been a making provision in the present Life for the Bridegrooms Coming how many Ages after soever it should be and that else it would come upon us at unawares and on the sudden and find us unready unprovided for it Argument 2. It further appears That Watching is the making such provision in this present Time for the Bridegrooms Coming as will bear up to the Glory of that Time because in the same State wherein we lie down we shall rise at that day whenever it be and openly appear therein in the face of Heaven and Earth The Judgment of Spirits though it be before God and Christ and Aangels and Saints yet Scripture speaks of it as of a private Judgment for the Day of the Appearance of Christ is spoken of Rom. 2. 5. as the Revelation or uncovering that righteous Judgment of God which as pass'd upon Spirits returning to God that gave them is as covered and secret There is greatest reason to be assured That when Spirits of Saints come into the hand of Christ there is joy in Heaven for if there be joy at their Conversion in the presence of the Angels of God and so of Saints there is much more so in the coming of Spirits to Glory but this Joy and the Shouts of it are not heard down on Earth But at that Appearance of Christ they are presented with exceeding joy before Heaven and Earth And so are All not in Christ with contempt and dishonour And this is the great Mystery and Wonder of the Oeconomy the Order of that Day That persons rise in the very same State wherein they lie down God will have it so for the clearness of his Judgment though persons die in the corner of a Bed as the Prophets expression is yet they shall openly appear in the same circumstances they died God will have every ones Judgment as in all orderly Governments to be sub Dio openly in the Face of Heaven and Earth they shall all appear as in the Fact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day and justified in the Condemnation of all whom he condemns If God should dispose of some to Hell and some to Heaven and that there were no publick account of the matter we might think they were so disposed of by God as by an Arbitrary Power and in secret and so his Justice called in Question But when Spirits that have been so disposed of in private both Spirits so publickly and Bodies are called for together and the Judgment affirmed This is clear and open proceeding and therefore a Day of Judgment and of Resurrection is so often spoken of All shall be brought Face to Face and we shall not only know one another who have conversed together but even of all Ages Abraham Isaac and Jacob Cain and Esau Saul Achitophel and Judas All shall be known and we shall know what becomes of every one to Eternity Death here and Spirits entring into their everlasting state is not All of which we may say Who knows the Spirit of a Saint of a wise Virgin that goes upward of a wicked man of a foolish Virgin that goes downward But at that Day shall be known All the Good Men we have read of in Scripture or in true Accounts of History And the Evil Men and Hypocrites Each Company and Person apart and apart God and Christ will pass upon all openly and in Publick And that which I would further urge every one shall Rise in the very Fact the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which they lay down Belshazzars in their way Diveses in their way the Worldlings in their way and the Foolish Virgins in their way Crying Lord Lord without Truth and Power as here The great Tyrants Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ in their way To that purpose they are describ'd as having laid their Weapons of War under their Heads with their Iniquities upon their Bones Ezek. 32. 17. and so they 'll come to the Battel of Armageddon The Iniquity and the Bones the Persons and Weapons of War will appear together in that Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as even then in actual War against the Lamb and his Saints This is the Great and stupendious management of the Day of Judgment of that Day and Hour of which in this Sense especially and not as relating to Time no one knows no Angels no not the Son as Man The Father only the Eternal Beeing alone had Wisdom to find out Authority Dominion and Power thus to execute It is therefore the great Point of watchfulness to Live so and so to Dye as we would desire to Rise and
may be accounted worthy to escape those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man You see here that ye may stand before the Son of Man there must be a watching to prayer and a watching upon this very account O! that we could be sensible of that Day and stir up our supplications in that very point So the Apostle Peter For I would endeavour to argue the Scripture upon you that the great Intention and Earnestness of our Prayer should run to that very Point of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand and therefore watch unto Prayer Let us be continually watching unto Prayer upon this very account because the end of all things is at hand If we considered that it would engage and stir up our Prayers Be sober and watch unto Prayer for our Prayers will meet us then we shall rise in them at that Day 3. In the Third Place Our Watchfulness should stand in this in a constant living sence of the Word of God especially in this great point upon us That we should have a Meditation upon the Word of God It is a very hard thing for us to entertain our thoughts in the Night when we are awake or when we are alone it is a hard thing to know how to employ our Thoughts and to engage them And therefore if we could take the Word of God That would keep us in an awful sence of God and of eternal things David often speaks of his Meditation in the Word of God Psal 119. I meditate in thy Word I meditate in thy Statutes it is my meditation all the day And Psal 1. 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly c. but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night Saith David I stir up my self I awake in the night that I might meditate in thy statutes If we could seriously bring into our thoughts the Meditations of the end of all things but we are so concern'd for this little spot of Time even for that next Moment that is before us what we shall eat and what we shall drink and what we shall put on and how this and that shall be maintained If our hearts were but suitably and proportionably fixt upon that What shall we do for our Eternal Condition How shall we bear that Day Would not any one set that Day before him if he were really possest of it If a Man were to Plead his Cause and whole condition in this World who of us could keep his Heart and Thoughts from oft running into 't Now if we could keep our Meditations upon those Scriptures that speak of this Eternal Condition I beseech you endeavour to get up your selves and to aspire to it by the Grace of God and that you would meditate on these things as the Apostle Paul teaches Timothy Meditate on these things that thy profiting may appear to all men He speaks indeed there of the preparation for the work of Preaching of the Gospel But let us apply it for we are every one concerned in this Great Point to be Preachers to our selves Certainly if every one be not a Preacher to himself all other Preachers can do him no good at all And the Excellent Truths that lie in the Word of God can do no good till a Man comes to Preach them to himself The Book of Ecclesiastes is in the English of it the Book of the Preaching soul that Book of Solomon which we call the Book of the Preacher it was the Book of the Preacher first to himself Eccl. 1. 1. It is observed by Learned Men the Word signifies The Preaching Soul Every one should be a Preaching Soul to himself and Preaching this Great Point Of the Coming and Kingdom of Christ And this would engage our Watch this would be like the snuffing the Lamps of our dark Apprehensions and blowing up the Flame of our cold and benumm'd affections It would make the Light more clear and it would be like the blowing up the fire it would enflame and warm us with the strength and vigour of those great apprehensions that pertain to the Coming of Christ Indeed it is very sad That the present state of the World is so covered and so darkned and so eclipsed and so chill'd and even frozen in these things We can go into no Company nay we our selves though we are sensible of these Truths we speak them and hear of them yet we don't know how to converse like the Servants of God That we might be all Preachers to our selves and one to another in them It is earnestly to be hoped and prayed for That a betterstate of things may come on and that the Spirit may be poured out abundantly And Would as Moses said all the Lords People were Prophets I cannot reasonably think that Moses spake of a thing that was impossible But surely there shall be a time that every one of the Servants of God shall have something to say as Prophets of the Lord one to another And this is the time that is earnestly to be expected and to be Prayed for I make no doubt but the World shall have such a Time of preparation in order to the Great and Glorious Coming of Christ Acts 2. 17. Pray observe God will pour out his Spirit to this very end to this very purpose saith the Apostle I will pour out my Syirit upon all flesh and your Sons and you Daughters shall Prophesie and your young men shall see Visions and your old men shall dream Dreams Every one shall have something to offer to another concerning God And on my servants and on my hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit and they shall Prophesie And I will shew Wonders in Heaven above and Signs in the Earth beneath c. And the Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Bloud before that Great pray observe that before that Great and illustrious Day of the Lord come He will come in the still Voice of his Spirit poured out and of every one being enabled as Moses saith as a Prophet For would Moses do you think have said Would every Atome of Dust upon the Earth could be a Star he would not have wish'd such a thing or That all the Drops of Water in the Sea might be turned into Gold and Pearls These things would have been strange in Moses because they are things that never shall be But now That all the Lord's People shall be Prophets That 's a thing God will certainly do and awaken the World with before that Great and Illustrious Day of the Lord come In the mean time Let us endeavour to be Preaching-Souls unto our selves This is a thing I am sure that no one can have reason to be offended at Let Men be never so severe that none must Preach but such and
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
of Christ be to me so as if be set me as a Seal upon his Heart as a Seal upon his Arm. This is the greatest Indenture the strongest obligation and uniting of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Soul and of the Soul thereby to him again for then Love is as strong as Death and it is cruel as the Grave The coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement Flame Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the flouds drown it If a Man would give all the substance of his House for Love That is to buy that Love off from Christ That 's the meaning of it If a Man would give all the Substance of his House where Love is once fixed to draw it off It would utterly be contemned Now this we should look to whether we have such a chast and Inviolable Love to Jesus Christ That all the substance of the VVorld would be utterly contemned whether Christ hath Set us as a Seal upon his Heart and Arm It is impossible then it should ever be taken off 3. The third is this when once we come to be thus united to Christ in the Chastness and Purity of our Affections in the sense of his Love to us and our Love to him Immediately there follows and all along there follows a Self-Resignation and Obedience And it cannot be otherwise For Love from a worthy Person hath a great command over those that are Loved It hath a mighty command on the Persons Loved to engage to Love again So that they are willing to do any thing to give up themselves to the will of the Person that Loves and is Loved upon his Love first And this is most due indeed to our Lord Jesus Christ Because he is the most excellent of all that can be proposed to us And he Hath Loved us and Washed us in his Blood And he thus wins us to his own Holiness Eph. 5. Saith the Apostle the Church is Subject unto Christ as unto the Head the Saviour of the Body It is in a perfect complyance with the Holy will of God Object If you ll say But how can we say this We find many Imperfections in our Obedience many Motions in our Hearts that are disloyal to Jesus Christ and are not at all according to the Obligations that lie upon us Answ Because we are going on to perfection in this state and because we find that we are under a Degree of Captivity and not perfectly freed Therefore the Soul cries out earnestly for the coming of the Great Bridegroom I shall but make Two or Three Expressions of Application and so conclude this Point 1. In the First Place I beseech you that you would consider what your Christianity is If it be not so strict an Adherence of your Souls and Affections to Christ as every wise and prudent and good Husband requires and expects from his Wife I say if it be not so how is it possible that you can say That Christ is mine and I am his And therefore look well to it and have a Jealous Eye as the Apostle said I am Jealous over you with a Godly Jealousie So we should be All Jealous over our own Hearts and the Motions of our Eyes to see whether there be such a Faithfullness to Jesus Christ as ought to be VVhen the Church is Subject to Christ as the most Excellent and Virtuous VVoman and VVife is to the most Honourable and Worthy Husband There is not any thing then that can or ought or is possible to come between our Souls and Jesus Christ And If we cry out Alas We are not able hereunto we do not find this I shall after by the Grace and Assistance of God press upon you Every such Discovery of the remaining defection and falseness of our hearts It should make us cry out earnestly Come thou Beloved of my Soul That there may be an entire and a perfect Union between me and thee Betwixt thy self and my heart This it should make us weary of the World and weary of Life and weary of the present State We cannot find our hearts come up as we desire they should But in the mean time there is a True and a Real and a Substantial Faithfulness and Purity and Chastity of Affections towards Christ in every Soul that is His That tho there are things that do not look so Resigning to Christ as they should do and so perfectly complyant Yet the Spirit is United to him As the Apostle speaks by way of Allusion to this very thing in the 1 Cor. 6. latter end But he that is Joyned to the Lord is one Spirit That is in regard of the present State of Flesh and Blood there will be some Wandrings of Heart But the Spirit is Stedfast and Jealous over those Unholy and Impure motions towards Sin Flesh and the World and it gathers it self back and it humbles it self And it bewails it self in regard of the Trayterousness of the Flesh and corrupt part wherein it does any way behave it self unworthily towards Jesus Christ that Saviour of it self He is the Saviour of the Body and therefore the Church is Subject to him And then 2. In the Second Place It should teach us very vehemently to look and cry out for that Time of free and full Enjoyments of Christ I wonder we should not be earnestly desirous when I consider the Reason the necessity and the great obligation which lies upon us I wonder we are not more earnest to dye and to be with Christ we are apt to think there is a State of the World ordained wherein we should have such and such Enjoyments and bear up our selves for a Time While in the mean time we forget Jesus Christ But hereafter it will be endeavoured to be made plain in this Discourse that either to go out of the Body and to be with Jesus Christ in Spirit Or to have the whole frame of this VVorld unpinn'd and dis-joynted one part from another That there may come that Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and that Marriage of the Lamb and coming down of that New-Jerusalem And our selves as a part of it as a Bride adorned for her Husband is the Inward Groan of every Saint These things should be sweet to us And we should not be Gulp'd down by the present Temptations of the World which have so much force because our hearts are not steady to Christ O Let us look earnestly for that Love which many Waters cannot quench nor the Flouds drown And If we find that we cannot be as we would be We should therefore cry out Make haste O Beloved And appear upon the Mountain of Spices That we may be for ever quiet and Pure and Un-interrupted in our Love unto thee and receiving thine upon us SERMON III. 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
of first Fruits in regard of his Servants I shall give you two Scriptures and so pass off James 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first Fruits of his Creatures And in Rev. 14. 4. These saith he speaking of the Hundred forty and four Thousand that were Sealed These are the first Fruits to God and to the Lamb. 4. The fourth Feast that we read of It was the Feast of Weeks As it is called in that Lev. 23. And it was after seven compleat Sabbaths were past Then there was a Feast which is called Pentecost And at that very Feast was the great pouring Out of the Spirit of Christ upon the Disciples Acts 2. 1. And so there shall be the Feast of the Harvest of all the Servants of God gathered in one after the Pouring out of that blessed Spirit of God All this shall be much greater than that was in Acts 2. This was but a Beginning It was but an Entrance of that which is to be done at the Feast of the Great Harvest Surely never was there such a Feast of Pentecost Such a Feast of Weeks as shall be then Every one who shall be admitted to that Feast His mouth shall be Full of the Wonderful works of God He shall speak abundantly of the Glory of God and of Jesus Christ and of the Riches of Grace He shall speak abundantly of the mighty Works of God in that mighty Pouring out of the Spirit of God 5. In the Fifth Place There shall be the Feast of Trumpets As we read Lev. 23. After the Feast of Weeks was the Feast of Trumpets And that Feast was a Type of the Seven Trumpets in the Revelation ending and fill'd up in the Seventh Trumpet that we read of Rev. 11. The Seventh Angel sounded and immediately there were loud Voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever ver 15. With which you may compare what is spoken in 1 Cor. 15. 52. And in 1 Thes 4. 16. Christ shall descend the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible And the Saints shall be changed And he shall come down with the Shout and Voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trampet of God Then shall that great Trumpet sound And then shall be the Feast when all the Dead in Christ and they that have slept In and By Jesus shall arise and shall appear in Glory and shall stand forth in that State of an Incorruptible Resurrection And then is the Blessedness of the Saints changed who live and remain here upon Earth And here all the forenam'd Feasts are together united in one 6. In the Sixth Place There shall be the Day of Attonement the Day of the great Attonement As we read of that also A Day wherein God was reconciled wherein the Entrances into the Holy of Holies were opened All that was to be in the Day of Attonement And so there shall be in the State of the Wedding of Christ The Feast of Attonement of Reconciliation As the Apostle speaks Acts 3. 19. When the times of Refreshing and of Restitution shall come Repent ye therefore and be Convented that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord In that Great Day of Attonement and at the Great Wedding All that make up the Lambs Wife shall meet there if they have been Enemies before to God and Christ they shall be Atton'd They 'll lay aside their Enmity one to another and fall into mutual Kindness and Enjoyment one of another Then all things as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. All things in Heaven and in Earth shall be fully Reconciled by Him Even by Him 6. The last is The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of a Paradisiacal-State The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of Goodly Boughs of Olives and Palms And whatsoever was most valuable among the Plants was brought out to make Boughs with at that time And to this the great Feast of the Kingdom of Christ is compared Because it shall be the State of Paradice Restored All the Glory and Beauty and Excellency of the Creation shall then be restored We read therefore Zech. 14. 16 c. of this Happy and Blessed Feast of Tabernacles It is when all shall be Holiness to Jehovah And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations which come against Jerusalem shall even go up from Year to Year to Worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles It is the Feast of that State of Paradice where Instead of Briars and Thorns shall come up the Fir-Tree and the Mirtle-Tree And it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Perpetual Remembrance Esay 55. 13. I shall now Briefly shut up all this in Application And I desire you that you would refresh these things in your own Thoughts And that you would bring them to mind You will find every particular Feast that of the Passover Exod. 12. You 'll find at large and every other Feast in Lev. 23. And I desire you would consider and read that Chapter And remember that the Glory and Happiness and Blessedness and Spirituality of those Feasts shall be in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Vse 1. The first use therefore that I would make of it shall be this To make a present Invitation to you to this Great Feast that is to be held to the Lord our God Even to Jehovah That you would mind this That you would seriously mind it and consider it that all of us are now Invited For now when we may go as in that Matth. 22. One to our Market Another to our Farm Every one to this or that Entertainment of this World At this very Time the Invitation is made to every one of us that we would consider of it Behold this Sermon and this Discourse this Preaching of the Gospel it is sent to you to invite you to this great Supper He sent forth his Servants ver 3. That is the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel the Expounders and Openers of Scripture to you to call you and to bid you unto this Wedding Now take heed Take heed That you do not go one to your Farm and another to your Merchandize that you don't go every one your own way As it is said They made light of it and went their way They go every one their own way Take heed now Remember when that Wedding-Supper shall be and that it shall then be Proclaimed with that sound of the Trumpet with the Voice of the Arch-angâ—l Blessed are they that are bidden then to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb If any be bidden They must be bidden now They must be perswaded now they must accept the Invitation at this very time For now it is as I tell
Christ was Revealed first in That as a Saerifice Dying for Sinners And there is the Fullness of Times of All Time wherein all things in Heaven and in Earth are to be gathered together in Him even in Him In which He is to appear without Sin to Salvation Heb. 9. Last A Second Thing that makes it seem very strange that God should continue the World so long even after This Fullness of Time is this Because the Heart of God as I have often said to you cannot be to this World Though He allows some kind of State and Condition to his Servants in it some Enjoyment some Supports some Presence of Himself and of his Glory and Grace in Christ Yet it is far short of what is to be Because This is a World that God cannot Love and therefore the Glory of Things shall not be in the Present State of the World Because I say it is a World that God cannot Love As Christ said My Kingdom is not of this World not meaning That it is not a Kingdom that shall Appear and be Visible in the Creation of God in Heaven and Earth standing in all the Order and Beauty of it That is not the meaning But My Kingdom is not of this World That is Not of this Present Corrupt State in it It must come to that That Time shall be no more as it is said Revel the 10th before the Kingdom of Christ can be There must be not only the Fullness of Time but Time must be no more of such a kind as it hath been And the Fullness of Times must come And Then the Kingdom of Chrsst shall appear But as yet it cannot For the Scripture witnesseth very plainly and evidently to us That though God gives his Servants Food and Rayment and Habitation and gives to many of them Great Conveniencies and Enjoyments of this World Yet it is not because he loves the World or likes their State and Condition in the World For saith the Apostle James Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God James 4. 4. You see what a Great Contest there is between God and the World And it can never be comprimised It can never be reconciled Whosoever will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God And therefore though we value the Things of the VVorld at so High a Rate and the Conveniencies of the VVorld we make so Choice of Yet if we believe This Great Oracle of Truth whoever will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God And the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God O that we could carry the Thoughts and Considerations of This always upon our Minds And so the Apostle John tells us the very same thing 1 John 2. 15. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him For All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life It is not of the Father but it is of the World And because the VVorld is nothing but an Entertainment of Lust and that God cannot love it Therefore the World passeth away The World is continually in a Fleeting Condition It is passing away All this Form and State of things that we now see the Order and Manner of Things now is hastening away as fast as it can But you will say Why does it not make more haste when God doth not Love it and when it is Enmity to Him And when If any Man Love this World he is an Enemy to God and the Love of the Father is not in Him O why should we make it as if it were an Everlasting State when it is not But why is God pleased to continue it thus long To that the Answer is Because there is a Patience of God which is Exercised now in the World and he will Exercise that Patience to the very last of the Time he hath appointed to the World In regard of this It is as if God should say it is true I do not Love this World I do not Love to see Wicked Men Rolling and Tumbling in it in all the Pleasure Voluptuousness Enjoyment and Merriment wherein they live I do not Love to see my Servants so taken up about it and so apt to be Drawn and Tempted with it as they are And yet for all this Notwithstanding it I will let this World stand saith God that my patience may be known and understood As the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some Men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward Not willing that any should Perish but that all should come to Repentance The meaning of which Expression I cannot better expound to you than by examining it what a kind of patience it is that is intended For Wicked Men they are wicked still Notwithstanding the Patience of God and they will not Repent And God takes them away one by one as he sees Good And the VVorld continues very bad from one Generation to another And yet God Exercise his patience towards it You may understand it by comparing this Expression with the first part of the Chapter They say in ver 4. Where is the promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Since the Fathers fell asleep It is very Natural to understand it of those first Long-living Patriarchs before the Flood Since They fell asleep and the Floud came say these Scoffers There hath been no change of things here The VVorld hath stood just as it did from thence And herein is the Patience of God the VVorld was about One Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Six Years when the Flood came Now in Every such Generation of the World Every Thousand Years of the World God hath had as Great Reason to Destroy the World as he had Then For Wickedness hath Grown to such an Heighth as it did then And yet for all this God Exercises the Patience and Long-Suffering that he doth not Destroy the World again and again and leave a few as he did then to people the World a-new But he continueth Summer and Winter and Harvest and the State of the World He hath not Destroyed Every Living Thing as He did then Though there have been Notable Judgments in All Times as I shall presently speak to you A Third Thing that should make us very much wonder That God should keep the World a-foot so long It is in Regard of the Great Insolence and Boldness of Wicked Men. What a Boldness is this That they should say Where is the Promise of his Coming And that they should find something or other to say It is nothing it is only a Thing
into a Condition to meet the Bridegroom with Oil in their Vessels as well as in their Lamps Argum. 3. There is such a Space of Time Determined by God Settled Fixed and Declared in the Sure Word of Prophecy Lin'd out by Four Monarchies that must Runn out Themselves And there is a Particular Assignation of Time to the Last State of the Fourth the Last of Them Viz. Time Times and Half a Time Expounded into One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days of Years Revel 12. 6. 14. And in this Time Wickedness Fills up its Ephah or Measure and is carried as by the Wings of a Stork and Settled for Ever upon its own Base And to this Assignation of Time Jesus Christ Consented and Testified his Consent by Lifting up Both his Hands to Heaven and Swearing There should be this Time Times and Half And therefore no Injury is Done to Him And that then and not before All the Wonders of his Kingdom shall be Finished On this very Account the Apostle so Solemnly Declares 2 Thess c. 2. 1 c. That That Day of Christ could not come Except that Apostacy the Last State of the Fourth Monarchy was Revealed and Blown off by the Spirit of Christ's own Mouth and at Last utterly Consumed by the Brightness and Glory of his Appearance at that his Coming Before it could come to this those Times and Half must be Expired Immediately therefore after the Death and Resurrection of Christ Vision and Prophecy were Sealed Daniel 9. 24. with Relation to that Greatest and Richest Effect of Prophecy Viz. the Kingdom of Christ It was Sealed But then Immediately at the very Beginning of Half Time Christ took the First Opportunity of making a Seizure viz. at the Reformation and of Swearing there should be Time of such sort no more but in the Days of the Seventh Trumpet When he shall begin to found the Mystery of God Viz. The Kingdom of Christ shall be Finishing as he hath spoken by all his Servants the Prophets Which shall begin at 1697 So near approaching All which things have been fully by the Assistances of God made out and publickly set forth And are now onely so far briefly Represented as to give satisfaction to this doubt How comes it to pass that the Coming of the Bridegroom hath been thus long Delay'd And no further Insisted upon in these Sermons Sett for Preaching the Gospel especially under the Grace of the Divine Spirit to work upon the Heart and to engage in all Holiness of Conversation I come therefore to the Practical Reflection on what hath been spoken in these short Applications Appli 1. That we would take heed of the Atheistick and prophane boldness of Scoffers Who because the Bridegroom on so Holy and Wise Reasons as Scripture hath given us Delays his Coming say where is the promise of his Coming They believe no such thing And indeed all Discourses against the Kingdom of Christ and the Prophesies of Scripture or turning them into Allegory and Metaphor Give Countenance and Assurance to such Prophaneness and Boldness of Scoffing Let us aherefore be mindful of the Words of the Holy Prophets and of the Doctrines of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour 2 Peter c. 3. v 1 c. Appli 2. Let us beware of the Accounting the delay of the Bridegrooms Coming to any thing in the Course of Nature or as if the World could bear up it self or Perpetuate it self As they of whom the Apostle speaks who are willfully Ignorant that the World by the very Word of God was settled so out of and yet in such a Neighbourhood to the Water that it depended wholly on the Word of his Power not to be overflown by it And that the Heavens and Earth that now are are so Reserv'd are Treasured up for Fire at the Time Appointed by God for Perdition of such and of All Ungodly Men That we may be in a continual Dependence upon Him and Preparation for the Bridegroom 's Coming Applicat 3. Let us have Just Apprehensions of the Patience and Long-Suffering of God in the Delay of the Bridegroom 's Coming And that it is no Sluckness concerning his Promise As if He were altogether such a one as our Selves And Let us Account it Salvation And so it will be if we are His For He will let None of His Perish but Every One of Them shall come to Repentance But if we are not His though we Know it not Yet His Goodness Leads to Repentance by its Gracious Invitations and Excitements And if through our Hard and Impenitent Hearts It does not Lead us so we Treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath and the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God at this Coming of the Bridegroom Rom. 2. 3 4 c. Applicat 4. Let us not Think it Boldness or Presumption to Search the Scriptures and 2 Peter 1. 19 c. to Give Heed to the Sure Word of Prophecy as to a Light that shineth in a Dark Place Till the Day Dawn and the Day-Star Rise in our Hearts Especially to that Line of TIME Times and Half Time For our Lord charges it as Hypocrisie not to Discern the Signs of the Times That is the Characters of Time Scripture hath Impress'd upon it And though there are many Providential Signs as Wars Commotions Earthquakes Yet these will not Define Time to us Onely the Line of Time can Do that And let us Humbly wait upon God therein and take in All Other Marks God hath Given by His Providence therein But as I say The Line of Time is the Sure Rule by which we are to walk and I have full Assurance if we behold according to that the Course of Scripture-Prophecies the Emblems or Prophetical Types and Figures given therein the Numbers of Time proportion'd to and Running all along from Time to Time through those Figures and compare All with the Providences and Great Events God hath taken Care should be Recorded in History brought to our Knowledge or be coming down to our very sight we may be fully Confirmed as by a Threefold Cord not to be Broken and that it is a Line Reaching to 1697. Applicat 5. Let us have Continual Apprehensions of the Glory and Greatness of That Day Let us consider That Day Malac. 3. 18. When we shall Return and Descern between the Righteous and the Wicked Him that Serveth God and Serveth Him not Him that Sweareth and Him that Feareth an Oath and between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins and not put off the Thoughts of it Because we see the World so Earnest in Eating and Drinking Buying and Selling Building and Planting Marrying and Giving in Marriage For so it was in the Days of Noah and of Lot until the very Day And so our Lord saith It shall be in the Day of the Son of Man Applicat 6. Let us so Consider and Apply our Selves to the Examining what manner of Men we ought to be in All Holiness and Godliness
indeed we see in the very best to this day Therefore the Observation that I shall lay down and endeavour to open to you is this That Christianity in regard of the present state of Christians and as they have been since Ephesus Rev. 2. left its first love since there was a decay of the Glory and. Purity and presence of the Gospel from the Apostles Time Since then I say Christianity in the Power and Spirit of it though it hath not downright slept yet it hath been as in a slumber For indeed I have often said it and I cannot be in a remove from it That Christianity is not as it was intended by Christ it should be We have not seen the State and Glory of it And therefore I shall make it my business to represent to you by such Representations as the Scripture hath given us how the Power of Christianity hath faultred thus long and that it will come to its perfectly awakened State when the Kingdoms of this World are Proclaimed to be the Lord's and his Christ's And I shall date this failure especially to two Times and one of them will fall directly upon our selves First of all the Time when the Mystery of Iniquity was working in the Apostles days For you may plainly behold that by the very express words of the Apostle that in his own Time there was a working of the Mystery of Iniquity Then began the great decay and bringing down of the Glory of Christianity 2 Thes 2. 'T is a Scripture that I have often turned you to and therefore I hope you are acquainted with it I am perswaded the first Christians in the Apostles days needed as much to be restrained in thinking that the Day of Christ was at hand as we have need to be spurr'd on and to be provoked and to be earnestly perswaded to think that the Day of Christ is at hand For so the Apostle writes We beseech you saith he as if he was in a business of greatest earnestness and that he could not tell how he should prevail enough upon them to whom he wrote in it ver 1. We beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter as from us as that the Day of Christ is at hand They were ready to think The Day of Christ was to come just then Therefore the Apostle makes this earnest entreaty of them that they would not expect it You see what a different posture we are in now It is a hard matter to perswade any one to take off their hearts from the World and from loving it too deep and from thinking here 's a security in this World and we may do as our Fathers have done before us for so many Hundred Years in the Profession of Christianity We may be buying and selling and getting Estates and laying a foundation in this World Who is it that doth not count it a sort of Madness to disswade them from such a thing But the Christians of that Time they needed as earnest a perswasion That they might not think that the Day of Christ was so near at hand And so Christ in the 19th of Luke speaks that Parable that they should not because they did think The Kingdom of Heaven was nigh at hand He spake a Parable on purpose to assure them that it was not so nigh But Alas we need strong perswasions to the contrary And I may say the contrary to the Christians of this Time I beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus and by our gathering together unto him that you would not be shaken in mind by the general way of Peoples Profession and Preaching and Hearing as if the Day of Christ were not at hand And as the Apostle saith Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that Man of Sin be revealed the Son of Perdition So I say to you That day is near approaching For that falling away that Apostacy from Christianity it hath been and it is now very near to its expiring And therefore the great reason why it could not be then it is now a reason why it must speedily be because the Apostacy hath been so long because the Time and the last Date by God and by Christ is almost run out and expired that is the Time Times and half Time Here therefore to speak and bring home the thing to the present purpose I am upon Since this Apostacy began to work since that very Time Christianity hath been in a slumber For in this second Chap. v. 7. saith the Apostle the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work Now as soon as ever the Mystery of Iniquity began to work immediately there began a slumber upon the Christian Religion And therefore one would wonder Indeed it is a place that one would wonder to read and to find in the Epistle to the Philippians what the Apostle speaks Chap. 2. 20. For I have no man saith he like-minded speaking of Timotheus who will naturally genuinely sincerely care for your state For saith he All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's I speak of him as an extraordinary Person saith the Apostle By this we may plainly see it was a great variation from what you read in the second and third Chapters of the Acts where they minded nothing but only the Promotion of Christianity No one called any thing their own they minded nothing but Christianity it self But Christianity hath been in a slumber ever since or else we should be Christians of another Life of another Spirit of another Power I say were it not that Christianity hath been in a slumber so long And this is with a great deal of spiritual Wit if I may so speak and a great deal of spiritual Elegancy set out to us in the Song of Solomon I shall have occasion to make great recourse to the Description that is there given to us Sol. Song c. 5. v. 2. I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh saying open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled for my Head is filled with Dew and my Locks with the Drops of the Night What 's the meaning of this Indeed I know Men are ready to say That these things are only Imaginations and Whimsies and Apprehensions of ones own that speaks of them But I have found a clear Thread and Line drawn from David's time till the very Glorious Coming of Christ in this very Song of Solomon And I find that the Time when the Apostacy came in is just under the very description that we here have As therefore when after a clear Day a Sun-shiny-day at Night the Drops of Dew you know they fall thick upon the heads of those that are in the Air. So
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
riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith I look upon this to be Oyl in the Vessel It is Christ abiding in the heart For tho indeed the Vessel is not the Fountain yet it speaks the Vessel closely conjoyned with the Fountain and the Fountain continually springing into 't Another place of Scripture that I would give you You know Faith and Love they are much required and insisted on in the Gospel now observe what the Apostle saith in the 1 Tim. 1. 14. And the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Where is the Treasure of Faith and Love It is in Christ Jesus it is never out of him the Spring of it is never out of him Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus The Spring overflows to the Vessel with Faith and Love but the Spring and the Fountain is Christ himself And so 2 Tim. 2 1. Thou therefore my Son be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus Be strong in the Grace that is in him It is never out of him though it flows to the Souls and Spirits of Believers yet it is never out of Christ So that here is the Oyl in the Treasure of it it is when the Soul is united to Christ the Fountain of it here is the Oyl that is able to bear up For in two things I think the comparison lies that our Lord intended in this Parable between Grace and Oyl First It must needs be of such an excellent quality that it can bear up with the Glory of that Day And then In the Second place It must be so abundant that it can last with the Glory of that Day For if the Oyl be not of the high and excellent kind it will presently go out As you know the higher Light of the Sun it puts out the lower Light of Fire or Tapers that we have below so the Glory of that Day will put out any Light but only the Light of the Righteousness and Grace that is in Jesus Christ and none else will last There 's no Spring of Light but only that which comes from him Heb. 7. 16. who is after the power of an endless life It is only Christ that is Oil in the Treasure Therefore take the most Excellent Grace That 's the Point that I would endeavour to carry out to you Take the most Excellent Grace if it be out of Christ if it be only in the Person himself it is a Lamp that will go out but if the Vessel be at the Fountain Head and is joined to the Fountain then it is able to supply to the Glory of that Day And I shall represent it to you therefore by a History of Scripture that may serve as an excellent Parallel to Expound the Parable that I am now upon In 2 Kings 4. 1. There cried a certain Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha saying Thy Servant my Husband is dead and thou knowest that thy Servant did fear the Lord and the Creditor is come to take unto him my two Sons to be Bond-men And Elisha said unto her What shall I do for thee Tell me What hast thou in the House And she said Thine Hand-Maid hath not any thing in the House save a Pot of Oil. Then he said Go Borrow thee Vessels abroad of all thy Neighbours even empty Vessels borrow not a few And when thou art come in thou shalt shut the Door upon thee and upon thy Sons and shall pour out into all those Vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full So she went from him and shut the Door upon her and upon her Sons who brought the Vessels to her and she poured out And it came to pass when the Vessels were full that she said unto her Son bring me yet a Vessel And he said unto her There is not a Vessel more And the Oil stayed Now this is the thing only That I would represent to you That to us that are in a miserable and needy and wanting condition and in danger to be Bond-Men and Bond-Women to the Wrath and Justice of God for ever Here is the Oil multiplied The Oil multiplies from the Fountain from the Infinite Grace that is in Jesus Christ that we may stand at that Day And therefore That which I would advise and press upon every one of us from this very Point is That above all things we would mind our being in Christ I shall endeavour to free it from all Objections that you may be ready to make before I close the Point But to give you a Parable or a Representation that is nearer and does indeed intend this very thing If you look into the Prophet Zachary you shall see what it is to have Oil not only in the Lamp but in the Vessel that is to have a continual supply For though indeed this Parable seems to go no further than Oil in the Vessel yet when we come to enter into it we must needs find that it must be Oil from the Fountain alone that can do us good Zach. 4. 1 2. And the Angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a Man that is wakened out of his sleep And said unto me what Seest thou and I said I looked and behold a Candlestick all of Gold with a bowl upon the top of it and his Seven Lamps thereon and Seven Pipes to the Seven Lamps which were upon the top thereof And two Olive-Trees by it one upon the Right side of the Bowl and the other upon the Left side thereof And it came to that The Sons of oyl as they are called v. 12. through the Golden Pipes empty the Golden Oil out of themselves into the Golden Bowl Now What 's the Meaning of all this Not by Might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith the Lord that 's the Meaning of all They Empty the Golden Oil out of themselves That Golden Oil by which our Lamps will bear up and shine at that Day it must come from those Sons of Oyl That is From those Olive-branches Both which are only a Representation of Christ's Fulness in his Righteousness and in his Spirit So that here is that that alone can bear us up and bear up the Shining of our Lamps in that Day of the Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of the Lamb That which alone can bear us up is the Righteousness and Spirit of Jesus Christ Which are always Connected and Joyned one with another And Proportionable hereunto are other Similitudes The Wedding-Garment that we read of Matt. 22. which a Man not having on when he came to the Wedding he was sound Speechless That is Nothing but the Garment of the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Graces of his Spirit The King came in to see the Guests he saw there a Man which had not
on a Wedding-Garment The same with Oyl in the Vessel And he saith unto him Friend How camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment And he was Speechless Bind him Hand and Foot and take him away saith Christ and cast him into outer Darkness because he had not the Linen White and Clean the Righteousness of Saints Robes wash'd in the Blood of the Lamb for that 's the Wedding-Garment He had not put on the Wedding-Garment of Christ he had not on the White Raiment Buy of me Gold tryed in the Fire and White Raiment suitable to that Time and buy of me Eye-Salve that thou may'st see c. Rev. 3. All is from Christ So that the Whole Matter is This Whether we are in Christ or whether we are not in Christ So the Apostle John saith 1 John 5. 12. He that hath the Son here 's the plain Proposition the Case of every Man He that hath the Son hath Life And he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life And this is ihe Record that God hath given to us Eternal Life the Place is as full to the Purpose as possibly can be God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son in the Fountain The Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in his Wings He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life And hereby we may understand that great Place of Scripture which else may be more hard to be understood Rom. 9. 28. saith the Apostle there out of the Prophet Isaiah A short work saith he will the Lord make upon the Earth What is the meaning of that That he will make such a short Work upon the Earth The Meaning is this That it shall come to this speedy Question Are you in Christ Or are you not in Christ For he will finish the Work and cut it short in Righteousness because a short Work will the Lord make upon the Earth A short Work Many are ready to think That the Judiciary part of the Day of Judgment will be a mighty long time Because every Case of a Man must be examined and his Works It is a Mistake when we think so For though it will be as exact to every Man as if every Man's Case were laid down in his particular Works viz. of those who are not pardoned But yet it will be a time of the blotting out of Iniquity I say a Time of the full blotting out of Sin in all the Servants of God Though Sins are sought for they shall not be found There shall be none but upon the Wicked A short Work will the Lord make upon the Wicked when they are found not to be in Christ They have not a biding Light They are presently found by the Company they are in and by the Habit of the Body For the Saints are in the Habit of Bodies of Glory And the other in the Habit of Bodies of Contempt So a short Work will the Lord make It will be presently seen by our Appearance whether we are Christ's or no. Now this I shall endeavour to Argue to you a little from Scripture-Reason And then it shall be the Principal Part of this Discourse to clear to you the Doubts and Scruples and Objections that may arise in your Minds That this cannot be so First In regard of other Scriptures that insist so much upon what is in us And then to Answer these Questions In the Second Place you may say How shall we come to have an Interest in Christ And In the Third Place How shall we know That we have an Interest in Christ And so I shall conclude with the Application of All. The Great Scripture-Argument I would give you is this If we could seriously consider the Infinite Holiness and Purity of God If we could but I say seriously lay this to Heart That God cannot see Things any other ways than they are How would it clear this A great many Good Men are ready to say The Evangelical Righteousness that we have shall stand before God in Justification for Christ's sake I say If we seriously consider That God is Infinitely Holy That the Angels he charges with Folly That the Heavens are not clean in his Sight That he cannot see any otherwise than Things are I do beseech you to consider Whether you would venture into the Presence of such a Holiness with the Best Graces that you know in any Person in the World For my part I do not know how Men can Answer it in their own Judgments But I think it is as impossible for any Man to appear with the Holiness of the best Saint that ever was in the World except the Righteousness of Christ as I think it impossible for a Man to stand in the Greatest Presence without Confusion having nothing but the Squallidness and Filthiness of Impure Garments and Putrefaction all over him For surely the Saints of God speak in the Name of all Saints All our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and our Iniquities like the Wind hurry us away And there 's no standing but by that stable Righteousness of Jesus Christ Jehovah our Righteousness and by the Holiness that flows from his Death and from his Resurrection and that is under the Cover of his Blood and under the Answer that his Righteousness makes for the Imperfection of it I am sure this Reason is so solid so substantial and so weighty That whoever Considers it must needs yield and submit to it if they do not go off from it but strictly and precisely consider it That no other Righteousness can be accepted but only the Righteousness of Christ and the Holiness that flows from it that needs the Cover of his Righteousness and is made up in its own Imperfection by the Perfection of his Righteousness Surely it must be a great Hazard for such a Person as Paul to go before the Judgment-Seat with his own Righteousness when he said even in a State of Grace and in Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified For he that judgeth me is the Lord If we have not now the Righteousness of Christ How then can we stand before God! I Argue this not so much to make you of an Opinion or a Judgment for that I ought not to aim at but with the utmost Sincerity as God inables me that you may know your Peace and Safety and Security lies only in the Righteousness of Christ That Lamp will certainly be put out in obscure Darkness that hath not the Golden Oil And therefore I speak that you may have your Hearts full of this Christ and Christ only I am so far from being moved by any Objection that I am assured That this is the True Grace of God that I now Preach to you wherein we are all to stand We read Heb. 24. Christ is not entered into the Holy Places made with Hands which are Figures
of Man cometh at an hour ye think not that is if you are not ready For the very sence of knowing or not knowing the time is being ready or not ready if not ready we are not aware The knowing of time or not knowing is but the cover and outside of this true effective knowing or not so knowing I will therefore first endeavour to open to you the true state of this thing and then lay down to you several particular Directions for the right Exercise of this Watch And in a Second Head give you the Arguments of Persuasion to this Watch and so close the whole with Application 1. To shew you then in the First Place the true sence of this great Proposition from this our Lord's Application of the Parable And in the general You know the Conclusion of a Discourse is the Practical Application and that you know is regularly drawn out of the main substance of it This Application is then drawn out of the substance of the Parable and that most evidently is the having Oil in our Vessels as hath been explain'd The watching is therefore our looking well to that having Oil in our Vessels for they watch'd who were so ready though the Bridegroom delaying his coming they slumbred and lay down in Death they did not watch who so slumbred and went out of the World by Death that they had not a provision ready for the Bridegrooms Coming so that the knowing or not knowing the Time is not at all touched upon But more particularly to attain our Lord's sence in the most plain and practical instances of a Spiritual Life according to the Gospel as Directions to watching 1. Look diligently that we are taken out of the Gall of Bitterness and from under the Bond of Iniquity That we are taken out of the state of Children of Wrath by being implanted into Christ and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom is Redemption in his Bloud even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace that we awake from that sleep and stand up from the dead that Christ may give us life Let us look well that we are brought into the State of Grace for that is the principal and fundamental Point of Watching and the Essential Difference between a wise and a foolish Virgin to be brought into Christ and to have his Spirit 2. Let us be continually carnest and fervent in Prayer watch unto Prayer as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 7. And as our Lord commands Watch and pray that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Luke 21. 36. Pray earnestly with importunate Crys that you may not be given over and found in a state of Ruine and Condemnation at that Great Day Christ was whole Nights in Prayer with strong Crys and Tears he offered up Supplications unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared And how then should we think to meet him without that exercise let us therefore be instant in Prayer 3. Let us be very diligent in meditating on the Word of God Blessed is the Man that meditates in his Law day and night that 's watching to meditate day and night and whereas Christ says I know you not it is said The Lord knows the way of such holy righteous servants of his through his Grace in Christ And it is an evidence of being in him Psal 1. 6. 4. Let us shew our watching by keeping our selves from our iniquity and from all the Temptations to it Watch and pray saith our Lord that ye enter not into Temptation Luke 22. 43. Be sober saith the Apostle Peter and watch unto Prayer Gird up the loins of your mind and hope perfectly for the glory that shall be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. with c. 4. 7. And be sober be vigilant or watchful for your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour c. 5 2. All this shews the great Watchfulness our Souls should maintain against our own Iniquity that we may be upright before him and not be as foolish Virgins And it is the more admonishing that in like Discourses of our Lords with this Parable when he discovers such foolish Virgins he says Depart from me ye that work iniquity 5. Our Watchfulness must be exercis'd in adding Grace to Grace for otherwise as the Apostle saith we shall be blind and not see so afar off as to behold the King in his beauty and the Land that is very far off 2 Pet. 1. 9 c. with Isa 33. 17. Thus an abundant and rich Entrance shall be ministred unto us into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ We shall be ready and not go to buy and find the Door shut 6. We Watch by continual Meditation upon being dissolved and being with Christ and upon the Glory of his Coming We need not be written to of the Times and Seasons for we our selves shall know that the Day of God so cometh as a Thief in the night and as sudden destruction cometh on them that say Peace Peace but they that watch thus and are sober are not in darkness and in the night but are of the Day and not asleep 1 Thes 5. 5. c. 7. We must Watch against the Sin of the very Age and Day wherein we live when we live in a prophane Age take heed of that when you live in a formal hypocritical time take heed of having a Name to live and being dead for Christ comes on such as a Thief at unawares They shall not know at what time he will come upon them Rev. 3. 3. If a Sensual Luxurious Worldly Age Take heed of being overcharged with those evils and the Cares of this Life 8. Let us possess our selves with the most clear and distinct Apprehensions of the Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ as the Kingdom of the Resurrection and of the Appearances of Saints in Bodies of Light and Glory Rev. 16. 15. Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments that is that looketh to the presenting his Body now as a sacrifice a living and acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to God in Christ Rom. 12. Thus we shall appear in Bodies of Glory and not of Contempt in the Redemption of our Bodies and Men cannot see our shame when Christ cometh and all his Saints with him Head 2. I come therefore to the Second Head to lay down the Arguments of Perswasion that we may be moved to this watch Argument 1. The Time of Watch is only the Time of the present Life Whatever we would do for the After State it is to be done in the Present State in the Time of the present Life There is no Counsel nor Device in the Grave whither we are going and therefore whatever Our Hands find to
such so Educated and Prepared yet to be a Preaching-Soul to our selves none can be scandalized or offended at that 4. In the Fourth Place Let us take heed and keep our selves from our Iniquity that there may be no Sin that we shall be found in at the coming of Christ that we give Indulgence to now no course of known sin or of the neglect of any known Duty Let us take care of this that we do not allow our selves in any way of sin that we search and try our ways continually that we may turn unto God Il'l give you two notable Scriptures to this very purpose though a great many more might be given I was also upright before him and kept my self from mine iniquity Psal 18. 23. That 's a very great Scripture though I have already spake of it that especially that I would direct you to now is in the 139th Psalm 23. 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting You see here It is a very Difficult point For If a Virgin may be shut out for ever what Reason have we to lay our thoughts open before God and to say unto him Search me O God I know not how to Search my Self I am so Dark and Blind to my self in my own peculiar Iniquity That I know it not But do thou Search me and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Any wicked way in me That is The way of living in any Sin or giving up my self to any Lust Let us be mighty Cautious very careful in This to lay our selves before God for Indeed If any one would say to me Which way shall I help my self You say That a Virgin may be a Foolish Virgin You say That Virginity is the Best State in the profession of Christianity And yet There may be such a Worm at the Root of it as may wither it all What then shall I do Does not this Discourage in the way of Religion If I may be so Mistaken and Deceived in it Were not the Foolish Virgins as likely in their own Eyes as the Wise Therefore I say No other way but to lie at the Foot of Christ and of the Spirit of Christ and Earnestly to pray Search me O God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and my Secret Retirements and see if there be any any Secret wickedness in me and lead me in the way Everlasting If we did continually This and if our hearts were fully Set upon it certainly God would bring forth our Righteousness as the Light and our Judgment as the Noon-Day Surely God will Discover This if we are Sincere It is the best counsel that can be given and the best Example that can be laid before us And so That of our Saviour I look upon as the peculiar duty in order to our waiting for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ I say I look upon it to be the very peculiar Duty Our Lord saith concerning this Let your Loins be girded about and your Lights burning Luke 12. 35. And so the Apostle Peter expounds this Scripture more fully to us and he directs it to this very Point of Looking to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ Besides all the Grace of the Gospel at the present there is the Crowning-Grace There is the Triumphing-Grace that is to be brought to us at the appearing of Christ Gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for that salvation You know the loins they are taken for those parts of Human Nature wherein is the Seat of Sensuality and Corruption most of all the Bodily-Lust that men are affected with And as the loins are girded a Man is the more expedite and ready for Motion So when all that superfluity of the Flesh and impure sensual affection is girt up and we hope perfectly for the Grace that is to be brought to us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Let us earnestly therefore pray Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous sins that they may not have dominion over me Then shall we lift up our face clear as the Morning and we shall lift up our head without spot as Job If Pride if Lust if any inclination to the love of this World to sensual Pleasures and Delight if any of this we find to be our sin any immoderate Lust or Sin whatever it is Let us gird up the loins of our minds wherein we find any extravagant and impetuous Motion to evil prevail upon us 5. In the Fifth Place Let this be our great care to meditate much upon Death Judgment and Eternity Let those common and general Notions prevail upon us For my part I have always and desire always to Declare That I do not bind up any one to any particular apprehensions of my own in these things although I do fully believe such an appearance of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ Yet I say to every one Let those general and agreed Notions and Principles be strong upon your hearts And the less you can intend and encline to believe such an Appearance and Kingdom of Christ be the more Intent upon those Four Last Things as they are generally called that is Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let those General and acknowledged and impressed Points be always upon your Minds O! What kind of persons should we be if we did but grow up to the acknowledged Points of Christianity Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Let us always take these into consideration and there is no Christian but owns them even Papists themselves those of them that have been more Devout than others have written very excellently and very notably upon these things these Principles that run so mightily into all the sence of Christianity God forbid that any thing should be said to take off the plain Consideration and the strong Apprehension and the close Meditation and the mighty influence of those Four Things from us For who can enough speak of them or consider them Take them in the plainest sence that you can And Oh that God would give you to feel even every one of us to feel the full work of them upon our hearts that they may have every one their perfect work upon our hearts That as I may allude the Chariots of our Souls may be always moving upon these Four Wheels and that our Chariots may never stand still but lift us up continually above the Earth It is my earnest Prayer for every one of us speaking and hearing That our Souls may be as the Chariots of Aminadab carried upon these Four Wheels of Death and
Universal Laughter and Rejoycing The Desire of all Nations will Appear at a Set Time this Next Year the very Last of those Three Set Seasons Time Times Half Time Eleven Times expresly or Vertually Recorded in Scripture Prophecy and therefore I can have no Doubt But in the observing These so often Repetitions Remarking close upon Them and on what Accounts They are Recalled and to what Applied and Ballancing These One with Another I have Arriv'd to Full Assurance They are Assign'd to the Papal Last State of the Roman Monarchy the Last of the Four Kingdoms or Monarchies and the Four now Expiring in the Expiration of These Times and Half Indeed I look upon no Truth of Scripture to be more Plain and Certain except the Articles of Faith and Rules of Holy Practice necessary to Salvation Then that Those Four Monarchies are given as a Calendar of Time for the Embarrassment of the Kingdom of Christ or that Glorious State of Christianity which even the Prayers styl'd Establish'd by Law oblige the Belief Desire and Expectation of Scripture takes therefore so particular Notice of the Four viz. the Babylonian and Perfian as is well known and Takes Account of Their Time of the Grecian more obscurely Yet the very New Testament in that Language and the so often Division of the People of that Time into Jews and Greeks is a very undoubted Owning Them as one of the Monarchies Out of which through a Great Part of the 70 Weeks the State of the World had been sliding into the Fourth the Roman Monarchy which Surrounds the whole New Testament History and Prophecy as is undeniable But assoon as ever the Time allowed to the last of these is at an End The Kingdom of Christ will immediately succeed and there can be no Inter-Reign Nor can any other Kingdom Interpose The Vision is so sure and its Interpretation so certain And such a kind of Kingdom it must be as was Congenially to have its succession so Connexed to those before it that tho it is a Holy a Heavenly a Spiritual yet it must be also a Visible Sensible Kingdom as to the Dominion and Glory of it and no Metaphor or Allegorical sense can satisfy without it And we know the Nations to which we belong are a part of the Ancient Roman Empire and Remaine still of the Ten into which it was canton'd Which Division hath been to me an Infallible Reason of Confidence France should no more prevail to an Vniversal Monarchy then the House of Austria hath done And herein for the keeping it within the Figure allowed its King by Prophecy I know God hath made our K. an Instrument All the Iron of it could never break the Northern Iron and Steel of the sure Word of Prophecy But seeing we I say are such a part of the Ancient Roman Empire we are the more concern'd and ought to be the more Awake on the Fullfilling of Prophecy as of the first of the Kingdoms of the World which is to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. I have the same assurance that this Time Times and Half Time must be just on the Expiration By Prophecy we might rather have expected their End sooner The Wisdom of the Divine Spirit draws them so very near to the Time of the Roman Empire Becoming Christian in all its Portraitures of the Anti-christian State As I know my self able by Divine Assistance to make out to the satisfaction of Any that will allow themselves the thought they know and yield necessary in any more retired Parts of Science That had I not the Faithful Evidence of the Scripture Line of Time I have already mention'd together with uncontestable Events I should Fourteen Years ago have pitch'd upon some nearer Time For to mention one of the most obvious the very Casting the 1260 and Additional 75 so manifestly into Indictions or Fifteens of Years a Character of Time not Regulated and known till soon after Constantine would have Enclin'd to have commenced them sooner I know the Hope for which I Apologize cannot but Encounter Great Objections but I am assured God hath set it and myself as a Minister of it as a Brazen Wall that tho it be Fought against It shall not be prevail'd over The Objections and Solutions I shall very much in short thus Account for First It will be pretended against it It is a Presumptuous Curiosity to undertake to Pry into Prophetick Times and that it ought to be immediately check'd with that of our Lord It is not for you to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath Set in his own Power But as to that Particular Scripture it is evident it was an Importune Enquiry of the Apostles not in the order of Scripture Researches nor in the due waiting for of the promise of the Spirit which was the Duty of that very Juncture And therefore tho our Lord is quick upon their disorderly question yet he implies there would be a Gracious method for their Resolution in it and commands them to Jerusalem to wait for The promise of the Spirit from the Father which saith He you have heard of me One Branch of which was The shewing them things to come Joh. 16. 14. And in general we find the search of Prophetick Times is much more under the Favour then the Displeasure of Scripture It is recorded with Honour to the Children of Issachar that they had understanding of Times and knew what Israel was to do Particularly 1 Chron. 2. 32. concerning Davids Kingdom which was the concernment of that Time And in which I doubt not they laid together the Prediction of Jacob and other Revelations of God peculiar to that People and those Times by which they were able to give a Judgment And it is observed Their Brethren were at their Command This sway'd no doubt in the Union of Israel in David The Prophet Daniel was not satisfied with what he found by Immediate C. 9. 1. Revelation but understood by Books of Scripture and civil Records It is a Recommendation of that method the Number of Years God had Determin'd for the Desolations of the Sanctuary The Prophets in the same manner search'd What and what manner of Time the Spirit which was in them did signify The Apostle by 1 Pet. 1. 11. the Spirit Praises the Giving heed to the sure Word of Prophecy as doing well Seeing then the Account of Time is one eminent Branch of that sure Word It is Praise-worthy to give heed to that and no Presumption to do so Our Lord charges it as Hypocrisy not to discern the Signs of the Times those Characters and Notes of Impression God hath set upon them by Prophecy How often is there Encouragement given in that Great Prophecy of the New Testament Blessed is he that Readeth and they that hear the Words of the Prophecy of this Book Let Him that hath Wisdom Count. Here Rev. c. 1. 3 is the Mind that hath Wisdom