likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom 2. And five of them were wise and five were foolish 3. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oil with them 4. But the wise took Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps 5. While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept 6. And at midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him 7. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps 8. And the foolish said unto the wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out 9. But the wise answered saying Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves 10. And while they went to buy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage and the door was shut 11. Afterward came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us 12. But he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Have often had it in my Thoughts and Desires to open this Great Parable of the Kingdom to you Wherein as Christ saith he hath declared things that had been kept secret from the very Foundation of the World But indeed I fear an Inability to open this Parable according to the Greatest Importance and Sense of it I have yet by the Assistance of God and through the Great Author of it undertaken to offer to you the utmost of Light that I can from so Rich a Portion of Scripture But still saying Who is sufficient for these things I know it contains in it self a Point of the Greatest Concernment to every one of us And the Greater and the Fairer our Profession of Christianity is the Greater is our Obligation to consider it For you see here is nothing in the Text but a Virgin-State and that imports the Purity of a Profession the Highest and the Purest Profession of Christ and of his Name And yet as you may easily observe what a great Danger and Hazard there is in the Purest Profession that we should come short of the Great End For why were Five of these Virgins shut for ever out of the Glory and Happiness of the End The Point that I aim at to discourse upon I 'll give you in the General And then shew you in every Particular how the Parable Answers to it And how Great the Wisdom of Christ is He spake indeed as it is said in the Gospel as never man spake No meer Created Man was ever able to find out such Lively Images and Representations of Things as he did and as he hath given us the Instance and Example of in this very Parable I say therefore here is the main Point that I propose to you That even the Highest and most Excellent Professors of Christianity have great need and an Obligation lying upon them to take care that while they make so excellent a Profession they have that that will bear out and will last in that State of the Kingdom of Christ and of the Glory of it I say the Highest and Purest Professors Suppose any of us say We are not as Heathens and we are not as Antichristians and we are not as the Looser and General Professors of Christianity are But we are Virgins we are of the Purest and of the most Refined Profession of Christianity Our Lord here allows it to us we may be so and yet notwithstanding this we are to be under this severe Caution That we are not found foolish Virgins that have not the Truth and Power of Christianity or only a Profession that will go out as a Lamp extinguished and quenched and cast out into utter Darkness when it comes to the strictest and highest Examination Now this our Saviour hath comprized under Three Generals that you may observe in this Parable which I will at this time first of all but in gross and in short deliver to you and then Endeavour by the Assistance of God to be more Exact upon the Particulars of it First Therefore that we may understand it we are to observe That this Parable represents the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven is to be understood First In the opening of it in the Preaching of the Gospel and in the drawing of the Minds and Hearts of those that hear it unto it That 's the first Notion of the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom This speaks the whole State of the Gospel from that Fulness of Time as I have Stiled it from the Apostle Paul to the Fulness of Times or of All Times from the time of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ from that time 'till the Bridegroom himself comes The Kingdom of Heaven It is the Preaching of the Gospel daily and continually to all those to whom it is offered and tendred And as to this He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear Secondly This Kingdom of Heaven it is to be considered As it shall open it self in the Glory of the Appearance of Jesus Christ For the Kingdom of Heaven doth not lose it self when the Preaching of the Gospel is at an end and when that which we count the Day of Judgment comes but it passes then into another State into its Glory and into its visible Appearance It comes then into the highest Celebration of the Nuptials and of the Wedding For they went forth to meet the Bridegtoom And it is said That the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him into the Wedding and the Door was shut So the Kingdom of Heaven lasts from that Preaching of the Gospel from the Death and Resurrection of Christ unto the Glory of the Kingdom in the Appearance of Christ and of all his Saints with him Which as I say and as you shall after hear is the highest Celebration of the Wedding and of the Nuptials The Second Head of Discourse on this Parable in which our Lord hath presented this great Truth to us is the Representation of those that make Profession of him in the purest and in the most refined way and therefore they are all called Virgins Even those that had not Oil in their Lamps yet still they are called Virgins And those that were not only the wise but the foolish still they are called Virgins And what is the Reason of this but that Christ might press the harder and closer upon every one of our Consciences If you say and you know we are ready to value and rate our selves by it we have a better Profession and a better Worship and we do not as others do whose way and whose worship and whose profession we condemn but we are as Virgins in our Worship
the Nature of the Type and to fill up all the Parts of it and all the Colours of the Picture For the meaning is no more than this Look well to this That you have a Provision a Treasure of Grace that will last out the whole Time of the Wedding-Solemnity For if you have not you will not be able to make a Provision then you will be as those that are unready Now that this is the meaning of Watching is very plain from hence because the Virgins that had Oil in their Lamps and in their Vessels too they Slumbred and Slept yet they went immediately into the Wedding But all those that had only Oil in their Lamps and not in their vessels they were shut out there was no possibility of making Provision for themselves at that time From all which particulars then that I have given you at this Time but the Generals of I collect Let it be our care let us seriously look to it that we make such a provision now that may last out that whole State that is That we have such Grace as will bear out the Tryal of that Day and that Time That 's the main Importance of this so great Parable so excellent Parable that every one of us should look to it That we have such Treasure such real Riches of Grace in the Blood of Jesus and in the power of his Death and Resurrection upon us that will comport with that great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And let us not say among all the Professions and Ways that there are in the VVorld we have chosen out what we think the best and the purest It is not enough that we are Virgins in our Profession but we must have this rich Treasure this real Treasure of Grace in our Hearts This I say is the main Importance of this great Parable and it Issues into this That we should take heed of pleasing our selves in a Profession and that we should be under the power of this Apprehension That the most excellent Profession that there is in the World in the whole Christian Name whatever it is that shall have the Precedency above any other yet if our Hearts are not Enriched with the true Grace of God and of Jesus Christ we do not know the Truth as it is in Christ effectually And therefore indeed there is not any place of Scripture that Imports a greater Severity or makes more necessary tryal and search into our State and Condition than this very Parable does For when it gives a Representation of the purest State that can be given that is to call all Virgins and yet that some of these are shut out for ever from the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ How should it as our Saviour speaks in a like Parable engage us to strive to enter in at the strait Gate For many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Many of the Children of the Kingdom shall be thrust out as Christ speaks in another place This is the great care therefore that should lie upon us to secure the inward part the vital part the true Power the true Light of Christianity that shall never be as a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness If you look upon the 14 Revel you may see what a high Importance this very Word or Representation of Virgins hath saith the Spirit of God there concerning those that were in the purity of Christian Religion These saith he are VIRGINS and have not defiled themselves with Women as other Professors of the Name of Christ had with the Impurity that others were defiled with For they are Virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth So that though this be so great a Representation of the purity of Christian Religion yet you see here in this Parable our Saviour hath taken this very Representation to set forth the State that yet shall miscarry in the End to Eternity And so the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am Jealous over you with a godly Jealousie for I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ You see sometimes this Representation Metaphor or Emblem of a Virgin is made use of to speak the highest and truest Purity And yet our Lord doth as it were abase and humble it here in speaking of the Foolish Virgins that he might gain his main point and end That is to tell us The most excellent Profession let it be what it will it will not avail us if there be not the truth and power of Christianity in it I shall therefore according to the particulars I have laid down to you endeavour to open this great Point all along by those lively Resemblances that our Lord hath given us in this Parable In the first place I shall consider the State of the Gospel as it is here called the Kingdom in its setting out from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 'till it attains that great Point of Glory its manifestation in the visible Appearance of our Lord Jesus It is all the while the Kingdom of Heaven Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened So as I have Represented to you from Gal. 4. and Ephes 1. Here 's the whole State or Time of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of all the course and motion it runs It begins in the preaching of the Gospel and it ends in the Glory of it Gal. 4. 4. I look upon it to be a great Foundation of all that Discourse that I have endeavoured to Instruct you by concerning the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law The first Appearance of Christ it is called the Fulness of Time that 's the beginning point of it And then there 's the Recapitulation the gathering of all things again into Christ and that is as the Apostle tells us Eph. 1. 10. In the dispensation of the fulness of Times he will gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him In the Fulness of Time Christ came to bear the sins of many In the fulness of Times he gathers all into himself So that the Kingdom of Heaven it hath its beginning in the first Appearance of Christ and it hath its uttermost Glory in the gathering together in one all things into Christ And then it is delivered up into the Kingdom of Eternity We should therefore apprehend our selves even now under the preaching of the Gospel that we are under the motion of the Kingdom of Heaven here 's the beginning of it And then we should look to our selves and draw All to the Issue and last Result For the Kingdom of Heaven lasts till that great Solemnity of the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb it lasts to that very time and so it continues till the Kingdom is delivered up to God all in all You
THE Parable of the Ten Virgins In its Peculiar Relation to the Coming and Glorious KINGDOM OF OUR Lord Iesus Christ OPENED According to the Analogy of the whole Parable and of Scripture in General and Practically Applied for Exercising all the Churches to Holy Watchfulness Mark iv 13. WITH AN APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing within this Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold byWill Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. A TABLE of the Principal Doctrines of each SERMON The Sermons are Divided into Five and Six Each Part viz. The first Five begin with Page 1. and so go on And the Six Last also with Page 1. and so go on The Doctrine of the First Sermon Page 1. THE Kingdom of Christ is in every Thing and throughout The Kingdom of Heaven SERMON II. Page 21. There is a Marriage-Union betwixt Christ and his Church and every Particular Believing Soul SERMON III. Page 39. The Preparation for the Glorious Marriage-Solemnity is Now and All Christianity looks to that Solemnity SERMON IV. Page 59. All those that are Christs are to hold the great Feast of the Supper of the Lamb to Jehovah SERMON V. Page 74. That the Coming of Jesus Christ hath not yet been since He was here on Earth neither yet is it immediately to be The Bridegroom Tarried The Second Part. SERMON VI. Page 1. While the Bridegroom tarried All these Virgins both the Wise and the Vnwise Slumber and Sleep SERMON VII Page 18. In the very same Circumstances wherein any of us lye down in the Grave in the very same we must be awaken'd and Rise up again SERMON VIII Page 38. It is a Point of great Consideration What the difference is between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins SERMON IX Page 58. It must be sadly Acknowledged and every one is to take it to himself That a Virgin if a Foolish Virgin shall not be admitted nor suffered to enter into the Glory of that Marriage-Feast the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. SERMON X. Page 24. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ is bound to Watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the Days of Christ and had known certainly that his Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since SERMON XI Page 87. 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Where you may be likewise Supplied with Mr. Rich's Testament and Psalms in Short Hand bound THE Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied SERMON I. On Matth. 25. from Ver. 1 to 13. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be
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 Conversation and therein to Look for and to Haste on to the Day of God and with the Spirit and under his Influences and with the Bride-like Affection Cry out as Hearers mov'd with an Holy Sympathy or Likeness of Affection Even Cry out in Harmony Come Lord Jesus Come Quickly SERMON VI. On Matthew 25. v. 1. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses led you through the great Importance and Sense of our Lord in this Parable Which is one of those wherein as he speaks Matth. 13. he opened his Mouth in Parables and uttered Things that had been kept secret from the foundation of the World I have spoken of several particulars herein and will go directly upon what is now before us and to be spoken of and that is That while the Bridegroom tarried all these Virgins both the wise and the unwise slumbred and slept Now it is indeed a great difficulty to find out the very meaning and sense of our Lord in this part of the Parable For it seems strange that not only the unwise but that the wise Virgins slumbred and slept And to give a sense of this suitable to the meaning and to the rest of the Parable I shall at this time by the assistance of God undertake and so to Discourse of it accordingly I observe therefore to you That here are two Words used by our Lord They slumbred and they slept I look upon these Words to have two very different senses though they may seem to be perfectly alike And that slumbring and sleeping as indeed Scripture and common Language generally join both together mean one and the same thing But I understand the First concerning the spiritual state of the Churches of Christ during the delay of Christs coming and of the Kingdom of Christ All the whole state of the Christian Church hath been from the very beginning of the working of the Mystery of Iniquity it hath been in a slumbring condition But then the sleeping I look upon that to be an expression of the dying of the Servants of Christ all along from the Time of the Resurrection of Christ to this very Time And the latter is consequent upon the former For I am fully perswaded That if the Power and Glory and vigour of Christianity in a settled state of Christianity if that had immediately followed upon the Resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Spirit that pouring out of the Spirit that was in the Apostles days I do fully believe there had been no such Thing as dying Even as when the Kingdom of Christ comes there shall be no more Death So if the Kingdom of Christ had immediately proceeded upon the first Preaching of the Gospel there had been no sleeping If there had been no slumbring there had been no sleeping And I shall give you two great Reasons why I understand the Word sleeping concerning dying They slumbred that is the Power of Christianity did not shew it self upon them And so they slept that is they died The first Reason I would give you of it is this Because the Intention of our Lord in this Parable is chiefly That we may look to the Power of Christianity in our own hearts to such a power of it as that we should be able to appear with Christ when he comes to the Wedding That our Lamps should not then go out The great Meaning the great Scope of the Parable is this That we should look to have the very Life and Truth of Grace so in our hearts that we may have a Light of it when Christ comes that will not go out in the very time in that very instant Time wherein we should go with him to the Wedding Now it is very plain That the Wise Virgins indeed had this Light For it is said of them ver 10. They that were ready which is spoken of the wise Virgins they went in with him to the Marriage and the Door was shut So that if the wise Virgins had slept in that sense that the foolish Virgins did I say if they had slept in the same sense they would not have been ready to go into the Wedding with Christ So that these wise Virgins they did watch and they did not sleep in the main sense of the Parable For they were ready to go in with him to the Wedding Altho therefore they did die yet in the great concernment of Eternity they did not sleep away their time they did not lose their opportunity of providing a Treasure of Oil. A Second Reason that I give you Why this sleeping is not meant of the spiritual estate of these Virgins but only of their dying is Because it is said At Midnight there was a Cry made And then they arose and trimmed their Lamps Now this Midnight is that state of death in regard of the Body in which all the servants of Christ lie till that Resurrection till that First Resurrection that is spoken of This is indeed like a Midnight For when the Bodies of Saints lie in the Dust it is as if a Midnight were upon them as to that visible state and appearance of Body though their Spirits are indeed with Christ yet their Bodies lie as in a Midnight And if you speak of the Apostles of Christ Peter Paul John and the rest of them they are all of them as it were in a Midnight sleep as to their Bodies And therefore the Midnight is so properly to be understood Whereas in regard of the Spiritual State of the Church of Christ which is before his Coming before the Glory of his Coming it shall not be a Midnight For as I have often endeavoured to make plain unto you That assoon as ever those Time Times and half Time of the Antichristian Power are at an end immediately a great Light and a great Glory of the Gospel shall shine out that it shall not be a Midnight Indeed the Light will not be perfectly clear or precious till the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But I cannot but hope and expect That within very few years there will be such a state of Christianity such a state of the Gospel the Everlasting Gospel preached through the World There will be such a new Mission and Commission of the Servants of Christ That it shall not be to be accounted a Midnight in that regard Nor shall the Coming of Christ be so on the sudden but that there will be great Light concerning it When that Angel that flyes through the midst of Heaven Rev. 14. shall have preach'd the Everlasting Gospel to every Nation c. These are the Reasons why I cannot understand this Word sleeping to be a representation of the spiritual state of the Church and Servants of Christ But I do understand by the slumbring That there is such a deadish such a drousie such a benumm'd state of Christianity as
have the Bible in English or the New Testament in their Houses Then it was a certain sign That that Man was in danger of his Life to have it so Why did not God give it with that freedom as we have it And then if you look back to Sixteen Hundred Years ago there was nothing in the World at large but Idols and serving of Devils And the Gospel was not Preached Till after the Apostles Times it did not come into these Islands of Britain It is not for us to know how to Rule and to Govern Times and Seasons But God hath disposed of every thing Blessed are your Eyes for you see and your Ears for they hear But I would but only give you one or two Scriptures of the great advantage if we should but live to see the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And therefore I beseech you all That you would earnestly pray That that Kingdom may be coming forth In the 29th of Isaiah if you observe the reading at the 15th Verse you shall find that there was a Book offered and the Learned said it was sealed and therefore say they How can we read it And the unlearned said we cannot read it for we are not learned If learned Men cannot read it how should we read it But saith God in the following part of the Chapter This very Book shall be opened it shall come to pass in that day that is when the Kingdom of Christ shall come The deaf shall hear the words of the Book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness that is There shall be so mighty a change of things that that Book that the learned and the unlearned could not meddle with the very deaf shall hear the Words of this Book It is a very wonderful Scripture to this purpose it shews us plainly the great things that shall be done by God at that Day And I make no doubt but that these Scriptures that Men are afraid that any should meddle with and they think it Presumption And how should we meddle with such hard Scriptures I make no doubt but the Eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness And so Isa 35. 8. And an high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those The way-faring men though fools shall not err in that way So great a Light of the Gospel shall shine out Pray therefore don't be so against the Preaching of the Kingdom of Christ in your Judgments or in your Discourses but rather bow your Knees and buckle your hearts and your thoughts down to the very lowest at the Throne of Grace to desire that this Kingdom may come Why do you envy one another the great Happiness that shall be in the Kingdom of Christ For a great Offspring like the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning must at that time be brought home to Christ And many of those that are Virgins but in Form must come to have it in the Truth and Reality and Sincerity of it And therefore let us earnestly pray according to that Prayer stiled the Lords Prayer Let us with earnestness and understanding pray Thy Kingdom O Lord let it come c. SERMON X. On Matth. 25. 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Come now to the Use or as we speak Application which our Lord makes of this Great and Excellent Parable Watch for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh And it may be upon the hearing of the Words you may be ready to say That I am upon a Scripture that overthrows the Attempts of drawing such a Scripture Line of Time as I have endeavoured to hold out and to perswade the Truth of as should lead to the very Coming of the Bridegroom the great Son of Man But indeed the intention of it as I shall shew you is quite another thing and does not concern it self in that matter either one way or other The main Point in it is that great practical one That every one of us ought to be upon our Guard upon our Watch while we are here in the World in relation to that great Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ We are to wait all our days according to our opportunity of enjoying the Gospel in the compass of Time God gives us which may as you know be longer or shorter as our Lives are in the dispose of God he may take us away this very Night if he pleases and yet for all this we must have made such a provision and preparation for the Coming of the Bridegroom which will else be with a dreadful and ruinous surprise upon us whensoever it be We are infinitely obliged give me leave to use so great a Word in so great a Point we are I say infinitely obliged therefore to take heed in so great a matter If it was as many Years to the Coming of Christ as it hath been since he spake these Words and though we were sure it would be so That therefore which I will propose to open to you shall be summ'd in this main Doctrine Doct. Every one that hears the Word of the Gospel concerning the Coming and Kingdom of Christ take it in your own sense as much as you please is bound to watch as if it might be the very next Day and Hour yea though he had lived in the days of Christ and had then known certainly that that Coming and Kingdom should not have been in so many Ages as have run out since For the knowing what Day or Hour is not a knowing or not knowing by Computation or Account of Time but by an effectual providing a Treasure of Oil that we may not be found foolish Virgins at that day Our watchful knowing is knowing by Union to the great Son of Oil Christ himself And if any Man did know never so certainly the precise time of the Coming of the Bridegroom yet he would not know in our Lord's sence at what hour he 'll come but would be in the same surprise as if he knew nothing at all That Day most certainly comes unawares upon all overcharged with furfeiting and drunkenness and Cares of this Life upon all that sleep and are not watchful by Faith and Holiness It comes at a day when it is not looked for and at an hour the evil servant is not aware who eats and drinks with the drunken They only know that day whose Loins are girded and whose Lights are burning who when their Lord cometh upon account of the Wedding open to him immediately Blessed are those servants whom their Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily saith Christ he will gird himself and will make them sit down to Meat and will serve them be ye therefore ready for the Son
worthiness of those that Speak or for the Ability with which they speak but the Source of all is this excellent Doctrine of the Gospel that we have in the Word of God And indeed If we had not a Tongue to speak it or Ears to hear it yet to behold the mighty Government of God and Christ the evil of Sin and the excellency of Grace and of the Spirit of God and of the Salvation of Christ throughout it is to put you into Heaven to introduce you into Heaven even while you are here upon Earth Do not think that it is a small thing that these excellent Promises these excellent Doctrines these excellent Exhortations and Counsels are Administred unto you For it is even Heaven upon Earth this very Word of God and for the preaching of it that is only a further Ordination of God that every one may have it spoken unto them and be persuaded In season and out of season and that there might be a more forcible Application upon the Souls of Men. But if we have but the Word of God this Scripture lying in our Houses we have the Kingdom of Heaven I may say lying in our Houses in this Sense I am now speakjng of it to you You have it because you have this excellent Doctrine of Christ And there are Scriptures there are many Scriptures that are so exceeding clear and plain that he may run that reads No one that hath but this Book of God either that he Reads or that is ordinarily read to him but he may say I am exalted herein to Heaven because I have such an excellent Scripture such an excellent Gospel continually before me So the very Sound of it the very Motion of it in the World it is the great Happiness of those parts of the World that have it And we have great Reason to say in this place in this City in this Nation and especially wherever God lights up a clearer Taper and Torch of his Gospel we have Reason to say That Heaven is come down to us and that we can go when we please and Read one of the excellent Sermous and Discourses of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel That we can go to the Epistles and read those admirable Things that the Spirit of God hath given out by the Apostle Paul James and John These things you do not Apprehend the great Advantage of them We talk of Heaven and we would be glad to go to Heaven and Heaven is the great Burden of all our wishes and all our hopes Behold saith Christ the Kingdom of Heaven is here among us the Truth of his Word lying open to us How dreadful therefore will even that Dust that gathers upon our Bibles from day to day be I say what a Testimony will it be And as our Saviour saith to those that he sent out to Preach his Gospel It shall be more tolerable saith he for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those that refuse it And the very dust of your feet saith he when you depart out of that City shake off as a witness against them Mat. 10. 14. So the very dust of our Bibles will rise up in Judgment against us because when God hath opened the Windows of Heaven to us in it we have refused and scorned and despised and to Speak in our ordinary Language counted it as a Book out of date because we have had it so long O! If you did but know what a value the Martyrs in the Days of Queen Mary set upon it when the Light was but just sprung out what a value did they put upon the Scriptures And indeed if God were cutting us short and a Famine of his Word coming upon us we should then say what a great Treasure is God taking from us And yet how many Hours do we pass in the Day and not read of Christ and of the Kingdom of Heaven that is so pourtrayed and explained in the Gospel to us There is a Time that is set out to us by Prophecy and there 's great Reason to hope that it is very near when this Kingdom of Heaven in the Everlasting Gospel shall Ride as it were Circuit or rather at one time be heard from the midst of Heaven throughout the whole Earth Rev. 14. 6. I saw an Angel fly through the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to Preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Kindred and Tongue and People This Everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven It shall be preached to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People Whereas now in many parts of America and whereas now in the whole Plat of the Regions where the Mahometan Power is and where Antichrist is There is a concealment of this Gospel a denial a shutting of it up from the Acquaintance and Knowledge and Reading and Hearing of the generality of the People it is here Preached in such a way as to make known the great Counsels and Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to Men. But In the Second Place The Kingdom of Heaven is in the mighty work and operation of the Gospel of Christ upon our Hearts Then when we find Christ to be the Pearl of great Price and sell all to buy him when we look upon him as the onely Treasure and the onely Riches when our Hearts are under the beginnings of Grace and the powerful Operations of it then is the Kingdom of Heaven come to be within us Matth. 13. 31. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a Man took and sowed in his Field which indeed is the least of Seeds but when it is grown is the greatest among Herbs and becometh a Tree so that the Fowls of Heaven lodge in the Branches of it This is an Expression of the Preaching of the Gospel which if it be received and taken in in the power of the Gospel upon the Heart It is indeed a little thing in the beginning but it spreads more and more upon the Heart and Life And the Kingdom of Heaven ver 33. is like unto Leaven which a Woman took and hid in three measures of Meal till the whole was leavened This is the Preaching of the Gospel and also the power of it upon the Hearts of Men. And when it is a Seed that takes upon hearts and brings forth abundantly Fruit to Eternal Life that also is the Kingdom of Heaven And ver 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hid in a field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant Man seeking goodly Pearls who when he had found one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it This is the Kingdom of Heaven coming within a Man giving him such a value of Jesus Christ that he looks upon all things else as the Apostle saith
bad are cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and wailing And now I may say to you in some humble measure as Christ said to his Hearers Have ye understood all these things They say unto him yea Lord. So I say to you Have you considered and received and in good measure understood what I have been now speaking to you That the Kingdom of Heaven sets out in the Preaching of it But where it is not the Kingdom of Heaven within us we have only a Lamp of Profession And therefore it will certainly come to that That before the Kingdom of Heaven hath done it will separate between one sort of Men and the other The Tares shall be gathered into bundles to be burnt and the bad Fish though they have come to the Net and come within the Net yet they shall be separated and cast into the furnace of fire This is the Kingdom of Heaven and this is the same thing which our Saviour intends in this very Parable I have Explained to you The Kingdom of Heaven never ceases till it hath separated foolish and wise Virgins And therefore it is said Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven Which is a great Key to this Parable in this 25th of Matthew Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven When do you think our Lord meant He meant at that very Time that was spoâ—en of before in the fore-going Chapter and on this occasion I would give you this Note in reading Scripture that you may understand it Observe though we divide Chapters one from another yet many times the Discourse of Christ goes on it is the very same Sermon though in distinct Chapters Now you shall find in the 46 verse it is written Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when be cometh shal find so doing Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his Portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And then at that very time shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins who have indeed their time all along in the several Generations of Men since the Resurrection of Christ the Kingdom of Heaven hath been and shall be in Motion as I tell you from the fulness of Time till the fulness of all Times And then at the fulness of Times it shall be likened unto Ten Virgins Five Wise and Five Foolish Five taken into the Kingdom of Heaven for ever and Five that are thrust out That is whoever they are that are found Foolish Virgins For certainly to make the Parable more capacious and to spread it the wider for the observation and consideration of all the Number is made equal not that they are so in themselves there are not equal Wise and equal Foolish For alas the inequality is very great in comparison the Foolish mightily exceed the Wise in the present State of things Though I make no doubt there will be a different State when the Kingdom of Christ opens it self there will be many and many brought to Christ So that I make doubt whether the number of those that shall be then brought into Christ will not raise the number of the Saved so as to exceed the other but I will let that alone But what I now tell you is That the Kingdom of Heaven will not cease till it hath made a Separation between one and the other and so shine out in the midst of them that are taken into it And I might give you many great Expressions to this purpose but the Parables in Matth. 13. are abundantly sufficient to shew you That till the Lord of the great Harvest comes The Kingdom of Heaven will not cease and then there will be a Separation made of the one from the other I shall now shut up this great Doctrine with Two close Applications 1. That we would First receive this great Doctrine this Thunder and Lightning into out Consciences and Affections What! hath our Lord said That even those that are Virgins may be counted Foolish even those that may be counted of the highest and purest Churches may be Foolish Virgins The Door may be shut upon them They may have Oil in their Lamps only in this World but not able to bear up in this Marriage Supper of the Lamb wherein every one is to have his peculiar Lamp and Oil to feed and nourish an exceeding Light and Flame of Purity of Holiness May Virgins have no Oil to supply at that time Oh then with what serious Caution Fear and Trembling should I look back upon my self and observe whether my Profession hath the inward Riches the intrinsick Value and Worth in it or not Whether there be Oil in my Vessel as well as in my Lamp Whether I have such a Holiness as will bear out in that Glorious Appearance of Christ and of his Angels and of all his Saints with Him Shall I not be put upon it in that Day to run a begging as it were for the Oil in my vessel Have we not Eaten and Drank may we say together at the Table of Christ Have we not made Profession of Christ and the Gospel Must we now be Separated from the real Saints and Servants of God Have I only had that which would serve me to hear and pray with in publick and to receive the Lord's Supper Have I only had that which is the Profession of the Reformed and Protestant Religion and not the Power And must I now be turned out from it and take my Habitation amongst the foulest Antichristian Idolaters and the worst of those Superstitionists Nay must I be turned out among the Heathen among those that have been the profest Enemies of God and Jesus Christ and in a worse case than they These things it is our Faithfulness and love to our selves and to our own Souls to declare them to our selves and to meditate upon them and to search with great consideration into our selves to know whether Christ be in us of a Truth or whether we have the Kingdom of Heaven indeed within us whether we are not running up and down with Observation as Christ said to say where is the Kingdom of Heaven Where is the true Light of the Gospel Where is the best Profession and the best Administration of Ordinances And in the mean time that I do not look for the Truth of Faith the Truth of Repentance the Spirituality of Knowledge the power of Holiness upon my own Heart and upon my own Life O that every one of us might make this use of it to turn that Light of Profession Inward to search our own
I Have entered into this Great Parable of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And to shew you That the Kingdom of Christ is from the very Beginning to the End of it The Kingdom of Heaven And that the Principal Point of the Kingdom as Now is The Espousing of the Spirits of his Saints unto Himself That in the Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of the Lamb They may be Bidden to that Marriage-Supper As the Expression is in the Revelation I shall now go on as I intimated to you the Last Day to shew you That This Preparation for the Marriage or for the Vnion with Christ in that Great Glory and Solemnity of his Kingdom is Now And all Christianity looks to That I say It looks to that Glorious Solemnity The Preparation is begun Now and then is the Glorious Solemnity But in the Time of the Preparation in the very present Time the Souls and Spirits of the Servants of Christ move with an Earnest Desire towards that Glory They are They ought to be moved to a desire of the Glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And All our Religion All our Christianity All our Praying and Hearing and Preaching All the Graces that we Labour after our Faith and Repentance our Holiness our Obedience All these they are to be Erected they are to be lifted up to be raised up to the Glory and to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ So that we ought to have an Eye in Every Thing to that State For so you see it is here said Ver. 1. There were Virgins going forth to meet the Bridegroom They took their Lamps and they went forth to meet the Bridegroom Though the Bridegroom delayed his coming and did not come so soon as they might think yet still they went forth to meet the Bridegroom All True Power of Grace and Holiness and as we speak of Religion To be Religious It is to go forth to meet the Bridegroom This is the Great Sense of it Not that we shall be perfect here in any Regard But our Perfection is in that Kingdom and Glory of Christ It is in that Solemnity And therefore it is our Great Mistake if we lay our Christianity lower than This If we don't Elevate and Lift it up to This very Great Point to meet the Bridegroom Our Lamp that is our Profession and our Dealing in Christianity now and in all the Ordinances of it and in all the Graces of it is to this very purpose That we might be Daily meeting of the Bridegroom That we might be fit to meet the Bridegroom and might bear up with the Glory Greatness and Excellency of that Solemnity I spoke to you the Last Day of the Captive Person that appeared Beautiful in the Eyes of Him that had taken her captive And if it was so that he desired to Espouse her she was to abide Thirty Days before the Marriage That is There was to be a Time of Preparation But now I beseech you to consider All that very Time which we read of in Deut. 21. 10. Her Head was to be shaved and her Nails to be pared and the Rayment of her Captivity was to be taken off from her and she was to continue in the house of him that loved her and to bewail her Father and her Mother a full month That is Because she was taken Captive and taken from her nearest Relations and was thus to be washed and her Head shaven and her Nails pared She was to be under such a Preparation all that full Month because a Pagan a Stranger from the Commonwealth of Israel As I said to you in the Expression of David Forget thine own People and thy Father's House So Christ gives us a Time of Preparation a Time of shaving our Heads and paring our Nails and taking off the Garments of our Captivity of our Corrupt and Impure State We have a Month for this That is such a Time as God allows his Servants here in the World and such a Time as his Church hath before the Glory of the Nuptials of the Wedding and of his Kingdom And they are all this Time to bewail that State that lost and undone State wherein they are by Nature And all rhat Time now that such Captives were under this Months Delay under this Months Preparation Undoubtedly they had a Great Respect to the Honour and to the Glory of the Nuptial Solemnity they did every thing with an Eye to that and with an Order to that And if it had not been so to be Accomplished All the Intention All that was meant by that of shaving the Hair and paring the Nails and taking off the Garments of Captivity had been to no purpose she had been turned out again and been a Slave for ever All these methods had been in vain But because there was so Honourable an Intention as that of Marriage That made all this easy and sweet and there was an Eye to it all along In the very same manner if we have not an Eye to the Wedding If we Love and Desire to stay in the State on Earth and not to come to the Honour of the Nuptials to be the Bride and the Spouse of Christ We lay all our Religion and Profession too low And therefore I shall desire to discourse this Point to you so as may move you most to draw up your hearts not to a Christianity as it is now but as it shall be in Glorious Solemnity of the Marriage of the Lamb And to teach you that our Eye is to be all along upon that and to discover to you the Greatness of the mistake in doing otherwise I shall therefore discourse these Heads upon it First To open to you what it is to be a Christian and to be Religious and to be Godly as we usually speak with an Eye to that future State to that Glorious State of the Wedding of our Lord Jesus And of our selves to be Married in Glory to Him And then In the Second Place I shall shew you the Great Reasons why this and nothing else is the Truth and Reality of Christianity And then In the Third Place I 'll shew you how it hath come to pass that this great Aim and Designation of Christianity is fallen so very low as it is in the World And then In the Fourth Place I will Answer Objections to you by which you may seem to think or it may seem to you that this is not so necessary and absolutely needful Doctrine as I hope it will appear to you And then In the Last Place I 'll close with the application of it First therefore I begin to explain it to you what it is to order our selves so as if there was nothing to come after or as if we did not care how long the Month of Preparation and Purification were drawn out And what it is in every thing to have our hearts raised and lifted up to this excellent end to this Glorious Point and Conclusion of the
with this Who does not that is seriously a Christian long That might be fulfilled From the Rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Thy Name O Lord shall be Great That Christ should have his Portion given Him with the Great and with the Strong That the Ends of the Earth should be His That Knowledge should cover the Earth as the Waters do the Sea If any Love God and Love Christ I appeal to you whether we could be content Things should be as they are and not as they are thus foretold Let me make a plain and a Familiar Comparison and bring it to our selves I would suppose now as I know there are many that are Zealous in this Nation for King James They know he is out of the Nation and as it were an Exile from them And tho they may have a Great Plentiful Competent Estates and Great Riches Yet they think things are not well and as they should be Because they say things are not as they should be to exclude a Just and Lawful Prince as they think I make onely this Allusion My Judgment is enough known Suppose any Profess to Love Jesus Christ Then think with your selves whether it can consist with your Loyalty to Christ with your desire of his Glory and his Kingdom that it should be at so low an Ebb as it is Now I am sure if you weighed these and much more that might be said and all of them together You would plainly say that there can be no Truth nor no Loyalty of Christianity without an Earnest Desire and Preparation in your selves continually for the Bridegrooms coming Surely to be Rich onely as to this world and after the rate and pass of it and to our selves can no way satisfy a Wise Virgin in Christianity But now Alas We may see it very much otherwise who can but observe it every where and with all manner of Persons that we may converse with of the Higher and Lower Degree even of the First Three as I may speak in Christianity As it was said of David's Worthies I say if you take even those of the First Three We cannot but say there 's too Great a Byass too Great a Propension too Great an Inclination and Poize of Men towards this VVorld They are for every thing Pleasing and Desirable and Pleasurably affecting in it And they hold off as much as they can from a belief of the nearness of the coming of Jesus Christ Now how comes this to pass in the VVorld Give me leave very briefly to Represent the reasons of this to you and the way or method how these things have come into the VVorld I am sure I may without any uncharitableness or untenderness say that the Religion and Christianity of not one of a Hundred but is onely Calculated for the present State And they would that all the State and Trade and Government and the VVealth and Peace and Plenty and Prosperity of it should go on still Than that there should be an approach of the Bridegroom and Kingdom of Christ The Reasons of these things I 'll give you in these three Particulars 1. The first is It comes to pass by the Bridegrooms Delaying his coming that hath given the Advantage and Opportunity to this State of Things if Christ had come as soon as he Rose as soon as ever he sent forth the Apostolick Preachers Things would have been found in a far other temper than now For when I come saith Christ Shall I find Faith on the Earth But now it was so necessary for Him in the Wisdom of the Father and in his own wisdom to delay his coming that he Swore It was a thing of so great concernment Dan. 12. That there should be Time Times and Half a Time before his coming should be So he did Chronize he drew out Time till his coming And that hath given Advantage to all that Deadness of Christianity to all that low posture of things So the Apostle saith 2 Thes 2. That day cannot come except there be a falling away first Thus the day was Post-pon'd it could not come And so observe Mat. 25. Where the Bridegroom Delayed his coming they all slumbred and slept Ver. 5. While the Bridegroom tarryed they all slumbred and slept And in Match 24. Pray observe how the Spirit of God Insists upon this that there was a delay of the coming of Christ ver 48. But and if that Evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming c. So here 's the sleep and space given for the possibility of such sleep such a low State in Christianity as there is by Christ delaying his coming Some are ready to say he 'll never come there will never be any such thing Why is it not sooner Why has it been so long Men have time to do something else We must find somewhat or other to pass away the Time till our Bridegroom comes And so they fall into a slumber As many in Morality have discoursed the great degeneracy of humane nature say they the Intellectual Life is Slumbred by the Animal Life And as some have desired to Allegorize the History of Adam and Eve Adam when Eve was taken out of him fell into a sleep you know God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam And so say they that lower Soul came to have the Predominancy and to get above because the Life of Adam was in a slumber it was in a sleep Give me leave by this to express to you my sense in what I am now upon as soon as ever the Professors of Christianity did perceive that the Bridegroom did not come The lower Life began to get above and the Christians even of the first Times began to slumber and sleep We have many instances of it Demas hath left us having Loved the present World Demas was not onely a single Example But he was a Peculiar Pattern of the State of Christianity Having Loved this present World So says the Apostle there is no Man like minded to Epaphroditus that naturally cares for your State For all Men seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's Phil. 2. So I say here was presently a Slumbring of the Power of Christianity And then there 's a Great Example of this Worldly Grandeur rising in that of Diotrephes in the third Epistle of John ver 9. He Loved to have the pre-Eminence Now as I said of Demas so I say of Diotrephes It was not onely a single Example But the Bishops of the Churches of Christ began to Love Preeminency to Love Grandeur To Love Prelation and to set up one above another And thus the Apostacy began to creep in And so Christianity degenerated into a Worldly Interest a Worldly Gain a Worldly Greatness a VVorldly State And here the Life and Power of Christianity fell asleep It was in a Slumber And this Spirit went from one to another and from hand to hand And tho the Reformation
amongst us hath made a great change among those that are called Protestants yet we are not awakened The Bridegroom must be nearer his coming before the Protestant Churches will awake And besides you see even to this day that Men in the Profession of the Gospel in the several ways of Men Make Christianity a Point of Interest in the concernments of the present Life I speak not this by way of Censure or Reproach but to represent things plainly to you how it is and how it comes to pass that we are not more in haste and earnest for the coming of the Bridegroom And then 3. In the third Place And that indeed which in part I have prevented my selfe in the Apostacy hath come to swallow up so great a part of Christianity Even so openly and avowedly in all the Papal parts of the VVorld And there are such Roots and Remainders and Twiggs and Twines of it about the Protestancy That it cannot be till Christ is nearer his coming that the VVorld will be awakened to see the entry of his coming Even the Protestant World and the most professing part of Christianity I come now to the Second Head I proposed And that is to open to you the Answers to the Objections that may be made Obj. 1. You may say in the first Place If this be the tendency of such a Discourse it seems a kind of Monkish superstition a kind of Living alone and minding nothing in the World it brings in a kind of a Pennance an Endurance like that among the Papists whereas the Scripture seems to allow us a free Enjoyment of the World and of the things of it Ans Now in Answer to this I would onely say that one sort of extream is ready to swallow up another if we do not take heed A Man may remove so far from such Ideas and Apprehensions as these are that he may fall into a perfect Worldliness an Enjoyment of this VVorld I dare not say any thing against a VVise and Sober and Holy and Temperate use of the things of this world and a Diligence in our Places and in our Stations But I say we have every one of us great need to take heed For we tread upon the Brinks of danger we tread upon the very Brinks of Destruction And therefore we should walk with the greatest VVariness and with the greatest Jealousy There is undoubtedly an allowance of these things And yet for all that Seeing it is such a State of the world as it is As I shall shew you presently we have Reason upon all Accounts to desire that it should be at an End Because we walk so much upon Snares and Temptations in the present State Notwithstanding I don't say as they take heed ye Touch not Taste not nor come near to any of these things But this I am perswaded There are some Remains of the Purity of Christianity in that which such persons pretend to though they have Debauch'd them They have turned them into abominable Superstition and into Great and Detestable Idleness and Sloth and to Horrible Impurity and Luxury under the pretence of such a Separation from the World But yet still I say at the first there was some Vein of the Contempt of this World and of Despising Things here below In the Justice of God leaving Men to themselves This was corrupted into Hateful and Abominable Superstition it is a Thing very Remarkable You know there are those that are called the Mendicants or those that go up and down and profess nothing but Begging But then on the other side There are no Courts so splendid in the World as that of Cardinals Bishops and Archbishops So that it is a kind of Expedient and Trick to hold up the Pre-eminence of the Roman Church by a seeming Contempt of the World in the other part I told you Religion is necessary for this World for the present state of it so the Beggery and Superstition of those that profess Poverty among the Papists it is absolutely necessary to uphold the Greatness and Splendor of the Court of Rome and those that depend upon it on one side by that Poverty on the other For it seems to Cogg Men into a belief that there 's an excellency in the Popish Church by producing in it such an Example of Contempt of the World These are the Lying Wonders that are amongst them and fair pretences by which they delude But still I say tho we have lost it it cannot but be allowed there ought to be now and much more there shall be a State of the management of the present World according to Christianity so as not to run into Superstition And yet to raise the Glory of Christ and his Kingdom far above this World Object 2. I come to the Second Objection How shall the World be maintained if all were such Earnest Pursuers and Hasters on to the Day of God as now what I have discours'd of seems to lead to Certainly Families would be at an End all Business would cease and the maintaining of Kingdoms of Laws and Rights of Government There would be an End of all These Answ Now therefore I say to you If any Man have his Soul prest upon the Kingdom of God and the Coming of Christ and the Coming of the Bridegroom Let us consider what an Answer Jesus Christ gives Luke 9. 59. Christ had called one to follow him Saith he Whither shall I follow thee I am willing to do it where must I go Saith Christ Verse 58. Foxes have Holes and Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head That is you must not take care for this where you shall have a Rest and whither you shall go you must Resign up All But he said Lord suffer me first to go and bury my Father And Jesus said unto him Let the dead bury their dead but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God That is The Kingdom of God is of Greater Necessity then even that which seems to be so great a peice of Piety and Humanity to Go and bury a Father But you may still urge How great would the Inconvenience of this be if Men should do thus How would there be any support of the present State of the World For that therefore I would refer you to another place that is in the same Evangelist Luke Chap. 14. 16. The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain Man that made a Great Supper and bade many That Supper is the Beginnings of Grace here even to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But they all with one consent began to make excuse The first said unto him I have bought a peice of Ground I am a Purchaser You must excuse me from being so Religious I am upon a Purchase And another said I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused I am an Husbandman and I cannot take
4. In the fourth Place I beseech you consider the great difference between the City of the Servants of Christ of those that are of the true Wise Virgins in Christianity And between the City of those that are not or are Foolish Virgins I would but very briefly represent that to you in Scripture-Expression and so I will conclude If you consider the City of the Servants of Jesus Christ consider it in that of the last Chapter of Ezekiel and the very last Verse the End of that Prophesie And the Name of the City in that day shall be The Lord is there There shall be the Bridegroom There shall be the Glory of the Prince himself That 's the City wherein Christ will entertain those that have the Bride-like Affection And Rev. 21. 2. I John saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven Prepared as a Bride adorned for her Bridegroom Here 's the City of those that are Virgins in Spirit to Christ in the sincere Love of him that shall be presented at that day as Chast Virgins to him But now consider on the other side You have the Name of another City And it is very admirable And I cannot but propose my Observation to you that God hath been pleased very lately to cause me to consider and to observe There is the Name of another City I say And it is the Name of the City of the Multitude Ezek. 39. 17. The Name of that City shall be Hamonah And they shall cleanse the Land The Name of that City shall be Hamonah Or The Multitude thereof Or its Multitude That is The Dead Those that are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth The Gog-Magog Tho they are Dead That is as to the sense of Glory and Life and Happiness and Peace and Enjoyment yet they are in Being for they have a City It were but in vain that meer Dead should have a City But those Dead that is they that are not Partakers of the first Resurrection Their City the Name of it is Hamonah the Multitude of the World are of that City and belong to that City and are taken at last into that City Multitudes Multitudes as it is said in Joel 3. Multitudes Multitudes in the Valley of Decision and the Valley of Excision They are not onely Judged but cut off They are slain with the Sword of Christ's Mouth As it is said Rev. 29. 5. They lived not again till the End of the Thousand Years That is they lay in Chains under the Footstool of Christ At the End of the Thousand Years God gave them leave to move a little and they make a New Attempt And then Fire comes down upon them and casts them into the Lake And if you think all this is too Metaphorical or too Nice and Curious and that you cannot understand so well I 'll conclude all with that of Matth. 7. 13. Where you shall find the very Hamonah in plain Doctrinal Practical Discourse it self Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction And many there be which go in thereat As the New Jerusalem hath its Gates and an Angel before it So the City here is the City of Destruction as it is called Isa 19. It hath its Gate But it is a Wide Gate It lets in every one that is not taken up into the New Jerusalem There be many There is a Hamonah there is a Multitude that go in thereat Therefore let us seriously take heed Look diligently to this lest any of us fail of the Grace of God of the true Bride-like affection by which we may enter with him with the Bridegroom into the Wedding when he comes c. SERMON IV. On Matth. XXV Ver. 1. and so on to Ver. 13. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom I Have you know made entrance into this Great Parable which I told you is in an admirable manner prepared and fitted to be a Representation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ as I have shew'd you First Even from the Begining to the Complement and Perfection of it It is the Kingdom of Heaven I have shewn you that the very meaning of all Christianity is a Going forth to meet the Bridegroom And therefore the present State is a State of Espousals a State wherein we are Contracted and Affianced unto the Great Bridegroom For that the Eye of every Christian the great Aim and Design of those that are Wise Virgins is that they may have a much higher Enjoyment of Christ than they have now And because the Religion that is for the present World and the present State will not serve the great Interest and great purpose of our Immortal beings I shall now proceed to a fourth Doctrine or Proposition from these words They went forth to meet the Bridegroom And they that were ready they went in with him to the Wedding So the Observation that I shall lay down to you is this That all those that are Christ's they are to hold according to the Scripture Expression they are to hold a Great Feast unto Jehovah The great Intention and meaning of the Gospel is to assure us that after the Time of Preparation and the Time of the Espousals there shall be a Glorious Festival A Glorious Feast The Marriage Supper of the Lamb As you know it is called And I shall endeavour to open this to you according to the Scripture-Light concerning it And then I shall compare it with all the Feasts that we read of in Scripture under the Law And so I shall come to make the Application of it to our own State and Condition First therefore to make it evident to you that this is a great Notion of Scripture That there is a Feast to be held a Feast of Joy and Rejoycing and of Happiness to be held to Jehovah And it is this very Marriage-Supper as you shall see of the Lamb. That the Scripture delights in this Representation is very evident by sundry Great Expressions of it Isaiah 25. 6 7 8. And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all People a Feast of Fat things a Feast of Wines on the lees of Fat things full of Marrow Of Wines on the lees well refined And he will destroy in this Mountain the Face of the covering cast over all People and the vail that is spread over all Nations He will swallow up Death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take away from off all the Earth For the Lord hath spoken it There is a great Feast that God will make to all People And it is set out by such Kind of Resemblances and Similitudes as express a Great and a Plentiful and a Rich and a most Delicious Entertainment among Men Fat things full
of Marrow And Wines on the Lees well refined And in this Mountain saith God I 'll destroy the Face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations When this Feast comes there shall be no Pagan Nation There shall be no Mahometan Nation There shall be no Popish Anti-Christian Nation There shall be no unbelieving Jews then in the World God will Draw off the Face of the covering cast over all People And every one shall see in the Clearness and in the Beauty and in the Glory and in the Majesty of the Truth of God and of the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ That the Religion of Christianity shall 〈◊〉 be upbraided with this Why are there so great Nations that are under the Prophet Mahomet as we are under Jesus Christ Are there not great Tracts of the World that are not known And do not the Jews that have the Doctrine of the Scriptures in the Old Testament Do they not deny Christ All these things that I may speak in a Familiar phrase Christianity is twitted with upbraided reproached with But in the day of that Feast All the Darkness of that State shall be drawn off In all our Feasts now there is necessary a sense of Death As I remember the great Prince Philip of Macedon when he had the most Sumptuous and Magnificent Entertainment He had first of all a Deaths Head served up in the Beginning of the Feast As if he should say tho I have entertained you now like a Prince and with all the Imaginable Royalty that you can expect Yet now after all this I and you must Dye So should we do in all our Eating and Drinking if we do but consider it we do but onely feed as we have a Phrase we do but onely feed Death We do but pamper Bodies to make a Feast for the Worms Now saith the Lord in this Feast I will take away all Tears and Shame and Reproach from all People utterly take it off O therefore VVho would not Aim and Design this to be at this great Feast that must be held to Jehovah And that he himself will hold for all his People as the great Prince and Master and Lord of it So you know there is nothing more ordinary in the Gospel than to compare the State of Things to a great Supper Matth. 22. He describes the Kingdom of Heaven by such a Supper as this The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding And they would not come Again he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it And when the King came in to see the guests he saw there a Man which had not on a Wedding-Garment Ver. 11. 12. As I shall after endeavour to enforce in the Application But you see plainly that it is a great Nuptial Feast that the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is Represented by So it is said His Servants wait for him There is a place of great moment to what we are upon that is Dis-advantagiously Translated And therefore I would desire that you would take something the more Notice of it Matth. 13. 34. The Son of Man saith he is as a Man taking a far Journey who left his House and gave Authority to his Servants and to every Man his Work and Commanded the Porter to watch Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh And this in Luk. 12. It is called a coming because of the Wedding ver 46. That 's the Expression I would desire a little that you would take Notice of And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the Wedding VVe Translate But the word in the Greek will very well signifie Because of the Wedding or upon the Account of the Wedding When Christ comes He comes because or upon the Account of the Wedding And that he may be present at that great Feast that is to be held unto the Lord our God I 'll give you but one Scripture more And so I hope you will be fully satisfied that it is the Wi 〈…〉 of the Divine Spirit to Represent to us the State of the Glory and Kingdom of Christ by a great Nuptial-Feast or Entertainment It is in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Prophesie of the Revelation Verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come And Verse 9. And he saith unto me Write Let this thing be taken notice of let it be written in Letters that he that runs may read Blessed are they which are called unto the Marrioge-Supper of the Lamb. Blessed are they which are called and invited to the Marriage-Supper of the Lumb I shall now therefore proceed in these Two Generals before I close all in the Application First of all to shew you what the Importance and meaning of this Great Supper or the Great Feast that we are to hold to Jehovah is And then In the Second Place I shall give you a brief Parallel between all the Feasts that were appointed to the Servants and People of God in the Old Testament and this Great Feast that is to be held to Jehovah To give you therefore the Sense and the Meaning of it in these Two Expressions First It is a Time of the Greatest Solemnity Glory and Lustre and Splendor and Joy and Blessedness that the Creation ever knew or can know in the State of a Creation I say it is a State or a Time of the greatest Magnificence of the greatest Joy and Enjoyment that ever was known in the whole Creation nothing ever like to that Alas the Days that we now know here in the World take those that have been the most Lightsome the most Prosperous they are all Dark and Gloomy and Cloudy Days in comparison of that Day of the Great Glory and the Great Festival that he speaks of Indeed it is very desirable to find the Hearts of any possest seriously with God and with Religion and with Holiness and with Christianity and with Communion with God and Enjoyment of him according to the present State of Things But if we did but know how low the Condition is now wherein we are If we did but consider what a Dark Black Cloud there hangs over all a Cloud of Corruption a Cloud of Unhappiness a Cloud of Sorrow and Affliction it is they live in And it comes upon the most Eminent Servants of God you know in what a Cloud they are wrapt up as to all bodily Appearance when they come to Die and what a Cloud of Corruption hovers over them For take the most Excellent Preachers and the most Holy Men if
you could follow them into all the Retirements of their Thoughts and Ways you would see that there is a Deadness there is an Emptiness of God There is a Low State wherein they now are taâ—â—n up with many thoughts with Variety of Imaginations here against which they wrestle and are in Combate And though it is most Desirable to Them to be Holy and Religious to the very uttermost yet alas This Uttermost here is such a Nothing compared with what shall be That we have Reason earnestly to look to that Great Festival to that great Marriage-Supper And to desire that things might be Brighter Clearer and Purer and more Transcendent than ever they have yet been Surely there is some Divine purpose tho we may not easily find it VVhy the Divine Spirit of God makes so great the Feast and Preparation of Ahasuerus Esther 1. 1. Ahasuerus which Reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over an Hundred and Seven and Twenty Provinces That in those days when the King Ahasuerus sate on the Throne of his Kingdom which was in Shushan the Palace c. VVhen he shewed ver 4. the Riches of his Glorious Kingdom and the Honour of his excellent Majesty many days even an Hundred and Fourscore Days and when those days were expired the King made a Feast unto all the People that were present And there was the most excellent Furniture the most Splendid and Glorious Furniture and Entertainment All that they were served in were Vessels of Gold And Royal Wines in abundance In all this State of it Surely there is a Diviner purpose in Scripture relating it Tho I shall not venture to give any Judgment concerning it Yet I make no doubt that it was Intended to be a Representation of the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ For Indeed those four Monarchies tho they have kept the Kingdom of Christ thus long from its Glory and from its Appearance yet there was some kind of Image and Representation of the Kingdom of Christ in them And it is very observable that the Persian Monarchs above all others Were greatly serviceable to the Temple of God the Type of the Kingdom of Christ And so God chose I am perswaded I will not engage far in it this great Feast of Ahasuerus with such a care of Sobriety And it was given to Represent the Glory and Riches and Magnificence in a Spiritual sense wherein the Marriage Supper of the Lamb shall be held So I say All is a signification of that Life of that Light of that Glory of that Blessedness of that Holiness of that Purity that shall be in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ It Represents that exceeding Joy As it is said in Psalm 16. Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life In thy presence is fullness of Joy And at thy Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Indeed it is first applyed to Christ and in him to all His Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see Corruption For at this time The Lord our God shall come and all his Saints with him All his Dead Saints shall be raised to this great Feast He will not leave their Souls in Hell nor suffer his Holy ones to see Corruption He 'll swallow up Death in Victory In that Feast he 'll shew them the Path of Life And the Entertainment of that Feast is fullness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore And so in that Place of Isaiah I read to you Where God wâ—â—es Tears from all Faces And the reproach and rebuke of his People he shall take off All the Glory of the whole Creation of God and of his mighty Power in it is made use of to set forth a visible State of Joy and Glory It shall be on purpose brought out for that day for the Glory and for the Honour of that Feast 2. In the Second Place Hereby is signified to us that even this Festival it is but for an appointed Time It is for a Limited Time In regard of the manner of it in regard of the visibility of it As it is a thing to be seen so it is for a Limited Time For it is received into absolute Eternity And the Kingdom is delivered up As the Apostle speaks to God and to the Father It is for a Limited Time and it is in Preparation to that Union with God to all Eternity And therefore it is Represented to us by a Thousand Years It is a Feast of a Thousand Years As Ahasuerus held a Feast of One Hundred and Fourscore Days Jehovah for Jesus Christ his Son for the Nuptials betwixt him and his Church holds a Feast of a Thousand Years And when that is at an End Then as the Apostle speaks in the 1 Cor. 15. That most Notable Place of Scripture that I have so often endeavoured to Imprint the Sense of upon you Then cometh the End Verse 24. when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power And Then Verse 28. when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all So I say It is a Limited Time Even though That be a Great Time and it is called a Kingdom that never ends because the Glory does not go off But as when the Nuptial Feast is over Persons of Great Condition and of Princely Estate you know They are still in Glory and still in Lustre though it be in a more setled State So Christ and all his Saints they are in a perpetual Joy in perpetual Happiness that does not end But only the Glory and Magnificence of the Wedding and Nuptials ends I shall now endeavour to parallel to you the Feasts of the Old Testament and to shew you That the Spiritual Sense and the Spiritual Meaning of them is This Great Solemnity of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ That you may know therefore That those Feasts that we read of in the Old Testament are truely and indeed the Emblems and the Figures and the Types and the Shadows of Spiritual Things Even of this Great Kingdom of Jesus Christ I shall give you that Standard of Scripture that ought to be a Rule to us in all things concerning the Types of the Old Testament Saith the Apostle Heb. 8. It is a Thing he often takes notice of Verse 5. Which serve unto the Example and Shadow of Heavenly Things As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle For See saith he that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed thee in the Mount Because God understood his own Kingdom and this Great Feast that he would hold Moses was to do nothing without special Command and Precepâ— and Direction for it All was to Answer Exactly to what was to come All was a Shadow and Example of Heavenly
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
of first Fruits in regard of his Servants I shall give you two Scriptures and so pass off James 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first Fruits of his Creatures And in Rev. 14. 4. These saith he speaking of the Hundred forty and four Thousand that were Sealed These are the first Fruits to God and to the Lamb. 4. The fourth Feast that we read of It was the Feast of Weeks As it is called in that Lev. 23. And it was after seven compleat Sabbaths were past Then there was a Feast which is called Pentecost And at that very Feast was the great pouring Out of the Spirit of Christ upon the Disciples Acts 2. 1. And so there shall be the Feast of the Harvest of all the Servants of God gathered in one after the Pouring out of that blessed Spirit of God All this shall be much greater than that was in Acts 2. This was but a Beginning It was but an Entrance of that which is to be done at the Feast of the Great Harvest Surely never was there such a Feast of Pentecost Such a Feast of Weeks as shall be then Every one who shall be admitted to that Feast His mouth shall be Full of the Wonderful works of God He shall speak abundantly of the Glory of God and of Jesus Christ and of the Riches of Grace He shall speak abundantly of the mighty Works of God in that mighty Pouring out of the Spirit of God 5. In the Fifth Place There shall be the Feast of Trumpets As we read Lev. 23. After the Feast of Weeks was the Feast of Trumpets And that Feast was a Type of the Seven Trumpets in the Revelation ending and fill'd up in the Seventh Trumpet that we read of Rev. 11. The Seventh Angel sounded and immediately there were loud Voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever ver 15. With which you may compare what is spoken in 1 Cor. 15. 52. And in 1 Thes 4. 16. Christ shall descend the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible And the Saints shall be changed And he shall come down with the Shout and Voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trampet of God Then shall that great Trumpet sound And then shall be the Feast when all the Dead in Christ and they that have slept In and By Jesus shall arise and shall appear in Glory and shall stand forth in that State of an Incorruptible Resurrection And then is the Blessedness of the Saints changed who live and remain here upon Earth And here all the forenam'd Feasts are together united in one 6. In the Sixth Place There shall be the Day of Attonement the Day of the great Attonement As we read of that also A Day wherein God was reconciled wherein the Entrances into the Holy of Holies were opened All that was to be in the Day of Attonement And so there shall be in the State of the Wedding of Christ The Feast of Attonement of Reconciliation As the Apostle speaks Acts 3. 19. When the times of Refreshing and of Restitution shall come Repent ye therefore and be Convented that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord In that Great Day of Attonement and at the Great Wedding All that make up the Lambs Wife shall meet there if they have been Enemies before to God and Christ they shall be Atton'd They 'll lay aside their Enmity one to another and fall into mutual Kindness and Enjoyment one of another Then all things as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. All things in Heaven and in Earth shall be fully Reconciled by Him Even by Him 6. The last is The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of a Paradisiacal-State The Feast of Tabernacles The Feast of Goodly Boughs of Olives and Palms And whatsoever was most valuable among the Plants was brought out to make Boughs with at that time And to this the great Feast of the Kingdom of Christ is compared Because it shall be the State of Paradice Restored All the Glory and Beauty and Excellency of the Creation shall then be restored We read therefore Zech. 14. 16 c. of this Happy and Blessed Feast of Tabernacles It is when all shall be Holiness to Jehovah And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations which come against Jerusalem shall even go up from Year to Year to Worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles It is the Feast of that State of Paradice where Instead of Briars and Thorns shall come up the Fir-Tree and the Mirtle-Tree And it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Perpetual Remembrance Esay 55. 13. I shall now Briefly shut up all this in Application And I desire you that you would refresh these things in your own Thoughts And that you would bring them to mind You will find every particular Feast that of the Passover Exod. 12. You 'll find at large and every other Feast in Lev. 23. And I desire you would consider and read that Chapter And remember that the Glory and Happiness and Blessedness and Spirituality of those Feasts shall be in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Vse 1. The first use therefore that I would make of it shall be this To make a present Invitation to you to this Great Feast that is to be held to the Lord our God Even to Jehovah That you would mind this That you would seriously mind it and consider it that all of us are now Invited For now when we may go as in that Matth. 22. One to our Market Another to our Farm Every one to this or that Entertainment of this World At this very Time the Invitation is made to every one of us that we would consider of it Behold this Sermon and this Discourse this Preaching of the Gospel it is sent to you to invite you to this great Supper He sent forth his Servants ver 3. That is the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel the Expounders and Openers of Scripture to you to call you and to bid you unto this Wedding Now take heed Take heed That you do not go one to your Farm and another to your Merchandize that you don't go every one your own way As it is said They made light of it and went their way They go every one their own way Take heed now Remember when that Wedding-Supper shall be and that it shall then be Proclaimed with that sound of the Trumpet with the Voice of the Arch-angâ—l Blessed are they that are bidden then to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb If any be bidden They must be bidden now They must be perswaded now they must accept the Invitation at this very time For now it is as I tell
you You may go to your Farm and to your Merchandize c. Every one your own way Now is the Invitation made and now it is to be taken Now it is to be closed with now it is to be accepted Hearken therefore every Soul that hears this Discourse Behold thou art Bidden to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb Thou art invited to that Great Feast of the Kings Son Thou art earnestly perswaded that thou wouldest be present there and that thou wouldest partake of the Splendor Glory and Magnificence and of the Happiness of that Day Take heed now that thou don't make Light of it and say what 's this to me You will certainly Repent it another day You will fall to Weeping Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth that you would not be perswaded when you were thus Graciously bidden by Jesus Christ and by the Voice of his Word and the Voice of his Gospel Therefore hearken to this Invitation Hear whoever it be As it is said Isa 55. Where there is a great Description of this very Kingdom of this very State of Paradice As you may find in the last Verse Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir-Tree and instead of the Brier shall come up the Mirtle-Tree And it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for an Everlasting Sign that shall not be cut off Now Ho every one that Thirsteth So the Chapter begins As you know we make publick Sounds and Proclamations So Ho every one that Thirsteth come ye to the Waters c. Wherefore do ye spend your Money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not c And if any should say this is nothing but onely a Noise of Words and of Discourse saith God ver 9. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts For as the Rain cometh down and the Snow from Heaven and returneth not thither but Watereth the Earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give Seed to the Sower and Bread to the Eater So shall my word be that goeth out of my Mouth It shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall Prosper in the thing whereto I sent it Therefore assure your selves that this Word It will not return in vain It will Prosper to that very End You may be sure such a Feast there is to be Therefore take great care concerning your selves what you will do about it how you will order your selves about it Vse 2. In the Second Place I shall point out to you how you may prepare your selves You must take care of this First of all that you get a Wedding-Garment As it is said Mat. 22. He saw one there that had not on a Wedding-Garment And he said unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment And he was speechless The Man was so confounded he was so ashamed of the thing that he had nothing at all to say The King came in to see his Guests and he saw a Man that had not on a Wedding Garment The Man had nothing to say he knew there was no Reason for him to say any thing And what is this Wedding Garment It is an interest in Christ an Interest in His Righteousness a being Cloathed in Linnen White and Pure washed in the Blood of the Lamb. And tho the Person did not despise the Wedding He made a Profession as we do of Christianity to come to it Yet in the next verse ver 13. The King said to his Servants Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer Darkness And There shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth For many are called but few are chosen Therefore look diligently to this thing That tho you seem to speak fair you will come and you will be there and you do make a pretence And yet you have not the Wedding Garment Christ and his Righteousness Oh how sad will it be In the Second Place You must look diligently to this too That you have Oyl in your Vessels and not onely in your Lamps This you see is in Matth. 25. The Foolish Virgins never thought of Oyl in their Vessels but onely in their Lamps That is you must have Grace you must have a Holy and Spiritual Life from Christ That will be able to last out and to endure that very Time But I shall not speak more of it Because I shall come in a full Discourse to Treat of it Vse 3. The third use I would have you make is I would have you observe and consider but a little How this Notion of a Feast hath been Corrupted by the Anti-christian World What a Company of Feasts have there been of Man's Institution The Feast of such a Saint and such a Saint and Feasts that never were appointed by God Yet they have come into use and they remain in observation And how came this It is by that Counterfeit Christianity Antichristianism came in Feasts that never were ordain'd by God And I wish with all my heart there were not Reason to bewail not the Anti-christian World onely but even our Protestant Profession There 's nothing looks more Scandalous and more Strange than setting up Feasts that the Gospel never appointed nor Instituted I say I pray with all my heart that they that have Power and Authority in these things may consider it For when Jereboam departed from the purity of Religion Instituted by God in the Old Testament He made Feasts and Times of his own So the Christian World hath done And the Rellicks and Refuse of it are still among us We keep up Times that never were appointed That there 's no mention nor Signature of in the Gospel I do not speak any way to desire to Reflect or to be Censorious but to speak the Truth of things according to the Word of God For it is onely of Jehovah himself to appoint his own Feasts And He hath kept up to us The Feast of the Lord's Day and the Feast of the Lord's Supper as Preparatory to that Great Festival of the Kingdom of Christ And no other are we to make nor to Devise of our own Hearts Vse 4. The Fourth and Last Application is this That you would seriously consider this Marriage of the Lamb this Great Feast how near it is For as the Jews were mighty careful to keep Account of Days and the Motion of Times and Weeks They were to Account as Scripture-Expression is Lev. 23. 15. In that Case so we ought to Account the Time And methinks it is a very great Amazement and a very great Sadness That there should be no more Diligence nor Care Neither in the Publick Ministry of the Gospel nor in Private Christians to Count the Time and to know how near it is to this Great Festival For tho you may think you are Excused Because it is said
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
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
Christ doth declare A night should come at that time upon his Church My head saith he is wet with the drops of Dew of the Night Because Christianity was drawing its Ceremonies long they began then at that very time they begun then to draw out the shadows of the Evening A great many Ceremonies came into Christianity and a Form and Way of Prayer suitable and agreeable to it and such ways of Preaching as prepar'd for it And then they came to be more intent upon the Remembrance of such a Saint and such a Martyr and keeping their Days and drawing as many outward Forms and Ceremonies of Religion as they could and they neglected the Power of it And this Christ observes and calls it the Drops of Dew the Drops of the Night upon his Head And then the Church of Christ began to slumber And this is the first Time that is to be taken notice of in regard of the slumbering even of the wise Virgins Of which I shall speak presently more particularly to you The Second is this And I desire that none would be offended or think me censorious in speaking of it For I design nothing I can truly Appeal to God but only to speak the Truth and the Reality of Things in a Point where Scripture calls for the speaking of it That is This Slumber hath been since the Reformation As soon as ever the first Power had shewn it self There was indeed a mighty Spirit of Truth and Spirit of Holiness in the first Reformation Men and Women were then Christians of a high Rate of a high Degree of a high Excellency How willing were they to suffer in the days of Queen Mary in our own Nation How did they love one another How did the Power and Glory of Christianity appear in them But I hope it will be no scandal to say this That it hath been in a decay for a Hundred Years For it is the very express words of one that is Dr. Burnet that we know by the Name of the Bishop of Salisbury he spake it plainly and openly in this City That the Reformation has Sermon Of not falling out by the Way been losing ground for these Hundred Years And whence is this But only a great slumber hath fallen upon the Profession of the Protestant Religion for a Hundred Years And the Glory and Power and Excellency of Christianity we have not yet restored to its own Beauty and to its own Glory And this I have endeavoured several times both in Discourse and in Writing to make plain That the Church of Sardis is the Representation of the Generality of the Christian Churches under the Reformation And I desire that you would but read and weigh the Description that is given of that Church Rev. 3. 1 2. And to the Angel of the Church in Sardis write These things saith he that hath the Seven Spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know thy works that thou hast a Name that thou livest and art dead Be watchful saith he and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die Be watchful What 's the meaning of that But only to shew that the State of the Protestant Churches had fallen into a great slumber a great drowsiness And therefore it is that we know so little of the Power of Christianity at this day And saith he I have not found thy works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch observe that I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee if thou dost not watch Here we plainly see what is opposed to slumbering it is watching And when Christ saith Watch so often and so much it signifies that his Church would fall into a slumbering condition it had a Name to live it was not perfectly dead But it was not vigorous and powerful in the ways of Christianity And therefore watch and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die I 'll give you only two Arguments why I am of this Judgment That this very Parable I am upon does look directly upon the state of the Protestant Churches and so upon our selves as in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this very Time I 'll give you the two Arguments and then I 'll go on in a more practical way of discoursing the particulars of this slumbring of Christians in the Profession of Christianity The First Argument I give you is Because it is now the Time It is now the Time especially when our Lord delays his coming For there shall not be Time Times nor so much as half Time any more whole and entire For at the Reformation Christ began to make an appearance of his Kingdom and of his Coming And it is certain the bringing in of the Reformation as all true Protestants own it was one of the greatest Works of Providence that ever hath been known in the World and especially since the days of Christ It was strange and wonderful in the Times when God did it that he should bring in a Reformation against such high Pretences as that of The Catholick Church as Rome was called and against the Papacy and Hierarchy that took upon themselves to be the great Patrons of and Pretenders to Christian Religion and the true Votaries and Servants of it to have all things good within themselves Now That such a poor inconsiderable Person as Luther was should make opposition to such a Body when as the Kings and Princes of Europe were utter Enemies to the Reformation It was a Mighty Power of God And as I have often shew'd Rev. 10. is the very Representation of the Reformation Christ came down from Heaven clothed with a Cloud and with a Rainbow upon his head And he set his right Foot upon the Sea and his left Foot upon the Earth and cryed with a loud Voice as when a Lyon roareth and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever That Time and Times and even of half Time that it should be no longer Who would not I say but have expected that Christ should immediately have come and changed the World and brought in his Kingdom But our Lord delays his Coming only till the Hundred and Eighty Years are made up of which there wants only now but Five Years And at the present there is a great delay though I make no doubt It will not be long But yet Men think Christ hath delayed his Coming and where is the Promise of it and that he hath quite forgot it In this Time therefore of the Lord 's delaying his Coming there is such a great slumber upon the Christian Church In the second Place I have this great Reason that moves me much to think that the present delay that the Parable speaks of under that spiritual slumber of the Churches of Christ hath run along with the Time since the
Reformation Because Christ saith in the first Words Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins When Why it shall be at that Time as in the 24th of Matthew though we divide Chapters yet the sense is not divided nor our Saviour's Sermon divided but our Lord is still going on in his Discourse Mat. 24. 48 49 c. But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth There was never a greater Hypocrisie in the World than the Papacy To which they say you know in Reverence Your Holiness as we say to Princes Your Majesty or Your Highness And they say Your Holiness a Blasphemous Assumption and therefore he shall appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites Because he hath been the Evil Servant that hath said My Lord delayeth his coming And so he begins to Eat and Drink with the Drunken and to Smite the Men-servants and Maid-servants That is to Persecute the true Servants of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likned unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps c. when that Judgment is So that the Time before the punishing of this Bad Servant and the cutting him off and Devoting him to the Wrath and Indignation of God Before this there falls such a Slumber as this Now therefore Having made the way I shall Endeavour to go on and to speak to these two things First To shew wherein as to our particular we are to observe a Spirit of Slumber and that the power of Christianity does take small hold of us And then In the Second place I shall Endeavour to shew you wherein the Wise and Foolish Virgins Differ though they are both in a Slumber and they Die alike they Sleep alike yet there is a very vast and great difference betwixt them In the First place This is a very great Argument that we are under the Slumber of Christianity That we are not really in a Holy Transport in all the Services and Enjoyments and Ordinances of Christianity Indeed we make a shift to pass through the Form to hold up the Form of Prayer and of Preaching and of the Lord's Supper and of good Discourse sometimes one with another But we have not that mighty Affection we are just like Persons in a Slumber You know they understand something of what you say to them and they make some kind of Answer But they are so low and so imperfect herein that we may be sure they are not in the Vigour of their Senses and of their Understanding and of their Reasoning and of their Discourse Surely If we were raised to the Power of Christianity we should have more of those High Elevations of mind that the Apostle speaks of and that the Holy Men of Old in former times speak of We should have such flaming Desires after God and after Christ that our hearts would be Ravished and we should be drawn as it were out of our selves in these things Whereas we do but Nod as I may so express it in our way of Christianity Or when we seem to do something we are presently in a kind of Slumber so that there wants the Power and Life of it When David saith How sweet is thy Word to my taste Sweeter than the Hony or the Hony Comb It was another State than we are in All the 119 Psalm is a perpetual Rapture and Extasie of Heart All that time he was awake So Whom have I in Heaven but Thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire beside Thee And My Heart and my Flesh Faileth but thou art the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgments at all times All our Converse with Christ and with the Holy Ordinances of Christ and all our Drawings nigh to God They would be with a Holy Transport So in the 42. Psalm saith David As the Hart panteth after the water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God You cannot really suppose but that if we were fully possest with Religion indeed we should be carried out of our selves in Love and Service and Thankfulness and Obedience and all the Powers of Holiness and Religion Whereas now If a Person be but Civil to Religion If he will but sit patiently and hear a Discourse of it Or if he can but endure to be called off from the World to God we look upon it as a great Attainment But I say If Christianity were not under Slumber in the Spirits of Men we should be in a high Transport That as the Apostle speaks in the 2 Cor 5. The love of Christ Constrains us because we thus judge The Word as the Learned Observe signifies such a kind of Transports as when Elijah was taken up by the Spirit and carried hither and thither So the love of Christ constrains us that is Transports us every way Ver. 14. Wherefore saith he henceforth know we no man after the Flesh Ver. 16. Yea though we have known Christ after the Flesh yet now henceforth know we him so no more Surely This is the Slumber of Christianity that we are taken so much with outward appearances with out-sides of men The Apostle observed the Slumber of Christianity upon this account in his Day James 2. 2. If there come into your Assembly a man with a Gold Ring in goodly Apparel c. Here Christianity began to be in a Slumber not but that due regard ought to be to the several Ranks of Men But in this regard we know Men too much after the flesh so that it argues Christianity much in a Slumber Do but read I beseech you don 't think I speak either vainly or without due consideration of what I say Do but read those places of Scripture that are so Eminent in setting out the Glory of Christianity While we look not saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 4. 18 at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Now I say who is it that loves thus to look upon the things that are seen as nothing and the things that are not seen as all So saith he We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved chap. 5. 1. we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens ver 2. For in this we groan earnestly saith the Apostle Who groans earnestly I do not speak at all to be censorious or to tax Men beyond Reason or any way to justifie my self
one is awakened out of Sleep And therefore let us earnestly long for that Time And whatever God is doing or seems to do in the World let us observe what Tendencies it has to this Excellent State of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and then this Slumber shall be perfectly taken off And then 3 In the Third and last place Let it comfort us exceedingly in God and in Christ And let us say The Things that God hath prepared and designed they are Things That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive For that in the 64th of Isaiah is to be applied to the Coming of Christ O that thou wouldest Rent the Heavens and that thou wouldest come down and that the Mountains might flow down at thy Presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the Waters to boil c. And then saith he Things that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard yet he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Consider it at your own Freedom This State is near coming forth such an one as hath not been seen or heard of since the Foundation of the World In which we shall no longer complain at the rate we do now That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and That our Iniquities like the Wind take us away And That we do not stir up our selves to take hold of God But then there shall be a General Stirring up of one another to take hold of the Lord our God SERMON VII On Matthew 25. v. 1 Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto Ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom c. I Have in several Discourses endeavoured to express to you the Divine Sense and Meaning of our Lord in this Parable who as I told you Opened his Mouth in Parables and in this Parable in a very Eminent Manner and hath made known things hid from the very Foundation of the World The Points that I have already Discoursed it may be necessary to give you only just a Remembrance of and to come to that that is now to be proposed The first was this That the Kingdom of Christ in all the motions in all the parts in all the Dates and Times of it is the Kingdom of Heaven It is not to be looked upon as an Earthly or a Sensual Kingdom but the Kingdom of Heaven In the second Place That True Christianity is an Espousal unto Jesus Christ The Scripture hath delighted to set it forth under the Resemblance of Marriage and Espousals Thirdly That all the Eye of a Christian is not to the present state though it be necessary in the way but it is to the future and to the higher state For as I opened to you out of the Old Testament it was the Command of God That there should be a Contract between the Person that had taken a Beautiful Woman Captive and her that was taken Captive if he desired to Marry her There was to be a time of Contract Thirty Days God did precisely appoint That it might shadow to us That the present state is but a state of our Espousals and Contract And therefore our chief Intention the Great Eye of the Soul must be to the Solemnity and the Glory of the Nuptials of the Marriage it self The Virgins took their Lamps therefore and went forth to meet the Bridegroom In the Fourth Place I opened to you the great Solemnity Fifthly That notwithstanding the Death and Resurrection and Ascention of Christ into Glory there is a great Delay of his coming And though this seems very strange and unreasonable it should be so I endeavoured to open to you the Reason that Scripture hath given why it is so In the Sixth Place in the last Discourse I opened to you this What a Drousie and Sleepy state of Christianity hath come upon Christians and upon the Profession of Christ by reason of the Bridegroom 's tarrying I shall now go on to speak of this viz. At Midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridgroom cometh Go ye out to meet him I have considered and weighed the Parable in all the parts of it in all the Scope of it and I cannot find that it can relate to any thing but to the very Glory of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ For immediately it comes to this That the Door was shut They that were ready went in with him to the Wedding and the Door was shut Christ profest to them without when once the Door was shut I know you not And there is no such thing as that before the great coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And therefore this Cry at Midnight is no other than that which the Apostle speaks in the 1. Thess 4. 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first This is the great Cry that shall be made it shall be the Cry at the Trump of the Archangel the Voice of the Archangel And so in the 1 Cor. 15. The Apostle speaks the very same thing that it should come to this There should be an immediate Raising of the Dead Ver. 52. In a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall Sound and the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we shall be Changed This therefore is the Midnight-Cry Indeed there may be some Resemblances of it by sudden Judgments and by sudden Affrightments upon the World As we may easily Apprehend of late at Jamaica It was to them like a Day of Judgment I say It must needs be like to such a Midnight-Cry when an immediate stroak of God came upon them A Thundring and Lightning and an Opening of the Earth and a Rising up as it were of the Sea to sweep down the Inhabitants into it self this looked Just like the end of the World And though God gave us a little Item of such a thing though it did not so come upon us as that beyond the Sea yet we may easily Consider it might have been like a Mid-night if God had done with us as he did with them But yet still this would not have been that Midnight-Cry but even to those that are gone down into the Depth in that place Yet still there remains a Midnight-Cry that shall awaken them 'T was like a Midnight-Cry upon Sodom when it was from Heaven Consumed by Fire But yet it is very evident that Midnight-Cry remains still to come upon that very Sodom and Gomorah And therefore I say Though I allow Allusions to such a Scripture as this when any Judgment that has been or may be is set out to us there may
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
and so far as any of us have Opportunity to Propogate the koowledge of this thing among all the Prophane and Wicked of the World so far as I say they will bear it or that we can have place to speak so much to them To consider if foolish Virgins will not be accepted in that Day O! What will be the End of those that are so boldly and insolently prophane and wicked It were a happy thing indeed in regard of the present state of things and of the hopes of something better That we could prevail upon Persons that we know are prodigiously Contemners of God and bold in Sin and Railers at and Scoffers of every thing that is good and that wallow like Swine in the Mire and that are drinking up the Vomit of their Sins perpetually and doing the same things over and over again O that Persons would be prevailed with to read the First of the Proverbs And to draw the Land-scaph of their Case by looking upon Belshazzar and reading his Story I say That they would be prevailed with Men that are Carousing and shewing their Contempt of God and of every thing sacred Oh that they might be prevailed with For as the Apostle saith If the righteous be scarcely saved and foolish Virgins perish where shall the Wicked and Vngodly appear And 2. In the Second Place Then let every one of us as I hope upon the generality there may be drawn this Title of a Virgin without any injury done to Christ I hope we do make a Profession of God and Christ seriously We do Pray and Hear and wait upon God in his Word and read the Scripture and we are serious in drawing nigh to Christ at his Table I say I hope the Title of the Virgin may be put upon many of us in these regards But Let it not be grievous to any of us either Hearer or Speakers to consider this That there are Foolish Virgins as well as Wise You may have a very desirable and commendable Profession of Christianity upon you We may have this and yet be foolish Virgins Consider seriously If there be folly in our Virginity it will utterly spoil it it will be such a Dead Fly in the Ointment of Virginity that it will certainly spoil and poison all As our Lord speaks If the Salt have lost its savour The Word in the Greek is if it be foolish Salt it goes to the Dunghil There may be Virginity but if it be foolish Virginity it will come to be said Our Lamps are gone out We have heard and profest Christianity with you but lo now Our Lamps are gone out We cannot hold out Immediately the Fire of that Day as we say the Sun will put out those little Fires So the Fire of that Day the Glory of that Day will put out our Lamps But this is that Point That I shall especially Discourse to you next To shew you Wherein is the difference between a Lamp that goes out and a Lamp that is furnished with the Treasure of Oil still within it self That hath still new supply that hath a Fountain to supply it That doth not go out upon the very spot as we say And if the Lord enable me to clear so great a Point to the Conviction of every one that both hears and speaks How great might the advantage be For I would not discourage any from his Profession God forbid that any one should be stopp'd or hinder'd in the way of Christianity so far as they have proceeded but yet you see this is a necessary faithfulness to be told of our danger and perswaded and convinced of it if by any means we might escape out of the Snare that the Snare might be broken and we escape The Third Application I make is this 3. That according to the assurance I have given you and that I profess in the Presence of God with greatest sincerity upon duest Consideration to be more and more assured That the Kingdom of Jesus Christ draws very near and very hard and very fast upon us That therefore you would have another Consideration of these things than those that lived a great way of of the Time For though it is true if any of us come to die it will be the same case as if the Day of Judgment were just now upon him but yet still the Scripture makes use of this as a further and higher Argument It is high time now to awake the Night passeth the Day is at hand your Salvation is nearer And therefore I beseech you That you would seriously take it into Consideration and to Heart That the ends of the World must needs be upon us For if the Apostle said that the Ends of the World came upon them so many Hundred Years since how can it be but that the Ends of the World must be upon us We are on the very last Sands of the Glass of the World And therefore Let this Preaching of John the Baptist and Christ be in all your Ears and Hearts Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Look to be wise Virgins for the Bridegroom will not long delay his coming He hath delay'd it so long but will not delay it long now And then 4. In the last Place I beseech you be not so afraid of the Coming of the Kingdom of Christ This will be your great advantage If any would choose they would choose to see the Kingdom of Christ in its succession For I have always taken care to distinguish to you these two There is a great Difference betwixt the Kingdom of Christ coming in its Glory as it shall be at the Time designed by this Text and Parable and another thing intended by its Succession Rev. 11. 15. As a King Entring upon his Reign which you know is immediately and as soon as the former King went off and as they speak Demised It is another thing his Inauguration You know there is a distance of Time between the Entring in of the Reign and Succession and the Coronation the great Time of Glory And so there 's a difference betwixt Christ's coming when the Midnight-Cry shall be and his coming into the Succession of his Kingdom For there shall be a wonderful pouring out of the Spirit of God as soon as ever the Kingdom of Christ shall come into its Succession There shall be a mighty Preaching of the Everlasting Gospel Christianity shall grow much higher much more pure much more efficacious there shall be bringing in multitudes of Gentiles that are now Unbelievers in Christ Mahometan or Pagan Antichristians and the Ancient Israel coming in as I have often said Who then can be perswaded that it shall be possible to see the Jews and Gentiles flocking in to Christ and that there should be any that should not believe in Christ and receive his Gospel And therefore I say know assuredly That it will be a great advantage to you And for my part There 's nothing that I more earnestly
defire or have a greater value for than to see the Dawns of the Kingdom of Christ Oh! That God would give any of us leave to see this We should have great advantage of making our Calling and Election sure of working out our salvation with fear and trembling of being perswaded of the things that pertain to the Kingdom of God we should have great opportunities every way And therefore as Christ speaks when he propounded the Parable to them Matth. 13. 17. I say unto you That many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them So if God shall continue any of our lives but a few years to see the Kingdom of Christ appearing in this First Glory O happy and blessed shall we be For from the very beginning and foundation of the World to this day Many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which we shall see then and have not seen them and to hear those things that we shall hear and have not heard them In the mean time Let none of us be discouraged if God call us sooner out of the World For as the Apostle saith All those that are Christ's he will certainly bring with him And it will certainly be a happier and securer state to be sleeping in Jesus and dying in Jesus For though we do not see these things here our Spirits shall see them above and our Bodies shall be raised in Glory for us to come with Christ in And as to those who are not as they desire to be for my part I know not any thing can be spoken for better Tydings or any thing that should more earnestly engage our Faith and Prayer than to have that great opportunity to wind up our Faith and Love and Repentance to their own height even that of the Coming of the Kingdom of Christ into its Succession and to see those blessed things and to hear them that many excellent persons have desired to see and hear and have not And therefore let none be offended that the Kingdom of Christ is near at hand for we shall have greater and more blessed advantages and opportunities to make our Calling and Election sure when that time comes Let us therefore desire to hear those loud Voices from Heaven Proclaim That the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ On which will soon follow that pouring out of the Spirit and the Preaching the Everlasting Gospel SERMON VIII On Matthew 25. v. 6 c. And at Midnight there was a Cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps And the Foolish said unto the Wise Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out c. I Have led you through several parts of this great and admirable Parable The last thing I Discoursed to you was concerning the Midnight-Cry and endeavoured to shew you That though there might be some use made of it as a Description of any Judgment that should come upon the Churches of Christ before his Coming Yet That the Principal Intention is That Cry That Voice of the Son of God That Shout that the Lord will descend in That Voice of the Archangel That Trump of God that shall raise all that are asleep in their Graves and shall bring them forth I Endeavoured to open to you That every one shall rise in the very same Circumstances wherein they lay down in Death and in the Grave And therefore That the Day of Judgment coming upon Prophane and Insolent Persons upon the Fools that say in their hearts There is no God will be like the Writing of the Fingers on the Wall before Belshazzar that we read of Dan. 5. And as it comes upon ignorant Persons in Christianity and upon the Worldlings those Fools that say We have much Goods laid up for many Years and therefore Soul Take thy ease Eat Drink and be Merry O! what an Earthquake will it be upon them to see the Kingdom of Christ Now They shall be raised both the Fools that say That there is no God and the Worldlings c. They shall be raised just in the same Terror in the same Consternation as if the Earthquake was now upon them or in the Time of Life now on Earth But I proposed to shew you also Wherein the state of the foolish and the wise Virgins differ wherein this great difference lies That one enter into the Wedding and the other are shut out And that is it which now by the assistance of God I would undertake and go forward to give you a clear Representation of this great Matter For as I told you Virgins bespeaks a being of the Pure and True Religion the true Religion of the Gospel the Doctrine of God in the Gospel For all whatsoever false Doctrine or false Worship does adulterate this it is called in Scripture not by the Name of Virginity but by the Name of Whoredom by the Name of Adultery and Fornication Whatever defiles the Religion of Jesus Christ is not stiled Virginity but by other Names And therefore it is certain That these Virgins must be of the truest and of the purest Religion of Jesus Christ In the second Place I told you That they must needs be of a tollerable sober Conversation They are not of the Prophane the Drunkards or the Swearers or the Sensualists of the World but they are those that walk in such unblameable life that they are worthy to be counted and to be stiled Virgins What a critical Case therefore What a very nice and curious Point is this that distinguishes between the wise and the foolish Virgins If therefore God shall be pleased in any measure to enable me to open this to you and that you may aright conceive and understand so great a Point I hope That by his Blessing our coming together may be for the better and not for the worse I shall therefore apply my self to it First By considering the scope of the Parable in this Matter And I find That it lies here The one had Oyl in their Lamps but they had not Oyl in their Vessels The other had Oyl in their Vessels as well as in their Lamps So that it comes to this One hath a Treasure a Store of Grace beyond the Profession the other hath not I shall Answer very plainly and down-right Discourse in this thing by leading you to some great Expressions of Scripture which do to me assure what our Lord intends In the Third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians v. 16 c. The Apostle in that Great and Excellent Prayer begs of the Father of Glory the Father of Glory An Expression most suitable and agreeable to the Kingdom of Christ appearing in its Glory to which this Parable refers That he would grant you according to the
man that is look'd upon as a Religious Man and that makes a great Figure in the World and that God hath blest Now this Man living so sober in regard of all the Commandments in outward acts all these commandments have I kept from my youth up One would think it were not possible that such a Man should not go to Heaven And yet saith Christ Verily I say unto you with relation to this lovely young man it is a hard thing for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly he did not come up to that was properly the Virgin-state in the acknowledgment of Christ however he was of unspotted unblameable external conversation he had too an acknowledgment of Christ as a very Excelling man and a Great Master of Divine Knowledg but He had not a Sense of his Divine Glory nor the very power of Christianity so as to Grasp the Inside of it to Lay Hold upon the very Spirit and Life of it as in Christ and so to devest Himself of every thing for Chrst if Called to it Nay he was unwilling to Own and Follow Christ in the very Outward Profession and herein he came short of the Foolish Virgins who yet Fall short of Heaven and therefore Christ preaches upon him this General Doctrine How Hard is it for a Rich man to Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven In the Third place I might Name to you the men of Tradition the men of Superstition that look upon it as their Glory and Security for Heaven to add many things to the Commands of God and of Christ as if they either exceeded or made more perfect or more beautiful decent and honourable the Religion of Divine Institution by their own super-added observations but this needs not to be much insisted upon because Christ hath declared from the Word of God in the Old Testament by the Prophet Esay This People draw nigh to me with their Lips but their hearts are far from me But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandmens of men Matth. 15 c. But now these Virgins as they hold the Truth so the purity of the Worship of the Gospel and were also of an unblameable outward Conversation as was before opened concerning the Virgin State From all this we may plainly perceive it is a very nice Case to distinguish either in Doctrine or in Practice between Virginity enlivened with Wisdom and Virginity that hath the dead Fly of Folly in it I come therefore to the Third Head of Discourse to give you the Reasons of this even Tremendous Dispensation of God That there should be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins For to speak the very bottom and foundation of the matter This Resemblance of our Lords of the Case of Souls or Spirits not accepted by Christ compared with the Apostles Expression of presenting them as chast Virgins to Christ and yet that some Virgins presented to him he charges according to those expressions in Job with folly It seems to carry an Allusion in a spiritual sence to that Case Deut. 24. 1 c. Those that are espoused as Virgins to Christ and yet they are not clean in his sight they are for ever eternally separated from him even divorced from him He sends them a Renunciation a Bill of Divorcement from himself This is dreadfully stupendious These Two Accounts I would give hereof according to Scripture why there is such a severity of the Gospel towards those who are Virgins and are found foolish Virgins 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ would hereby Remonstrate to us the great Corruption and Depravation of Human Nature we do not enough apprehend what a Nature and what Hearts thereupon we carry about us Hearts deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know them It is strange so excellent so pure a thing as a Virgin State should be defiled and made wholly unacceptable to Christ by Folly our Lord therefore hereby calls upon us to be aware what Natures and Hearts we bear about with us since that very time that God made Man Vpright in Knowledge Wisdom Righteousness and true Holiness and he defiled his Nature with the folly of many inventions The Nature of Man Taints and defiles every thing even Virginity it self though not by a false Religion a false Worship or grosly polluted Conversation yet by the folly of insincerity and want of the Treasure of Grace standing in Union to Christ This should carry us to fear our own Hearts Blessed is the Man that feareth always but he that trusteth in his own heart is a Fool he deceiveth himself as the Apostle James saith Many ways seem right enough in our own Eyes but the issue and end thereof is death Let us therefore as the Apostle Peter warns Pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and as the Apostle Paul saith be jealous over our selves least while we think we present our selves as chast Virgins to Christ that we are Espoused to him there should be any corruption from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus Christ is one most single simple Jesus without Multiplicity as in Doctrine and Worship so in our Union to him whoever misses him in that uncompounded Faith and undivided Affection defiles the Virgin-State and looses the Glory and Purity of it You may be Virgins as to the Chastity of Profession and outward Conversation and yet you may loose the Wisdom of Virginity if there be not a singleness of Eye and Heart to Christ which cannot be but in Union to himself from thence arises the simplicity that is in Christ and our conformity to it A Second Reason why so severe and dreadful a Dispensation is offered to you in this Parable that I shall now give you is That we might learn Three great Lessons from it it is not to discourage or beat you off from your Profession but that you may bow down your Ears and Hearts to these three things 1. That you may depend upon the Free Grace of Electing Love every one ought to humble himself ond to lie in the Dust before God in the sence of this It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy And who art thou Oh Man that repliest against God All this speaks the necessity of lying low before God in the sence of this supream Grace And what can tend more thus to humble us that to consider Virgins may be Virgins and yet Foolish Virgins This should make us look to a Love and Grace above and beyond any thing in our selves or that is wrought in our selves we should keep our Eye on this The Apostle after the Description of the Antichristian Apostacy retires to Election God hath chosen us to Salvation This is not to draw off our minds from any of those Graces that are the fruits of Election but to carry up our Minds above them to the Fountain of them And there is no greater assurance of the Truth
do for that After-State let us do it now For in dying Spirits going out of Bodies enter into their Determinative State They enter in the State they were in here They carry out the Oil they have whether only in the Lamp of their Profession or in the Vessel the Heart united to Christ the Fountain And so they must abide so they must appear when the Bridegroom cometh This is the holy and wise Decree of God concerning the Human Spirit and who dare controll it From hence then it necessarily follows That this Watch is to be maintained in this Present State and that it can be only here and that therefore it is only in order to and with relation to the Coming of the Bridegroom but not with relation to the Time of his Coming for then the Doctrine of Watching had not been proper to Persons living so many Ages before it but because every person successively living since the Time our Lord spake these words is in the Time of his Life to exercise this Watch that is to see he hath the Oil in his Vessel and not in his Lamp only that he may stand before the Son of Man at his Coming Therefore it is a Doctrine necessary to every Age as well those furthest off as those nearest to his Coming because every one hath but a Life-Time to Watch in and he is much more to be wrought upon by the sence of the shortness and incertainty of his own Life than by the nearness of the Bridegrooms Coming and the incertainty of the time of that as we plainly see by every Days Experience And this is much the more uncontestable by observing the Apostle Paul's earnestness against the Christians of those Times thinking the Day of Christ was then at hand which he solemnly affirms could not be till an Apostacy of 1260 Days of Years should have come in and that not immediately neither and have run out Yea our very Lord himself when They thought the Kingdom of God should immediately have appeared Luke 19. 11 c. gives the Parable of a Nobleman going into a far Country and returning importing a distance of Time all which had been a contradiction to watching because we know not the day nor hour if the meaning had not been a making provision in the present Life for the Bridegrooms Coming how many Ages after soever it should be and that else it would come upon us at unawares and on the sudden and find us unready unprovided for it Argument 2. It further appears That Watching is the making such provision in this present Time for the Bridegrooms Coming as will bear up to the Glory of that Time because in the same State wherein we lie down we shall rise at that day whenever it be and openly appear therein in the face of Heaven and Earth The Judgment of Spirits though it be before God and Christ and Aangels and Saints yet Scripture speaks of it as of a private Judgment for the Day of the Appearance of Christ is spoken of Rom. 2. 5. as the Revelation or uncovering that righteous Judgment of God which as pass'd upon Spirits returning to God that gave them is as covered and secret There is greatest reason to be assured That when Spirits of Saints come into the hand of Christ there is joy in Heaven for if there be joy at their Conversion in the presence of the Angels of God and so of Saints there is much more so in the coming of Spirits to Glory but this Joy and the Shouts of it are not heard down on Earth But at that Appearance of Christ they are presented with exceeding joy before Heaven and Earth And so are All not in Christ with contempt and dishonour And this is the great Mystery and Wonder of the Oeconomy the Order of that Day That persons rise in the very same State wherein they lie down God will have it so for the clearness of his Judgment though persons die in the corner of a Bed as the Prophets expression is yet they shall openly appear in the same circumstances they died God will have every ones Judgment as in all orderly Governments to be sub Dio openly in the Face of Heaven and Earth they shall all appear as in the Fact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day and justified in the Condemnation of all whom he condemns If God should dispose of some to Hell and some to Heaven and that there were no publick account of the matter we might think they were so disposed of by God as by an Arbitrary Power and in secret and so his Justice called in Question But when Spirits that have been so disposed of in private both Spirits so publickly and Bodies are called for together and the Judgment affirmed This is clear and open proceeding and therefore a Day of Judgment and of Resurrection is so often spoken of All shall be brought Face to Face and we shall not only know one another who have conversed together but even of all Ages Abraham Isaac and Jacob Cain and Esau Saul Achitophel and Judas All shall be known and we shall know what becomes of every one to Eternity Death here and Spirits entring into their everlasting state is not All of which we may say Who knows the Spirit of a Saint of a wise Virgin that goes upward of a wicked man of a foolish Virgin that goes downward But at that Day shall be known All the Good Men we have read of in Scripture or in true Accounts of History And the Evil Men and Hypocrites Each Company and Person apart and apart God and Christ will pass upon all openly and in Publick And that which I would further urge every one shall Rise in the very Fact the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which they lay down Belshazzars in their way Diveses in their way the Worldlings in their way and the Foolish Virgins in their way Crying Lord Lord without Truth and Power as here The great Tyrants Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ in their way To that purpose they are describ'd as having laid their Weapons of War under their Heads with their Iniquities upon their Bones Ezek. 32. 17. and so they 'll come to the Battel of Armageddon The Iniquity and the Bones the Persons and Weapons of War will appear together in that Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as even then in actual War against the Lamb and his Saints This is the Great and stupendious management of the Day of Judgment of that Day and Hour of which in this Sense especially and not as relating to Time no one knows no Angels no not the Son as Man The Father only the Eternal Beeing alone had Wisdom to find out Authority Dominion and Power thus to execute It is therefore the great Point of watchfulness to Live so and so to Dye as we would desire to Rise and
constituted in his own power He distributes them as he pleases Why did not our Lord Jesus appear sooner in the World He came in the End of the World and in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son And saith our Lord to his Disciples Many Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see the things you see and have not seen them and to hear the things you hear and have not heard them But when that Time comes how will the Bridegrooms near approach change the World Converts will come in as the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning which is stiled The Dew of Christs youth Then shall the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped and the Tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly Isa 29. 18. 32. 3 4. The Lame shall leap as an Hart and the Tongue of the dumb shall sing and there shall be a way it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it It shall be so plain and easie that wayfaring Men though fools shall not err therein it shall be so secure That no Lion nor ravenous Beast shall be there it shall be for those viz. the servants of Christ Oh! how shall all this flowing from the powring out of the Spirit from on high awaken to make provision of Oil in the Vessel to look to the truth of union to Christ and secure against Foolish Virginity For the Wilderness shall become a fruitful field But the more particular Application I reserve for the following Discourse as conclusive of the whole SERM. XI On Matth. 25. 13. Watch therefore for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour wherein the Son of Man cometh I Shall at this Time by the assistance of God fully conclude the long Discourse that I have had upon this Great Parable by recollecting all that hath been spoken in practical Applications of it wherein I cannot but remember what I have so often mentioned of our Lord's saying I will open my mouth in Parables and utter things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the World By Jesus Christ himself it is applied to himself And surely this is an exceeding great Parable and it is especially fitted to every one that draws near to God and to Christ in the profession of the Gospel For so as I have told you it is very evident That this Name of Virgins necessarily implies the most Excellent State of Profession of Christianity that is not truly and thoroughly and universally sound for were it not that the word Foolish comes in and like a dead Fly as I told you makes the whole Box of oyntment to send forth a stinking savour the very name of Virginity every where in Scripture is on purpose to set forth the reality of Grace and of a State in Christ It is said therefore The Virgins shall be brought unto thee in Rayment of Needle-work Psal 45. It is a Great State So I have espoused you as a chaste Virgin to Christ It is said of the 144000 on Mount Sion with the Lamb They have not defiled themselves with Women for they are Virgins Rev. 14. 4. So that if Christ did not diminish and abate this of Virgins with Folly it could not but import the perfect and best state of Christianity And therefore the more we look upon our selves as Christians and Christians of the right stamp the more we must look that we be not Foolish Virgins that our Virginity be not turned into folly As it is said of Achitophel God turned the counsel of Achitophel into foolishness the very Virginity of his Counsel and Wisdom that was esteemed as an Oracle and never disgrac'd till that time So when the Virginity of the Soul is turned into foolishness It is a very great Judgment and the very expression of it ought to awaken and rouze all our Spirits Not to discourage the thoughts of the sincere servants of Christ and to make them sorrowful whom God would have to be made glad and to rejoice But that there may be a holy Jealousie in every one over our selves and that we may not take Counterfeit for Gold indeed and for Pearl indeed I have therefore closed with this Application our Saviour hath made of his whole Discourse Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh That is as if Christ should say as I told you there will be nothing done at that time you can make no advantage you cannot command that day and that hour there 's nothing at all to be done All shall be in so speedy a Motion that there will be nothing to be done by way of Amendment or Reparation of the Errors that we have committed Now therefore as I proposed to you the last day several great particulars so I shall pursue them at this time in a way of fuller and more close Application First Take notice of that which is especially meant by watching It must be that very thing wherein the foolish Virgins fell short for though the wise as well as the foolish in the sence I have given to you slumbred and slept yet for all that the foolish Virgins only did not watch They are they that our Saviour grounds the Application upon Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh The wise Virgins did watch in the main Point because they looked to it that all was done that was necessary to be done to meet Jesus Christ at his coming and to go in with him to the Wedding And therefore The First particular wherein we are to exercise this Watch is to look That we have the Divine and Spiritual Life in us For no Man hath watched that hath not looked well to this That he is as our Saviour expresses it passed from death to life If any of us go out of the World as I told you In this very life every thing is to be looked unto For though the Day of Judgment and the Coming of Christ be a different thing in many reguards from dying yet notwithstanding whatever we would do for that Day of the Coming of Christ we must do it now while we are here in the World All is sealed for Judgment and Eternity at Death There 's no purpose nor counsel in the Grave concerning this point whither we are going When any rise from the dead our Saviour makes it very apparent John 5. They rise either to Life or Condemnation There 's no arising so as with any possibility of passing from death to life at that time v. 28. Marvel not at this At what it is plain what viz. at the mighty quickning Voice of Christ now for of that Christ had spoken just before for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come
forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation You see here all the whole World of Mankind at that day of the Coming of Christ they either rise to the Resurrection of Life or to the Resurrection of Damnation nothing is then to be done more This is a most evident and apparent Truth And as I have made out to you Spirits coming in to Bodies come either full of the notices of Eternal life or full of the Notices of Eternal Death They carry all the Characters upon them They rise either to Honour or to Everlasting shame and contempt And therefore as the Apostle speaks Ephe. 5. Awake thou that Sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee life ver 14. We must look well to this That we hear the Voice of the Son of God now and live The time is coming and now is the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Now is the quickning time according to it Men come forth The time is begun now saith he and it shall go on to the very coming of the Bridegroom that they that hear the Voice of the Son of God shall live ver 25. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death unto life We must look whether we have shot that great Gulf of passing from death to life for this is a Gulf to be passed now which in that future state cannot be passed As you know in that 16th of Luke 24. There 's a great Gulph fixed between us and you so that they which would pass from you to us cannot neither doth any pass from us to you that are in those Regions of darkness So I say the Gulf is now to be pass'd There is a Pass now but there shall be none in that State they are past from death to life It is as if our Saviour should say They have shot the Gulf And therefore let us consider whether God hath changed us as it were from West to East Whether he hath turned us to the Rising of the Sun of Righteousness with Healing in his Wings Whether he hath turned our thoughts to Eternity and from the present World and all the Impurities of it Whether the Face of our Spirits are to the Kingdom of God or not Let us look seriously to all those Scriptures that teach us concerning the truth of Conversion concerning the truth of Faith concerning the truth of Repentance It is our duty undoubtedly to trim our Lamps in this reguard now and to search and ransack every thing in our own souls that we may be assured of the truth of Conversion and that our hearts are so turned to God that they can never be turned back again That we turn our hearts back so to Christ That we say Whither should we go thou hast the words of eternal life To find that God hath so engag'd our hearts and thoughts to himself that we can never more revolt from him And though we fall and there are many things that we complain of and bewail and have reason to humble our selves yet notwithstanding this our souls have that Union to Christ we are so knit to him That the Golden Oil still runs out upon us from that great Son of Oil that he empties out of himself to us That Holy anointed one that stands before the Lord of the whole Earth is continually supplying and giving out to us from himself 2. The Second thing that I proposed to you by way of direction to this watching is That you would look to this to be earnest instant in fervent Prayer and to pray especially to this very Point That you may be counted worthy to stand before Jesus Christ at his coming Our Prayers ought to be for the present state of Grace indeed and for all the signs of it but we are to have a continual ardency in Prayer to stand before Christ For if you consider if the very Coming of Christ should be now if he should now be coming and appearing every one would be ready to run to their Prayers to those Prayers they have accustomed themselves to nay those that have used themselves to a common and formal way of Prayer would be ready to stretch out themselves to a higher way Wherefore let us endeavour after this to pray continually as if Christ were coming That we may be delivered from the Guilt of Sin That we may be delivered from all our corruptions That we may be in Robes washed white in his bloud That we may be in the Wedding Garment That we may have every thing suited to the Glory of his Coming and Appearance So you shall find our Saviour directs his Disciples upon this very account Luke 21. Watch ye therefore saith he and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man at his coming Take heed that our hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and with the cares of this life But that we are in a continual posture of expecting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the 12th Chapter of Luke 36 And ye your selves like unto Men that wait for their Lord when he will come because of the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately We should take great care of the state of our hearts now that we may at that very time be found not so as Gluttons Drunkards are but Watching Praying But you know There 's no such thing as Gluttony and Drunkenness in the Future State of Spirits there 's nothing of the cares of this life in that future state but they are the things that now oppress and that now take away the hearts of Men. And this know saith he ver 39. That if the good man of the house had known what hour the Thief would come he would have watched and not have Suffered his house to be broken through Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not The Argument therefore Lies that we should do now what we would do For just so we shall Rise and Appear as hath been made out There ought therefore to be a holy violence upon every ones preparation by Earnest Prayer and Supplication for that Day we ought every one to pray as if just that very day was upon him We should pray with the same Earnestness as if that Day were even now upon us This therefore is that Great Rule that our Saviour gives us in Relation to that Time that we should so pray now That we should not at that Day be in the Confusion and in the Horrour of those Things Luke 21. 35. Watch ye and pray that ye
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
are To hear a Man swear against their Religion profanely and to see a Man Drinking and Carousing and saying according to the very usual ways of Mens Discourse To drink as it were Healths to Protestants Is not this an abominable Shame and that speaks our great dishonour And that may make even Papists scandalized at the loose and licentious way of those that call themselves Protestants To hear Men Swear and Damn and blaspheme and yet at the very same time to profess a Zeal against Popery Certainly this we ought to take care of That we are not carried away by the Name of a Wicked Licentious Blasphemous and Prophane Protestantism And beyond this we should look That that Pride Vanity Cruelty Earthliness and Oppression and whatever the Sins are that are among us that we do not cover them and disguise them under the Name of this Why yet for all this I am not a Papist I am a Protestant surely God will Tear that Name out of the Mouths of such Protestants As he saith in Ezekiel You sow Pillows and Kerchiefs that is some Disguising things upon their heads And saith he I 'll tear these Kierchiefs Ezek. 13. So God will tear off from those that have the Profession of Protestantism but have nothing of the Power Life and Zeal of the Reformation and their Open Testimony for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that very Profession from them In the last Place that I may draw to a Conclusion Notwithstanding all that I have said to you concerning the Thoughts of Death and of Judgment and of Heaven and Hell yet I would desire that we may have a sence of the Glory and of the Kingdom of Christ that is to appear and that you would look to have it in your hearts to have the Kingdom of God in your hearts Let me propose a great Scripture to you upon this account And after a short Explanation of it I 'll conclude in a few Words Luke 17. 20. There was a great Question put to Christ in this case He was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come he answered them and said The Kingdom of God cometh not with Observation Neither shall they say lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you That 's the Kingdom of God For in some way certainly there 's none of us but Profess it else why do we pray it should come When that which is the Great Petition the very Central-Petition of the Lord's Prayer surely that 's the very Key that turns all about Now I say if you would believe a Kingdom of God in any sence And that you will be ready to say When shall that Kingdom come Remember what Christ saith it does not come by Observation for Men shall not say Lo here or lo there Though indeed it shall be a Glorious Sight a Glorious Shew as the Apostle saith which in his Time he will shew Yet for all that you shan't say Lo here comes Christ and here come such and such Saints And here comes such a Glory and Heaven and Earth glowing in a flame You shan't say here or there thus and thus it is though you shall have reason to say so yet saith Christ the main thing is The Kingdom of God is within you What will you be the better for that Kingdom of God if it be not within you You must bring it to that Day The Kingdom of God comes not with Observation it does not come with a shew without us but our God will come and all his Saints shall come with him They shall come with Bodies of Glory and Bodies of Light Bodies full of Glory it does not come with an outward shew but within us Every one that hath not the Kingdom of God within him at that Day they will appear by that very thing to be foolish Virgins for they must bring that Kingdom in the Righteousness of Christ with peace of Conscience through his Bloud by Grace and by Vertue of his Holy Spirit And now I beseech you That you would ballance these two things continually one with another You pray that the Kingdom of Christ may come The Kingdom of Christ comes when his Day comes when the Day and Appearance of Christ comes 2 Tim. 4. 1. Now Amos. 5. 18. Saith God Wo unto you that desire the Day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him It is just such a thing saith the Prophet as if a man in a storm should go into a house and take shelter there and when he found the storm ready to carry him away he goes and leans upon a Wall and there a Serpent comes out of a Hole and bites him to Death Even so shall the Kingdom and Day of Christ be It is in vain to say Thy Kingdom come If that Kingdom be not within us for It comes not with Observation but it is within us O Therefore That we could be perswaded to get out of the formality of that Petition and to look for that Kingdom within Thy Kingdom come by my Enjoyment of such a presence of thy Kingdom within my own heart That when it comes I may come with it and it may come along with me for else I say it will be darkness and not light I make no doubt there was a great many that the Prophet spake usually to them of the Day of the Lord. You know it is an usual expression in Scripture The Day of the Lord And upon the often hearing of it Men come to say We would fain see it And so many are ready to say concerning that Kingdom if it be such a Glorious State and Thing we would fain see it Now remember it comes not with observation but you must have it within you for if you have it not within you it is in vain for you for for what end do you desire the day of the Lord To shut up this in a brief Recollection of all In the First Place I desire you seriously often to meditate upon this Parable as I have in some weak manner endeavoured to open it to you And to remember also That even my Christianity say to your selves will not do me any service I had as good have been a Heathen as to the main purpose of my Eternal Condition if I have not Oil in my Vessel if I have not truly a great replenishing of my Soul from the Great Son of Oil And so if you speak of Protestantism If you have not Oil in your Vessel it will be but a very empty thing and do you no good except you have Oil in your Vessels except you are united to Jesus Christ except you have the Kingdom of God within you And then In the Second Place Another great Use for
I only draw out the main scope of the Parable by way of Recollection unto you and so conclude I say seriously consider What ever you think to do for your souls do it now because there is no Time after Work while it is day the night cometh when none can work All the time that persons have lain in the Grave as we speak or that their Spirits have been in Happiness or in Misery they have not done the least thing for their souls they have not added one Cubit nay not one Hairs breadth to their Stature they have not made one Hair as our Lord speaks Proverbially either white or black as to the State of their Spirits And when Spirits come to meet their Bodies in the Day of the Resurrection every thing will be in such a speed such a World in highest motion That you cannot stay to change one ill Posture or Appearance ot Representation of your souls You must not stay I would speak according to the Language of the Parable Can the Bride forget her Attire If any of us have forgot our Attire we cannot mind any thing that is amiss We cannot fasten one Pin in that distress of our souls We must be in the Wedding Garment perfectly attired and arrayed For what is done then as I have often said is done in an Atome of Time The dead shall be raised incorruptible Wicked Men and Foolish Virgins shall be raised just as they die And therefore mind seriously to do for your souls what you 'd do in this present state And then Lastly As I have said I say again That you would earnestly pray for the Preparation of that Time Pray earnestly for the pouring out of the Spirit Do you think it will not be better for you when God shall pour out his Spirit upon all flesh when your Sons and your Daughters shall Prophesie when your old men shall dream Dreams and your young men shall see Visions When there shall be an universal Prophesie upon the People of God as I have greatest reason to hope that the time is very near Why should we not earnestly pray for it and desire it You think there will be too much Clutter and ado about Religion then don't mistake Whatsoever is done shall run so easie and quiet then with such advantage and the Great Cares and Disadvantages of the World shall be taken off and every thing shall be in a merciful order that we may be prepared for that Great and Notable Day of the Lord. And therefore Let us earnestly pray and wait That a better state both of Christianity in General and the Reformation in particular may come forth That those Thunders that have been Sealed since the Reformation for almost an Hundred and Eighty Years That their Mouths may be open and their Voices may utter themselves That every thing may be that tends to increase and promote Holiness Purity and Spirituality and Heavenliness for I am not speaking nor never did speak to you of a Kingdom of Eating and Drinking and putting on Glorious Apparel but that there shall be an universal knowledge of God and Jesus Christ And that none but those that are resolved to be filthy should remain filthy and those who give up themselves in Holy ways should be Encouraged and should mount up with Eagles Wings and Grow stronger and stronger And therefore that there is but the Hopes of these things Let us Bless God Exceedingly For many Prophets and Wisemen and Kings and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them And yet for all that If any of us are called to Die who are Sincere and faithfull God will give us so much certainly of that Spirit of Prophesie of Illumination of Revelation That shall carry us safe to Heaven and shall Search and Try us so That we shall be led out of any wicked way into the way that is Everlasting And therefore Let not these things Discourage you But let them Enflame our Care Zeal Endeavours and Desires That we may Watch Because Nothing con be done when our Lord comes but only They that are Ready Go in with Him to the Wedding FINIS AN APOLOGY For the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Appearing Within This Approaching Year 1697. Wherein some of the Principal Arguments for such an Expectation are briefly Couch'd and the Greater Objections Answered Presented to the Notice and Examination of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Now in PARLIAMENT Assembled By T. BEVERLEY Ezek. 10. 13. As concerning the Wheels It was cryed to them in my Hearing Oh! Revolution LONDON Printed for and Sold by Will Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1697. An APOLOGY for the Hope of the Kingdom of Christ Entring Its Succession within this Now Beginning 1697. And an Answer of Principal Objections presented with It. To the Archbishops and Bishops as in Parliament at This Time Assembled Most Reverend Right Reverend I Have now by the Space of Fourteen or Two Weeks of Years been Serving for that Beautiful Rachel-State of the Church of Christ in the place of that Rachel in the Wilderness weeping for her Children in Sackcloth and under Death and would not be comforted Because They were not I have set my self all along by Meditation and Supplication to the Father of Lights to search out and by the Assistance of the Spirit of Prophecy to Find What or What Manner of Time the Spirit of Christ did signify for the Fullfilling that Grand Petition of his Servants Thy Kingdom come That thy Name may be Sanctified and Thy Will done as in Heaven and upon Earth and I am now Wrestling to the Break of Day and I Hope the Dawn of the Morning and Resolv'd not to Let Go Till I obtain the Blessing of it The Time that from the First and throughout it pleased the Lord of Time to fix upon my Mind as the Time of That Kingdom Entring into its Succession and Preparation for its Glory was and is This Approaching 1697. A Year to which I could have no Temptation either in Regard of Nearness or Distance or on any Account whatever but as a Scripture-Line of Time and Concurrent Reasons of Prophecy and History very many and in a Series and Continuation have Led me On this Foundation having Setled I have by Gracious Vouchsafements of Help from God Turn'd my Self to All the Grand Prophetick Points of Scripture and Found New Confirmations and have Given as Publick Accounts of them as I could attain and presented some of Them to Your Selves and to the Great Councel of the Nation And in as much as Supreme Goodness hath Granted me to Set up an Eben Ezer now at the Portal of 97. I have Thought it my Duty to offer this Apology for the Kingdom of Christ so near Approaching And that The Great Isaac The Son of Promise of
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
Let any one now Impartially lay these things together and it will plainly appear There is waranty for searching Times revealed in Scripture And They are still in the Fathers Power when the Knowledge of them is waited for by the assistance of his Spirit in the understanding of his Word It may be further Argued against the Defining of Time from Scripture-Prophecy That the Scripture-Prophecies are so Dark and Enigmatical that it appears most probable The Spirit of God did not intend They should be understood or Laid Open till the very End of All Things at the Day of Judgment or in the Kingdom of Heaven in Eternity And therefore The Soberest Gravest Men though very Learned and of Great Sagaciousness do not engage themselves therein and Least of All in the Accounts of Time To This I would by way of Defence Rejoyn in the First Place That it is most True That in the Darkness of the Present State while the Apostacy of the Papal State so much Eclipses the Glory of Christianity There is a Great Indisposition and a Great Inability to Interpret Scripture-Prophecies The Vnlearned say They are not Learned and the Learned say The Book Esa 29. 12. it Sealed And This Begets a Prejudice against Any Undertakers herein and they are Charged with Boldness and Presumption or with Madness or Enthusiasm It is said to Them Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from us to you How come you to be wiser than others And this will in a very Great Measure continue till the Kingdom of Christ come into t is Succession that the Ears of the Deaf shall hear the Words of this Book and the Eyes of the Blind see out of obscurity But yet in the second place it is undeniable That which is most Enigmatical and under what we call Riddle if it be wisely contriv'd and design'd must have sense under it tho not so open but that it shall require close Attendance the most Exercised Thought And on those Terms it is so prepar'd that it may be understood and excellent Sense found under it tho a Riddle Samsons Riddle had a very certain Determinate sense and if we knew fully the meaning of it advances beyond the First Unriddling very admirable Instructions All retired Parts of Knowledge in Anatomy Astronomy Mathematicks Algebra Call for Understandings peculiarly fitted to them and most attent Application and Curious Instruments Microscopes Telescopes and yet the Knowledge and Assurance that rises from them when understood is the most Refined and Satisfactory And so it is in Prophecy of Scripture altho it does not offer it self at so easie a Rate as some other Points of Scripture-Knowledge Yet by deep and fixed Meditation by comparing of its parts one with another and especially waiting upon the Spirit of Prophecy for its Illumination we shall find it is prepar'd and weigh'd out with the greatest Severity of Truth Divine Sense and leads into very sublime Discoveries of Divine Wisdom in the Government of the World in Relation to his Church the Times and Seasons of it And tends to the Greatest Aws of God and obedience to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth and to know That he is God In the Third Place It is affirm'd by the Spirit of God that it is intended it should be understood For it affirms 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. It is a Light that shines in a Dark Place Now if it be darker than the Dark Place How can it be call'd a Light Or how can it enlighten such a Dark place And it is not of Private Interpretation as I have heretofore given an Account publickly The very meaning is It is not of a Reserv'd or Apart-Interpretation As it is said Christ privately or apart Interpreted his Parables to his Disciples God says of Himself Esa 45. 19. I have not spoken in secret or in a Dark Place of the Earth like the Dark dubious Oracles of Devils I Jehovah speak Righteousness I declare the things that are Right of Greatest Sincerity Vprightness and Truth not perplex'd but plain to them that understand most Right Straight and direct to Him that understandeth Right to them that find knowledge And I have not said saith our God to any of the Seed of Jacob Seek ye my Face in Vain Even for the understanding of the Prophecies of my Word And in the very same Chapter God Encourages to Ask of Him Things to Come Even as his Spirit is said to shew to his Servants Things to Come All which I hope will appear a sufficient Answer to the Suspicion That God gave the Prophesies of his Word and so Eminent a Part of them Numbers of Time and did not intend they should be understood If it be taken as in this very Joinct and Objected How comes it to pass That All who hitherto have Writ on Prophetical Scripture have much differed one from another and they who Fix'd Time have either liv'd to see themselves mistaken or it hath appear'd after their Death They have been so I desire it should be considered Those who as the Holy Servants of Christ and Ministers of his Word have Sett Themselves to Understand have Given Great Light and Broken the Way for Those who have Followed and Their Memory and Services are precious to All Wife and Good Men notwithstanding some Mistakes and thereupon Differences which are yet not more or Greater than Those we Find in most Points not Fundamental and in All Interpretation of Scriptureâ— And as to their Mistakes in Point of Time It is to be Allowed Their Distances some of Them from the Time of Completion might be their Disadvantage God not vouchsafing such Light concerning that Time till nearer upon it as not to Daniel but upon the very Year of the 70 Years Ending It is further to be considered That there are some Eminent and Learned Persons who have though upon somewhat Different Grounds yet concentred upon this very 97. and some so near it as upon 98 99 and especially 1700. That their Expectations are yet as I may say in Abeyance and Things most probably will be so Conducted as easily to Reconcile so small Disagreements by the First Breakin gs out of Light and further Illustrations But Herein I Humbly Magnifie and Adore the Freeness of Grace and Divine Assistance to his Unworthiest Servant That He hath Granted to me to Lay before me the Whole and Entire Prophetical Table of his Word which is the Greatest Security against Mistake that can be vouchsafed Because by the View and Survey of things together They are seen in their Just Scituations and Allowances of Room and placed Equally one in proportion to another That there may be no Croud Confusion Justle upon or Interfere one with another Whereas if this be not a plausible Semblance or Sound of Agreement may mislead If such a Scheme be Reflected upon as Imaginary and the Work of Fancy I make an Humble Challenge to all the Wit the Fancy the Learning that is in the
the Servants of God Oh Revolution It immediately pass'd upon them All and there were Loud Voices in Heaven upon it proclaiming that Revolution The Kingdoms of this World are bocome the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ And this is done at Half Time Ending which signifies Suddenness and Surprise When this is done He who does it Comes with strong Hand His Arm Rules for Him He understands his own Work In the midst of All the Perplexities of it His work is before him He understands it perfectly and throughout Every Spring every Wheel to be moved Every Pin of Connexion But that which may much indeed Terrify and Discourage is the Great Unworthiness of All Sorts and Degrees of Men of Nations and even of Churches so that some very Sweeping Judgment and Desolation rather or at least is first to be expected The Hope yet is That when God works for his Kingdom and seems to be Lifting up his Hand to Destroy He will work for his own Names sake in a Deliverance He will consider He to whom the Kingdom is to be Given is worthy And when the Lord Jesus Christ the Angel of the Covenant comes into his Temple He does not expect to find Refinement ready to his Hand but He comes to Refine He hath given an Example in the Apostle Paul of All Long-suffering and Patience especially prepared for that very Time Those who shall Hereafter in a great distance of Time Believe on Him His Reward is with Him He expects it only from Himself when his work ie so before him And even to Impenitents there is first a time of Warning and Testimony and then the Day that will Burn as an Ouen and the wicked are as Ashes under the Soles of the Feet After this warning is the perdition of ungodly Men reserv'd for punishment I know very well Notwithstanding all this Assurance and the Reason of it I have given It will be said yet to me Seeing this Year 97 is in so near on Approach and there are no Appearances of such a Succession or opening of the Kingdom of Christ ought it not therefore to shake your Confidence and put a diffidence upon such a continued Affirmation of such a Kingdom to make any Entrance at this Time In Answer to this I would make this Humble Profession or Confession in these Three things First I cannot be shaken in my assurance Because I find my Grounds in the Word of God unshakable and unmoveable A False Witness that hath no Foundation Perisheth in this Sense He cannot Bear up to nor continue in his Testimony But He that Heareth and knows on what Grounds He speaks Affirmeth constantly He that hath seen nothing as the Ground of his Prophecy is like a Reed shaken with the Wind But they that have the Word of the Lord Continue to speak it While I am so certain The Kingdom of Christ Enters its Succession without any delay whenever the Last of the Four Kingdoms Ends That the Third Woe of the Seventh Angel that Sounds the Kingdom of Christ Cometh quickly I look to see therefore what assurances there are this Last Kingdom even its Last State is upon giving up I find then the Times and Half Which are the Term of the Last State of the Last Kingdom By the Time since Constantine By the Time since the Christian Empire Demised By the Time since Mahometanism and more Particularly the Ottoman Empire hath entred the World By the Time since the Reformation first entred by Luther just ending All these have such Lively Sculptures and Engravings in the Sure word of Prophecy and their Times so Delineated I do not better know the Course of the Months in the Year the Days in the Month or the Hours in the Day then I know the very Last Year of the 1260 Days of Years is now entring and to Run its Circle and that within its Circle the Kingdom of Christ will come into its Succession The Second thing that I most Humbly desire to be Stedfast Unmoveable Unshaken in and upon is the Exceeding Riches of the Grace and Loving Kindness of God in Jesus Christ the Great High Priest and Apostle of my Profession That Shepherd of the Sheep that is to Shine forth as the Great Prince to have That great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Fold that is a Court One Shepherd and One Fold the Goodness and Faithfulness of the Spirit of Truth Guiding into all Truth Glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ by taking of the Things That are His and so of his Kingdom and shewing them to his Servants and shewing them Things that are to Come I have Great Assurance in his Tenderest Mercies having Led and Guided and Supported me thus far in the Search after his Kingdom and Manifested so much to me He will not Leave me to be ashamed of my Hope I can Humbly say before Him as his Servant Jeremy Oh Lord thy Words have been Found and I have Eaten them and they have been the Joy and the Rejoycing of my Heart I Humbly therefore Expostulate with Him Wilt Thou Wilt Thou be to me as a Lyar I know it is Impossible He should Lye He is God that cannot Lye And therefore herein His Servants may plead with Him The Vision shall not Lye He will not be as Waters that are not sure of which he hath given so Lively a Description in comparing the Unfaithfulness of Friends to Them My Friends have dealt Deceitfully with me as a Brook and as the Streams of Waters that pass away Which are Blackish by Reason of Ice c. But what Time they are warm They Vanish when it is Hot They are Consumed out of their Place the Paths of their way are turned aside They go to nothing and Perish The Troops of Tema Looked and VVaited The Companies of Seba were Confounded Because they had Hoped they came thither and were Ashamed Jer. 15. 15. c. Job 15. 15. c. How fully does this Express what Jeremy understood by Waters not sure And how Applicable to My Case if the Hopes I have of the Kingdom of Christ should prove mistaken It may be said Indeed if I were sure I had the Right Sense of Scripture-Prophecy the Argument were enough sure I therefore herein Rely on his Grace that he hath Guided me into the Truth of his Word that as I am sure His Word cannot Fail He cannot Lie so neither can any Iron any Created Power break the Northern Iron or prepared Steel of his Wisdom Truth and Power But lest any should say If you have such a Fasth have it to your self before God and Happy are you if you do not find Reason to Condemn your self in what you so much approve This therefore is my Third Profession The things that I have so heard and seen by continual search into Meditation upon and seeking Divine Direction in I cannot but speak I look upon the Kingdom as of those Things wherein we should confess Christ and not
be ashamed of him before Men whoso despise his Kingdom and of those of which Confession is to be made with the Mouth uneo Salvation And therefore as I have Humble Hopes That Jesus Christ hath been Graciously pleas'd to draw out my Heart Thoughts Meditations to search Every Retirement of his Word therein above All that have been before me And to give me Greater Confidence and Assurance and a more open Profession and Publication of what I have Found So that he will graciously Accept Remember Pardon spare me through the Multitude of his Mercies and not deliver up to shame and Confusion of Face before Men and confess me before his Father and before his Holy Angels That such a State of his Kingdom and such a Revolution with it and by it shall this very Year Appear to All the World as hath never been since the Apostacy of Humane Nature and that therefore All Mighty Works shall shew forth Themselves in it The Spirit shall be poured out from on High The Wilderness shall Become a Fruitful Field viz. in the highest Purity and Prosperity of his Churches and that which look'd like a Fruitful Field become Desert even the Antichristian State and whatever partakes of it the Glory of All this World and the Grandeur of it and so the Everlasting Gospel shall be preached to every Nation Tongue and People and every Thing move to the Glory of that Kingdom To whom then Most Reverend and Right Reverend could I present equally as to you the consideration of these things who I am assured are so Richly Furnished with all Advantages of Learning both in that Sure word of Prophecy and in History and Chronology Correspondent therewith And whose very Title Imports the Office of Those who are on the VVatch Tower waiting for the Speaking of the Vision which will not Tarry beyond its Time And therefore should be able to Answer the Question VVatchman VVatchman what of the Night Or how Near is the Morning and who as Persons of an Elevated Station ought to Vindicate your selves by a Higher Zeal for the Kingdom of Christ and even by a Holy Haste to bring Him to his Throne above others That you may not Fall under any Ombrage of the Anti-christian Hierarchy who as Feet of Clay are found in the Undermine of the Kingdom of Christ and are Broken by the very First Openings of it as upon which that Image Rests that Stands in delay of that Kingdom How therefore should you be able to answer that Question What do you more than others for the Kingdom of the Chief Shepherd who hath it on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords and who Profess to Attend upon him more Near and in Ordinary I most Humbly therefore submit this Apology to your Severest Examination and that as Prophets that is Persons above Ordinary Instructed in the 〈◊〉 Word of Prophecy for no otherwise can it be done you would Judge The Grounds Themselves I freely tender to so Sage and Learned a Christian a Protestant Presidency There is a kind of Intuitive Knowledge and Plerophory of Satisfaction I must with all Reverence yet and Humble Fear Hope I have a Right unto as proper to the having seen together the Curious Lines of Prophecy equal to the Curious Lines and Symmetry in the Works of God which the most Exact Astronomer Anatomist Naturalist 〈◊〉 hath or can Observe I desire the Things I offer might be brought into Seriousest Consultation and Debate as in the Days of Herod concerning the place where Christ should be born so now concerning the Time of his Kingdom Appearing It cannot be but most Great to be near the 〈◊〉 of the Kingdoms of this world to be the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ How would it releive in All the most Inextricable Labyrinths of the present Difficulties of Nations to our Nation particularly to our King to the Councel of the Nation in Parliament That He whose Right it is is now about to take to Himself his Great Power and to Reign and to destroy them who have been so long destroying the Earth I know the Paganizing Nations and Spirits will be very Angry even at the Mention of these Things as Vtopian Imaginary Fanatical and think to Scoff it off But as an Hidden and Concealed Train that Gives Fire and hath its Effect in a Moment so the Chain of Divine Councels the Predictions of Omnisciency in All Times take Full Effect in their own Just Moments how Unawares soever the World be concerning them For He who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working can neither be out-witted nor over ruled What I offer can be onely from Sense of Duty to declare what I have so Full Assurance of Duty as to the Great Revealer of Prophetical Secrets the wonderful Numberer of the Times of Prophecy so Duty to the Publick in the so Generally Acknowledged Distress of Affairs For which my Constant Supplications Ascend as also for You whose Most Christian Assistance and Administration according to Your Higher Sphere I Beseech and who I Hope Count it Your Greatest Honour to Serve Him who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth 〈◊〉 and therefore will not with a Gaâ—â—iâ— like Spirit not Care for any of these Things This First Month of the Year 1697. Most Reverend Right Reverend Your Most Humble Servant In That Kingdom of our Lord T. BEVERLEY FINIS
care so of Religion And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come upon that account And in another Evangelist They went to their Merchandise I have a Great Trade and I cannot carry on the present State if I mind so much the Kingdom of Christ And therefore I say The Purchasing and Husbandry and Merchandise and the Enjoyments of this World and Relations they are great Hinderances indeed to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ But then The Second Thing I would say to you which may give you Great Satisfaction as to this If there were such a Spirit poured out from on high Don't think the World would be so Inconvenient by it It would be brought into a more High a Better and more Excellent State I am sure If the Spirit were so poured out upon the World That Men did not excuse themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven by their Trade Relations and Families And by their Interest in the present VVorld I am sure that the Trees of the Wood would yeild forth of themselves to us The Hills would flow down with Milk and the Mountains with Wine VVhenever God will bring the VVorld into a Religious State indeed Don't take care as if the State of the VVorld could not be upheld For it shall be upheld and be more Happy and Blessed than it is now Joel 3. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Mountains shall drop down New Wine and the Hills shall flow down with Milk and all the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters c. Every thing shall be Happy and Prosperous Instead of the Thorn shall come up the Fir Tree and instead of the Bryar shall come up the Mirtle Tree and it shall be to the Lord for a Name and for a Memorial When God comes to make the world truely Good to bring in a Profession of Christianity not in Word but in Power I say when that comes to pass there shall be such a strange plenty to the World such a strange Providence over the Creation All that which we take so much care about and with so much Sin and hatred and envy one at another It will come so freely there will be no need of disturbance of and distracting our selves or one another When we come in High sense to be the Servants of God and to be in such a State All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would come and lay down their Service at our Feet The Heavens would hear the Earth and the Earth would hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl And they would hear Jezreel Amos 9. 11. Behold the days come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treaders of Grapes him that soweth the Seed That is the Harvest shall be sooner than the very Plowing All Creatures in Heaven and Earth would offer themselves to us And all the Riches that we dive for now so deep into the Bowels of the Earth and into the bottom of the Sea they would come up and be at our hand in that Day when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall be thus Universally upon the World and when the Desire of Nations shall come I would shut up this in a very Brief Application to you Vse 1. In the First Place Let it move us seriously to fill up our Religion with this Character of it The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom There was the great mark in their Eye the great design in their Eye Now ask your selves I beseech you is your Religion in meeting the Bridegroom Is not your Praying Morning and Evening because it is good Family-Order It is a good thing for Reputation and Credit Is it not because you are afraid if you Rise up and Lie down without Prayer God won't Bless you that Day nor give you good rest that Night He won't succeed you in your Calling And in the Duties and Business of it Is it not because natural Conscience would cry out and say what Do you live like a Heathen yea a Brute and like a Beast I acknowledge these are valuable Reasons in their kind But sure there is a Higher a Greater Reason to go forth to meet the Bridegroom Because throughout all the Account that can be given why Men are Religious if this be not Principal if this be not the Supreme End that I would meet the Bridegroom It is not of the Excellent True Alloy Therefore Buoy up your Spirits raise them wind them up to this great height I 'll go forth to meet the Bridegroom I pray this Morning that I may meet with the Bridegroom I go to hear this day That I may meet with the Bridegroom I would not have these great things wound up onely within the Circle of this Life in this manner Here comes Business and here comes Prayer And so there 's Sleep and Eating and Drinking All comes in a Round and we would have this Round always observed And it calls to Publick Prayer and to other of those Duties Now if we turn about onely in this Circle we run on Endlessly about But our care must be higher Viz. To meet the Bridegroom Vse 2. In the Second Place I Beseech you consider whether your Religion be of this excellent kind that you would be willing to meet the Bridegroom Is it that which I believe in my Soul enlightned by the Spirit of God my Conscience bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost that it will please the Bridegroom Are my Thoughts Affections manner of Conversation such And what reason have we and do we Humble our selves before our Bridegroom when we consider this will not please when we consider this is not fine enough Ornamental enough to his Glory of value enough I would not meet him with Tinsel instead of Gold and real worth I would not meet him with false Diamonds instead of real ones So I would not meet him with Hypocritical formal Prayers without real Grace And then Vse 3. In the third Place I beseech you consider I don't expect there should be many Subscribing to that Account of Time that I have given out Tho it be upon great and strong Foundations in the Word of God Yet I challenge nothing from any but so far as they see in that Light But I would onely ask you this Question upon the occasion of it Suppose it a true and real Scripture Account that I have given out and that within so little a Time there shall be yet so great a change of the World And Men shall begin to unhinge from the Earth and Earthly Foundations Would you be glad of it Or have you not a secret Trouble and Enmity against it And that you would have the World still go on and Ages to run on so I say try your selves as to this I think it cannot be any Injury for any to propose this Seeing we should be continually upon our watch for this very thing when our Lord will come Vse
of Grace than to look up to Electing Grace Knowing Brethren your Election of God and giving diligence in every Grace to make our Calling and Election sure The Apostle hath given us a great Admonition for Adoring Supream Grace Rom. 11. 32 c. God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all That is upon all that he will have mercy upon He hath shut them up in such a way that they could not stir if his Grace did not open the way O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Who could direct God what he should do in the eternal concernments of Souls Or Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Can any say to God Thou hast done unjustly or unrighteously that thou hast not chosen me Why what hast thou done or any Creature done to oblige him If he hath I dare assure him it shall be recompenced to him to the uttermost But I assure him he that replies thus he is a Bold Man and Proud and Haughty is his Name And as Christ saith Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever And therefore I desire to be among the number of those that do not quarrel with God That dare not enter a contest and a contention with him concerning his Eternal Choice Let us humble our selves every one at his foot and say Of thee and through thee and to thee are all things and I desire to be to thy Glory Thus let us make our selves nothing before God nothing at all but make him all We never did any thing for him we could never lay an Obligation and therefore we have nothing to say but Free Grace Free Grace Free Love and Free foreknowledge of God 2. In the Second Place This Parable in this dreadful part teaches That we should all be beholding to Christ and to the Free Grace that is in him the Pardon of Sin the Righteousness of Christ his Bloud and his Redemption Here 's our all I say here is our all For as I opened to you the Great Point is Whether in Christ or not Whether Christ be in us and whether we are in him Whether we are found in him as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 7 c. Here 's the Point That every one may depend upon the Righteousness of God in Christ It is not the works that we have done but according to his own mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit And here the wise Virgins reached out themselves to be found in Christ and only in him but the Foolish Virgins fell short here 3. Thirdly We can do nothing but by the Spirit of Christ Our only hope is in the Spirit of the Lord our God And therefore the foolish Virgins were mistaken That they did all in their own strength and power They trusted in their own Beauty they trusted in their own Virginity and did not mind the Righteousness of Christ the Free Grace of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ I come to the Fourth thing I proposed and that is To answer the Objections that may be made against this state of this Case I have given you And I desire to speak plainly yet in very short to you in this matter You may say then What can any one do What hope can there be Though I am in the True Religion and in the True Worship of God and though I am in an unblameable Conversation and yet I may be lost and undone because I have not Wisdom because I have not something that I am not able to apprehend or to be sensible of Now therfore I 'll satisfie you in this because you may think In all Religion there lies a discouragement upon us If things be thus Therefore I 'll Answer you in Two things very briefly First Let no man mistake for I am sure Let any thing be preached that can be preached yet there shall not so much as be one Moral Person fewer in the World I am sure that the measure of Restraining Grace of Preventing Grace of Morallizing Grace that God will give to the World nothing of Discourse or Opinion shall be able to straiten it or to lessen it I say I am sure of this There shall not be one Honest Man in the World less because Christ preached to that young Man that had kept all the Commandments from his youth Thou art yet under a great difficulty as to the Kingdom of Heaven A man might have taken the Advantage of that discourse of Christ with this young man and have made a Clamour and noise of it and said here 's one that despises and discourages a good young man for he saith How hardly shall such a young man that hath kept all the Commands from his youth enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but Christ knew very well that he should not hinder or lessen or straiten Moral Honesty or Goodness in the World by what he said for he knew all these things are in God and from God and there shall not one hair from the head of Morality as I may so speak Fall to the Ground because of any thing that can be said for There is a Common Grace of Morality and Honesty given out from God and Christ and whomsoever he thinks fit to Receive it They shall receive it and must receive it and they shall be under the power of it and live suitably to it And so for the Grace of God There shall no one be hindred of his Graee Let men have as many Conceptions as they can have of things and however Discouraging if his Truth be duely spoken and in the season Therefore dont think that the preaching of the Truth of Scripture can do any hurt for God is allwayes present breathing in the Word both with a Spirit of Morality and common Gifts of Righteousness and also with a Spirit of Grace and none shall be ever able to straighten his Spirit in any of the Effects of it And the Truths of God spoken according to his Word shall be subordinated to it In the Second Place I do always acknowledge and Declare with Greatest Freedom and Sincerity That this is the onely way of Preaching the Gospel To preach it so that Every one should be Sensible of True Holiness and True Grace And yet withal They must be Sensible of Free Grace the free Grace of God the free Choice of God Free Grace in the Righteousness of Christ of the Spirit Blowing where it listeth and where it pleaseth as our Lord tells us These things are not to be Divided nor Justled out one by another for they both stand
fair in the Wisdom of God and they are both to be offered to the Minds and Consciences of men and they shall both work Effectually for the great ends and purposes that God hath appointed And as as Christ saith If any one be offended let them be offended Why Because every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up That is there shall be no Plant lost but what God leaves to it self in his just and righteous Judgment That is A Moral Man and an Honest Man and a Sober Man so by the Grace of God he shall be so still God hath chosen and mark'd him out to be such a one And he that is truly good he shall be so And yet all this shall be conveyed in the power of Preaching and in such kind of Threatnings and Promises such kind of Expostulations as Scriptures speak and therefore I would not have you think that these things should be put to a Jarre by any Mens Preaching for every one is under the righteous Government of God Now therefore let Truths run ever according to the Word of God let them run freely as a stream from Free Grace Let them then be with all the Freeness and Publickness spoken of that can be And as it is said in Exodus 14. There was a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire in one And the Pillar of Cloud was turned that is the dark side was turned upon the Egyptians and the light side upon the Israelites So I say when the Word of God is preached the Light side shall be upon the person that God will have a sober honest righteous good man and the dark side shall be upon the dissolute and upon the prophane and upon the intemperate And so the dark side shall be upon them that God leaves to themselves and the Light side shall be upon those that God will bring under his Grace and under his Spirit and under the Power of Holiness And so I have Discoursed the Doctrinal part of this great Point to you and I hope so That none of you should have any just cause of being offended at what I have spoken but that it should engage every one of us to run up to Grace and to Christ for the hopes are greater that I have laid down to you out of the Scriptures wherein our Springs lie then when they call upon us for our own Action and Duty And when they do so they shew us the great necessity of Christ of the Spirit of Christ of Free Grace For don't we see Men are Preaching up Free-Will and Works as much as they can And yet for all that was there ever so much prophaneness and wickedness was there ever any less Power and Life of the Gospel since the Reformation than now there is And therefore though the Pulpits be full of this yet we don't see the powerful Grace of God go along so that we have reason to rejoice at such Preaching but those that Preach the Righteousness of Christ without Works and set forth the fulness of Free Grace and of the Supream Dominion of God and yet in a way of Holiness I can remember and trace back That there were great effects of this Mens Lives were mightily Changed and Reformed They were mightily changed notwithstanding that this Preaching was endeavoured to be stifled and stopt There were many effects both in City and Country in bringing Men to God and to Christ by that Preaching and so there are still and therefore to close all in the Application 1. In the First Place I would earnestly beseech you That you would prize this Grace And Oh! that God would be pleased to turn the Bright-side of what I have now spoken on and that you would go into your secret Closets and Meditations and lay your selves low before God and acknowledge the freeness of God's Grace One have I chosen and another have I left Be not afraid of this I say it shall do you no hurt at all God may make it a time of Love And the more you depend upon Grace upon the Righteousness of Christ the more holiness and the more you shall find the Power and Breathing of the Spirit of Jesus Christ upon you And therefore Remember the Three things whereupon we stand viz. The Free Grace of God before the Foundation of the World The Righteousness of Jesus Christ our whole Trust as to our acceptance witâ— God The Spirit of Grace in building up in the ways of Holiness And 2. In the Second Place Let not from all that I have spoken any think That any thing will be accepted without sincerity of Grace For where-ever there hath been the Love of God or the Righteousness of Christ that hath taken hold of any ones State and Condition and where the Spirit of God hath taken hold upon any ones heart there shall be sure to be the mighty Effect of Grace and Holiness and Spirituality and that in a Man 's own action he shan't lie still and say I 'll see what God will work upon me but he shall be up and be up and be doing because the Lord is with him He shall be active and full of motion striving and full of industry because the Light-Side of the Scripture is upon him and he is kept from every thing that offends His foot shall not be taken as Scripture saith while he holds himself close in dependance upon Free Grace upon the free Choice and Election of Grace I am sure you shall not be ashamed if God move your hearts and if the Light-Side of Scripture be upon you in these things you shall find God will be your Confidence and your sure and strong hold his Name in these things shall be your strong Tower to which ye shall run and be safe In the Third Place I desire you would give me but one Moments time to move you to beg for the Coming of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and for the Time it shall first be preparing for its Glory and which I have declared to be so near upon so great Ground of Scripture Now I would give you Ground of earnestly begging for this Kingdom of Christ and the succession of it And why Because there shall be great Converting Grace bringing in Strangers to God and to Christ There shall be a greater Power in bringing men to the Purity and Simplicity that is in Christ Then many foolish Virgins yet shall be made wise many not Virgins yet shall be Espoused to Christ And if you say Why was not this always The Answer that I shall give you is this It is in the power of God to dispence Grace as he pleases You may as well say Why had not our fore-Fathers the Gospel as pure as we have Why had they not the Scripture so clear And why had they it not in their own Language Two or Three or Four or Five Hundred Years ago It was a dangerous thing within these Two Hundred Years to