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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89411	Several works of Mr. Iohn Murcot, that eminent and godly preacher of the Word, lately of a Church of Christ at Dublin in Ireland. Containing, I. Circumspect walking, on Eph. 5.15,16. II. The parable of the ten virgins, on Mat. 25. from ver. 1. to ver. 14. III. The sun of righteousness hath healing in his wings for sinners, on Mal. 4.2. IV. Christs willingness to receive humble sinners, on John 6.37. Together with his life and death. Published by Mr. Winter, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Eaton, Mr. Carryl, and Mr. Manton. With alphabetical tables, and a table of the Scriptures explained throughout the whole.	Murcot, John, 1625-1654.; Winter, Samuel, 1596?-1665.; Chambers, Robert, minister in Dublin.; Eaton, Samuel, 1506?-1665.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; J. G.	1657 (1657)	Wing M3083; Thomason E911_1; ESTC R202939	754,107	852

God as the Apostle did not by sense nor what we fee● though never so much yet that must not be our life or if never so little that must not be our death but still live by faith in the son of God who liveth for ever and therefore his people shall not dye nor their Lamps be put out in obscure darkness 3. Consider then have we not declined have not our Lamps burned much clearer then now they do hath not our light been clearer then now it is and our warmth been more then now it is this is matter of humbling to us Have we not received much mixture of error in these erting times we cannot imagine how much darkness it brings upon our Lamps to have one error mixed with much truth Besides may not the Lord Jesus say to us all I have somewhat against you all in that you have left your first love Time was when you were zealous for the house of God and it did even eat you up now you are grown to a Gallio's spirit care not for these things Now we seek our own things and nest our selves in security it is well with us and therefore we consider not the danger poor souls are in by such as go up and down with the power of delusion few mourners in Zion for these things If the Church were under persecution it is likely we should lament truly I look upon its present state as more destructive to it so many Vipers ●ating at the very heart and bowels of Religion where is our burning of zeal for God against these things sure it should humble us 4. We see that Believers may decline and these times do give an abundant proof of it how many that have been as burning and shining lights have been benighted and inveloped in the most Egyptian darkness entertaning the most desperate opinions walking after their own Lusts and yet afterwards have been restored O how should this make us fear before him be not high-minded but fear here thou seest one and there another their lamps next to a being quite extinct yet thou hast light and heat maintained O boast not thy self lift not up thy self but fear before the Lord humility indeed is a kind of a nurse of the graces conservatrix virtutum as Bernard saith If he spared not the Angels in their pride will he spare thee A Novise is in danger of falling into the condemnation of the Devil in danger of being puffed up He giveth grace to the lowly but resisteth the proud Some do observe that word be ye cloathed with humility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye cloathed the word cometh from a word signifying a knot because it ties all together as I may say and so knitteth the graces together as pearls upon a Braslet if the knot be broken they are quickly lost It is indeed brethren the thief in the candle the great waster the Moth in the cloath consumeth it and spoyleth the beauty and strength of it It is the worm at the root of the Guord it will smite it and we see it by sad experience when men grow so proud and pretend to Angelical perfection in our days they fall as low as hell and brutish bestiality in their lusts O therefore let us labour to walk humbly with God be not high-minded though at present we stand and flourish and shine and burn we are liable to declinings 5. If we be so liable to declinings then it should teach us so much the more to be diligent in improving I am sure the Apostle giveth it as a preservative against declining and apostatizing But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ grow in grace and in knowledge knowledge is that whereby the Lord doth reveal himself to his people from grace to grace as you have it in that place of the Apostle whom beholding as in a glass c. But observe here keep your selves that is fall not from your own stedfastness and how should this be One means is to grow in grace If we would not have our Lamps burn dim and low we must labour to supply them so as they may increase the path of the just is as a shining light which shineth more and more to the perfect day and the wind of that Spirit which bloweth where it listeth it riseth higher and higher as some note O see to it then ordinarily while the fruit is in growth the leaves wither not nor the fruit fals except in some great storm or wind Labour to grow then first in bigness then in sweetness grow more mellow sweet full of love humility and self-denial 6. If we be so liable to decline it should teach us to avoid all those things which tend to a declining else we shall never avoid the thing it self we must take heed of sleeping then for though our Lamps be never so bright when we begin to sleep when we awake they will burn low if not extinct and will have great need of trimming up Security is the undoing evil in all things where was the joy of Davids faith when he began to be secure Psal 30. 7. Take heed of putting off the day of his appearing that will gender to security and that security will bring a neglect of our Lamps and then they will grow low and decline 2. Take we heed of false Teachers try the Spirits whether they be of God or no they have a strange influence upon the life and liveliness of mens profession were they not these that hindered the Galathians Ye did run well who hath hindered you who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Ye did run well in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rase wherein they had Lamps or Torches but who hath hindered you The Apostle Peter maketh it the immediate cause of the backsliding and declining at least if not utter apostacy Beware saith he lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own stedfastness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be carried out of his way to go with another the power of error is greater then we are aware of The Apostle speaks thus This I say lest any man deceive you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with enticing words beguile you They have cunning craftiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cogging with the die Satan changing himself into an Angel of light and his Ministers into Ministers of light and cogging with the die like cunning and deceitful Gamsters how easie is it to deceive the hearts of the simple yea the hearts of his but that they are kept by that power But a great way they may prevail and so we may lose our stedfastness and therefore take heed what spirits we give ear to Alas do we not see in our days what fearful work Satan hath made among Professors how many have their Lamps quite put out that went for zealous

day put on your Ornaments and make ready for his appearing for while your hearts are out of order your Spirits out of frame you are not fit to meet the Lord Jesus and therefore you will hang back but so much of this Exhortation The last Application will be a word of comfort to such as through grace have yielded up themselves to the Lord Jesus or are desirous or do so to be espoused to him according to the several conditions of such creatures there may from hence be a various and strong consolation administred from this Doctrine First Then alas you will say withal your souls you close with Jesus Christ there is nothing you more gladly undertake but you know he is a righteous God most just and most pure of eys and therefore he will surely be displeased with you and you shall have little comsort yea you do finde that your fruitlesness of walking doth provoke him and therefore you are afraid sooner or later he will cast you off before you come to enter with him into the marriage O I shall one day fall by the hand of this Pride of this uncleanness of this lust or the other For Answer to this remember 1. That the Lord when he doth betroth he betretheth forev●r and he doth it in faithfulness so that if the saithfulness of Jesus Christ could fail who hath espoused thee thou mightest miscarry Men indeed after espousals if they discover any deformity which they knew not before may be apt to change their minds yea sometimes where there is no cause at all but their own fickleness and changableness but there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with him hath he spoken it and will he not perform it I will never leave thee saith he to Jacob until I have performed all the good which I have spoken concerning thee But a little more fully to open it 1. I say by way of Concession he may sometimes be angry with his spouse or at least withdraw himself properly he is not angry at all nor subject to any passion but he may behold that in his people for which he may sometimes put them to a little grief and make them believe that he will cast them off as you have it in many of the Psalms he may frown and hide his face from his people but as on their part every withdrawing from him is not a breach of the marriage-Covenant so neither is every withdrawing of his refreshing presence a breach of his Covenant yet when he doth so withdraw brethren alas his heart works towards his people as to Ephraim I do earnestly remember him still he may give his people sharp words sometimes which will be a cutting to the souls that are deeply in love with him but they go to his own heart as well as they do to theirs here is the difference brethren between our withdrawings from him and his withdrawings from us that are his people our hearts are many times gone in a great part to sit loose from him though not altogether for the Church when she slept her heart waked but now with him it is otherwise his heart is never gone in the least from his people onely he may speak sometimes a bitter word to them but all this while his heart is full of sweetness and love to them this is one 2. Remember this also as a pillar of the former that he hath builded and founded this espousal and union between him and his people so sure as that it can never be shaken upon the freeness of his grace and therefore it cannot be moved Upon his full knowledge of what we would be indeed if the Lord Jesus had not known what fruitless froward creatures we would prove how unthankful how unkind it had been something for a poor doubting soul to have fed his fears with but he knew long before brethren and if he had seen that he had not had bowels enough to swallow up all our unworthiness he would never have made love to us for he is God and his work is perfect he would never have begun except he had been able to lay the top-stone Again the satisfaction of the Justice of God is to the full this is that which amazeth and alrighteth many a poor soul they forget themselves and look upon their failings as those which expose them to divine vindicative justice which is a great mistake for that was once fully satisfyed in Jesus Christ and he is well pleased in him with all that can bring him in their arms if we can but come to God with Jesus Christ in our arms he hath no more to say to us all is made even in Christ there was never such a declaration of the Justice of God as in giving his own son to be a ransom a sacrifice once for all and the Apostle saith it was to declare the righteousness of God therefore he was given to be a propitiation for the remission of sins there God appeared righteous indeed that the flames of hell must kindle upon his son yea and burn to the lowermost hell in a sort that he might be satisfyed that justice might for ever lye still and be silenced as to his people it is more that Christ suffered then if thou and ten thousand such as we are should suffer to eternity we could never have paid the utmost farthing which he paid to the uttermost else he could not have saved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides we should have been long paying that we payd he at once payd all and therefore this Marriage is so founded brethren upon this satisfaction of Jesus Christ that it cannot be shaken Yea 3. As to that of afflicting his people and frowning upon them he is not forward to it he is not strict to mark what is done amiss to take notice of every slip and failing if he were we should never have comfortable moment no he is rather strict to mark what is good in us what beauty there is in us if there be but one beauty or fair place in the midst of many spots his eye and his heart is rather upon that as some observe in that of Sarah there is but one good word in her speech calling Abraham Lord all the rest savours of unbelief and yet the Holy Ghost takes notice of that So Rahab Jos 2. 4 5. Heb. 11. 31. Alas what miserable mangled Services do we offer up to our own eys there is not any thing desirable that is ought Well if there be but one sigh one groan in sincerity he is more ready to take notice of that then of all your failings and therefore is not forward to put his spouse and people to grief O he is full of kindness and tenderness to us Yea 4. It is observable that he is said to rejoyce over his people continually as a Bridegroom over a Bride not onely his heart is constant to them but it is constant in the same

to Jesus Christ every weight and the sin which so easily be setteth us as the Apostle saith If we come with the world rooted in our hearts it is five to one but we shall be tryed as the young man in the Gospel was and as that other was the Foxes have holes c. you hear no more of that forward man afterward O but we are young and therefore we may have time enough before us it is time enough for us to look after grace many years hence No my brethren it is your duty to remember your Creator in the daies of your youth while the milk is in your breasts and you have some strength to lay out upon Christ The first-fruits were not to be delayed to be paid Exod. 22. 29. A young Samuel seasoned so young a young Timothy they may be eminent servants of Jesus Christ when others at the same years are but beginning to enter upon the work Besides is not thy life as uncertain as anothers do you not see that young men dye even as the old and young men are like to perish as well as old if they be not found with oyl in their Lamps and young men may enter with the Bridegroom as well as old if they be found ready And therefore I pray you for Christs sake do not so deceive your selves but while it is called to day young and old hearken to this voice of God and put no● off this main work any longer Alas but you will say my case is the case of these foolish Virgins I have long made a profession and I have my grace to seek and therefore there is no hope for me a gray-headed sinner who have trifled away my time You know some were called at the 11. hour Brethren and indured not the heat of the day with others and yet miscarried not while the day of grace lasts there is hope and while the Lord knocks by his Spirit and Word there is hope that to us appears to be a day of grace and that thy spirit is moved is yet a further Argument And therefore be of good courage if he have given thee a heart now at last to look after him and though thou lingeredst with Lot until God was even fain to pull thee out of the burning the everlasting burnings thou haste so much the more cause to magnifie the grace of Christ toward thee that he would after so much abuse of the day of grace look upon thee at all and when thou wert as a dry stick no strength nor vigour to serve him at all therefore God could have no eye at thy service nor any thing thou wert like to do but meerly to exalt his grace and therefore for ever thou maist more easily Conquer over-that temptation of resting in any thing in thy self priding thy self in any thing of thine own and give him the glory of all in an humble walking before him The second demonstration of their folly is that they went to the creature for grace They said to the wise give c. It is a note or point of great folly to seek unto the creature when men have neglected to seek to Christ then to go to the creature for grace you see this is the practise of foolish Virgins how far we may urge this I cannot tell but me thinks we do not put it too far if we may stand upon it at all Whether they would now at last being sensible of their want of the oyl in the vessel the grace in the heart they would have some of that oyl which they had in their vessels or whether only somewhat to make their Lamps burn as they did before it appears not nor yet what their highest ●nd was in it appears not if they aimed not at the highest end Gods glory and their own salvation as the ultimate end then they were grosly foolish in that respect for to miss the end is the most fundamental point of errour and folly but if they be supposed to aim right yet there is this Argument of their folly in the very Text which shall be all I will say for the confirmation of it They take not the right means for the accomplishing that end and therefore they are foolish for wherein doth folly consist else but chiefly in this they find not out or use not the right means for the attaining of a right end Now was this a right means to go to the creature to the wise Virgins for oyl Give us of your oyl this argues either desperate ignorance that they knew not whither to go to get oyl that they were ignorant of the Fountain of Israel the fulness that is in Jesus Christ from which fulness his people receive grace for grace and such blindness as this to be in men that profess Christianity it is very strange and argues great stupidity and folly or else if they did know it they had no heart to go to him they would not if they could get it otherwise well and good and bring oyl to him they had hope of acceptance but they would have none from him and this would argue a worse kind of blindness But of these things we will not spend our conjectures nor in such uncertainties Whatever the case is sure it is that they went not to him but to the creature for their oyl from the Sun to the beam from the fountain to the stream and so to the broken Cistern and is not this folly This then will teach us thus much That the Papists are as like these foolish Virgins as they can look poor creatures those merit-mongers and money-changers that fill the Temple of God do not some of them sell and others buy their pardons and indulgences do they not go to the Church-treasure of merit to make up what is wanting of their own and not to Jesus Christ in the hour of their necessity I know not what some of them may do and some others I believe may be wiser in this thing but surely many poor creatures are led away with this wicked error I cannot call it better Surely Brethren If any be the foolish Virgins to the life the Papists are some of them if they be true to their Principles 2. It may serve to reprove many among our selves that put off all the work which concerneth their souls live as if they cared not for God nor regarded him at all the people of God and Ministers of Christ are the object of their scorn or disregard they sleight them above others but when an hour of destruction cometh O then when they are ready to dye the Minister must be sent for and he must speak a word of comfort right or wrong they are ready to think I doubt that as much is in it as in a Popish Absolution according to their conceit then as if it were in their power or they were in Christ's stead to give them grace they hang much of their confidence upon

such as have been as appears by the words following our Rulers and have taught us the Word of the Lord again and again considering the end of their conversation c. for assuredly the living speeches of dying Prophets live for ever Zach. 1. Their word took hold that is it did pursue overtake and seize upon that generation And so will the word of this our dear Brother fasten upon many a soul if not to his salvation certainly to his eternal destruction who if he were alive again would he not speak as now though dead in this present discourse he speaketh Oh! rest not satisfied with the Lamp of profession but get the oyl of saving grace into the vessels of your hearts and go forth to meet the Bride-groom that when he cometh whether at midnight cock-crowing or at the dawning of the day you may not be found sleeping but may enter in with him It s said of Arrius that as his errour with the sad effects thereof spread after his death so his torments were increased in hell for the Lord will render to every man not only according to his doings but according to the fruit of his doings If so as I believe it is a truth O then would we add to this our Brothers Crown and make it more massie and fuller of those choice pearls another day let us remember and forget not what by him was done and taught but say as she said Lord lay up this for me that whenever I have occasion to make use of it as when not I may so remember it as that I may practise and be blessed in my deed But I detain your Lordships too long I shall conclude with my hearty prayers to the Lord that as he hath made you eminently instrumental so he would take pleasure in you both to make you more and more instrumental in the hand of Christ which next to our salvation is one of the greatest priviledges in this life and lengthen out your daies that you may return slowly to heaven which is the humble desire of My Lords Your most devoted servant Sam. Winter The Epistle to the READER Curteous and Christian Reader THou hast here presented to thy view some Sermons os Mr. John Murcot whilst he lived a precious Instrument in the hand of Jesus Christ a Workman that needed not to be ashamed And now being dead yet speaketh by these and his other labours Concerning the Author he was according to his years of an exact judgement which appeared 1. In the choice of apt Subjects with respect to the persons and times wherein he lived as he aimed at the setting up of Christs interest and the welfare of his people so he singled out arguments answerable upon the improvement whereof he spent his best thoughts as might be instanced in these and several other pieces of his 2. In all his undertakings he laboured to discover to poor creatures the vileness of sin Gods free Grace yet ne● 〈◊〉 the prejudice of Gospel-obedience in the promoting whereof he laboured very much knowing the great relactancy of flesh and blood thereto 3. His wisdom appeared in his care and tenderness in that with the discovery of sin he always joyned the nearness of Mercy as he cast down with one hand so he raised up with the other a Bonerges and yet a son of consolation and oh how tender and humble towards poor troubled doubting souls 4. In the healing and preventing of breaches among Brethren he was admirable the Lord gave him wisdom above his years 2 As he was exact in judgement so was he full of affections how warm were they lying in the very bosom of his Master which appeared in his melting frame of Spirit ordinarily and in his thirst to draw down notions that floated in the brain to the heart and feeling wherein he was exceedingly successful 3 As for conversation he was not only spotless but active in good in his studies a●dlabours wherein as he was abundant and unwearied which probably helped to shorten his life that when his body came to conflict with the disease he had not strength to overcome at all other times doing or receiving good of whom it may be truly said that he did Epilcopum agere vivere act and live a true Minister of Jesus Christ blessed Bradford connted that hour lost wherein he did not some good with his tongue pen or purse It was the commendation of blessed Hooper that he was spare of Dyet spare of Words and sparest of Time These things being committed to another hand we shall forbear the scope of this Epistle being to acquaint thee with the grounds of publishing these Sermons and to intreat thy candid interpretation and acceptance of our endeavours therein First The satisfying of the longing desires of several some of whom eminent not only in Place but Piety that their hearts may be refreshed their memories strengthened by reading what they formerly heard with much delight 2. The general acceptation of the Author even with all sorts in those places where he lived or was known Secondly The seasonableness of the Subject it being an Antidote against the raigning of that most dangerous evil of the times Formality the most satisfying themselves with the bare Lamp of Profession not regarding the want of oyl in their vessels and the best too apt to be nodding when the cry is made and with the Apostles most sleep when it most concerned them to be watching which renders this Subject not only of present but lasting use and benefit Thirdly The manner of handling which is solid and spiritual so that the ingenuous Reader may find in this Lamp not only light to direct him but heat to warm him when he is a cold and a Cry to awaken him when he is asleep Fourthly The Authors exactness in penning them as if Providence contrary to his approved modesty had designed them for publick view which thou hast here as they were left in his own private notes and you know First That writing and speaking have their several Graces they were publikely delivered with much advantage Secondly They are set forth after his death and you know charity is due to Orphans the Authors more then ordinary growth in a few years assures us that had he lived to have revised this Work it would have been much more digested and refined Thirdly Being left in Characters in the transcribing whereof by the most diligent and exact some mistakes are almost unavoidable so that these may challenge allowance being transcribed by the Authors dearest relation who acquired the knowledge of his Character after his death Wherefore we intreat thee good Reader to bear with what might have escaped upon that or our own accompt which we shall willingly own judging it our duty to prefer the Publike and eternal good of souls to our own names for whose sake as the Pretious Author bestowed much of his oyl in the trimming of this Lamp so we have set it up in

Rejoyce in the Lord saith the Apostle and again I say rejoyce it is a duty of that moment he cannot leave it he goeth over and over with it do not think I am mistaken when I bid you rejoyce because happily your condition may be afflicted other ways again I say rejoyce I am still of the same mind The Lord Jesus rejoyceth over you as sad thoughts as you have concerning your selves he rejoyceth over you he is glad to communicate his love and shall not we rejoyce then in the receiving of it Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the bridegroom is with them saith our Saviour it is not sutable to their condition when he shall be taken away then they shall mourn I deny not Brethren but if the Lord do withdraw himself we should lament after him and seek him sorrowing as Mary the Mother of Jesus did and the more love we have received if we grieve him this will be the more grief of heart but if you that have his presence in a sweet manner and yet hang the head and droop as if our joyning to the Lord had been the undoing of our souls So pensively and sadly we many of us walk that indeed we are a shame and dishonour to the Lord Jesus If you should see a Virgin espoused to a man and should from that day forwad never hold up her head but walk heavily what would you think sure she apprehends she hath made an ill choice her expectations are frustrated therefore Brethren look to it that we rejoyce if the Children of the Bride-chamder cannot mourn but rejoyce to hear the voice of the Bridegroom much more then the Bride The Lords takes pleasure in the prosperity of thy soul and why shouldst not thou ●ake pleasure in the prosperity of thy own soul being made one with Jesus Christ 5. Look to it that you be faithful to the Lord Jesus as a Bride when once espoused if she turned aside to another it was death they were looked upon as in a marryed state and condition indeed the truth is when the Lord hath truly espoused his soul to himself he hath done it in faithfulness and maketh the soul faithful to him that in the great Article of the Covenant they never deal falsly with Jesus Christ that is to say they choose not another Saviour another Lord under whose dominion to put themselves constantly yet there may be sometimes to Jesus Christ even in his own people If that once it cometh to this that we imbrace sin and consent to it and take any delight in it this is to play the harlot with Jesus Christ O take heed of this brethren indeed the heart is all that he looks at how we stand affected to those evils which yet remain if Paul have a body of death yet he delights not in it but groans being burtheued this he accounts not unfaithfulness but when a mans heart beginneth to sit loose from the Lord Jesus to be almost indifferent he could sometimes in a fit of wretched carnality be content to have another Lord to rule over him to be free from Christ O! this the Lord looks at and he will search out this will move him to jealousie therefore take heed of this a woman may do as much service and seemingly as readily to her husband as before but yet her heart be gone and she could be contented to be loose this is heart-Adultery this the Lord Jesus in us brethren looks at as such if we serve him and do duties but in such a manner that we could even be contented to be at liberty it is not right take heed of provoking the Lord Jesus lest it prove in the end that he never knew us indeed Labour to be faithful then in this in the main Again In managing all he puts into our hands be faithful The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her It is the commendation of a woman of a thousand in the Proverbs she will be improving It may be you have not so much to turn as others have others have ten times more parts and opportunities to do good let them look to it they have ten times as much to answer for and must do ten times as much but thou mayst be as faithful in a little as they in a great deal One servant is a Steward in the family hath all under his hand and another he is a poor under-servant hath some mean service committed to him why now he may be as faithful in his place as the other in his Moses was faithful in all the house of God he had a great command Caleb might be as faithful for what was committed to him following God fully as the Text hath it say not then If I were a Magistrate a Minister a publike person had such opportunities to do good I might do much but I am an obscure person Well be thy condition what it will be thou mayst do good and be faithful in thy place according to what thou hast received thy lips may drop like a hony-comb and feed many and like choice silver and inrich many though thou be never so mean and so for the Family and up and down where ever thou comest look that thou be faithful to do all from Jesus Christ and to do all to him that thou rob him not of the glory of what he hath done for thee and by thee for then thou art not faithful 6. Another Exhortation shall be then to desire the coming of the Bridegroom the Spirit and the Bride say come the spirit in the bride breathing in her as it is in the Revelation they say come We looke upon the day of death as if it were the day of divorce from the Lord Jesus for the most part truly for them that are out of Christ it is no marvel if it be a King of terrors to them but to the Saints me thinketh who look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus to consummate the marriage between them it should not be so terrible as it seemeth to be to the most of us and to this end take ye here brethren at the marriage feast he turns our water into wine but in heaven our wine into spirits and setteth them a flaming our love flaming to all eternity 7. Exhortation which is to look to our Ornaments to get them ready why do we hang back but because we are not ready we have somewhat or another unready still our work is not done can a maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me As a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels so he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Eleazer put jewels upon Rebecca before she came to Isaac and therefore the spouse is called Callah in the Original because of her perfect adorning therefore look to this brethren that you be adorned O every

that this is folly but the world counteth this the greatest folly that can be to make so much ado about the soul-affairs to trouble themselves so much about the interest in Christ they are the wise men that have heads deep and large to compass their designs for the world and to have a profession of Christ the thing may be of some use but the thing it self it is but a burthen they will never trouble themselves with a Lamp and a Vessel full of Oyl besides it is enough to have a Lamp But surely Brethren the Lord judgeth otherwise you see who is the fool in Christs sense and what will it avail if a man the world account him a wise man and he himself deem himself a wise man and Jesus Christ accounteth him a fool he never giveth names for nothing they are sure to answer them sooner or later the easiest course Brethren is not the wisest then the Sluggard were the wisest man 2. It may serve to reprove and convince us of much folly then that is among us Stultorum plena sunt omnia all Proressions are ful of fools and none more then the Profession of Jesus Christ for the higher the end the greater the folly in pretending to it and missing of it I doubt brethren all the Congregation are full of such fools as these are it appears to be so in the Prophets time Who is wise saith he and he will consider these things c. and Prudent and he shall know them Who is wise by this interrogation there is implied a paucity of them as in that Who is there among you that walks in darkness and seeth no light they are not very ordinary so again Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed May I not take up the Prophets complaint now and say who in this Congregation is wise who so wise as to consider their latter end to provide for it not to rest in a name in a profession Some I doubt not but there are who are able to produce their Evidences Christ in them the hope of Glory but are they so many as were to be wished brethren do you not take up short of Jesus Christ rest in the means as you have heard before 3. Then it shall serve to stir us up to awaken us to look about us for that is one thing also which that interrogation imports to stir us up to Consider our wayes and our Condition and State Whether we have this oyl in our vessel as well as in the Lamp surely Brethren For Motives 4. This is a very pressing one which our Saviour covertly giveth in the Text they were foolish virgins which took no oyl and the Prophet Who is wise and he will consider these things for men would not be counted fools of all things men had rather be wicked and counted so then be counted fools and will rather shew their wit in froth and jests and over-reaching then be counted fools you know the affectation of wisdom was the first temptation and ever since vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild Asses Colt we are most stupid Creatures and yet would have a name to be wise and are indeed contented to be fools in Gods account rather then we would not be wise men in our own account and the account of the world desperate fools this is cum ratione insanire if any thing be O brethren if we would be wise indeed take the advice of wisdom it self or the wonderful Councellor take heed of resting in this Condition without oyl in your vessels he is wise indeed that is wise in the latter end that thou mayst be wise in the latter end he that liveth in reputation of a wise man he thinketh himself so and dyeth a fool in the account of God himself and all others this is the fool in grain the more care to get and keep our vessels full of oyl the more wiser we shall approve our selves 2. Dear friends Consider seriously now You think you follow Jesus Christ and your Lamps are burning but what a sad disappointment will it be and confusion For hope disappointed confounds a man as it is in Job they are confounded because they hoped you hope for heaven now if you be disappointed and your Lamps go out in obscure darkness just when you have the most need of them O how will you be able to bear it O therefore whatever you do labour to get this oyl make sure of this brethren never give the Lord over follow him up and down in all the wayes of grace until thou have gotten thy vessel full thy heart filled with grace with his fear his love with humility self-denial O look to it that thou close with Christ that you do not mistake somewhat else instead of him beg the Spirit Brethren to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and you may have all grace to abound towards you and in you that having an al-sufficiency alway in all things you may abound in every good work your hearts being ful there being a Spring to eternal life that your Lamps may never be put out but you may appear wise in your latter end which trieth indeed which are the wise and which the foolish Virgins O be diligent in improving all the Ordinances for that end received ye the Spirit by the works of the the Law or by the hearing of Faith You have heard it is the dew wherein the Manna descends it is the vehiculum we come to hear all of us O take heed how you hear with what hearts you come before him and how you attend to this word do you know in what part of it the Spirit will descend will come upon the heart at which Sermon in which part of the Sermon O brethren if we come with vessels full conceited with Pride full of Earth stopped up with the world how can we expect this oyl should be poured into us therefore Come labour to bring your empty vessels to the Lord in his Ordinances for it is observable as long as there was an empty vessel the oyl run in the widows case and so it would be here he never sent a poor empty broken Spirit a poor Creature poor in spirit to come humbled and trembling in sense of its wants and worthlesness he never sent them away empty when the vessel is full he will not pour out the oyl it would be lost there is no room to receive it Again Labour to number your days brethren that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom to this wisdom to salvation this is a rich piece of skill that is not to be learned but in the school of Christ to number our days Consider the shortness of our time how short we cannot tell for ought we know this night he was a fool in grain

takes encouragement to lay the reins upon the neck to run to all maner of excess the very same you repeated by Luke therefore it shall suffice to name that I will add but one Scripture-more which happily may be of more use then any of these to some perceiving judgements for happily you will say this is but a bribed judgement of some wicked persons bribed and blinded by their Lusts indeed there is not such a delay which indeed is a great part true for the delay is for the most part to be measured by our weakness and shortness as afterward will appear yet somewhat there is of a delay and that you shall find in the Apostle to the Thessalonians Let no man deceive you by any means be not quickly removed or shaken in mind or troubled whether by Spirit or by Word or by Letter as from us as the day of Christ is at hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but there must first come a falling away c. which is fulfilled in the great Antichrist the Pope who sits in the Temple of God as God c. Yet the other Apostle saith the Judge standeth at the door 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grudge not one at another complain not one of another for the Judge is near at hand ready to judge you all for it So sin lyeth at the door that is to say to be near at hand It is no contradiction to that that the day of the Lord is not at hand for that is the day wherein he hath appointed wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he raised him up from the dead If this judging which is near is a temporal Chastisement he would lay upon them as if when children are envying one another quarrelling and grudging one at another accusing one another and falling out one should move them to forbear and by this Argument take heed your Father is at door with a rod in his hand and he will judge you all So he judgth the people that they might not be condemned with the world I thought good to speak thus far lest that seeming contradiction might trouble any so much for the proof The second thing will be to open the terms and First What is meant by coming the coming of Christ This will open the particle of time in the first verse then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened c. the same Key will open both To omit then any other opinion of it I understand it either of the coming of Christ to a particular soul which is no sooner separated from the body but cometh to judgement Now Christ may be said to come he cometh to put the sickle to such as are ripe for it he cometh to gather into his barn if they be wheat or else to burn them up with unquenchable fire Or else 2. And rather of the day of Judgement that great day and appearing of our Jesus Christ who is our life when his people shall appear with him in glory which day will find many alive who shall then be changed before they enter in with him and which day will find doubtless many in deep security and formality to have their work to do And for those that are then dead and shall be raised up it will find them in that state wherein they lay down in the dust either of faith or unbelief and accordingly either they shall be shut out or admitted to the Marriage And methinks this doom of our Saviour I know you not which is parallel to that Mat. 7. 23. Depart from me you workers of iniquity I know you not which surely doth agree to none except it be at the day of death or the day of judgement for any other time I will not trouble you with any thing about And so much for this first 2. Now for the delaying What is Jesus Christ more backward then the Church to this union that they go forth to meet him and seem forward and he delays his coming for what will make more hast then love will it not bring him upon Eagles wings yea riding upon the clouds and wings of the wind and how are we to understand this of his delay of his coming or what is he an idol-Christ that is taken up in a journey or any other business as to forget his spouse and neglect her to come speedily to make up the match to bring her into his Fathers house this were indeed agreeable to a poor finite forgetful Creature but not to Jesus Christ Yea more then this Is he not said to come quickly in divers places and how stands that with the delay of his coming See that place in Luke in the Parable of the unjust judge overcome with the widows importunity though he neither cared for God nor regarded man yet because of her importunity he would avenge her of her adversary how much more God who is love it self and tender of his people as the apple of his eye who is most just and most faithful and who doth indeed fear the wrath of his adversary after the manner of men being tender of his people and of his own name lest he should reproach his name and that reproach with ruin fall upon his people and besides all this being importuned by them as the souls under the Altar crying continually how long Lord holy and true wilt thou not avenge our blood upon the inhabitants of the Earth why saith the Text shall not God avenge his own Children which cry day and night to him though he bear long with them that is to say with their enemie I tell you he will avenge them speedily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speedily in a trice a moment by and by according to that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quantulumcunque how little soever as little as may be and he will not tarry How hang these things together For the clearing of this it is necessary to say something And first I will shew you in what respect he is not said to delay or it is denied that he doth delay his coming but it is short and quickly and then 2. In what respect he is said to delay his coming and then come to the argumentss 2. Then he is not said to delay his coming in respect of his own eternity wherein all the differences of time are swallowed up and appear not at all there is no time long or short in eternity there is not prius or posterius there and therefore the Apostle in this argument speaks in this wise know saith he to them that were ready to mock because it was so long before the promise of his coming was fulfilled for the glorious liberty of the Sons of God from under their iron yokes put upon them by their persecutors why saith he God is not slack as some count slackness or

pledge of that Marriage-feast in heaven but with mouths opened souls enlarged that we may eat and drink abundantly he that cometh hungry will hardly go away without his fill we come with narrow hearts mouths half-opened and therefore go away with little or nothing Fourthly This should much edge our desires after Heaven and the glory that is to be revealed it is a feast who is not willing to go to a Feast if he be hungry and pinching and yet alas how backward are we for heaven how do we hang back it is a sign we have little desire after that fulness of communion with Jesus Christ all is not right with us we are not ready when we can be contented to sit down by the pipe and may go to the fountain to the rivers the ocean of unspeakable delights in the Lord. O therefore brethren eye heaven more and the Glory of it this Marriage-feast the eye affecteth the heart though it is true it doth not appear distinctly what we shall be yet some hints are given whereby we may conceive how transcendent the delights of heaven will be above all we enjoy below What Solomon dehorts men from as an occasion of lusting after wine look not upon the wine when it is red when it giveh his colour in the cup moves it self aright when it sparkles and hath a pure colour if you look you will be enticed by it But here is a feast of wine of new wine more excellent transcendent full of spirits and vigour look upon it brethren with the eye of faith and serious contemplation sometimes behold how it sparkles what a spirit there is in this wine that to all eternity maketh the Spirits of the Saints to exult and triumph in his glorious praise a duty so far above our cold and heavy frames here below O methinks this should somewhat quicken us and raise our desires to heaven to be with Christ drinking this wine new with him in his kingdom that here we drink only sacramentally and these are not deceitful meats your expectations cannot be so high of heaven but you shall find abundantly more to admire Fifth Use shall be a word of comfort and encouragement to the people of God according to the necessities of their various conditions if so be that the Saints shall enter in with Christ unto the Marriage unto this Feast First then Here is matter of encouragement against the troubles and afflictions the Saints meet with in the world and from the world It is true this is a time wherein at present the world smiles upon Religion but they are but like the Crocodiles smiles ready to devour them notwithstanding yea indeed her very embraces are killing But if times should but turn a little the world would be the world still it hates the Saints and it would discover it self what it is more plainly then now it doth the times will not bear hostility against the people of God but suppose such an hour of temptation may come upon us this may encourage us against it brethren What though the world may give you gall and vinegar to drink as they did to Jesus Christ before you are now going ready to enter in with the Bridegroom to the Marriage-feast of new wine and drink with him at his Table in the Fathers kingdom to eternity Indeed brethren there is so much refreshing to a poor creature in this Feast of wine on the lees upon earth in the Church in this poor and dark communion with him that it is enough to allay the bitterest cup which God puts into his peoples hands to drink witness this comfortable Prophesie Though you have the bread of afflictions and water of adversities yet will I not remove your Teachers any more into a corner give wine to him that c. Prov. 31. 6. This will sweeten all one taste of honey and sweetness at the end of the Rod and all wicked men are but Gods rod to chasten his people I say this taste enlightneth the eyes reviveth the poor drooping fainting soul Ah what are the joys of Heaven then Again suppose it be not a persecution for righteousness sake but it is from the hand of God for thy sins that thou smartest yet this brethren methinks if our hearts were more upon it would allay the smart there will be a time when there will be no room for one sigh nor one groan more no interruption will be in your joy Yea suppose it be sin that most troubles thee now and temptation and this is a bitter thing indeed to a gracious heart O remember brethren that in the Marriage-feast there will be a swallowing up of all these things Secondly It may be encouragement to a poor soul that longs and presseth hard after a fuller communion and fellowship with Christ and cannot reach it but still let them attain to what they can their desires are higher and reaching after more and that desire speaks emptiness in part and hunger and that hath pain the soul must needs be restless in such a condition O remember brethren there will be an entrance into the Marriage-feast where you shall ever be with the Lord you shall be ever drinking with him this new wine in his Fathers Kingdom at his Kingdom suppose there be not that to satisfie and fill thee in the pipe though the Conduits run wine and the Ordinances be a feast of fat things still thou wouldst have more there brethren your desires will be swallowed up your enjoyments will be above your desires I know it is a sight of Christ crucified sitting with us at the Table which is the reviving of the poor soul but alas he quickly loseth that poor imperfect glimpse he had of him but there shall thy eye be satisfied with seeing him in his glory and thine ear with hearing his blessed voice there shall thy soul be filled indeed and alway filled because alway swallowed up in this fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus 3. It is matter of encouragement to such as it may be are not admitted to every dish or every course in this Feast of fat things this Marriage-feast upon earth it may be the people of God may not be satisfied in some to admit them though the Lord have received them it appears not to them it may be their own spirits are not free to enjoy them in such a way as they are to be had in the places where they live some stumbling block or other is in the way which they cannot get over and so they mourn after them but cannot enjoy them O that God would remove all stumbling blocks and help his people so to prize them as not upon every slight matter to be kept from them but suppose thou canst not come poor soul and yet thy soul longs for them and haply more then many that do enjoy them if thou couldst without sin Be of good comfort though it is true thou maist lose

by poor Sinners that he cometh to heal and yet he doth endure it and for all this healeth them Is not all this unkindness what can move him to give us over surely many of us are able to say it that if his bowels had not been unsearchable we have so often grieved him and kicked against him even since he had to do with our souls in a way of healing mercy that we had been undone for ever Oh here is unsearchable mercy we wound him and grieve him and yet he heals us we sleightly esteem of him of his blood of his mercy of his love even while he is pouring it out upon us and he so dearly loveth us that his blood is not too dear for us no nor his Spirit nor his bowels nor any thing O here is rich Grace indeed to poor froward-hearted Sinners 5. Herein the riches of Grace doth appear to poor Sinners that it is not the multitude nor the depth nor the loathsomness of our wounds or deadliness of our diseases that discourageth him to make him turn his back upon the work and let us alone O saith the Physitian when he cometh to such a Patient he hath the plague it is seized upon his heart upon his vitals it is past my ski 〈…〉 it is but labour in vain if the spots appear there is no hope no healing but now the Lord Jesus he never m●dleth with a Sinner but he hath the plague in his very heart not only the sores running upon their tongues and upon their hands but in their very hearts and all the blood and spirits poysoned and yet he is not discouraged he takes it in hand truly some of us if we consider how deeply rooted our ●nsts were in our very hearts it is matter of admiration that ever we were healed and though for the present there are it may be grudgings of the old disease whereby we are a grief to him and a grief to our selves yet that the plague is cured at the heart or curing rather alas do you think the Lord Jesus did not know what a weary hand he should have with us before he began with us he knew what ulcerations would be continually breaking out that must be lanced and searched and yet never turned his back upon his work upon this account when the Chyrurgion meeteth with a poor creature that is full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores that have never been opened nor mollified but a long time have festered and rotted O saith he I am not able to endure to have to do with such a Patient the very stench of his wounds and ●ores is such I am not able to bear it Brethren this is nothing to sin the most loathsom running sores are nothing to the rottenness of sin O it is the superfluity of naughtiness it is the very scum of scums the very excrement of the Devil now how can we think that Jesus Christ should endure the stench of our loathsom souls full of running sores and yet he doth it when he cometh to heal us he never yet gave over any that he undertook to heal because of the greatness the multitude the loathsomness of his diseases I know poor misgiving hearts will be ready to sit down and mourn as poor creatures without hope when they consider how many their sores are their diseases are O what loathsom running sores bloody issues and they are loathsom to our selves that see little or nothing of them and that have a stinking nostril their minds whereby they conceive of things are impure themselves and so cannot apprehend them as so loathsom but the Lord Jesus that seeth them to the bottom knoweth the venom of them the loathsomness of them to the full O sure they are much more to him sure he will never have to do with such a rotten soul as mine saith one such a rotten heart such a wretch so besotted with the world as I have been so unclean a wretch as I have been this is a mistake the riches of Grace in Jesus Christ would never be so made manifest the exceeding abundance of Grace if he had not to do with such sinners as thou art in thine own apprehension with a Paul a Manasses a Magdalen with the chief of Sinners O say not your cases are desperate there is no healing for your wounds nothing maketh a Sinners case desperate but his own despairing his final unbelief his despair of the mercy of Christ the faithfulness of Christ in this great undertaking of poor Sinners Sixthly O what tenderness is manifested in the manner of the cure and it must needs be so when bowels themselves are the constitution of the Physitian where love it self and compassion it ●elf setteth the Physitian awork Brethren can you imagine when a Father is a Physitian and hath a poor diseased child or wounded cryeth out for healing can you imagine with what an heart he goeth about it if it would do the cure he could be content to endure all the lancings take down all bitter potions O every grone and out-cry of his Patient goes to his heart he is so tender by these affections the Lord is pleased darkly to shadow out to us his heart toward us Even as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord Jesus pittieth them that fear him that are wonnded in any kind either in their peace or in their holiness But this will appear if we consider but a few particulars First In that he himself hath taken the bitterest part of the physick O the wormwood and the gall they went into his bowels the Lord Jesus doth not delight to cure by lancings by searings and canterizings no but he took down himself the purge that set him upon such a sweat as you know alas it would have drunk up every drop of our blood and moysture and marrow that we should never have seen through it this he takes himself himself is lanced you know by the Soldiers and from thence came water and blood the ingredients of the healing medicine for poor Sinners for ever being rightly tempered like a tender Mother if the child be sick it must be purged she her self takes the purge endures the wrings of it in its working that the effect may be suckt by the child who lies at the breast this is but a resemblance of this rich Grace in Jesus Christ Brethren we see if men were our Physitians what they would prescribe us their purgations and pilgrims whippings macerating our flesh until they bleed and die but the Lord Jesus doth not so if either the Physitian or the Patient must die in this case rather then the poor diseased wounded Patient shall die the Physit 〈…〉 himself dieth that we might live that his blood might be our cordial his flesh our dyet and his blood our dyet-drink that continually by little and little might heal us O what manner of love is this Brethren who would do so let a Father but examine his