The Parable of the Ten Virgins, Part 2 · Chapter 19 · Section 14 – Section 16
SECT. XIV.
PRay unto the Lord that he would prepare you, and fit you, give his Christ, and fulness of his Spirit unto you,Meanes 1. which you know the Lord will give to them that ask; for man like the Potters clay, is no more able to prepare himself for glory, than to appoint and elect himself thereunto. Hence Psal. 10. 17. Rom. 9. 23. prepared to glory; therefore pray, not that prayer can move the Lord to it, but because it is a means appointed of God to execute his eternal purposes of grace unto the Vessels of grace, Acts 9. 9, 11. Paul was three dayes mourning, and he did not eat and drink, and yet was not discouraged, but kept on praying, and ceaseth not, till the Lord sends Ananias that he might receive the Spirit, Verse 17. So say I to you, Time hath been thou hast not prayed, mornings, evenings, your sleep would not suffer you, or if so, yet it hath been without mourning for living without Christ, abusing of Christ, and the sin of your nature; or if so, it hath been on…y by fits, and you could hold up your head againe, before God sends Anamias with a Message of peace, or that Message without the Spirit of grace; Are you now prepared? Oh no! oh therefore now begin this work; say, I am thy clay, Lord, and have been a broken unclean Vessel, unfit for any use, to hold any grace; if mercies come, I forget thee, and grow worse; if sickness, I am blockish; if Ordinances, I despise them; if thou forsakest me, I forsake thee; if thou drawest neare to me, I resist thee; if Christ be offered, I reject him; if not, I presume, and turn his grace to wantonness; now Lord gather a broken Vessel; if I live, I shall still sin; if I die, I shall blaspheme; if I forsake acts of sin, yet lusts of sin remaine; if they be quenched, yet my polluted nature remaines not cleansed; and the guilt cries; Now Lord undertake for me, begin thou the work, and take the glory; and here mourn till the Lord comes; know the worth, and prize the presence of the Spirit, and then pray, Iohn 14. 16. The world cannot receive it, because they know it not, with Iohn 4. 10. Sacrifice is unfit to be offered, till by shedding blood, life is taken away.
Be very watchful over your hearts, that they grow not too gentle, and handle tenderly sinnes arising after faith,Meanes 2. and profession of your interest in Iesus Christ, sins of the second growth; some sins grow up before profession, as all manner of ignorance, and hardness, and lasciviousness, and vanity; now many grow terrified for these, and comforted by the Gospel against these, and now peace is made; Oh but there are some mens natures like some fields, which when they are mowen and weeded, yet they have a second growth; it may be as with other kinde of Weeds, you may never fall to those sins you lived in once; but other sins more close, more spiritual; like the House Luke 11. 24. swept and emptied, but seven other spirits worse than the former, may at last enter in; Oh take heed of these, for they will make your latter end miserable; you know habitations of Satan, are not fit mansions for the Spirit of Christ; you know Vessels not only of Wood, but of Gold, if filthy and poysoned, are unfit for Princes use till cleansed; and look through all the Scriptures on the faces of the best hypocrites, you shall finde some filth growing up after their Profession, or together with it, like blood and sacrifice mixt together, Matth. 7. 23. Luke 13. 27. Not those that have iniquity, but those that work it; not those that work against it, and are destroyers of it by little and little, but workers of it.
If you ask me, what these sins be? I answer, These tares, and choaking Thornes, as they are sown, and grown whiles you be asleep, so they may be seen when they are grown up, if you walk in your fields, and meditate on your hearts. I'le only name some.
1. Pride, affecting some excellency above others, and thinking your self some body.
2. Spiritual fulness, and secret loathing of Ordinances, when men are clogged with them.
3. Despising known truths (which like flowers, were notwithstanding sweet at first gathering) either concerning your misery, or Christ: if the Gospel were preacht to the ignorant, they would take heaven with violence; but thy soul now is not moved, and the messengers of God that bring them, despised, as Galatia and Corinth did Paul.
4. A spirit of contention with good people. Now you cannot bear unkindnesses, and they offend you, &c. Alexander at first stood for Paul, and he opposeth Paul to his face at last.
5. Boldness to … in small matters commonly without sorrow, begot by counterfeit assurance of Gods love.
6. Seeking of God in Ordinances, and working of iniquity out of them; fits men have of good affections, but healthful constitutions of bad ones.
7. Thinking you are indeed what you would be, and yet indeed would not be: There be other sins, but these are some of the most special which I shall now mention; take heed of letting these grow, or dealing gently with them; for Saints may feel these, but they put their hook to the roots of these Weeds, and would faine pull them quite up; but if you deal gently, (as David with the young Absolom) and think God must do all, I cannot part with them; and hence you give way to them; and though there be these sins, yet I have many good signes and promises too I shall be saved; and so long as they cannot destroy my soule, what though they grow in my soul? You perish (1 Cor. 9. 26, 27.) if thus it be with you.
Take heed you do not run away with such comforts arising from your feeding upon the promise and person of Christ, Meanes 3.without refr…shing the soule also with the good Will and Commands of Christ; do not think your selves ready to enjoy Christ, when his promise, person, and love is sweet, (which is good) but his will is bitter, and a burden to thy soul, even thy whole soul, (I know 'tis so to the …nregenerate part of godly men) for such men there be, 1 Iohn 1. 6. To the Saints, Christs love is sweet, and promise sweet, and therefore his Will, his Work. Iohn 4. 34.—Bread you know not of, to do the Will of him that sent me, and to finish it; so it is their food to do the Will of him that loves them, and to finish it; If a man is to remove from one Countrey to another, and he cannot live upon the Bread of the Countrey, nor water where he goes, he is then unfit for such a Journey, because he cannot live upon the bread of it. Now what is that which feeds the life of Saints in glory? not only Christ, but living unto Christ, to be perfected under the Government and Kingdom of Christ; can you live upon this now in part, and the first fruits of it? if you can, know it is then prepared for thee, and thou for it; if not, but you live (as you say▪) upon the present sweet of the promise; nay, it may be upon the thoughts of old comforts; but to do the Will of Christ, is death, not life to you; and it is meerly your task for wages, to do his Will, not part of your Inheritance, you are unfit to be with Christ; Acts 21. 13. Why break you my heart? (saith Paul) I am ready to die for the sake of Christ, and to do much more; So think thus, Was Paul ready to die, and I not ready to do? my heart loaths thy Commands Lord; but what the Law makes heavy, the Gospel makes sweet; for thy sake, Lord, I love thy will; pray, Oh thy love is sweet, but let thy will be so also.
Labour to grow poor in spirit, that when you cannot honour the Lords Will, Meanes 4.yet you may be gathering som…thing out of all sinnes and weaknesses, to honour Gods grace; the glory of grace is the last end; those that be prepared for it, shall enjoy it; Who are those? The poore, who when they see they have lost their lives, their soules, their comforts, in not doing his Will, which is bitter to them, yet the Lord shall not lose the honour of his grace, Psalme 74. 21. The poor will be thankful; What doth Paul, that Vessel of grace, Persecutor, Blasphemer, but a Saint, now say? Oh but the least of them; but he was an Apostle; but I deserve not that name, but yet he is received to mercy; 'tis very true, yet never such an example, as he thinks; and therefore saith he To the King immutable, &c. when Iacob had seen the Lord, Gen. 26. ult. if he shall give me food and rayment, he shall be my God (i. e. I shall then magnifie him; he having said he would be so before, and he had it in plenty; So say, If the Lord shall pity, pardon, I shall then give all to him, if I had a thousand hearts, tongues; truly as Psalme 40. ult. The Lord now thinketh on you; When a Servant hath spent and lost his Masters estate, and he is to give up an Account, truly then he may give it with comfort, when as he gaines one way abundantly, though he loseth another, and makes the best gaines; so here.
SECT. XV.
2. TO those who are ready, but yet not so ready as is meet.
The Lord hath given you warning to prepare, by some sharp afflictions on thy self, or by the death of thy friends,Motive 1. or by secret feares of thine own heart, thy time is not many hands breadth longer; and it may be this shall be the Funeral Sermon of some of you; you have been flying like Bees abroad in the world to gather your honey, and the Lord ha…h been smoaking of you, and that in your own Hive; you have thought to dwell long in Tabernacles; the Lord hath let it fall to decayes, and repaires it not again.
If you live unready, it may be the Lord will try you with some sore conflict,Motive 2. with fears of death, and terrors of darkness; and all your preparation is too little for your combate then.
The place of glory is made ready for you; how shall I so unholy, see God?Motive 3. Christ is there Iohn 14. 3. waiting for thee, longing after thee.
Thou art it may be yet in many respects unready.Motive 4. As
1. Not yet planted in the House and Church of God, not yet gathered to communion of Christ in his Saints on earth. I know men may have just reasons to deferre; but if they have none, I would be loth to die in their room; Hezekiah, Isa. 38. ult. Psalme 26. 8. I have loved the habitation of thy House; Oh gather not my soule with the wicked. I am perswaded, some deare to Christ linger here, and you cannot finde this not that saving good in your selves, you say; I had rather hear one mourn for emptiness, than boast of his grace.
2. There are many sinnes not yet mourned sufficiently for, in daye of youth, and in a secure condition; in heaven is no mourning; oh therefore take time now, for want of this grace is not so sweet.
3. It may be some main duty is neglected to the souls of them, whom thou hast a charge of, as not Ca…echising thy family, children not careful for their souls.
4. It may be thou hast been little in prayer for the Churches (though for thy family and children) which is usually the last work of the Saints; there's no praying for them in Heaven; as Christ at the end of his life like a Priest shed blood, and prayed for them, so Saints are made Priests to God and Christ:
5. It may be thy house is not yet set in order, nor thy Will made, Reckonings between men not yet set right and even, and then there is Quarrels when thou art Dead, and trouble when you dye.
6. It may be thou art grown secure, and art lost, and driven away, and many wrinckles be on thy face and heart, &c. you cannot say with Paul, 2 Tim. 4. That you have fought, &c. but are rather at truce with sin; you run not, but have slipt, and fallen down, and so lost all.
SECT. XVI.
THerefore to help here in this readiness,Meanes 1. Get a heart more loosned and weaned from the world. Solomon he did launch out his heart herein too far; not in Epicurisme, but Eccles. 2. 3. applying his heart to wisdome all this time; so may you, and be unready; How? I cannot, but God will teach it you by affliction. Psalme 39. 6, 7. You are Sojourners here with God, as all your Fathers; there's nothing proper, nothing long to be enjoyed.
Own the Lord Iesus; he is yours,Meanes 2. but you own him not; as Simeon came to the Temple and there found him, and there blest God; and now (saith he) let me depart in peace; hath the Lord stirred up unutterable sighings, and groanings, and mournings, (you think (it may be) if Christ was present, you would not doubt of answer) and they continue still, and do you think Christ is hard-hearted? hath the Lord come to thee in the Temple, and manifested his love by his own promise, sure, and faithful, and wilt thou not yet own him? hast had, and hast now the first fruition of the Spirit, and wilt not yet own him? and art afraid to go to him, when others are in glory that trod in thy steps? Oh be humbled for it; I know there is nothing which makes thee feare it, but a Rebellious vile heart, and nature; and can the Lord love such a one? Yes, such a one, if he mournes under it, Rom. 7. 24. Isa…. 57. 18, 19. The Lord will create peace; he hath seen thy wayes, and he…will heale them; And when you have him thus, own him daily, keep your peace, do nothing which may make you lose boldness in prayer, and therefore reckon daily with him; and Remember, the promise stands, when feelings are lost.
Object. But I can do but little for him.
Answ. True, Isa. 64. 6. Thou the Lords clay, his Vessel, though of little publique use, yet in thy place do what thou canst for Christ Jesus. Servants, Masters, Members, Rich, Poore, bestirre your selves For Christ, you shall lose nothing by it, &c.