The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

SECT. IV.

Hence judge what your estates are this day before the Lord. I know and believe that you prize, pray for, long for the end, and if ever the Lord saves and pardons you,¹ you shall have cause to bless him. You may do as hath been said, but never find a heart given you by the invincible wrestlings of a God to use and improve all means to that end; and thus your practise in the habitual neglect of means is a clear and manifest witness, like the day against you, that you do not desire sincerely the end (as you think) in having so little respect to the means that conduce thereunto. Did you ever see that man that did indeed desire life, but he would use all means, wits, and friends, nay cut off his Limbs to preserve it? But however, put that name upon it, say you do desire and prize the end, yet if the Lord leaves you, or you forsake the Lord in a neglect of means, that lead thereto, and that effectually; what you may be, and what the Lord may do, I know not, but to this day your estate is no better than a painted salvation and pictured hypocrisy before the Lord. That stone at which the closest hypocrites have stumbled, that rock on which the best hypocrite hath been broken, thou art fallen upon, that enemy of sloth, which hath carried Kings (men that have worn the Crown of Profession in the world) miserable Captives, (notwithstanding their lamentable cries, Lord save us!) to hell, the same enemy hath already bound thee up in Chains, and what will become of thee, 'tis only known in his Breast, that by the voice of his Trump can awaken the dead, and break the bonds of sloth and death it self. But you will say, there are no Virgins among us that neglect to take their oil, that so far forget themselves as to neglect the means, that are come so many thousand miles for means; there is not a day but ⟨p. 158⟩some line is drawn, not a Sermon, Sabbath but some good got, or else they think themselves half undone, not a prayer but one step nearer to glory: The day is not long enough, and therefore the nights are spent in wrestlings with the Angel; nay, in prevailing with God for themselves and Churches, and blessing on both; Sabbaths are the day breaks of heaven, the fellowship of Saints be ter then to stand before Kings, the fellowship of Christ in heaven so sweet, that in seeking of him men forget themselves, nay to eat their bread;