The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

1. Those that live in a secret neglect of means, and yet hope to come to their end, because of their desires; we shall find the Scripture gives us two sorts of desires. 1. Of the righteous. 2. Of the sluggard, 1. The desires of the righteous, Prov. 10. 24. shall be granted, being breathings of Gods eternal Spirit, not a sigh or groan unanswered. 2. Of the sluggard, Prov. 21. 15. The desire of the slothful kills him, for his hands refuse to labour; the desires of the righteous are ever spurs to quicken them up in the use of means mightily, the desires of the sluggard bridle him up, they bind his hands, and fetter his feet that he cannot but neglect means: Some desires there be that arise from the need of a good, and here will not only be desires, but all means used, as in point of famine; some only from want of a good, and here a man usually contents himself with bare desires, never hath a heart to use the means mightily for that end. Many a one is convinced his state is miserable, and fears it, and Balaam-like, sees the blessedness of the people of God, and knows he wants pardon, and life, and peace, and promises, and Christ, and desires it; oh that I might die their death, oh that I might live and drink that water, that I might thirst no more, oh that my sins were pardoned, oh that my heart was humbled. But what if the Lord grant them no peace nor pardon? Do they make earnest enquiry after the Lord Christ▪ with restless pursuits and groans because they need it, is it worth that? Oh no, but yet they hope God will be so merciful as to accept their desires, and so they rest, and live and die in that rest, oh poor creatures your desires kill you; as a man is undone with slothful servants that cannot earn their own, much less get their masters bread. And many in Hell, say I had thought my desires would have carried me to glory, but now I see they have been slothful, and here I must perish and famish for ever; had I known of this, I would rather have wept out my eyes, and filled the world with my sorrowful complaints, my meditations of the Lord should have been at midnight; I would have deceived my eyes of sleep at night, and deprived my self of bread at day, and lost my limbs, had I but known that by contenting my self with these desires, I should have lost my life.

1. Those that live in a secret neglect of means, and yet hope to come to their end, because of their desires; we shall finde the Sipture gives us two sorts of desires. 1. Of the righteous. 2. Of the sluggard, 1. The desires of the righteous,