The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

3. Those that depart from God in the neglect of means, because they find no good, and do not feel themselves a whit the better for them; they neglect this trade, because they find it a gainless trade: For thus God executes his eternal rejection upon many a soul: As it was with Saul, it was one of the last Vials God poured out upon him, 1 Sam. 28. 5, 6, 15. saith he, I am sore distressed, and the Lord answers me not by •rim nor by Thummin, and therefore am I come to thee; let a Devil comfort me if God will not: So many a soul having committed some sin that lies glowing on the Conscience, is sore troubled, and first it goes to the Lord, and the Lord answers not, there is silence in heaven, and ⟨p. 160⟩in all means, but the noise of fears within; now at last the soul doth not forsake the Lord for Satan plainly, but what means can comfort them that they seek for, and in time a man is weary of waiting at Gods gate•, and hence a form of duties, and prayers, and custom of devotion is kept to quiet the conscience; but they are not restless for the gain of them, for the Lord in them: they think 'tis in vain, to no profit, as those in Mal. 3. 14. to walk mournfully. Jonah was cast out of Gods sight, yet through the belly of a W•ale he would look toward the Temple. So 'tis with the people of God, though they sometimes conclude thus, and think not to seek any more, yet their hearts have tasted the good, and their faith believes there is that hid in the Lord in his Temple▪ that it never saw yet, hence they look still. What made the man Mat. 25. hide his talent in the earth? I thought thou wast an hard Master, and lookedst for so much gain, and I could not get it, and hence he hid his Talent. Hence men keep the means, without use of the means, and some that have for a time been used to do so, keep it as their custom without making any such work of it, as to gain the end of the means.