The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

2. Because there men are most free from inward pain; for where there is much grief and pain, there's no rest, though all the house about be still; but when the house is still, and the body well, now tis hard but there may be rest; Whiles the Christian doth live under Antichristian pollution, his Conscience hath no rest, and hence 'tis awake there; here (saith the soul) I want the Ordinances of God, Oh that I had them! Here I see sin and wickedness abounding, that my child is like to be poisoned therewith; here are such and such superstitions that my Conscience cannot bear: Hence Conscience is kept waking. But in Virgin-Churches, where the house is swept of these, now Conscience is quiet and at rest; now I have got a Levite into my house, God is now blessing me, &c. Now Conscience hath laid down its burden, it falls down to sleep; now they cry, The Temple of the Lord,

2. Because there men are most free from inward pain; for where there is much grief and pain, there's no rest, though all the house about be still; but when the house is still, and the body well, now tis hard but there may be rest; Whiles the Christian doth live under Antichristian pollution, his Conscience hath no rest, and hence 'tis awake there; here (saith the soul) I want the Ordinances of God, Oh that I had them! Here I see sin and wickedness abounding, that my childe is like to be poisoned therewith; here are such and such superstitions that my Conscience cannot bear: Hence Conscience is kept waking. But in Virgin-Churches, where the house is swept of these, now Conscience is quiet and at rest; now I have got a Levite into my house, God is now blessing me, &c. Now Conscience hath laid down its burthen, it falls down to sleep; now they cry, The Temple of the Lord,

3. Because in such Churches there is most aptitude in men to spiritual fullness, viz. plenty of the means; there is all the Ordinances; in this mountain, Isa. 25. 1. Gods feast is made, and fullness of spiritual gifts and graces, because they have now escaped the pollutions of the world, conquered the enmity of the world; now have come to a good measure of grace, and conquered the way of their enemies, got the better of them; hence, as the Israelites made peace with the Canaanites, not when they were too strong but too weak for them: So now the Soul comes to be at rest, to lay down its Warfare, and to yield to a truce, to a league to his lusts and distempers for a time. When men are kept short of food, now they awake; so when the Word of the Lord and his Ordinances be rare and precious, and hard to find, now a Christian can trudge after them; but when men are full, now they desire rest; so 'tis here.