A59665:2136
The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied
The parable of the ten virgins opened & applied being the substance of divers sermons on Matth. 25, I-13 wherein the difference between the sincere Christian and the ... hypocrite ... are clearly discovered ... / by Thomas Shepherd ; now published from the authors own notes ... by Jonathan Mitchell ... Tho. Shepherd, son to the reverend author ...The parable of the ten virgins opened & applied being the substance of divers sermons on Matth. 25, I-13 wherein the difference between the sincere Christian and the ... hypocrite ... are clearly discovered ... / by Thomas Shephard ; now published from the authours own notes ... by Jonathan Mitchell ... Tho. Shephard, son to the reverend author ...
London: printed by J. Hayes for John Rothwell, 1660
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Quest. But doth not the Lord respect the groanings of his people? doth not Christ say, Joh. 4. 10. if thou hadst asked, &c. doth not the Lord look upon the inner man, the very frame, nay, desires that have been past?
Quest. BUt doth not the Lord respect the groanings of his people? doth not Christ say, Joh. 4. 10. if thou hadst asked, &c. doth not the Lord look upon the inner man, the very frame, nay, desires that have been past?
Answ. Yes, there be some desires which are evidences; some which are not; I shall discover them that be unsound in the particular example of these foolish Virgins, &c.
First, Those are unsound desires, which arise in the soul easily, without feeling a need of the Lords almighty power and Spirit of life to work them at first; we shall find that the desires of regenerate Christians do not come easily, but they find a need of the Lord to draw them. Jer. 31. 10. Lam. 5. 21. but the desires of others spring up easily and quickly; as these foolish Virgins, they wanted oil, they could quickly desire it; and they go to their fellow-brethren for help, Oh give us of your oil. Look as it is with wild Rye and Pease, they will come up at the season of the year in abundance, without sowing or ploughing, the ground bears them naturally; but other corn and grain will not come so easily; your ground will not bear it till ploughed and digged, and then the hand of man must set it, and dye it must, before it can live again; so here, if desires come and spring up easily, it is a sign they are wild; the Lord must break the heart, and then sow these, and plant these from heaven, and you must fetch it out of heaven, else it is naught; for when the Lord works saving desires indeed, he ever sows them in a broken heart, which is throughly broken indeed; when God sets the smoking flax on fire (which are desires) he first bruiseth the reed it self.