The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

Quest. How should I know that satisfying sweetness?

Quest. HOw sho•ld I know that satisfying sweetness?

Answ. Ah methinks you should say, Oh that I did know it! yet wary I would be of giving any just occasion to break off what the Lord in his grace hath wrought; yet you may know something of it by this.

1. When the Spirit of Gods grace dispensed in his Ordinances doth glut you and slay you, and make you worse; here is not the grace of Christ which doth satisfy you; if the more knowledge you have of the truth, the less glory you see in the truth, and the less you love the truth; if the more comfort you have sound by it, the less you now desire after it; if the more abilities you have received by it, the more proud you grow, and high-minded; if having come for to seek the Ordinances of God, the less good you find by them, the more weary you grow of them, and the more you despise them; it is certain, the satisfying grace of Christ is not here, when the bread to feed, is poison to slay; is not this the condition of many? what is the cause they are growing worse, that they are worse in their latter end and middle of their Christian profession, than the beginning, because they are grown full by Gods Ordinances, and so worse; what is the cause in places of persecution the Lords Ordinances were precious, not when they come to them? Gods Ordinances plenty makes them to undervalue them through their sin; that look as it is with men in consumptions, whose life is going out, they think they can eat, yet when it is before them, ⟨p. 84⟩loath the smell of it, or a little serves them, whereas another finds it otherwise; not but that Saints may think thus, but they with Hezekiah mourn under it,