A59665:2269
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.
SECT. IX.
TO all the Servants of the Lord,1 if ever you did any good to any, Oh boast not of your selves, but carry the glory of it to the Lord Jesus, as he said the Lord doth good by me, but I know no reason why: So add also, but I wonder at the manner how a poor, weak, dead nothing, whose unclean heart and lips might have made others worse, not better, as infection sticking to the best garments, Act. 3. 12, 13. Why stand ye looking on us? be it known to you, by the name of Jesus it is that which is done; when Christ was known to heal all diseases, all the Country round about by this fame of him came to him, and so he healed them; this will bring in customers to Christ: Some Christians are very forward to speak to others, to let in some new notion, or to convert, that they may make an Absaloms pillar afterward, and that they might report I did this; some take content in speaking of conversion of others, that I did this. Let your works praise you, but let your tongue praise Christ; it was the Lord that did this. If bread could speak it would say, it is not I that feed; and fire, not I that warm: You can speak, tell others so; you would fain be accounted some body, and therefore will devise new Gospels, and mint new notions; that not only Christ may be pleased, but men may say, this I received of such a one, that their names might be spoken of. The Thief takes the sheep for himself, a good Shepherd carries it home to his owner.
TO all the Servants of the Lord,1 if ever you did any good to any, Oh boast not of your selves, but carry the glory of it to the Lord Jesus, as he said the Lord doth good by me, but I know no reason why: So add also, but I wonder at the manner how a poor, weak, dead nothing, whose unclean heart and lips might have made others worse, not better, as infection sticking to the best garments,