A59665:463
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.
3. Learn to put a difference between your double being: for every Christian hath a double being: 1. In himself. 2. He hath a subsistence in Christ. Now look upon your selves as in your selves, you will ever complain there, ever dead, and never have your hearts ready to bless the Lord. If you only look on your selves in Christ, you will be proud, and never give the Lord honour. I say therefore, put a difference between these two, for men appropriating to themselves what is Christs, they rob Christ of his glory. Hence Paul so humble, 1 Cor. 15. 10, 11. For if you look upon your self, I am dead, guilty, damned, weak, here will be shame: if any life, or Grace, this is Christs. As a man on a Mount is the same man, no taller, only the Mountain makes him so: so think of thy self. Or as a mud wall, the sun shines on it, but in it self it is a mud-wall still; all the warmth and lustre is from the Sun.
4. Learn to love Grace; what we love we will seek the good of more than our own, and commend it.
First, It's the only first mover of all our good: thou shouldst never have had a dram of peace or mercy. Why hast it? the Lord will have it so, Grace pleads it may be so; this is the only Petitioner at Court against the cry of sin, against the cry of Justice.