A59665:629
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.
1. Those whose hearts prize (though their heads do not)1 and whose eyes are dazzled with the withering Glory of this world. When men lie under (not for a fit, for Christ's Disciples wondered at the Beauty of the Temple) a great mistake of all things here, and put that good in them which is not, and that worth upon them which they ought not. For he on whose eyes the Sun of Glory hath risen, and looks for the Glory which shall be revealed; looks upon a Dunghill world as strangers upon their Inn, and as Travellers do on their Tents, make a shift to rub it out there for a time, but Oh home. Oh that Glory that shall be revealed, Heb. 11. 13. They were strangers, because they looked for a City: Nay they look upon these things, as God and Christ judge of them (for they have Christ's mind) 1 Cor. 2. 15. Which stand for Cyphers in the Lords Book: Nay they look upon the very miseries of this world for Christ, greater treasures than the happiness of it, and hence choose it and account their scars their Crown, their shame their Glory, their losses their gain, their sorrows their joys, as Heb. 11. 25, 26. Moses chose to suffer, and esteemed Christs reproach his Glory. And why? He had an eye to the recompense of reward, and saw the God invisible. And 2 Cor. 4. 17. It works an exceeding weight of Glory. That look as 'tis with a man that is born to great hopes of a Crown and Kingdom, and therefore brought up not in the Country, but in the Court; let a poor man offer him his thatched house, and promise him if he will come and live with him, and serve him in his patched clothes, What will he say? No, be gone to your friends, I am a greater man than you can make me, so here; A man that is born and begotten to a lively hope of a Crown now by the resurrection of Christ, and brought up under the wings and care of Christ, to the hopes of a better world, offer never so much, promise never so fair, I am greater than all the world can make me, I must not have, if I love Christ, and I cannot have, if he loves me, both; and hence looks to honour then, and peace and glory then,