A59665:642
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. VI.
OH you espoused and beloved of the Lord,1 look for his coming, look for his company; the world looks not for him, because they care not for him. Will you also depart? Hath he called thee as a Virgin forsaken, and not comforted, as a wife of youth, and given himself to thee, and given thee a heart to give content to him, and thy self to him in lieu of his love, life and all, if it might do him any good? Oh are you born to so great hopes, and are they not worth the looking after? God forbid. Do this therefore especially in these five Cases.
OH you espoused and beloved of the Lord,1 look for his coming, look for his company; the world looks not for him, because they care not for him. Will you also depart? Hath he called thee as a Virgin forsaken, and not comforted, as a wife of youth, and given himself to thee, and given thee a heart to give content to him, and thy self to him in lieu of his love, life and all, if it might do him any good? Oh are you born to so great hopes, and are they not worth the looking af•ter? God forbid. Do this therefore especially in these five Cases.
- 1Use 4.
1. In case of strangeness felt between thy soul and Christ: It may be thou thinkest, Oh he that hath saved, preserved me, called me, when I never looked after him, redeemed me when a captive, every moment pardons me, a daily friend unto me, that hath given me Ordinances, given me the comfort of them: But Oh yet to be a stranger to him, this cuts: Oh look now for this time, 1 Th. 4. 17, 18. When thou shalt see that bleeding heart, that hath loved thee above all Princes and Angels; that body in the Glory of the Father, and be as familiar with him as thou art with any friend, and see his Glory, and the Father in him, and know as thou art known. Oh look for this, for it shall be so.