A59665:794
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.
2. From the Officers chiefly of a Church,1 who when they should be full of eyes, as they are described, Rev. 4. And these eyes should be ever watching, they are then sleeping, Mat. 13. 25. For 'tis not the having, so much as the acting of Grace that helps men to read and understand the Book of the Scriptures, and the Book of mens hearts and lives, 2 Pet. 1. 9. Hence in affliction and temptation we know the Lord, and his mind, and our own hearts, and the world best: When Jonathan eats the honey, his eyes are open: Now sometime the watchmen are not acting or watching, but sleeping, and hence those are taken for wheat, that indeed are but Tares. The Book hath a fair Superscription or Frontispiece, and they so sleepy they do not read it through, and so either see no fault at all, or if any, they be but Errata in the Printing, and weaknesses to be […] with; or if they do, yet the man is commended, and hath a Name to live when indeed he is dead, and so this serves the turn, and though he comes in, yet they shall do well enough with him, though indeed they herein have but a wolf by the ears.
2. From the Officers chiefly of a Church,1 who when they should be full of eyes, as they are described, Rev. 4. And these eyes should be ever watching, they are then sleeping, Mat. 13. 25. For 'tis not the having, so much as the acti•g of Grace that helps men to read and understand the Book of the Scriptures, and the Book of mens hearts and lives, 2 Pet. 1. 9. Hence in affliction and temptation we know the Lord, and his mind, and our own hearts, and the world best: When Ionathan eats the honey, his eyes are open: Now somtime the watchmen are not acting or watching, but sleeping, and hence those are taken for wheat, that indeed are but Tares. The Book hath a fair Superscription or Frontispiece, and they so sleepy they do not read it through, and so either see no fault at all, or if any, they be but Errata in the Printing, and weaknesses to be with; or if they do, yet the man is commended, and hath a Name to live when indeed he is dead, and so this serves the turn, and though he comes in, yet they shall do well enough with him, though indeed they herein have but a wolf by the ears.