The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied

4. Because the Gospel yields the fairest Colours for a mans sloth,¹ and strongest props for that. Hence you shall see them walking in this garden. For the last sin God conquers in a man is his sloth. When the swine have no s•ill to eat, yet you shall find them in the mire of sloth; this slays the foolish. Hence the best Hypocrite will plead the Gospel, its troublesome to the flesh, to bear a daily sense of the sins and wants of the soul. Hence you shall have Capernaum receive Christ, and wonder at his Doctrine; and yet Christ upbraids them, they repented not, Mat. 11. 20. Its troublesome, nay impossible for a man to break his chains and get his soul loosed from his lusts, and free for the Lord. The Gospel shows all fullness in Christ, & that he must do all, a slothful false heart there•••e closeth with Christ as the end, but neglects him in the means. Why? Christ must do all, say they, and hence if Christ do drop upon their hearts, well and good, if not, 'tis Christs fault, he is a hard Master that gathers where he did not sow, and hence wrap it up. A mans false heart is weary of the yoke of Christ, and hence would fain be eased of it. Now the Gospel promiseth liberty from the bondage and curse of the Law, and a slothful heart can find out reasons to free himself from the Rule of it, as part of Christian liberty, this is our Liberty in Christ Jesus, 2 Pet. 2. 19. And they rejoice exceedingly that the Law is dead, as they did, Rev. 11. 10. for the death of the witnesses, because they tormented them: I say again, they rejoice not because the Lord makes them like himself, and because of his Image restored by the Gospel, and because they feel the power of it, but because they are free from the power of it. Its an old deceit, yet subtle, to rejoice, and love, and bless Christ, because he will pardon sin, though I lie and live in them. Or if they do not free themselves from it, the Gospel shows the Law within closing with the Law without, to be an evidence the Lord will not impute it, and that 'tis not therefore they, but sin in them. Hence a slothful heart will continue in his sloth, and to ease himself of trouble for sin and obedience too, say 'tis not he, but sin. And hence Arminius makes a strange interpretation of