. ----·----·---'----~---~-------~ 70 ! • The Parable of the Ten Virgins, --~----------~-----~--- ~ ·· Vfe 2. thliS ir i ~ 1 .Jo'' ·5· fometime~, if it b~ not alin unto death; hue i r. a J:otber, ''.ra,·c wd l 1~rd1 help; but 1f the man never had gr~ce , and no1vfdl without Ldin,~ , the:e's litrle hope; if a man can feel no fun rifing uponhi~ , nor yet bow th~ day g0es a~ay, whed_1 ~ r the Sun be fe t ting or no, it argues miferable ca:eldncf; , or nuferable bl!ndnefs , and tba: the man is in darknefs. fo b:re. ·- ' Secondly, What will become of t~em that were ne1'er call: down fo low as t h:i~ , dm neve r came to be fo good as Hypocrites, For r. You were born and have lived not only in a linfu l eGate but in a C. b. illkfs e(lare ; d~ad without all life , every part of thee polluted.' · 2. lf the Lord cloth draw any out of this ell:ate, be will make you know wb,lt poor creatures you be, that you !hall fay, I thought I bad been thus and thus, but I fee I am wretched; I thought I ihould be faved, but now I am condemned, to_ that your mouth !hall b~ !lopped, 'R.Rm. ~ .2I. elfe youwould never come to the Lord, to your Fathers boufe, and prize the grace of God, if any husks to Jive upon now. ~ - You neverlmew this; never came to complain to any Cbriltian,' Ob my oyl is fj)ent, my lamp i~ out ; Cbrill: and Spirit, and all good is gone ; no, you th111k your felves nch .;md want nothmg; you have fame know- ' ledge, rellr~int <;>f good ~ffeCl:ions, and full of thefe, The Lord will [pu: J'OU ortt hio mouth, 1f ltlsthusWithyou: Nay,altboughyoubavemeans and hear of it, yer all the world cannot make you know your nakednefs, mifer y, lin and emptinefs; Well, if the Lord cloth norfet upajudgetnenr-Seat now, you !hall be called before it one day, and then your fecrers ih11l be made manifell: before all the world; and becaufe you fa y you fee , therefore your fin remains ; fo fay I to you : You never did contemn God , nor bare i God , &c. therefore your conrempt remains ; if it be, there Chria will difcover it , and fo remove it ; but is it nor fa ? therefore: your lin remains. - S E C T. III. HEnce fee the deceit of char linful opinion, That true SanCl:ification is to fee I have no SanCl:ification ; and cleannefs .of heart ro fee nothing but uncleannefs ; and chat this is pove;ry of Spirit, eo fee no grace in a mans felf, nor no Chrill: there ; and this not only hathlbeen, bur it feems is fcauered flit!; which as it is pleating ro many a gracelefs heart, and fuitable to his lull: , fo it carries a fair cloak of Humility and Self-denial in I it, and makes way fo r fuch an Evidence which the Scripture did never yet declare. Poverty of Spirit is a G racepecullar to them that !hall have rhe Ki ngdom of Heaven; Bur to fee no G race is common to tbofe rbac !hall be !hut out of tb_e Kingdom of heaven ; none but tbofe that are juaified can be favingl y fancbfied ; many that !hall be condemned, may fee, do fee that they have no SanCl:ification : And therefore this is no SanB:ification. I. If this be Poverty of Spirit to fee no Grace, rben Common-gnice is Special-grace, peculiar to the Ele&, as true Poverty is. z. Then it is a orace of the Spirit of God ro maintain an untruth, and to give the.holy Gbod'the lye;for where there is Poverty,tbereis Grace and Cbri r:. 3· Then the Grace of Poverty ofSpirit, ihould be quite contrary t? the Spirit of~_race, which mak;s us ~(_now the things lJven HJ of God; butthls poverty of Spmt makes U$ not to know them ar all. Yet
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