3. The same reasons that invited you to begin with Christ should invite you to go on with his service. If a little grace is desirable, surely more is desirable, because it is the adorning of the soul. Excel- lency in grace is a great means to convince and convert the world : Mat. v. 1G, ' Let your light so shine before men, that others seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven ; ' and John xv. G, ' Hereby is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit.' Deprive not God of the honour you owe him, nor the world of such a powerful help ; we put forth our utmost endeavours to get excellent things here on earth, and shall eternal glory be only coldly thought of, and carelessly sought after ?
4. The more serviceable you are for Christ here, the more glory you shall receive in heaven. We believe there are degrees of glory ; we read of being ruler of many cities, and sitting at Christ's right hand and left, Mat. xx. 13. The mother of Zebedee's children, when she asked Christ that her sons might sit one at his right hand and the other at his left, Christ doth not deny the thing, that there were degrees of glory, but it was to be given them for whom it was prepared of his Father.
The next thing observable in the parable is the going out of their lamps : Our lamps are going, or gone out. What is the meaning of that ? Sometimes the phrase is used in scripture for the failing and ceasing of the wicked's happiness, or the splendour and glory wherein they lived in the world ; as Job xix. G, ' The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his lamp shall be put out with him ;' and Job xxi. 17, 'How often is the candle of the wicked put out!' But here it must be interpreted with respect to the scope of this parable, and so by the lamps two things are intended : —
1. The glorious profession that they make of religion.
Vers. 7, 8.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 381
2. The hope and comfort that is built thereupon. Doct. 3. Their lamps will go out who have not a stock of grace to feed and maintain them. First, Let us explain this.
1. What is this going out of their lamps ?
2. When is this verified ?
First, What is this going out of their lamps ?
1. It may note an extinction of their profession, and so profession, where it hath not a bottom of grace, will fail : Prov. xxvi. 26, ' His wickedness shall be showed before all the congregation.' God loveth to uncase hypocrites. In the course of his providence one occasion or other falleth out to make them stumble and break the neck of all their respects to the ways of God: John xv. 6, ' If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch that is withered.' Christ drieth up their gifts and seeming graces, their duties ; they are given up headlong to their own apostate courses.
2. It may be meant of the extinction of their vain hopes and foolish confidence and false peace, which is grounded upon their outward profession and formal practice of external duties ; thus we read that ' the hope of the wicked shall be as the spider's web,' Job viii. 14, curiously woven, but gone with the turn of the besom. So Job xi. 20, ' The hope of the wicked shall be as the giving up of the ghost.' No more hope of them than of a man's life that is giving up the ghost ; or with pains and gripes ; which is not only to be meant of the hope, or the continuance of their prosperous condition in the world, but of heavenly happiness ; there is a groundless expectation of that, the apostle's expression intimateth it : Rom. v. 5, ' And hope that maketh not ashamed.' The hope of temporaries will at length deceive them in their greatest need, and leave them ashamed. As Absalom's mule left his master hanging on an oak, so will their hopes fail them, and their pretences vanish.
Secondly, When is this verified, and upon what occasions ?
1. Sometimes in life. They took offence at Christ, his doctrine, or something that did accompany it : John vi. 66, 'At that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him ;' some one prejudice or other took them off.
2. Sometimes at death, if their profession and hope thereupon tarry so long: Job xxvii. 8, 'What hope hath the hypocrite, when God cometh to take away his soul?' A man may live by a form, but he cannot die by a form with comfort. Men are more serious in the con- fines of eternity, when present enjoyments cease, and we have nothing left to comfort us but the expectation of the world to come : then wo shall repent that we have been no more provident for eternity ; if God would spare them a little longer, they would get oil then. When they come to die, oh ! that they could live over their life again. Men that have neglected their time of present profiting then see their folly ; then how serious, anxious, and solicitous are they !