Doct. 1. Every one must get oil into his own lamp, or get grace of his own, or else in the day of his accounts the grace of others will do him no good.
Secondly, From the reason, ' Lest there be not enough for us and you.'
Doct. 2. They that have most grace have none to spare.
Doct. 3. If we would get grace, we must have recourse to the ordi- nances.
For the first point, that every man must get grace of his own.
1. I do not hereby exclude the righteousness of Christ, or his com- municating his Spirit to us. There is a great deal of difference between Christ and the saints in point of sufficiency, power, and authority.
[1.] They have not a sufficiency for themselves and us too. Christ hath a fulness out of which you may receive enough : John i. 16, ' Of his fulness we receive grace for grace. There is plenitudo fontis et plenitudo vasis — the fulness of a fountain and the fulness of a vessel. The fulness of a vessel is lessened and abated the more you take out of it ; the creature is wasted by giving, but a fountain is ever flowing and overflowing ; it keepeth its fulness still, though it affordeth to others. God saith to Moses, Num. xi. 12, ' I will take of the spirit that is upon thee, and put it upon them.' The words seem principally to
364 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. VII.
intend as if his own gifts and abilities were given to them to help bear a part in the burden of the government.
[2.] In point of power, they have no power to transfuse and put over their righteousness to another; as a man cannot divide and part his life between him and another. But Christ, who liveth in us, and is spiritually united to us, he can impart his grace and righteousness : 2 Cor. v. 21, ' He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ;' Gal. ii. 20, ' The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.'
[3.] If they could do so, they have no authority and commission to do it, as God hath given to Christ : John iii. 34, 35, ' For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God ; for God giveth not the •Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand ;' and John xvii. 2, ' As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.' Such a difference there is between the Lord Jesus Christ and the saints. He can give us of his oil, and will do it, will not deny those that seek it humbly and seasonably, and have enough himself ; as the ' precious ointment upon Aaron's head and beard ran down to the skirts of his garments,' Ps. exxxiii. 2, so doth Christ the head communicate his gifts and graces to all his members.
2. I do not hereby exclude the benefit which we have by the ' com- munion of the saints' in the mystical body of Christ here in this world. The members are mutually useful to one another ; as it is said, Col. ii. 19, ' From which all the body by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.' It is from the head, but knit together by nerves, veins, and arteries. The apostle saith, that 'every joint supplieth something,' Eph. iv. 16. AVe communicate to one another that strength and nourishment which all receive by the head. There is no member but is of use ; we have benefit from one another's gifts and graces, or else we could not be serviceable in the body. But the case in the text is different ; these foolish virgins had their former advantages, which they should have improved, to have supplied them in the clay of their account. Now the wise could not help the foolish, nor the foolish the wi.se ; but every man shall be judged according to what is within him.
3. As to the keeping off of temporal judgments, the very society and neighbourhood of the godly may be a means to respite the wicked : Jer. v. 1, ' Kim to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executeth judgment, that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it.' If they are not pardoned they may be respited for a time. So the sentence against Sodom ; we read that if ten righteous persons had been found therein, Gen. xviii. 32, God would have spared it. And God gave Paul the lives of all them that sailed in the ship with him for his sake. As to temporal things, God may stay the judgment upon others for the godly's sake, though not always ; for it is said, Ezek. xiv. 14, ' Though Noah, Daniel, and Job stood before me, they should deliver but their own souls by their own righteousness.' When the decree was irrevocably past, and their provocations grown to an insufferable height. So it is said in the Jewish proverb, that two dry