Use 2. Is to excite us : Phil. ii. 1 3, 14, ' Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching to the things that are before, I press towards the mark of the high prize of God in Christ Jesus.' You have not answered your holy rule, nor done things worthy of your blessed hope, nor answerable to the great obligations laid upon you, nor be- coming the glorious salvation which you expect : if these things were well thought of, you would see a need of making a speedy addition to
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. 391
your stock every day. Oh ! then, as to the internal habits of grace, we beseech you let your love abound more and more, Phil. i. 9 ; and as to the external acts of obedience : 1 Thes. iv. 1, 'As ye have received of us how to walk, and how to please God, so you would abound more and more.' Let your vessel be fuller, and your lamps burn brighter ; you owe God a thousand times more than ever yet you have paid him ; he hath both deserved and required more at your hand ; you cannot make out your gospel qualification of sincerity, unless there be a lament- ing of defects, and a striving after perfection.
Thirdly, We come to the advice and counsel, ' But go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.' Go to them that sell ; that is, go where it may be had ; for selling and buying are put improperly for getting into our hand. Emptum cedit in jus emptoris. Things are said to be bought when they are made ours, as if we had paid a just price for them, as Prov. xxiii. 23, ' Buy the truth, and sell it not ; ' that is, keep it, and do not part with it. So Isa. Iv. 1, ' Buy wine and milk ; ' and Rev. iii. 18, ' I counsel thee to buy of me gold.' Calvin is of opinion, non admonitio est, sed exprobratio ; and Austin before, non consulentium, sed irridentium est ista responsio. It is a check and rebuke to their negligence ; as if it were said, Go buy now if you can ; heretofore you had a time of buying, which you neglected ; the shops were open, but now the opportunity is lost : and so think it not a counsel but a rebuke. You should have bought for yourselves. I rather think it is an advice, directing them to the remedy, or the true course that must be taken if we would get oil, as appeareth by the practice of the foolish virgins in the next verse ; and if they used this remedy too late, it was their own folly.
Doct 3. Those that would have grace must have recourse to the ordinances.
1. Mark iv. 24, ' Take heed how you hear, for with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.' And you that attend upon hearing, more shall be given to you. ' With what measure ye mete/ that is a proper rule for commerce between man and man, and our Saviour urgeth it, Mat. vii. 12. But it is true also in commerce be- tween God and man ; if you take heed how you hear, and do what you hear, that is, seriously weigh that divine and heavenly doctrine in your deep and ponderous thoughts ; if they would use such conscion- able care to profit as was fit, the Lord would recompense their diligence with an answerable blessing on the soul. Another place is 1 Thes. v. 19, 20, ' Quench not the Spirit ; despise not prophesying.' If you would not quench the Spirit, his convictions, excitations, and counsels, you must use the means ; they are instituted to this end, and God instituteth nothing in vain ; they have a tendency to that end ; the formality of the institution is a word of command and a word of promise.
2. Christ hath sanctified ordinances to this end, Eph. v. 26, 27 ; and John xvii. 8, ' Sanctify them by thy truth ; thy word is truth.'
Use 3. If we would have the graces of the Spirit begotten, strength- ened, and increased in us, let us use the means, Acts xvii. 11. Let us use them more conscionably, and see l that by every converse with God we may get some new blessing from him.
1 Qu. 'seek'?— Ed.
392 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. VIII.
SERMON VIII.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage : and the door ivas shut— Mat. XXV. 10.
Three things are here remarkable: —
1. The coming of the bridegroom while they went to buy.
2. The entering in, or admission of those that were ready, into the marriage-chamber.
3. The shutting of the door to exclude the rest.
For the first of these, their going to buy must be interpreted accord- ing to the scope of the parable ; and so it signifieth their unreadiness and unpreparedness for Christ's coming : they were to seek of grace when they had most need to use it. In parables, things are said to be done in the day of judgment which are done in order to or with respect unto that day ; not that men do go and buy oil then, &c. I might observe from hence —