The Parable of Ten Virgins by Thomas Shepard (I)

2 ... Why, surely here is the great cause of it - they have some other thing to ease their hearts in the want and loss of God. Jer. ii. 13, 14. Men must have water to drink; why do men live from the fountain, nor go to it, nay, not know it? Because they have broken pits and wells at their own doors; so here.

And hence the damned that have lived at ease here all their lifetime, as soon as ever dead, then they cry out of the loss of God, when is too late, because while they lived they had somewhat to ease themselves withal.

And hence, many that have lived long with convinced spirits and guilty consciences, when they come to die, then they are in perplexities of mind, agonies of heart, insomuch as their  sweat trickles like water from them, and their doleful outcries for loss of time strike to the hearts of all that come near them.

O, God is gone; because now all comforts which were their gods, and instead of God, before, have taken their final leave of them. Search your hearts, therefore, all you that hear me this day.

Wast thou never troubled yet? Yes, I have lost my health, my child, my husband, my goods, and this that troubled me. But tell me, didst thou never fell a loss of God blessed forever? ...

The Parable of The Ten Virgins, Page 34 - Chapter V - Section I - SHOWETH THE MARKS AND SIGNS WHEREBY THE SOUL MAY KNOW WHETHER HE BE IN LEAGUE OR LOVE WITH ANY LUST OR CREATURE, OR MARRIED TO THE LAW. By Thomas Shepard (1603 - 1649).