"dressed themselves at the noise of the bride

groom's coming, and begged oil, and went "out to buy oil, and yet for want of some "more time, and an early diligence, came "too late, and were shut out for ever; that "it is no where revealed that such late endea

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vours, and imperfect practises, shall be ac"cepted; that God hath made but one "covenant with us in Jesus Christ, which is "faith and repentance consigned in baptism; "and the signification of them and the purpose of Christ is, that we should hence"forth no more serve sin,' but mortify and "kill him perpetually, and destroy his king"dom, and extinguish, as much as in us lies, "his very title; that we should live holily,

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justly, and soberly in this present world, "in all holy conversation and godliness;' "and that either we must be continued in or "reduced to this state of holy living, and ha"bitual sanctity, or we have no title to the "promises; that every degree of recession "from the state of grace Christ first put us "in, is a recession from our hopes, and an "insecuring our condition, and we add to "our confidence only as our obedience is re"stored: all this is but a sad story to a dying

"person, who sold himself to work wicked"ness in an habitual iniquity, and aversion "from the conditions of the holy covenant, "in which he was sanctified.

"And certainly it is unreasonable to plant "all our hopes of heaven upon a doctrine that "is destructive of all piety, which supposes 66 us in such a condition, that God hath been "offended at us all our life long, and yet that

we can never return our duties to him, "unless he will unravel the purposes of his

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predestination, or call back time again, and begin a new computation of years for us; "and if he did, it would be still as uncertain. "For what hope is there to that man, who "hath fulfilled all iniquity, and hath not "fulfilled righteousness? Can a man live to "the devil and die to God? sow to the "flesh and reap to the spirit? hope God "will in mercy reward him who hath served ❝ his enemy? Sure it is; the doctrine of "the avail of a death-bed repentance can "not be reconciled with God's purposes and "intentions to have us live a good life, for it "would reconcile us to the hopes of heaven "for a few thoughts, or words, or single

"actions, when our life is done. It takes

away the benefit of many graces, and the "use of more, and the necessity of all."

A far different course does this great Christian philosopher point out, in the holy example displayed in "the Life of Christ," demonstrating that," He is truly wise, that "knows best to promote the best end, that "which he is bound to desire, and is happy, "if he obtains, and miserable if he misses; "and that is the end of a happy eternity: "which is obtained by the only means of

living according to the purposes of God, " and the prime intentions of nature; natural "and prime reason, being now all one with "Christian religion. But then I shall only "observe, that this part of wisdom, and the

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excellency of its secret and deep reason is "not be discerned, but by experience: the "propositions of this philosophy being (as in "many other) empirical, and best found out "by observation of real and material events. "So that I may say of spiritual learning, as

6.6

Quintilian said of some of Plato's books: "Nam Plato cùm in aliis quibusdam, tum præcipuè in Timæo, nè intelligi quidem,

* Great Exemplar, p. 294. Edit. 1653. fol.

"nisi ab iis qui hanc quoque partem disci

plinæ (musica) diligenter perceperint, potest. "The secrets of the kingdom of heaven are "not understood truly and throughly but by "the sons of the kingdom; and by them too "in several degrees, and to various purposes; "but to evil persons the whole system of this "wisdom is insipid and flat, dull as the foot "of a rock, and unlearned as the elements of "our mother tongue. But so are mathema"tics to a Scythian boor, and music to a "camel."

The classical scholar will derive no inferior gratification from hearing this great master of Christian practice, declare in favour of his pursuit; whilst, at the same time, he points out its bearing upon the pure code of the Gospel. "I consider," he says, "that the "wisest persons, and those who know how to "value and entertain the more noble facul"ties of their soul, and their precious hours, "take more pleasure in reading the produc"tions of those old wise spirits, who pre"served natural reason and religion in the "midst of heathen darkness, (such as are "Homer, Euripides, Orpheus, Pindar, and

See Preface to the Great Exemplar.

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"Anacreon, Eschylus, and Menander, and "all the Greek poets; Plutarch and Polybius, Xenophon, and all those other excellent persons of both faculties (whose choicest "dictates are collected by Stobæus) Plato and "his scholars, Aristotle, and after him Porphyry, and all his other disciples; Pythagoras and his, especially Hierocles: all the "old Academics and Stoies within the "Roman schools) more pleasure, I

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*

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say, in reading these, than the triflings of many of "the later schoolmen, who promoted a petty "interest of a family, or an unlearned opinion "with great earnestness, but added nothing to Christianity, but trouble, scruple and vex"ation. And from hence, I hope, that they 66 may the rather be invited to love and con"sider the rare documents of Christianity, "which certainly is the greatest treasure-house "of those excellent, moral, and perfective

discourses, which with much pains and greater pleasure we find respersed and thinly scattered in all the Greek and Roman "poets, historians, and philosophers." Such is the sentiment and style of Taylor in the "Great Exemplar," a style exhibiting less

See Preface to the Great Exemplar.