I've decided that following 'Prayer' by Bunyan the next Tuesday Theology title will be 'The ten virgins' by Thomas Shepard (Available from Amazon or free here).
Beeke & Pederson in their excellent book, 'Meet the Puritans', write: 'Ten Virgins is not easy to read, however, and may discourage young believers who seek assurance. They might better first read Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. As Lloyd-Jones puts it: "Edwards...with all his analysis, negative and positive...never leaves us confused and despondent as Thomas Shepard does in his study on the Parable of the Ten Virgins"...Interestingly, Jonathan Edwards in his Religious Affections quoted Shepard's Ten Virgins more than any other source. Ten Virgins does, however, remain a challenge by which the mature believer may chart growth in faith and grace, heeding the advice of John Gerstner in his foreword to the reprint: "This work is valuable in inverse proportion to its readability. Don't read it! Study it, a few pages at a time. Decipher it. Live with it, die with it. It may not save you, but it will leave you in no doubt whether you are saved or not.'
I must admit it was through reading Edwards' Religious Affections that the Ten Virgins came to my attention.
By my calculations we'll be starting the Ten Virgins sometime in November 2010.
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