Ten virgins - Shepard - XI - Chapters 22, 1 & 2

Required reading
Ten virgins by Thomas Shepard (Available from Amazon or free here).  Read Chapter 22 of Part 1 and Chapters 1 & 2 of Part 2.

My summary
In the last chapter of Part 1 we are shown that true saving grace in the hearts of believers can never fail.

Then Part 2 begins to look at the carnal security of virgin churches.

In Chapter 1 Shepard teaches us that in the last days carnal security is the universal sign of virgin churches, because:
(i) in virgin churches there are the strongest provocations to this sin of security;
(ii) virgin churches are the more easily overcome by this sin than by any other.

Next in Chapter 2 we see carnal carnal security comes by degrees:
(i) in regard of the quickness and power of the life of the conscience;
(ii) because the Lord never departs from men but by degrees;
(iii) because this is the most ready way and method for sin and Satan to bring the soul into a deep sleep.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed Shepard's description of the sleeper in carnal security: 'In sleep all the senses are bound up, the outward senses especially; the eye watches not, the ears hear not, the tongue tastes not, the body feels not; so this is an ingredient in carnal security, it binds up all the senses as it did the prophet Jonah's in the storm ; when misery was upon him, he heard not, he saw not, felt not ; so when misery, outward or spiritual, is upon a man, he that had quick senses before, his eye sees not, watches not; Christians neglect their watchfulness for their friends, the Lord and his Spirit, and coming; nor watch against their enemies that daily besiege them ; the ear hears not the voice of the ministry, the voice of providences, the voice of the Spirit within ; the soul smells not, tastes not the sweet of any promise, any ordinance, no, nor of the grace of the Lord himself; hence it commends them not ; nay, the soul feels nothing, no evil, no good the Lord doth him ; that look as the Lord there said, (Is. xxix. 9, 10) The Lord hath poured upon you a spirit of sleep, and has closed your eyes ' so that the Lord closes up all the senses, that a man is now stupid, when he is fallen asleep in security.'

If you no longer feel the sinfulness of sin and no longer watch for the Lord, then you are probably asleep in carnal security.

Next week's reading
Read Chapters 3, 4 & 5 of Part 2.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.