{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060262.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060262.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060262.htm","text":"On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxv. 1, \u201cthen shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.\u201d\n1. Ye who were present yesterday remember my promise; which with the Lord\u2019s assistance is to be made good to-day, not to you only, but to the many others also who have come together. It is no easy question, who the ten virgins are, of whom five are wise, and five foolish. Nevertheless, according to the context of this passage which I have wished should be read again to you to-day, Beloved, I do not think, as far as the Lord vouchsafes to give me understanding, that this parable or similitude relates to those women only who by a peculiar and more excellent sanctity are called Virgins in the Church, whom by a more usual term we are wont also to call, \u201cThe Religious;\u201d 3086 but if I mistake not this parable relates to the whole Church. 3087 But though we should understand it of those only who are called \u201cthe Religious,\u201d are they but ten? God forbid that so great a company of virgins should be reduced to so small a number! But perhaps one may say, \u201cBut what if though they be so many in outward profession, yet in truth they are so few, that scarce ten can be found!\u201d It is not so. For if he had meant that the good virgins only should be understood by the ten, He would not have represented five foolish ones among them. For if this is the number of the virgins which are called, why are the doors of the great house shut against five?\n2. So then let us understand, dearly Beloved, that this parable relates to us all, that is, to p. 402 the whole Church together, not to the Clergy 3088 only of whom we spoke yesterday; nor to the laity only; but generally to all. Why then are the Virgins five and five? These five and five virgins are all Christian souls together. But that I may tell you what by the Lord\u2019s inspiration I think, it is not souls of every sort, but such souls as have the Catholic faith, and seem to have good works in the Church of God; and yet even of them, \u201cfive are wise, and five are foolish.\u201d First then let us see why they are called \u201cfive,\u201d and why \u201cvirgins,\u201d and then let us consider the rest. Every soul in the body is therefore denoted 3089 by the number five, because it makes use of five senses. For there is nothing of which we have perception by the body, but by the five folded gate, either by the sight, or the hearing, or the smelling, or the tasting, or the touching. Whoso then abstaineth from unlawful seeing, unlawful hearing, unlawful smelling, unlawful tasting, and unlawful touching, by reason of his uncorruptness 3090 hath gotten the name of virgin.\n3. But if it be good to abstain from the unlawful excitements of the senses, and on that account every Christian soul has gotten the name of virgin; why are five admitted and five rejected? They are both virgins, and yet are rejected. It is not enough that they are virgins; and that they have lamps. They are virgins, by reason of abstinence from unlawful indulgence of the senses; they have lamps, by reason of good works. Of which good works the Lord saith, \u201cLet your works shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.\u201d 3091 Again He saith to His disciples, \u201cLet your loins be girded and your lamps burning.\u201d 3092 In the \u201cgirded loins\u201d is virginity; in the \u201cburning lamps\u201d good works.\n4. The title of virginity is not usually applied to married persons: yet even in them there is a virginity of faith, which produces wedded chastity. For that you may know, Holy Brethren, that every one, every soul, as touching the soul, and that uncorruptness of faith by which abstinence from things unlawful is practised, and by which good works are done, is not unsuitably called \u201ca virgin;\u201d the whole Church which consists of virgins, and boys, and married men and married women, is by one name called a Virgin. Whence prove we this? Hear the Apostle saying, not to the religious women only but to the whole Church together; \u201cI have espoused you to One Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.\u201d 3093 And because the devil, the corrupter of this virginity, is to be guarded against, after the Apostle had said, \u201cI have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;\u201d he subjoined, \u201cBut I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u201d 3094 Few have virginity in the body; in the heart all ought to have it. If then abstinence from what is unlawful be good, whereby it has received the name of virginity, and good works are praiseworthy, which are signified by the lamps; why are five admitted and five rejected? If there be a virgin, and one who carries lamps, who yet is not admitted; where shall he see himself, who neither preserveth a virginity from things unlawful, and who not wishing to have good works walketh in darkness?\n5. Of these then, my Brethren, yea, of these let us the rather treat. He who will not see what is evil, he who will not hear what is evil, he that turneth away his smell from the unlawful fumes, and his taste from the unlawful food of the sacrifices, he who refuseth the embrace of another man\u2019s wife, breaketh his bread to the hungry, bringeth the stranger into his house, clotheth the naked, reconcileth the litigious, visiteth the sick, burieth the dead; he surely is a virgin, surely he hath lamps. What seek we more? Something yet I seek. What seekest thou yet, one will say? Something yet I seek; the Holy Gospel hath set me on the search. It hath said that even of these, virgins, and carrying lamps, some are wise and some foolish. By what do we see this? By what make the distinction? By the oil. Some great, some exceedingly great thing doth this oil signify. Thinkest thou that it is not charity? This we say as searching out what it is; we hazard no precipitate judgment. I will tell you why charity seems to be signified by the oil. The Apostle says, \u201cI show unto you a way above the rest.\u201d 3095 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.\u201d 3096 This, that is \u201ccharity,\u201d is \u201cthat way above the rest,\u201d which is with good reason signified by the oil. For oil swims above all liquids. Pour in water, and pour in oil upon it, the oil will swim above. Pour in oil, pour in water upon it, the oil will swim above. If you keep the usual order, it will be uppermost; 3097 if you change the order, it will be uppermost. \u201cCharity never falleth.\u201d 3098\n6. What is it then, Brethren? Let us treat now of the five wise and the five foolish virgins. They wished to go to meet the Bridegroom. What is the meaning of \u201cto go and meet the Bridegroom\u201d? To go with the heart, to be waiting for his coming. But he tarried. \u201cWhile he tarries, they all slept.\u201d What is \u201call\u201d? Both the foolish and the wise, \u201call slumbered and slept.\u201d Think we is this sleep good? What p. 403 is this sleep? Is it that at the tarrying of the Bridegroom, \u201cbecause iniquity aboundeth, the love of many waxeth cold\u201d? Are we to understand this sleep so? I like it not. I will tell you why. Because among them are the wise virgins; and certainly when the Lord said, \u201cBecause iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold;\u201d He went on to say, \u201cBut he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.\u201d 3099 Where would ye have those wise virgins be? Are they not among those that \u201cshall endure unto the end\u201d? They would not be admitted within at all, Brethren, for any other reason, than because they have \u201cendured unto the end.\u201d No coldness of love then crept over them, in them love did not wax cold; but preserves its glow even unto the end. And because it glows even unto the end, therefore are the gates of the Bridegroom opened to them; therefore are they told to enter in, as that excellent servant, \u201cEnter thou into the joy of thy Lord.\u201d 3100 What then is the meaning of they \u201call slept\u201d? 3101 There is another sleep which no one escapes. Remember ye not the Apostle saying, \u201cBut I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,\u201d 3102 that is, concerning them which are dead? For why are they called \u201cthey which are asleep,\u201d but because they are in their own day? Therefore \u201cthey all slept.\u201d Thinkest thou that because one is wise, he has not therefore to die? Be the virgin foolish, or be she wise, all suffer equally the sleep of death.\n7. But men continually say to themselves, \u201cLo, the day of judgment is coming now, so many evils are happening, so many tribulations thicken; behold all things which the Prophets have spoken, are well-nigh fulfilled; the day of judgment is already at hand.\u201d They who speak thus, and speak in faith, go out as it were with such thoughts to \u201cmeet the Bridegroom.\u201d But, lo! war upon war, tribulation upon tribulation, earthquake upon earthquake, famine upon famine, nation against nation, and still the Bridegroom comes not yet. Whilst then He is expected to come, all they who are saying, \u201cLo, He is coming, and the Day of Judgment will find us here,\u201d fall asleep. Whilst they are saying this, they fall asleep. Let each one then have an eye to this his sleep, and persevere even unto his sleep in love; let sleep find him so waiting. For suppose that he has fallen asleep. \u201cWill not He who falls asleep afterwards rise again?\u201d 3103 Therefore \u201cthey all slept;\u201d both of the wise and the foolish virgins in the parable, it is said, \u201cthey all slept.\u201d\n8. \u201cLo, at midnight there was a cry made.\u201d 3104 What is, \u201cat midnight\u201d? When there is no expectation, no belief at all of it. Night is put for ignorance. A man makes as it were a calculation with himself: \u201cLo, so many years have passed since Adam, and the six thousand years are being completed, and then immediately according to the computation of certain expositors, the Day of Judgment will come;\u201d yet these calculations come and pass away, and still the coming of the Bridegroom is delayed, and the virgins who had gone to meet him sleep. And, lo, when He is not looked for, when men are saying, \u201cThe six thousand years were waited for, and, lo, they are gone by, how then shall we know when He will come?\u201d He will come at midnight. What is, \u201cwill come at midnight\u201d? Will come when thou art not aware. Why will He come when thou art not aware of it? Hear the Lord Himself, \u201cIt is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Lord hath put in His own power.\u201d 3105 \u201cThe day of the Lord,\u201d says the Apostle, \u201cwill come as a thief in the night.\u201d 3106 Therefore watch thou by night that thou be not surprised by the thief. For the sleep of death\u2014will ye, or nill ye\u2014it will come.\n9. \u201cBut when that cry was made at midnight.\u201d What cry was this, but that of which the Apostle says, \u201cIn the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump\u201d? \u201cFor the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed\u201d? 3107 And so when the cry was made at midnight, \u201cBehold, the Bridegroom cometh;\u201d what follows? \u201cThen all those virgins arose.\u201d What is, \u201cthey\u201d all arose? \u201cThe hour will come,\u201d said the Lord Himself, \u201cwhen all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.\u201d 3108 Therefore at the last trumpet they all arose. \u201cNow those wise virgins had brought oil with them in their vessels; but the foolish brought no oil with them.\u201d 3109 What is the meaning of \u201cbrought no oil with them in their vessels\u201d? What is \u201cin their vessels\u201d? In their hearts. Whence the Apostle says, \u201cOur glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience.\u201d 3110 There is the oil, the precious oil; this oil is of the gift of God. Men can put oil into their vessels, but they cannot create the olive. See, I have oil; but didst thou create the oil? It is of the gift of God. Thou hast oil. Carry it with thee. What is \u201ccarry it with thee\u201d? Have it within, there please thou God.\n10. For, lo, those \u201cfoolish virgins, who brought no oil with them,\u201d wish to please men by that abstinence of theirs whereby they are called virgins, and by their good works, when they seem to carry lamps. And if they wish to please men, and on that account do all these praiseworthy p. 404 works, they do not carry oil with them. Do you then carry it with thee, carry it within where God seeth; there carry the testimony of thy conscience. For he who walks to gain the testimony of another, does not carry oil with him. If thou abstain from things unlawful, and doest good works to be praised of men; there is no oil within. And so when men begin to leave off their praises, the lamps fail. Observe then, Beloved, before those virgins slept, it is not said that their lamps were extinguished. The lamps of the wise virgins burned with an inward oil, with the assurance of a good conscience, with an inner glory, with an inmost charity. Yet the lamps of the foolish virgins burned also. Why burnt they then? Because there was yet no want of the praises of men. But after that they arose, that is in the resurrection from the dead, they began to trim their lamps, that is, began to prepare to render unto God an account of their works. And because there is then no one to praise, every man is wholly employed in his own cause, there is no one then who is not thinking of himself, therefore were there none to sell them oil; so their lamps began to fail, and the foolish betook themselves to the five wise, \u201cgive us of your oil, for our lamps are going out.\u201d 3111 They sought for what they had been wont to seek for, to shine that is with others\u2019 oil, to walk after others\u2019 praises. \u201cGive us of your oil, for our lamps are going out.\u201d\n11. But they say, \u201cNot so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.\u201d 3112 This was not the answer of those who give advice, but of those who mock. And why mock they? Because they were wise, because wisdom was in them. For they were not wise by ought of their own; but that wisdom was in them, of which it is written in a certain book, she shall say to those that despised her, when they have fallen upon the evils which she threatened them; \u201cI will laugh over your destruction.\u201d 3113 What wonder then is it, that the wise mock the foolish virgins? And what is this mocking?\n12. \u201cGo ye to them that sell, and buy for yourselves:\u201d 3114 ye who never were wont to live well, but because men praised you, who sold you oil. What means this, \u201csold you oil\u201d? \u201cSold praises.\u201d Who sell praises, but flatterers? How much better had it been for you not to have acquiesced in flatterers, and to have carried oil within, and for a good conscience-sake to have done all good works; then might ye say, \u201cThe righteous shall correct me in mercy, and reprove me, but the oil of the sinner shall not fatten 3115 my head.\u201d 3116 Rather, he says, let the righteous correct me, let the righteous reprove me, let the righteous buffet me, let the righteous correct me, than the \u201coil of the sinner fatten mine head.\u201d What is the oil of the sinner, but the blandishments of the flatterer?\n13. \u201cGo ye\u201d then \u201cto them that sell,\u201d this have ye been accustomed to do. But we will not give to you. Why? \u201cLest there be not enough for us and you.\u201d What is, \u201clest there be not enough\u201d? This was not spoken in any lack of hope, but in a sober and godly humility. For though the good man have a good conscience; how knows he, how He may judge who is deceived by no one? He hath a good conscience, no sins conceived in the heart solicit 3117 him, yet, though his conscience be good, because of the daily sins of human life, he saith to God, \u201cforgive us our debts;\u201d seeing he hath done what comes next, \u201cas we also forgive our debtors.\u201d 3118 He hath broken his bread to the hungry from the heart, from the heart hath clothed the naked; out of that inward oil he hath done good works, and yet in that judgment even his good conscience trembleth.\n14. See then what this, \u201cGive us oil,\u201d is. They were told \u201cGo ye rather to them that sell.\u201d In that ye have been used to live upon the praises of men, ye do not carry oil with you; but we can give you none; \u201clest there be not enough for us and you.\u201d For scarcely do we judge of ourselves, how much less can we judge of you? What is \u201cscarcely do we judge of ourselves\u201d? Because, \u201cWhen the righteous King sitteth on the throne, who will glory that his heart is pure?\u201d 3119 It may be thou dost not discover anything in thine own conscience; but He who seeth better, whose Divine glance penetrateth into deeper things, discovereth it may be something, He seeth it may be something, He discovereth something. How much better mayest thou say to Him, \u201cEnter not into judgment with Thy servant\u201d? 3120 Yea, how much better, \u201cForgive us our debts\u201d? Because it shall be also said to thee because of those torches, because of those lamps; \u201cI was hungry, and ye gave Me meat.\u201d What then? did not the foolish virgins do so too? Yea, but they did it not before Him. How then did they do it? As the Lord forbiddeth, who said, \u201cTake heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven: and when ye pray, be not as the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.\u201d 3121 They have bought oil, they have given the price; they have bought p. 405 it, they have not been defrauded of men\u2019s praises, they have sought men\u2019s praises, and have had them. These praises of men aid them not in the judgment day. But the other virgins, how have they done? \u201cLet your works shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.\u201d 3122 He did not say, \u201cmay glorify you.\u201d For thou hast no oil of thine own self. Boast thyself and say, I have it; but from Him, \u201cfor what hast thou that thou hast not received?\u201d 3123 So then in this way acted the one, and in that the other.\n15. Now it is no wonder, that \u201cwhile they are going to buy,\u201d while they are seeking for persons by whom to be praised, and find none; while they are seeking for persons by whom to be comforted, and find none; that the door is opened, that \u201cthe Bridegroom cometh,\u201d 3124 and the Bride, the Church, glorified then with Christ, that the several members may be gathered together into their whole. \u201cAnd they went in with Him into the marriage, and the door was shut.\u201d Then the foolish virgins came afterwards; but had they bought any oil, or found any from whom they might buy it? Therefore they found the doors shut; they began to knock, but too late.\n16. It is said, and it is true, and no deceiving saying, \u201cKnock, and it shall be opened unto you;\u201d 3125 but now when it is the time of mercy, not when it is the time of judgment. For these times cannot be confounded, since the Church sings to her Lord of \u201cmercy and judgment.\u201d 3126 It is the time of mercy; repent. Canst thou repent in the time of judgment? Thou wilt be then as those virgins, against whom the door was shut. \u201cLord, Lord, open to us.\u201d What! did they not repent, that they had brought no oil with them? Yes, but what profiteth them their late repentance, when the true wisdom mocked them? Therefore \u201cthe door was shut.\u201d And what was said to them? \u201cI know you not.\u201d Did not He know them, who knoweth all things? What then is, \u201cI know you not?\u201d 3127 I refuse, I reject you. In my art I do not acknowledge you, my art knoweth not vice; now this is a marvellous thing, it doth not know vice, and it judgeth vice. It doth not know it in the practice of it; it judgeth by reproving it. Thus then, \u201cI know you not.\u201d\n17. The five wise virgins came, and \u201cwent in.\u201d How many are ye, my Brethren, in the profession of Christ\u2019s Name! let there be among you the five wise, but be not five such persons only. Let there be among you the five wise, belonging to this wisdom of the number five. For the hour will come, and come when we know not. It will come at midnight, Watch ye. Thus did the Gospel close; \u201cWatch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.\u201d 3128 But if we are all to sleep, how shall we watch? Watch with the heart, watch with faith, watch with hope, watch with charity, watch with good works; and then, when thou shalt sleep in thy body, the time will come that thou shalt rise. And when thou shalt have risen, make ready the lamps. Then shall they go out no more, then shall they be renewed 3129 with the inner oil of conscience; then shall that Bridegroom fold thee in His spiritual 3130 embrace, then shall He bring thee into His House where thou shall never sleep, where thy lamp can never be extinguished. But at present we are in labour, and our lamps flicker 3131 amid the winds and temptations of this life; but only let our flame burn strongly, that the wind of temptation may increase the fire, rather than put it out.\nBing. Antiq. B, vii. c. iv. sect. 8.\n402:3088 402:3089 402:3090 402:3091 402:3092 402:3093 402:3094 402:3095\nSupereminentiorem. 1 Cor. xii. 31.\n402:3096 402:3097 402:3098\n1 Cor. xiii. 8. Cadit.\n403:3099 403:3100 403:3101 403:3102 403:3103\nPs. 41.8, Sept. (xli. 8, English version).\n403:3104 403:3105 403:3106 403:3107 403:3108 403:3109\nMatt. 25:4, 3.\n403:3110 404:3111 404:3112 404:3113 404:3114 404:3115 404:3116\nPs. 141.5, Sept. (cxli. English version).\n404:3117 404:3118 404:3119\nProv. 20:8, 9, Sept.\n404:3120 404:3121\nMatt. vi. 1, etc.\n405:3122 405:3123 405:3124 405:3125 405:3126 405:3127 405:3128 405:3129 405:3130 405:3131","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: Sermons on Selec...","type":"page"}