Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

[XCIII. Ben.]

On the words of the Gospel, Matthew 25:1 , “then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.”

1. You who were present yesterday remember my promise; which with the Lord's assistance is to be made good today, 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 today, 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, “The Religious;” but if I mistake not this parable relates to the whole Church. But though we should understand it of those only who are called “the Religious,” 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, “But what if though they be so many in outward profession, yet in truth they are so few, that scarce ten can be found!” 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?