That when the Lord seeth it unmeet to take you out of this world up into heaven, that heaven should come down into this world unto you, who were once enemies to this kingdom, shut up under the kingdom of death and darkness, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, without God and Christ in the world, without promise, without hope. I do not cry the temple of the Lord, nor idolize order and churches; but I tell you what your privilege is, and thereby what God’s goodness is. I know the world neither seeth nor feeleth any such heaven on earth, but soon grow despisers secretly of all ordinances, who, if they were in heaven itself, with their carnal hearts, they would not abide there with much contentment; yet, verily, heaven hath been and is found here by God’s hidden ones, even such things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard; and if it be not thus with thee, blame thyself, and mourn the more, who, in the midst of light, art in utter darkness; and in the place where heaven is begun to some, it should be made a little hell to thee.
Thomas Shepard. The Parable of the Ten Virgins.
