Troubled by the spiritual decline in his congregation, Jonathan Edwards sought help from a book titled The Parable of the Ten Virgins by Thomas Shepard. Inspired by Shepard's passion to promote genuine conversions in his own New England church nearly a hundred years earlier, Edwards began preaching his own sermon series on the parable during the winter of 1737-38.

Edwards soon realized the impact of Shepard's pastoral insights on his own congregation when revival broke out during George Whitefield's visit to Northampton two years later in 1740. And Shepard's voice echoes through nearly every page of Edwards's defense of the Great Awakening—his celebrated Discourse on Religious Affections.

Edwards's dependence on Shepard is just one example of how The Parable of the Ten Virgins became an early classic among Puritan divines. After its publication in 1659, sermons on the parable became the standard remedy for religious apathy. Yet surprisingly few today know much about the Puritan pastor who inspired America's greatest theologian on the nature of authentic Christian conversion.

The Story of Thomas Shepard

After graduating from Cambridge in 1627, Shepard soon gained a reputation as a powerful preacher in Essex. However, he was expelled from his pulpit by the government for nonconformity to the Church of England in 1630. Growing weary of hiding and persecution, Shepard decided to join the great Puritan migration to New England.

Arriving in Boston with his wife and child on October 3, 1635, Shepard wasted little time founding a new church among the recent immigrants in Newtown, Massachusetts. He immediately began a series of sermons on the characteristics of grace that distinguished genuine conversion from the religious pretense common within the Church of England. This series, based on an extended exposition of Jesus' parable on the ten virgins (Mt. 25:1-13), lasted from June 1636 to May 1640.

Due to Shepard's success as a pastor and leader in the colony, Newtown was chosen as the location for New England's first institution of higher learning. Shepard played a pivotal role in founding Harvard College as unofficial chaplain, lecturer, and fundraiser.

Before his death at the age of forty-four, Shepard teamed with John Eliot to begin pioneering mission work among the local Indians. His exemplary ministry was carried on by his successor at Cambridge, Jonathan Mitchell, and by each of his three surviving sons, who went on to pastor their own congregations after graduating from Harvard.

Among the first generation of ministers in New England, none have left behind a more complete record of both their public service and private devotion than Thomas Shepard. All of his major treatises remain in print today, including The Sincere Convert and The Sound Believer.

Shepard's autobiography and personal diary demonstrate how his major theological themes were worked out in his personal piety. In particular, Shepard's vivid account of his own spiritual awakening illustrates his belief that true conversion requires a total change of heart, mind, and affections.

Shepard's journal also illustrates how the conversion of the heart that secures our union with Christ must be followed by a lifelong process of meditation to prepare us for our communion with Christ in Glory. Shepard's rigorous practice of self-examination during the height of his ministry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, may appear morbid to modern views of spiritual maturity. But Shepard took seriously Paul's admonition to "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5).

His concern was not to foster religious despair, but his journal reveals how his daily self-examination and confession were meant to purge his soul of any hint of unbelief, sinful practices, or selfish motives that would hinder communion with God. Once his conscience was cleared, his affections for Christ were quickly rekindled through meditation on the wonder of his grace, goodness, and glory.

Shepard often spent his Saturdays meditating on his sermons until his "heart was sweetly ravished."[1] This led to his reputation among the colonists as the "soul-ravishing minister" through whom "the Lord shed abroad his love so abundantly, that thousands of souls have cause to bless God for him."[2]

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Shepard divided his exposition of Jesus' parable into two major parts. The first focused on Matthew 25:1-5 that describes the church's need to prepare to meet Christ. The second explained Matthew 25:6-12 that announces the coming of Christ as bridegroom.

He began his exposition by identifying "the kingdom of heaven" as "the external kingdom of Christ in this world, that is, the visible church." He applied this specifically to the congregational churches of Massachusetts, where the members were recognized as "visible saints" by public profession.

While a mix of "wise and foolish virgins" was expected within the national Church of England, Shepard went on to declare that even the purest of churches contain both wise-hearted believers and foolish-hearted hypocrites. Therefore, even though the parable refers to the days immediately before the second coming of Christ (Mt. 25:1), Shepard believed its message had direct application to the "virgin churches" prospering in New England.

He warned them, "You have the pillow of peace to lie on, and the cares of the world to make you dream away your time, and you have no pinching persecutions to awaken you." As they awaited the return of their heavenly bridegroom, he called them all to make "themselves ready for the marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7).[3]

Divine Romance

Although medieval ascetics had long used marriage imagery to describe their union with God, the Puritans were the first to unite it with a wholehearted appreciation for the joys of marital romance. Like many Puritan preachers, Shepard drew a close connection between God's love for the saints and the love between husband and wife.

Of his first wife, Margaret Touteville, he recounted how "the Lord taught me much of his goodness and sweetness ... when he had fitted a wife for me ... who was most loving to me." His fondness for her grew so strong within their first year of marriage (1632) that he found himself in danger of "delighting my soul in my dear wife more than in my God."

After Margaret's death, he shared similar affections for his second wife, Johanna, the eldest daughter of Thomas Hooker. In his grief over her failing health, Shepard found comfort in Johanna's wish "that we should love exceedingly together because we should not live long together."[4]

Drawing on the strength of these marital affections and the imagery of the parable, Shepard portrayed God's redemptive plan in terms of an epic romance between lovers. Shepard viewed his work as a minister "to woo" the "chaste virgins" of his congregation into intimate communion with Christ.

Gospel Hypocrites

After reassuring genuine saints of the joys of their heavenly romance, Shepard shifted his attention to the presence of hypocrites within the church. "Five of them were foolish, and five were wise" (Mt. 25:2).[5]

He reasoned from this vision that we should expect "a number of hypocrites mingling themselves with the purest of churches." Their "evangelical" outward appearance allows their hypocrisy to remain hidden for a while. With their lamps ready, they "appear and seem to be under grace" and seek earnestly for Christ's coming, even though their wills and hearts remain unchanged.

Shepard called them "gospel hypocrites" because common grace provides an outer semblance of sanctification, yet they never experience the "great change of the heart" wrought by the Spirit that grants genuine power over sin and Satan. The foolish virgins contented themselves with the temporary "blaze of outward profession" (i.e., the lamp), but they neglected the inward illumination of the Spirit (i.e., the oil).

Without this oil of the Spirit, their hearts lacked the humiliation of sin and the understanding of Scripture necessary to effectively cure their hypocrisy. Though they longed for the bridegroom, fellowship with him was never their "last and utmost end."[6] Other appetites eventually crowded out their superficial desire for him.

Transformed by Grace

The wise virgins took vessels of oil with their lamps (Mt. 25:4). Shepard explained that the oil includes not only the Spirit of Christ but also the graces that inevitability flow forth from him.

As vessels filled with the Spirit, the saints receive a "new nature" consisting of "created graces" that fuel their lamps to shine forth with acts of obedience. This new ability does not operate independently from the Spirit but "stands in daily need of the Lord Jesus."

Though the foolish virgins dipped their wick in the oil of the Spirit to light their lamps for a time, they lacked the fullness of the Spirit that results in a change of nature. They lacked the spiritual illumination that granted the wise virgins humiliation of sin and a saving knowledge of Christ as their "present, greatest, and only good." Only this spiritual insight could take them beyond a mere historical faith that seeks something from Christ, to a truly justifying faith that embraces Christ for himself, not for what benefits they can receive from him.

The Danger of Carnal Security

In spite of vast differences between the virgins, the parable warns that "the spirit of sloth and security" will overcome both wise and foolish virgins in the last days. "As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept" (Mt. 25:5).

Shepard explained that their sleep signifies a carnal security that posed a great threat to the health and vitality of the "virgin churches" of New England. Their lack of persecution and abundance of "spiritual gifts and graces" had produced an unexpected result. Rather than usher in the godly society of "visible saints" as Shepard had hoped, their religious freedom had led to spiritual indifference and decadence.

He warned them especially against settling for a "peace with their sin," a "peace that ... gives up the fight against sin and Satan." Rather, they must rest in the Lord, "a rest which faith gives" only after it has conquered sin. For peace with Christ is not experienced through "sloth" but by waging war "against every temptation." The danger of "carnal security" is its presumption of grace that refuses to be disturbed by secret sins and selfish motives.

Shepard called his congregation to resist the temptation of carnal security by making "the coming of the Lord real." His voice was not a cry of terror or wrath but an invitation for all to "come out and meet" him. To those foolish virgins, it was an invitation to come while there was still time and to "receive the eternal anointing of his Spirit of grace ... in [their] hearts." To the wise virgins who also slept, the bridegroom's call served as a reminder that no sin of "security [or] carelessness, though deep [and] long," could "quench his love" for them or "break [their] marriage bond" to him.

Reflections on Thomas Shepard

Those seeking a cure for spiritual apathy in their church or perhaps in their own lives would do well to follow the example of Jonathan Edwards and read Shepard's Parable of the Ten Virgins. As I think back over my time spent reading and reflecting on this sermon, I am struck by a greater awareness of my own thoughts and motivations that draw me away from Christ to other things for heart satisfaction.

Shepard's sermon renewed my vigilance against peace with sin, and rekindled my passion to commune with Christ. Shepard also reminded me that faithful pastors must always maintain the balance between their responsibilities to warn and evangelize the "foolish" pretenders, as well as to comfort and exhort the "wise" saints mixed among their congregations.

But most importantly, Shepard has taught me how to make sure that I am like the wise virgins. He concludes, "Be always converting, more humble, more sensible of sin, more near to Christ Jesus; and then you that are sure may be more sure; and you that are not may be sure indeed!"


[1]Michael McGiffert, ed., God's Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge, rev. ed. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994), p. 84.
[2]Edward Johnson, Wonder-Working Providence: 1628-1651, ed. J. Franklin Jameson (1654; reprint, New York: Scribner's 1910), pp. 94, 107.
[3]Thomas Shepard, The Parable of the Ten Virgins, ed. John A. Albro (Morgan, Penn.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), pp. 16, 25-26.
[4]McGiffert, God's Plot, pp. 57, 73.
[5]All biblical references are made by Shepard.
[6]The remaining quotations are from Shepard, Ten Virgins.

Taken from The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason. Copyright © 2004 by Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com
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