Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Secondly, He experiments it in his Access to God. The Devils, who are in Chains of Darkness, can make no approaches to God; there is an unpassable gulf between them and him. It is storied of a German Nobleman, that there was acted before him a Play of the five Wise and five Foolish Virgins; the Wise were St. Mary, St. Catharine, St. Barbara, St. Dorothy, St. Margaret, to these came the Foolish for Oil; that is, as the Actor interpreted it, That they would intercede with God for their admission into Heaven; They knocked, and wept, and instantly prayed, but the Wise denied, and bid them be gone: At this sight the Nobleman was astonished, crying out, What is the Christian Religion, if none of the Saints will hear and intercede for us? And soon after he died of an Apoplexy. 'Tis sad being shut out from the presence of God. The Believer is, as they say of the Rhodians, in sole positus. He is nigh unto God, and hath his Religion proved to him, in that he hath [Greek or Hebrew], access or manuduction unto God. The way into the Holy of Holies is open through the veil of Christs flesh; and the Holy Spirit doth conduct him in thither. He may come [Greek or Hebrew], with boldness unto the throne of Grace; and there utter all his mind, as a Child doth to his Father. David, in the 13th Psalm, begins as if God were totally absent, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt thou hide ⟨p. 372⟩thy face from me? But a little after we have him in the joy and triumph of Faith; I have trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation, saith he, ver. 5. The door of Mercy, which for a little time was shut up, soon opened again, and gave him a free access unto God.

Secondly, He experiments it in his Access to God. The Devils, who are in Chains of Darkness, can make no approaches to God; there is an unpassable gulf between them and him. It is storied of a German Nobleman, that there was acted before him a Play of the five Wise and five Foolish Virgins; the Wise were St. Mary, St. Catbarine, St. Barbara, St. Dorothy, St. Margaret, to these came the Foolish for Oyl; that is, as the Actor interpreted it, That they would intercede with God for their admission into Heaven; They knocked, and wept, and instantly prayed, but the Wise denied, and bid them be gone: At this sight the Nobleman was astonished, crying out, What is the Christian Religion, if none of the Saints will hear and intercede for us? And soon after he died of an Apoplexy. 'Tis sad being shut out from the presence of God. The Believer is, as they say of the Rhodians, in sole positus. He is nigh unto God, and hath his Religion proved to him, in that he hath , access or manuduction unto God. The way into the Holy of Holies is open through the veil of Christs flesh; and the Holy Spirit doth conduct him in thither. He may come , with boldness unto the throne of Grace; and there utter all his mind, as a Child doth to his Father. David, in the 13th Psalm, begins as if God were totally absent, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt thou hide