A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…

1. By these things therefore you may know, whether you are ¹spiritually alive, or not; for if so, you are quickened and made alive by the Operations of the Spirit, and there is a Principle of Divine Life infused into your Souls: So that from a holy and new Nature, you can and do breath forth your Desires freely and frequently to God, and see the excellency of spiritual Objects and Things; Christ is must precious and lovely in your sight: Your Eyes see, and your Ears hear, and you have spiritual feeling, and you can and do act and move; that is, believe, repent, and obey God, with great Activity, and a strong Propensity, or gracious Inclinations of Heart: There is also much of the Beauty of Holiness shining forth in your Lives.

1. By these things therefore you may know, whether you are ¹spiritually alive, or not; for if so, you are quickned and made alive by the Operations of the Spirit, and there is a Principle of Divine Life infused into your Souls: So that from a holy and new Nature, you can and do breath forth your Desires freely and frequently to God, and see the excellency of spiritual Objects and Things; Christ is must precious and lovely in your sight: Your Eyes see, and your Ears hear, and you have spiritual feeling, and you can and do act and move; that is, believe, repent, and obey God, with great Activity, and a strong Propensity, or gracious Inclinations of Heart: There is also much of the Beauty of Holiness shining forth in your Lives.

1. 1How to know we are spiritually alive.

2. This also by the way may serve to detect that Doctrine some, nay too many maintain, of the Power of the Creature: ¹Alas, alas, what can the Dead do! For evident it is, that those who are thus dead, have no Principle or first Power of living unto God, or to perform any Duty to be accepted of him: It is with them, as to all Acts and Ends of spiritual Life, as with the Body, as to the Acts and Ends of natural Life, when the Soul is departed from it; or else God would never say they are dead, call them dead. Does God make use of an improper Metaphor? Dare they affirm that? It must be so, if Man naturally be not dead, but wounded, in a spiritual Sense only. True, a wicked Man is naturally alive, and his Soul is in his Body, and he is endowed with Understanding, Will and Affection, and may perform many Duties God requires of him: But what of this? for in spiritual Life the Holy Ghost is unto the Soul, what the Soul is unto the Body, in respect of natural Life, namely, the quickening Principle. And (as a Learned Author well observes) to deny such a quickening