The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

First, They come for a Communication of a Sense of his Love in Jesus Christ. Hence doth all our Peace, Consolation, and Joy, all our Encouragement to do, and suffer according to the VVill of God, all our Supportments under our Sufferings, solely depend; In these things do our Souls live; and without them we are of all Men the most miserable.

It is the Holy Spirit who is the immediate efficient Cause of all these things in us. He sheds abroad the Love of God in our Hearts, Rom. 5.5. He witnesseth our Adoption unto us, Chap. 8.15, 16. And thereby an Interest in the Love of the Father, in God as he is Love. But the Outward Way and means whereby he communicates these things unto us, and effects them in us, is by the Dispensation of the Gospel, or the Preaching of it ordinarily. He doth the same work also in Prayer, oft-times in other Holy Administrations. For this end, for a Participation of this Grace, of these Mercies, do Believers come unto God by them. They use them as means to draw Water from the Wells of Salvation, and to receive in that Spiritual Sense of Divine Love, which God by them will communicate.

It is the Holy Spirit who is the immediate efficient Cause of all these things in us. He sheds abroad the Love of God in our Hearts, Rom. 5.5. He witnesseth our Adoption unto us, Chap. 8.15, 16. And thereby an Intrest in the Love of the Father, in God as he is Love. But the Outward Way and means whereby he communicates these things unto us, and effects them in us, is by the Dispensation of the Gospel, or the Preaching of it ordinarily. He doth the same work also in Prayer, oft-times in other Holy Administrations. For this end, for a Participation of this Grace, of these Mercies, do Believers come unto God by them. They use them as meanes to draw Water from the Wells of Salvation, and to receive in that Spiritual Sense of Divine Love, which God by them will communicate.