“The Spirit teaches us of the love of God in Christ; He makes every gospel truth as wine well refined to our souls, and the good things of it to be a feast of fat things. He gives us joy and gladness of heart with all that we know of God; which is the great preservative of the soul to keep it close to truth.
The apostle speaks of our teaching by this unction, as the means whereby we are preserved from seduction. Indeed, to know any truth in the power, sweetness, joy, and gladness of it, is that great security of the soul’s constancy in the preservation and retaining of it. They will readily exchange truth for error, who find no more sweetness in the one than in the other.
All the privileges we enjoy, all the dignity and honor we are invested with, our whole dedication unto God, our nobility and royalty, our interest in all church advantages and approaches to God in worship, our separation from the world, the name whereby we are called, the liberty we enjoy— all flow from this head, all are branches of this effect of the Holy Ghost.”
–John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, Eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 387-388.
