4. This is farther explained by the parallel text, _Gal._ iv. 6. _Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father._ Is not this something _immediate_ and _direct_, not the result of reflection or argumentation? Does not this Spirit cry _Abba, Father, in our hearts_, the moment it is given? Antecedently to any reflection upon our sincerity, yea, to any reasoning whatsoever? And is not this the plain, natural sense of the words, which strikes any one, as soon as he hears them? All these texts then, in their most obvious meaning, describe a direct testimony of the Spirit. 5. That _the testimony of the Spirit of God_, must in the very nature of things, be antecedent to _the testimony of our own spirit_, may appear from this single consideration. We must be holy in heart and life, before we can be conscious that we are so. But we must love God before we can be holy at all, this being the root of all holiness. Now we cannot love God, ’till we know he loves us: _we love him, because he first loved us_. And we cannot know his love to us, ’till his Spirit witnesses it to our spirit. ’Till then we cannot believe it: we cannot say, _the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me_. Then, only then we feel Our interest in his blood, And cry with joy unspeakable, Thou art my Lord, my God. Since therefore the testimony of his Spirit must precede the love of God and all holiness, of consequence it must precede our consciousness thereof. 6. And here properly comes in, to confirm this scriptural doctrine, the experience of the children of God: the experience not of two or three, not of a few, but of a great multitude which no man can number. It has been confirmed, both in this and in all ages by _a cloud of_ living and dying _witnesses_. It is confirmed by _your_ experience and _mine_. The Spirit itself bore witness to my spirit, that I was a child of God, gave me an _evidence_ hereof, and I immediately cried, _Abba, Father_! And this I did, (and so did you) before I reflected on, or was conscious of any fruit of the Spirit. It was from this testimony received, that love, joy, peace, and the whole fruit of the Spirit flowed. First I heard, Thy sins are forgiven! Accepted thou art! I listened, and heaven Sprung up in my heart.