Contending (for the Faith) and Communing (with God)

Two quotes from John Owen’s preface to Vindiciae Evangelicae ["Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated"] (1655), Works vol. 12:

“When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth,
—when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us,
—when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts
—when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for
—then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.”

“Let us . . . not think that we are anything the better for our conviction of the truths of the great doctrines of the gospel, for which we contend with these men, unless we find the power of the truths abiding in our own hearts, and have a continual experience of their necessity and excellency in our standing before God and our communion with him.”

HT: Dane Ortlund, via Justin Taylor