The Gospel and the Spirit

"But you will say, what is the gospel but a verbal story told us when preached, or read, or meditated on? It represents Christ to us but as words do and words are shadows, pictures, and indeed less lively. How comes it to represent Christ so really? And to be as a glass representing Christ to us so truly?I answer, that as a glass in itself is but an empty thing, unless the objects to be seen in it be directly placed before it and by light discovered in it...such I confess is the gospel, a mere verbal representation, but to believers...the Spirit of the Lord joins with those words, and presents Christ by a secret, hidden, unheard of act to the eye of faith in the preaching or reading of it, opens heaven and causes the glory of Christ to shine on it in a lively, real manner."Thomas Goodwin