Know then that thy sin, after thou hast received the Spirit of
adoption to cry unto God, "Father, Father," is counted the
transgression of a child, not of a slave; and that all that
happeneth to thee for that transgression is but the chastisement of
a father: "And what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"
Now let not any, from what hath been said, take courage to live
loose lives, under a supposition that once in Christ they are ever
in Christ, and the covenant cannot he broken, nor the relation of
Father and child dissolved; for they that do so, it is evident, have
not known what it is to receive the Spirit of adoption. It is the
spirit of the devil, in his own hue, that suggesteth this unto them,
and that prevaileth with them to do so. Shall we do evil that good
may come? Shall we sin that grace may abound; or shall we be base in
life because God by grace hath secured us from wrath to come? God
forbid: these conclusions betoken one void of the fear of God
indeed, and of the Spirit of adoption too.
Though God cannot, will not dissolve the relation which the Spirit
of adoption hath made betwixt the Father and the sons, for any sins
that such do commit; yet he can and often doth take away from them
the comfort of their adoption, not suffering children while sinning
to have the sweet and comfortable sense thereof on their hearts.
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