On the three states of a soul: the natural, the legal, and the evangelical. The natural man sleeps in sin; the legal man wakes and labours under fear; the evangelical man receives the Spirit of adoption and cries Abba.
Sermon 9 of 44 · 1746 · Romans 8:15
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
A passage from the sermon
The natural man neither fears nor loves God; one, perhaps, who knows there is a God; but cares not to know him. The legal man hath received the spirit of bondage, but not yet the spirit of adoption. He is convinced of sin, and he labours after deliverance. The evangelical man is one who hath received the spirit of adoption, even the Spirit of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. He is born of God; and his life is hid with Christ in God.
Let every man strictly examine himself: which of these three he is. Art thou asleep? Art thou awake, and labouring under the burden? Or hast thou received the Spirit of adoption? God grant thee not to rest until thou canst cry, with the heart, 'Abba, Father!'
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