Suppose a child doth grievously transgress against and offend his father; is the relation between them therefore dissolved?  Again, suppose the father should scourge and chasten the son for such offences, is the relation between them therefore dissolved?  Yea, suppose the child should now, through ignorance, cry and say, “This man is now no more my father;” is he therefore no more his father?  Doth not every body see the folly of arguings?  Why, of the same nature is the doctrine, the faith, that after we have received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of bondage is sent to us again to put us in fear of eternal damnation.

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.

God can lay thee in the dungeon in chains, and roll a stone upon thee; he can make thy feet fast in the stocks, and make thee a gazing-stock for men and angels.

God can tell how to cause to cease the sweet operations and blessed influences of his grace in thy soul; to make those gospel-showers that formerly thou hast enjoyed, to become now to thee nothing but powder and dust.

God can tell how to fight against thee with the sword of his mouth, and to make thee a butt for his arrows; and this is a dispensation most dreadful.

God can tell how to bow thee down with guilt and distress, that thou shalt in nowise be able to lift up thy head.

God can tell how to break thy bones, and to make thee, by reason of that, to live in continual anguish of spirit; yea, he can send a fire into thy bones that shall burn, and none shall quench it.

God can tell how to lay thee aside, and make no use of thee as to any work for him in thy generation.  He can throw thee aside as a broken vessel.