The fourth (and last) volume of discourses, or sermons, on several scriptures

Fifthly, To whom the Spirit hath once been a Spirit of Adoption, ¹it never more becomes to them a Spirit of Bondage and Fear: That is, it never again proclaims War, after it hath spoken Peace; it never represents God as an enraged Enemy, after it hath represented him as a reconciled Father. It is true, the Spirit of God always keeps up his convincing Office in the Soul of the most assured Saint; it convinceth them of Sin, and of Wrath due to them for Sin.² But now there is a twofold Conviction, there is a Conviction of the Evil of particular Actions, and there is a Conviction of the Evil of our State and Condition: Why now, though upon particular Miscarriages of Gods Children, ⟨p. 276⟩the Holy Ghost secretly smited their Consciences, showing them the Guilt and Evil of their Sins, thereby bringing them to Repentance and a godly Sorrow; yet the Holy Ghost never again testified to them, that they are in a graceless, unregenerate and sinful Estate and Condition, and in a State of Wrath and Condemnation; it brings them to a deep Humiliation, by convincing them of the Evil of their Actions, but it never brings them into legal Terrors, by convincing them of a sinful State; neither indeed can it be so, for the Spirit of God is a Spirit of Truth; and to witness that we are yet Children of Wrath, who are indeed the adopted Children of God, this were a false Testimony, and therefore utterly abhorred by the Spirit of God, who is a Spirit of Truth: Doth the same Fountain send forth sweet Water and bitter? Doth there proceed from one and the same Mouth, Blessings and Curses? Certainly the same Spirit that hath once pronounced us to be in the Love and Favour of God, never after pronounceth us to be Cursed, and under the Wrath of God.

Fifthly, To whom the Spirit hath once been a Spirit of Adoption, ¹it never more becomes to them a Spirit of Bondage and Fear: That is, it never again proclaims War, after it hath spoken Peace; it never represents God as an inraged Enemy, after it hath represented him as a reconciled Father. It is true, the Spirit of God always keeps up his convincing Office in the Soul of the most assured Saint; it convinceth them of Sin, and of Wrath due to them for Sin.