True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.Arndt, Johann
Religion
True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.
Arndt, Johann
Christian life; Christianity
5. In Adam, man has inherited the chief evils; as sin, divine wrath,
death, Satan, hell, and damnation; but in Christ, he is restored to the
possession of the chief blessings, as righteousness, grace, blessing,
power, a heavenly life, and eternal salvation. From Adam, man inherits a
carnal spirit, and is subjected to the rule and tyranny of the evil
spirit; but from Christ, he obtains the Holy Spirit, with his gifts,
together with his comforting guidance. From Adam, man has derived an
arrogant, proud, and haughty spirit; but if he would be born again and
renewed in his mind, he must receive from Christ, by faith, an humble,
meek, and upright spirit. From Adam, man inherits an unbelieving,
blasphemous, and most ungrateful spirit; and it is his duty to obtain from
Christ a believing spirit, that will prove faithful, acceptable, and
well-pleasing to God. From Adam, a disobedient, violent and rash spirit is
inherited; but from Christ, we imbibe, through faith, the spirit of
obedience, gentleness, and modesty, and the spirit of meekness and
moderation. From Adam, we, by _nature_, inherit a spirit of wrath, enmity,
revenge, and murder; but from Christ, we, by faith, acquire the spirit of
long-suffering, love, mercy, forgiveness, and universal goodness and
benignity. From Adam, man, by nature, inherits a covetous heart, a
churlish, merciless spirit, that seeks only to profit self, and grasp at
that which is the right of another; but from Christ, is obtained, by
_faith_, the spirit of mercy, compassion, generosity, and mildness. From
Adam proceeds an unchaste, unclean, and intemperate spirit; but from
Christ, a spirit of chastity, purity, and temperance, may be obtained.
From Adam, there is communicated to man a spirit full of calumny and
falsehood; while on the other hand, he acquires from Christ the spirit of
truth, of constancy, and of integrity. Lastly, we receive from Adam a
brutish and earthly spirit; and from Christ, a spirit from above, which is
altogether heavenly and divine.
6. Hence, it behooved Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to be
conceived and anointed by the Holy Ghost, in order that we might all
receive of his fulness. It was requisite that “the Spirit of the Lord
should rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord”
(Isa. 11:2), that so human nature might in him, and by him, be restored
and renewed, and that we, in him, by him, and through him, might become
new creatures. This is accomplished by receiving from Christ, the spirit
of wisdom and understanding, for the spirit of folly; the spirit of
counsel, for that of madness; the spirit of might, for that of cowardice
and fear; the spirit of knowledge, instead of our natural blindness; and
the spirit of the fear of the Lord, instead of the spirit of impiety and
infidelity.
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