The Renewal of the Evangelical Spirit

A 4

...to truly know the corruption that sin has brought into man: for if he does not discover with certainty that he lives in a state of damnation, he will not seek the means of his salvation;

t Romans 8: v. 13

And if man does not believe himself to be damned while following the impulses of his Corrupted Nature, he will never undertake the Evangelical life The "Evangelical life" refers to a life strictly modeled after the teachings of the Gospels., which is entirely repugnant to

u Galatians 5: v. 17

corrupted nature u and contradicts it in every thing: so that man could never follow the Evangelical counsels if he does not first know the dangerous and miserable state in which he stands regarding his salvation. This is why I wanted to show the Children of God through this first missive A "missive" is a formal or instructional letter., the Ignorance, the Weakness, and the Malice of the human Spirit, and the Deception of its heart, through the very specific actions of this person who believed herself regenerated In this context, "regenerated" means to be spiritually reborn or made new through divine grace.. These actions will serve as a mirror to those who wish to look at themselves, since many are in the

x Luke 18: v. 9

same state before God without knowing it, x even while thinking they have arrived at some degree of virtue higher than the common sort. This is why these persons have more need to know how much they are corrupted, inclined to do evil, and enemies of all good, than to hear all the particulars of an Evangelical Life: since they cannot practice the latter before knowing their own corruption. For he who does not see clearly that everything he does is evil, and that nothing good can come out of his Corrupted Nature, he will not desist