27. If we had only a _notional knowledge_ that our first father had sinned, and knew no more of his _sinful condition_ than history tells us of it; if we had only _instituted types_ and _figures_ to keep up the remembrance of it in our minds, we should be never the worse for his sins. We should have no hurt by _owning_ ourselves to be children of a sinful father, if his nature, _life_ and _spirit_ were not propagated in us. So, if we have only a _notional belief_ that Jesus is become the _second Adam_, to redeem, and regenerate the fallen nature; if we know this only in the _notion_ and history kept up in our minds by _outward_ figures and _ordinances_: tho’ we contend ever so much for this belief of a Saviour, and write _volumes_ in defence of it; yet he is not our Saviour, till his nature, life and spirit, be in us. If there be any man in the world, in whom the _nature_ of _Adam_ is not, he has no _sin_ from _Adam_. If there be any man in whom the life of Jesus is not, he has no _righteousness_ from him. We must have life and righteousness in the same _truth_ and _reality_ in us from the second _Adam_, as we have sin and death in us from the first.
28. The whole matter is this: Christ, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, became in the _Virgin Mary_, of the same nature with that _first man_, which was created in Paradise; who according to the _purpose_ of God, was to have been the father of an holy _race_ of men. But seeing the first _Adam_ failed in this _design_ of God, the wisdom of God provided a _second Adam_, who was born in the _same degree_ of perfection, in which the first man was created. To this holy paradisaical human nature the _Son_ of God was personally united. And thus Christ the second _Adam_, took the place of the first, and stands as the second father of all the sons of _Adam_. Now as we are _earthly_, corrupt, and _worldly_ men, by having the _nature_ and _life_ of the first _Adam_ propagated in us, so we must become _holy_ and heavenly men, by having the life and nature of the second _Adam_ derived into us; or as the scripture speaks, by being _born again_. Jesus Christ therefore helps us by a _second_ birth, to such an _holy_, and _undefiled_ nature, as he himself received in the _blessed Virgin_, and which we should have received in _Paradise_ from our _first father_.
Thus by faith in Christ we put _on Christ_, he is formed in us; we eat his _flesh_ and drink _his blood_, and have his _nature_ and _life_ in us.
Thus we are real members, living branches, and new born children of God.
29. * Look now at _yourselves_, at the _world_, at _religion_, in this true light, and surely you must see the desirable nature of every virtue, and every degree of it, which the gospel sets before you. Surely you must awake into a strong abhorrence of every thing that the fall has brought upon you; whether it be in your _souls_, your _bodies_, or the state of the world into which you are fallen. To renounce the poor interests of a worldly life, to be content with a _pilgrim’s fare_ in it, to live looking and longing after that which you have lost; to have no more of covetousness, of pride, of vanity and ambition, than _John_ the Baptist had; to live unto God in your _shops_, your _employments_ and estates, with such thoughts and desires of going to your heavenly Father, as the lost son had when he saw his poor condition, eating _husks_ among _swine_, is only a proof that you are, like him, come to yourselves, that you begin to see _what_, and how, and where you are. Surely you can need no exhortations to run to your Redeemer, to beseech him to do every thing in you and for you that your corrupted heart, and polluted body are in need of. He now stands as near you, as full of love to you, as he did to _Lazarus_ when he raised him from the dead. He is no farther from your call than he was from the call of blind _Bartimæus_.
30. * Surely it should be as needless to exhort you to look earnestly after every means of recovering your first glorious state, as to exhort the blind to receive their sight, the sick to accept of health, or the captive to suffer his chains to be taken off. For when you see your _misery_ and your _redemption_, both of them so exceeding great, you see _something_ that must needs penetrate the depth of your soul, that leaves you no room to _doubt_ about the nature of any virtue; no liberty to indulge _one vain_ passion, or to think it any hardship that the gospel calls you to be _perfect_. For in this light every virtue of the gospel stands recommended to us, as _health_, _purity_ and _sight_ stand recommended to a _sick, noisome, blind leper_, who was shut up in a place that continually increased all his evils.
* It strips us of nothing, but the _uncleanness_ of leprosies, the _miseries_ of sores, pains and blindness. It takes nothing from the world which is about us, but its poison and power of infecting us.