lant you into Jesus Christ. Nay, it
declares this much unto you, that by nature ye are far off from Jesus, and
wholly defiled,--all your imaginations only evil. Now, I beseech you, how
came the change? Or is there a change? Are not the most part of men the
old men,--no new creatures? He that is in Christ is a new creature, 2 Cor.
v. 17. Ye have now Adam's nature, which ye had first. Ye have borne the
image of the earthly, and are ye not such yet, who are still earthly?
Think ye that ye can inherit the kingdom of God thus? Can ye pass over
from a state of condemnation to a state of life and no condemnation,
without a change? No, believe it, ye cannot inherit incorruption with
flesh and blood, which ye were born with. Ye must be implanted in the
second Adam, and bear his image, ere ye can say that ye are partakers of
his blessings, 1 Cor. xv. 47-49, &c. Now I may pose your consciences,--how
many of you are changed? Are not the most part of you even such as ye were
from your childhood? Be not deceived, ye are yet strangers from the
promises of God, and without this hope in the world.

Sermon II.

Verse 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, &c."

All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; they meet all in him
and from him are derived unto us. When man was in integrity, he was with
God, and in God, and that immediately, without the intervention of a
Mediator. But our falling from God hath made us without God, and the
distance is so great, as Abraham speaks to the rich man, that neither can
those above go down to him, nor he come up to them. There is a gulf of
separation between God and us, that there can be no meeting. And so we who
are without God, are without hope in the world, Eph. ii. 12; no hope of
any more access to God as before. The tree of life is compassed about with
a flaming fire and a sword. God is become a consuming fire unto us, that
none can come near these everlasting burnings, much less dwell with them.
Since there can be no meeting so, God hath found out the way how sinners
may come to him, and not be consumed. He will meet with us in Jesus
Christ, that living temple, and this is the trysting place.(158) There was
a necessity of this Mediator, to make up the difference, and make a bridge
over that gulf of separation, for us to come to God, and this is his human
nature, the new and living way, the vail of his flesh. God is in Christ
theref