Friends, as you are the sons and daughters of Adam, and my brethren after the flesh, many and earnest have been my desires and prayers to God on your behalf, that you may come to know your Creator to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the image that, through sin, you have lost, by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ, whom he hath given for the light and life of the world. And O that you who are called Christians, would receive him into your heart! for there it is you want him, and at that door he stands knocking, that you should let him in, but you do not open to him; you are full of other guests, so that a manger is his lot among you now, as well as of old. Yet you are full of profession, as were the Jews when he came among them, who knew him not, but rejected and evilly entreated him. So that if you come not to the possession and experience of what you profess, all your formality in religion will stand you in no stead in the day of God’s judgment. I beseech you ponder with yourselves your eternal condition, and see what title, what ground and foundation you have for your Christianity; if more than a profession, and an historical belief of the gospel. Have you known the baptism of fire, and the Holy Ghost, and the fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff,—the carnal lusts and affections?—that divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being received, leavens the whole lump of man, sanctifying him throughout, in body, soul, and spirit? If this be not the ground of your confidence, you are in a miserable state. You will say, perhaps, that though you are sinners, and live in the daily commission of sin, and are not sanctified, as I have been speaking, yet you have faith in Christ, who has borne the curse for you, and in him you are complete by faith; his righteousness being imputed to you. But, my friends, let me entreat you not to deceive yourselves in so important a point, as is that of your immortal souls. If you have _true_ faith in Christ, your faith will make you clean, it will sanctify you: for the saints’ faith was their victory. By this they overcame sin within, and sinful men without. And if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are manifest. Yea, thou art a new creature, new made, new fashioned after God’s will and mould; old things are done away, and, behold, all things are become new; new love, desires, will, affections, and practices. It is not any longer thou that livest, thou disobedient, carnal, worldly one; but it is Christ that liveth in thee; and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal gain; because thou art assured, that “thy corruptible shall put on incorruption, and thy mortal immortality:” and that thou hast a glorious house, eternal in the heavens, that will never wax old or pass away. All this follows being in Christ, as the sensation of heat follows fire, and light the sun.