2··5g An !;umbfe Enquil'J into the !nfinite Wifdom ofGod a deprivation of the Image of God, as it is in our perfons before our Renovation, it could do nothing that .fhould be acceptable unt<? him.. And if it were fo!Jjdl unto guilt on its own account, it could make no fatisfaetion ·for the fin of ot~ers. Here' therefore ngain occurs nodus vindice dignus., a d1fficulty which nothing but 'Divine TJ!ifdom could expe– dite. To take a little £1rther view hereof, we mufi confider on what grounds thefethings (fpiritual de.filemenfand guilt) do adhere unto ourNature as they are in all our ind:viclua!perfons. And the firft of thefe, is, that our entire Nature as unto our Participation of it was inAcl,1m as our Head and Reprefenta– .tive. Hence his fin b{came the fin of us all, is jufily imputed '- unto us, and charged on us. In him we all finned; all did fo who were in him as their common Reprefentative when he finned. Hereby we became the Natural Children of 1¥rath, or liable unto the Wrath of God for the common fin of our Nature, in the Natural and Legal Head or Spring ofit And the other is, that we derive our Nature from Adam by · the way of Natural Generation. By that means alone is the · · · Nature ofour firfi Parents as clej!ec! communicated unto us. For by thi~ means do we become to appertain unto the frock, as it was degeqerate and corrupt. Wherefore that part of our Nature wherein and whereby this great work was to be wrought, mufl: as unto its E_{[ence and Su/;flance be deri– ved from our f[ rfi Parents, yet fo as never to have been in A– clamas a common Reprefentative; nor be derived from him by Natural GeneratiotJ. The bringing forth . of ·our Nature in fuch an infiance~ wherein it fhould relate nolefs n~ally and truly unto the Jirfl Aclam·thanwe do our felves, whereby there is the firiB:efl: alliance ofNatqre betweenhim fo partaker ofit,and us,yet fo, as not in the _leafl: to participate of the Guilt of the firfl fin,. nor
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