These words contain the foundation of all practical religion here, and happiness hereafter. It is the principal doctrine Christ, as a prophet, came to teach; and as a king, to work in the heart.<br><br>The text proves the indispensable necessity of regeneration, by which I mean not a relative, but a real change of the subject, wrought in the complexion and inclinations of the soul. As in the restoring of health, there is a change made in the temper and humours of the body.<br><br>As mankind were changed in Adam, from what they were in a state of creation; so men must be changed in Christ, from what they were in a state of corruption. As that change was not only relative, but real, and the relative first introduced by the real; so must this. The relation of a child of wrath, was founded upon the sin committed. Without a real change, there can be no relative. Being in Christ, as freed from condemnation, is always attended with a walking in the Spirit; and walking is not before living.