Through the fall of Adam arose the need of a Redeemer, the whole human race having by that event been made accursed and degenerate.  Man thereby became deprived of freedom of will and miserably enslaved.  The dominion of sin, ever since the first man was brought under it, not only extends to the whole race, but has complete possession of every soul.  Free will does not enable any man to perform good works unless he is assisted by grace.  Yet, since man is by nature a social being, he is disposed, from natural instinct, to cherish and preserve society; and, accordingly, we see that the minds of all men have impressions of order and civil honesty.  So that, in regard to the constitution of the present life, no man is devoid of the light of reason.  And this gift ought justly to be ascribed to the divine indulgence.  Had God not so spared us, our revolt would have carried with it the entire destruction of nature.  But to the great truth, what God is in Himself, and what He is in relation to us, human reason makes not the least approach.  The natural man has no capacity for such sublime wisdom as to apprehend God, unless illumined by His Spirit, and none can enter the kingdom of God save those whose minds have been renewed by the power of the spirit.

It is certain that after the fall of our first parent, no knowledge of God without a Mediator was effectual to salvation.  Hence it is that God never showed Himself propitious to His ancient people, nor gave them any hope of grace without a Mediator.  The prosperous and happy state of the Church was always founded in the person of Christ.  The primary adoption of the chosen people depended on the grace of the Mediator, and Christ was always held forth to the holy fathers under the law as the object of their faith.

It deeply concerns us that He who was to become our Mediator should be very God and very man.  The work to be by Him performed was of no common description, being to restore us to the divine favour so as to make us sons of God and heirs of the heavenly kingdom.  In Him the divinity was so conjoined with the humanity that the entire properties of each nature remained entire, and yet the two natures constitute only one Christ.  Everything needful for us exists in Christ.

When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutest part of it from any other quarter.  If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that He possesses it; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, we shall find them in His unction; strength in His permanent government; purity in His conception; indulgence in His nativity, in which He was made like us in all respects, in order that He might learn to sympathise with us; if we seek redemption we shall find it in His passion; acquittal in His condemnation; remission of the curse in His cross; satisfaction in His sacrifice; purification in His blood; reconciliation in His descent