perverseness of the will, although this state is the polluting cause; inasmuch as the sin of our first parents preceded its penal consequences. By the common phrase, "fallen human nature," in a penal sense, I wish to convey the idea of the judicial effects of the fall; and I see no reason to confine the word "nature" to that metaphysical sense of being or essence, in which any changeoralteration must be destruction. By fallen flesh, I intend its inheriting mortality; and by a penally fallen soul, that liability to suffering, which did not exist before the fall. And I find no difficulty in considering that the soul may exist in a fallen state, while its will is not in the least degree perverted, and while its understanding has not the least tendency to error. There existed therefore this relative difference between our humanity and that of JESUS CHRIST; whilst they were essentially the same. That concupiscence, or carnal mind, which existed in the substance of the Virgin Mary, was not

in the humanity of CHRIST. In the regenerate believer, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary one to the other, so that he cannot do that which he would:" but the holy humanity of our Redeemer had no experience of this spiritual warfare. In Him was the fulness of the SPIRIT'S operations, and there was no innate principle to oppose the Will of His Divine Essence. "The prince of this world found nothing in Him." He inherited not the polluting effects of the fall, and consequently there was no carnal concupiscence to resist. But had our LORD not assumed fallen or mortal flesh, He would not have been subject to death. And, had He not taken a penally fallen soul, He would not have been subject to suffering. On these two points, this important subject appears to rest.

I am aware that many shrink from the use of the word "fallen," because they imagine that it implies a tendency

to sin.

But I apprehend that a tendency to sin, and bearing the penal consequences of sin are widely different, and ideas clearly distinct. The expression, fallen state, simply implies that we have lost a congruous suitableness to that part of the creation, with which we are connected; and by which we are become liable to death, to spiritual and bodily suffering, to diseases and to various infirmities of constitution. Whereas our sinful state is in part the consequence of this fallen state; since we have now no moral strength to think, will or do what is truly good. Our sinful state moreover arises from an engendered bias to sin, and a natural aversion to holiness ; from both of which our LORD's humanity was preserved, in consequence of the miraculous conception by the HOLY GHOST.

It is true that our LORD assumed our nature in that state, into which it had been brought by the fall; and yet He so assumed it, as to be free from the

slightest taint of sin, or tendency to concupiscence. He assumed human nature subject to death and suffering, and unsuitable to that part of creation with which it was connected; and yet He so assumed it as to be free from that law of sin, or the carnal mind, which was in the substance of the Virgin Mary. This is declared by St Luke: "The angel answered and said unto her, the HOLY GHOST shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of GOD." JESUS CHRIST therefore did not inherit sin by imputation nor by propagation; and, as we all agree, He had no sin by actual transgression. Like the sacrificial lambs, He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot. The extraordinary conception by the HOLY GHOST preserved Him from original sin; and He was consequently born into the world "a holy thing." Thus was "the word made flesh, and dwelt

among us." Thus did the eternal Person of the SON assume our nature into personal subsistence with Himself. This was "the body prepared" by the HOLY GHOST, appointed by GOD the FATHER, and assumed by GOD the SON. Thus, "when the fulness of time was come, did GoD send forth His SON made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, GoD sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (but not, in the likeness of flesh, since it was real flesh,) and by a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same;" that is, of the same mass, of one nature, of one flesh and blood. "He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Even as GOD "made of one blood all nations of men," so was the