temptation to our base and impure nature, be a temptation to Him who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners?-to Him who was predicted to the blessed virgin, as a holy thing about to be born of her? That we may follow an example or derive comfort from a sense of sympathy, there must be some degree of correspondence or similarity between the parties. And assuredly, looking merely at our blessed Lord's humanity, nothing can be more opposite to our degraded nature, soiled with the taint of original sin, and ever prone to fall into actual transgression, than the holy, harmless, undefiled nature of the blessed Jesus. In Him, in order to form a fitting receptacle for the Godhead, the stream of original sin was cut off. A miracle was performed at his birth. The second Person of the Trinity united not himself to a human nature born of mortal parents, but to one formed by the Holy Ghost in a virgin mother. A subject so mysterious and awful ought to be approached with the

But if we may ven

lowliest reverence. ture thus to speculate, we might say, one reason, apparent to us, for the Divine Word not uniting himself with a humanity born in the ordinary course of nature, but with a humanity miraculously formed for the purpose, was to efface the stain of original corruption.

But in this great disparity between the human nature of Christ and that of mankind, which may at first sight seem to present a difficulty, there will be found an admirable fitness. Adam, our first head, was also free from the taint of sin, and came pure and undefiled, by means of a miracle, from the hand of his Maker. Yet he was tempted, and yielded to the temptation, and through him, we, his descendants, have fallen, having inherited from him a nature rebellious against God. Christ, our second Head, the Head of the new or spiritual creation, was sent in order to remedy the fatal effects of the guilt incurred by the unresisted temptation of Adam our first head. That he might in

all things be identified with us, he suffered Himself to be tempted, and resisted the temptation; and in so far as we follow after Him, and, mindful of our baptismal covenant, are his faithful subjects and spiritual sons, we shall be raised, through Him, even to a better condition than that from which the rebellion of our tempted and fallen first head expelled us. "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. xv.) The nature of our first head, in whom we fell unto death, was very different from that which we have inherited since the fall. Yet he was tempted as we are tempted, and was vanquished by the temptation. The human nature of our second head, in whom we are called to rise to life everlasting, was indeed very different from that which we have inherited, yet our temptations may be conceived to have been temptations to Him also, as they were to Adam. Yet He

overcame the temptation, and, by doing so, He gave us a pledge that if we put our trust in Him, as we are invited to do, his victory shall also be ours.

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"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Satan knew that his empire, so long usurped, was now assailed by one more powerful than himself. strong armed men keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace, but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcometh him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth the spoils." (St. Luke xi. 21.) And he armed himself with all the power of darkness to oppose the work of grace, and, if possible, to render the designs of Almighty mercy abortive. He, who had at first intruded into the sacred precincts of paradise, to tempt and to ruin the original parents of mankind, could not, with out the bitterness of malicious sorrow, behold the misery which he had inflicted on man remedied, and the guilt which he had caused atoned for by the seed of the

woman, who, in the earliest prophecy, was promised to bruise the serpent's head. Satan well knew the nature of the holy errand, on which the coequal Son of the everlasting Father had descended from the throne of heaven. He felt that the earth, which, since the fall of man, had been his peculiar domain, was now invaded by a mightier than himself, who should spoil him of his prey, and make an open show of his triumph. When the Almighty pronounced a curse upon Satan at the gate of paradise, He declared, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. iii.) The fulness of time was now come. The mysterious struggle, which had in these words been predicted, was now about to take place. The prophecy was hastening towards its accomplishment. The seed of the woman had been born. Christ Jesus had entered the world, conceived by a miracle, and born of a virgin mother. His public ministry was commenced, and