It is true, Adam at his creation had this spotless purity;
so had the angels: but they came immediately from the Eccles. vii. 29.hand of
God, without concurrence of any secondary cause. Jesus
Christ
Isa. liii. 2. is a plant
and root out of a dry ground, a blossom from the stem of Jesse, a bud from
the loins of sinful man, — born of a sinner, after there had been no
innocent flesh in the world for four thousand years, every one upon the
roll of his genealogy being infected therewithal. To have a flower of
wonderful rarity to grow in paradise, a garden of God’s own
planting, not sullied in the least, is not so strange; but, as the psalmist
speaks (in another kind), to hear of it in a wood, to find it in a
forest, to have a spotless bud brought forth in the
wilderness of corrupted nature, is a thing which angels may desire
to look into. Nay, more, this whole nature was not only defiled, but also
accursed; not only unclean, but also guilty, — guilty of Adam’s
transgression, in whom we have all sinned. That the human nature of Christ
should be derived from hence free from guilt, free from pollution, this is
to be adored.