Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

84 THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.the double gift of Truth and Grace ; as He is theSpirit of Grace no less than the Spirit of Truth,and all grace is His immediate gift.Thus the Word made flesh being full of Truthand Grace from His own Person communicatedthat Truth and Grace as the power which shouldform His kingdom for ever, abide in it, and con- ,stitute its being a kingdom ; the gift of truth andgrace being the very presence of His own Spirit,who took possession of His kingdom on the day ofPentecost and holds it for ever.This whole possession of Truth and Gracedwelling in a visible body is the work of the eternalWord, who assumed a body for that purpose.It is the counter-creation to the kingdom of falsehoodwhich commenced with the sin of the firstman believing a falsehood against his Maker, andwhich spread itself with his lineage into all lands.17And as in the natural creation He not only createdbut maintained-for He did not make Hiscreatures and then depart from them, but fromthat time they exist in Him - so in the supernaturalthe act of maintaining is equivalent to theact of creating O' it is a continued creation. As theguilt had a force which was fruitful, which con-.tinued and propagated itself, and produced a widespreadreign of falsehood, how much more shouldthat mighty and astonishing grace of a Divine Personassuming a created nature be fruitful, con-17 See S. Aug. torn. iv. 1039 e. "Ippe ergo Adam," &c.