Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

78 THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.4the other, grace regenerating through the Spirit.From the one, nature stripped and wounded, yetstill bound to its head by an indissoluble tie ; bythe other, the Spirit of the Head, the Spirit ofTruth, Charity, Unity, and Sanctity, ruling hisBody and animating it, as the natural soul animatesthe natural body. Precisely where themystery was darkest and the misery greatest, thedivine grace is most conspicuous, and the divinepower most triumphant. The very point whichbrings out Adam's connection with his race hasan exact counterpart in Christ's Headship of Hispeople, and an inscrutable judgment serves to illustratean unspeakable gift. In exact accordancewith the doctrine that the sin of Adam is man'ssin, and the guilt of Adam man's guilt, is thatboundless and unimaginable grace that the IncarnateWord did not merely assume an individualhuman nature, but espoused in that assumptionthe whole nature ; that on the cross He paid thedebt of the whole nature, ' whether for original o oractual sin ; that His resurrection is our collectivejustification ; that the gift of sonship is bestowedon men not as individual persons, but as membersof His Body, before they have personally meritedanything, just as the guilt came on them, as membersof Adam, before they demerited anything personally.Exactly where the obscurity of the fallest, in quo omnes justificentur, quia non solum ejus imitatio justos facit,sed per spiritum regenerans gratia." S. Aug. torn. x. p. 12 c.