apofkiafmation, or fhadow of the divine, or as the heathens ufed to fay, divine auræ quædam particula; for to bear the divine image in this eminent degree, is the fole prerogative of Chrift, who is the effential and natural image of the invifible God, in fuch fort as is impoffible for man to rife unto, feeing a finite creature cannot possibly partake of infinitude. We are indeed faid to be made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4, but this is not to be understood of an effential, formal, and intrinfic participation, but analogical, accidental, and extrinfical, by reafon of thofe holy tempers, and effects, analogous to the divine nature produced in us by the agency, and gracious operations of the holy fpirit, agreeable to which, we are faid to be conformed to the image of God. 3d, Nor did the image of God in which Adam was created confift in fome particular form of body, as was the opinion of old of the Anthropomorphites, who fuppofed that God was in the fhape and figure of man; we cannot but acknowledge, that as man was appointed lord of this lower world, there is fomething noble, and majeftic in the form and contexture of his body; that as it was intended to be the receptacle of a foul, fo vaftly fuperior to, and fo effentially diftinct from the inferior creation, fo the organized body fhould be different in it's form, and properly difpofed to ferve the ends and purpofes of the better part* Nor do the holy fcrip *The heathen poet has elegantly set forth the stateliness and rectitude of man, Pronaque cùm fpectent animalia cætera terram, Juffit, et erectos ad fidera tollere vultus. Sortet offered in the forker fcriptures intend to teach us that God has parts and paffions, &c. like man, for whenever human members are attributed to the divine being, it is only by anthropopeia, and not to be understood properly and formally, but figuratively, and analogically. 4th, The image of God in which Adam was created, confifted especially in three things; ift, nature, 2d, the rectitude of nature, 3d, in a state of happiness, which was founded on, and flowed from both the former. 1ft, From his nature, as to the r and immortality of the foul, 2d, From the rectitude of nature, which confifted in original righteoufnefs; and from hence he was invefted with power and dominion to rule the lower parts of the creation. The firft part of this image pertained to the fubftance of the foul, viz. fpirituality, immortality, and incorruptibility; as alfo to its faculties, the understanding, and freedom of will; which things eminently and moft perfectly agree to God. Whence man, even after he had fallen by fin, and defaced the image of God in other respects, yet is obferved to retain it in this, James iii. 9. And Gen. ix. 6. homicide is prohibited for this special reason, because man was made in the image of God. The fecond part of this image pertains to the rectitude of nature, which is ufually called original righteousness, because, man was perfectly righteous when created, and firfti coming from the hand of the alwife artift. This original righteoufne/s, in which Adam was created, must comprehend in it, a clear understanding, a holy will, and perfect rectitude in the affections, and fuch harmony, and regularity fubfifted throughout the whole man, that the members of the body were were fubfervient to the affections, the affections to the will, and the will to the leading and directing faculty reafon. As Man thus formed upright and innocent was pleafing in the eye of his maker, for: "God faw "every thing that he had made, and behold it "was very good," Gen. i. 31. But ah! what ruin, what waste, what devastation hath fin brought into the world in general, and into this microcom, man, in particular! More than egyptian darknefs hath covered the understanding, perverfeness and rebellion inftigate the will, and the affections, like the untameable rabble of a giddy crowd, run headlong on, and throw off all restraint. when there was no king in Ifrael every man did that which was right in his own eyes, so it is in the foul of a lapfed finner; his ftate is an anarchy none bears rule,none submits,all rule and none obey. Furious paffions break thro' all that oppofes, and infatiable, and ungovernable defire, hurries the man prepofterously on, and never fays it is enough. Wretched man in this his fallen condition, tho' made to govern others, is unable to govern himfelf, and refufes fubjection to the righteous law of his maker, for whofe glory he was chiefly made, and to whom obedience was not only a debt the creature owed, but whofe happiness alfo was infeparably connected therewith, and consisted in the discharge of. Thus "man, continued not "in honour," but became like unto the beafts that perish. 5th, Socinus and his followers, have generally 1 oppofed this part of Adam's image, in order to overthrow the whole doctrine of original fin. Socinus himself acknowledges that man in his first crea creation had not that corruption of nature which is in man's nature now; but denies that there was that wisdom, holiness, and rectitude, we speak of, free from rebellion and diffention, of appetite and reafon. So that the image of God he and his followers place folely in the dominion given to Adam. But the fcripture makes it manifeft, that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness. ft, Adam was created right and good; "God faw the 66 things which he had made, and they were all good, very good." Gen. i. 31 alfo, "God “made man (haadam) upright, but he hath fought 66 out many inventions,' "Eccle. vii. 29. This goodness God approves muft neceffarily respect the moral rectitude of his foul, without which, as he could not be difpofed duly to ferve God, and hereby answer the prime end of his creation, fo neither could his divine and holy maker poffibly have been pleased with him. That uprightness in which God created Adam, as it ftands oppofed in the text to the vain reasonings, and inventions of men, now fallen, muft needs be understood of the perfect ftate in which man was created. Again, fuch as the image is, which is reftored to us by grace, and will be perfected in us by glory; fuch it behoved that to be, which man was a partaker of by nature; because the revocation is made juxta imaginem creatoris. i. e. to the image of him that created, Coloff. iii. 10. which image confifts in the illumination of the mind, and the fanctification of the will; whence we are faid, to be "transformed, by the renewing of our mind,” Rom. xii. 2. and "to be renewed in knowledge," to be conformed to God in righteousness and true belinefs or in fanitate veritatis, boliness of truth, that that is, in juftice and holinefs, which arifes from truth; hence the image in glory, will confift in likeness to God, in knowledge, and perfect holinefs. 6th, It is allowed, that the image of God in which man was made, included that dominion given him over the creatures; but it cannot be granted that the righteoufnefs and purity of nature above-mentioned, was excluded from it; feeing the latter, would be abfolutely neceffary in order to the former; for he who governs others, must have wifdom to direct, juftice and integrity to act uprightly, and to rule perpetually must be immortal. The third part of the divine image then confifted in the dominion given him over the inferior creatures; that faying of Jehovah particularly refpects this, Gen. i. 26, 27. "Let us make 86 man in our image, after our likeness; and let "them have dominion over the fish of the fea, and "over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, " and over all the earth, and over every creep .. ing thing that creepeth upon the earth." Herein man refembled his great creator and Lord, who himself rules over the armies of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth, with this difference, God rules naturally, independently, abfolutely and illimitably; man bears rule dependently, precarioufly, and with a proper limitation. To this may be added that image of immortality, which in refpect of the foul, abideth after the fall, and by which, man becomes capable of eternal happiness or mifery. And, O my foul, art thou immortal. Muft thou live for ever? And will fin and difobedience render thy being lefs defirable than not to be at all? |
