and intimate, that he was formed not after the fashion. of any other living creature, but was made in a pattern higher than they: a more excellent form than theirs was given to him, Pronaque cum spectant animalia cætera terras, Ov. MET. It is an expression not unfrequent in the Hebrew scriptures, to say of things, that they are of God, if they are in quality eminent above others, which have no more than common perfections. Thus, trees of a prodigious growth are called trees of God, or the trees of the Lord such were the cedars of Lebanon; so greatly flourishing and full of sap, as to be for that reason called the trees of the Lord, trees which he had planted. And thus man might be said to be made in the image of God: his outward form was of a different make; far more respectable, and superior to the make of all other creatures in the world. Accordingly, to a In like manner the Roman philosopher : Figuram corporis habilem et aptam ingenio humano dedit: nam cum cæteros animanteis abjecisset ad pastum, solum hominem erexit, ad cœlique- -conspectum excitavit; tum speciem ita formavit oris, ut in eâ penitùs reconditos mores affingeret; nam et oculi nimis arguti, quemadmodum animi affecti simus, loquuntur, et is, qui appellatur vultus, qui nullo in animante esse præter hominem potest, indicat mores." Cic. de Legib. lib. 1. b Psalm civ. 16. speak suitably of it, the expression is used, which in the language of Moses' times was commonly said of any thing, which was so superlatively excellent as to have nothing like to, or to be compared with it. No image of any thing in the world was equal to, or like that of man; therefore man was said to be created in the image of God. I would observe, that from St. Paul it appears, that the expression of Moses may carry this meaning: A man, he says, ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. The apostle is here inquiring, not into the dignity of the mind or soul of the man or the woman; but considering what ought to be the outward appearance or dress of their persons. He would not have the man's head covered, because the man was the image of God: his form was original, not the copy of another; and therefore to express its original superiority above all others, is said to be of God. But the woman herein was inferior; being made after the likeness and similitude of man; therefore, in the sentiment of the apostle, she ought to wear a covering upon her head, in acknowledgment that she was not suc forme, the original pattern of the make she was of. She was herein inferior to the man," in that the glory or dignity of her make was his; she was the glory of the < 1 Cor. vii. d I would here observe, that in ancient times, contrary to our modern customs, the having the head free, or without the incumbrance of being covered, was a mark of dignity and superiority; and on the con man, the high excellence of her make was but a copy of what he, the man, was made in before her. с But the words of Moses bear also a further sense; yet not what the writer I have cited would put upon them. God created man to be immortal, and made him an image of his own eternity. Now here a great original difference may appear to have been intended between the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward: and that Moses had in view this particular, when he said of man that he was created in the image of God, seems agreeable to the reason given for the early law pronounced against murder: whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." God so made man to be immortal, that it is a high insult and violence against the design of God's creation, to put an end by murder to the life of man. Therefore, surely, at the hand of every man's brother will God require the life of man. This explains our Saviour's calling the devil a murderer from the beginning; he had acted contrary to the design of God concerning the life of man, because, when God had created man in his own image; to be an image of his own eternity; to be immortal; nevertheless, through envy of the devil, death came into the world. trary, to wear a covering on the head was a token of inferiority and subjection. • Wisdom ii. 23. & Gen. ix. 6. 1 John viii. 44. f Eccles. iii. 21. b Ver. 5. * Wisdom ii. 24. Thus if we explain the text of Moses, without going beyond what was intended by it, we shall find, that it means no more, than that man was originally made of a more excellent form than all other creatures, and that he was made to be immortal; had not death, which God did not make for man,' come into the world through sin." There is very little foundation to infer from this text, that Moses intended to represent, that man was made to resemble his Maker in his powers of knowledge. Such a thought is so far from being deducible n 1 Wisdom i. 13. m Rom. v. 12. If we examine what the heathen inquirers argued upon this subject, we shall find them far more correct than our modern reasoners. They all, indeed, (except a more sensual sect, Epicurus and his followers, see Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. c. 18.) saw plainly, that man could in no wise resemble God in his outward form and figure. Therefore they would have understood Moses' expression of man's being made in the image of God, as to his outward form, in no higher sense than I have above mentioned; namely, that man was of an extraordinary and singular make, eminent above other creatures, of a form appropriated to man. As to his inward powers, they saw in them what was far more worthy than his outward person to be compared to God, "Tu- sic habeto NON Esse te morTALEM, SED CORPUS HOC. Nec enim is, quem forma ista declarat, sed mens cujusque is est quisque; non ea figura, quæ digito demonstrari potest; Deum te igitur scito esse, si quidem Deus est, qui viget, qui sentit, qui meminit, qui providit, qui tàm regit et moderatur et movet id corpus cui præpositus est, quàm hunc mundum ille princeps Deus. Cic. Somn. Scipionis." But however they thus thought in general terms of a from this text, that it is absolutely contradictory to what Moses expresses upon the subject; for, their de resemblance in man of the divine nature, they always, when the subject called for it, so explained themselves, as not loosely to assert, that in man, motus iste celer cogitationis, acumen, solertia, quam rationem vocamus, Cic. de Nat. Deor, lib. 3. c. 27. the mere faculty of human reason made man like to God. They rather argued, that the likeness of man to God arose from this faculty so managed and conducted that we might possess virtue. Ad similitudinem Dei propiùs accedebat humana virtus quàm figura. Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. c. 34. And thus Plato, eκ στον αυτώ ομοιότατον «δεν η ος αν ήμων αν YENTAI OTI dixaιOTATO. Plat. in Theæatèt. Thus again, 'Oporadic Jew δικαιον και όμοιον μετά φρονήσεως γενεσθαι. Ιd. ibid. Again, Ο μεν σώφρων ήμων θεω φιλώ όμοιος γαρ δ δε μη σωφρων ároposos te nas diapop xas adin, Plat. de Legib. lib. 4. We are here to observe, that these ancients, in no wise like our modern rationalists, crudely affirm, that man is endowed with moral faculties, resembling the moral perfections of his Creator; but they distinguish the faculties of man, as then only rendering us like God when they are so conducted as to make us oweovic, so truly wise, as to be really virtuous. They did not determine that our likeness to God consisted in our barely having a faculty of free reason; but they considered, that we could then only be like God when we became just and holy, dixalos xas oσ101 Meta Peonews or, in other words, when we attained a right understanding to depart from iniquity. They observed the difference between reason and right reason: they pointed out a height of reason, with which whosoever are endued, may in all things act intuitively aright, but this they allowed to be above man: quartus autem gradus et altissimus |