(a.) Natural. — The notion that the original resem- blance of man to God must be placed in some one quality is destitute of proof either from Scripture or reason ; a*nd we are, in fact, taught that it comprises also what is so far from being essential that it may be both lost and regained. (1.) When God is called "the Father of Spirits," a likeness is suggested be- tween man and God in the spirituality of their nature. This is also implied in the striking argument of St. Paul with the Athenians: "Forasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device;" plainly referring to the idolatrous statues by which God was represent- ed among heathens. If likeness to God in man con- sisted in bodily shape, this would not have been an argument against human representations of the Deity ; but it imports, as Howe well expresses it. that "we are to understand that our resemblance to him, as we arc his offspring, lies in some higher, more noble, and more excellent thing, of which there can be no figure ; as who can tell how to give the figure or image of a thought, or of the mind or thinking power?" In spirituality, and, consequently, immateriality, this im- age of God in man, then, in the first instance, consists. (2.) The sentiment expressed in Wisdom ii, 23, is an evidence that, in the opinion of the ancient Jews, tin image of God in man comprised immortality also.
ADAM
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ADAM
" For Gud created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity ;" and though oth- er creatures were made capable of immortality, and at least the material human frame, whatever we may think of the case of animals, would have escaped death had not sin entered the world ; yet, without admitting the absurdity of the "natural immortality" cf the human soul, that essence must have been con- stituted immortal in a high and peculiar sense, which has ever retained its prerogative of continued dura- tion amid the universal death not only of animals but of the bodies of all human beings. There appears also a manifest allusion to man's immortality, as be- ing included in the image of God, in the reason which is given in Genesis for the law which inflicts death on murderers: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in the image of God made he man." The essence of the crime of homicide is not confined here to the putting to death the mere animal part of man ; and it must, therefore, lie in the pecu- liar value of life to an immortal being, accountable in another state for the actions done in this, and whoso life ought to be specially guarded for this very reason, that death introduces him into changeless and eternal relations, which were not to be left to the mercy of human passions. (3.) The intellectud faculties of man form a third feature in his natural likeness to God. Some, indeed (e. g. Philo), have placed the whole like- ness in the vovq, or rational soul. (4.) The will, or power of choice and volition, is the last of these fea- tures. They are all essential and ineffaceable. Man could not be man without them.
(b.) Moral. — (1.) There is an express allusion to the moral image of God, in which man was at first cre- ated, in Colossians iii, 10: "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him ;" and in Ephesians iv, 24: "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." In these passages the apostle represents the change produced in true Christians by the Gospel, as a "renewal of the image of God in man ; as a new or second creation in that image;" and he explicitly declares, that that image consists in "knowledge," in "righteousness," and in " true holiness." (2.) This also may be final- ly argued from the satisfaction with which the histo- rian of the creation represents the Creator as viewing the works of his hands as "very good," which was pronounced with reference to each of them individ- ually, as well as to the whole: "And God saw even/ thing that he had made, and behold it was very good." But, as to man, this goodness must necessarily imply moral as well as physical qualities. A rational crea- ture, as such, is capable of knowing, loving, serving, and living in communion with the Most Holy One. Adam, at first, did or did not exert this capacity; if he did nut, he was not very good— not good at all.
3. On the intellectual and moral endowments of the progenitor of the human race, extravagant views have been taken on both sides, (a.) In knowledge, some have thought him little inferior to the angels; others, as furnished with but the simple elements of science and of language. The truth seems to be that, as to capacity, his intellect must have been vigorous be- yond that of any of his fallen descendants ; which it- self givea us very high views of the strength of his understanding, although we should allow him to have been created " lower than the angels." As to his act- in i! knowledge, that would depend upon the time and opportunity lie had for observing the nature and laws of the objects around him; and the degree in which he was favored with revelations from God on moral and religious subjects. The "knowledge" in which the Apostle Paul, in the passage quoted above from Colossians iii, 10, places " the image of God" after which man was created, dors not merely imply the faculty of understanding, which is a part of the natu-