This habitual resemblance to God, which, with the image of God innate in man's nature, formed the nat- ural, original state of man, was lost bij sin, as the life of love, coming from God, which formed its basis, was destroyed by selfishness coming from the heart of man. It could only be restored by the absolute image of God the Son, source of the life of love for the world,
assuming himself the form of man. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made flesh, is the real, personal restoration of the image of God in humanity. Since in the flesh he overcame sin for us by his death, and raised our nature to glory in his resurrection, man can again become par- taker of the righteousness and spiritual glory which be- long to him. By the Holy Spirit, which fills our hearts with love for God, the image of God is restored in us in truth and uprightness. See C. Sartorius, D. Lehre v. d. heilifjen Liehe (Stuttg. 1843), i, 34 sq.) ; J. T. Beck, /;. christl. Lehrvjiasenschaft nach den MM. Urlcunden (Stutt. 1841), i, § 19 ; II. Martensen, D. christl. Logmntik (Kiel, 1850), p. 15G ; J. Chr. K. Hofmann, Der 'Schriftheweis (NorcUingen, 1851), i, 248-254: G. Thomasius,' CV/mCj Person u. ^^e?•^• (Erlangen, 1853), i, 147-224; Herzog, JReal-Encgllo]). uifGli; Knapp, Theologg, sect. 53 et sq.; Winer, Comparat. Darstellung, p. 33 ; Watson, Institutes, vol. ii, ch. i ; Critici Sacri, "Be Imngine Dei," i, 40 ; Faw- cett. Sermons, p. 234 ; Dwight, Theology, i, 345 ; South, Sermons, i, 45; Grinfield, Inquiry into the Image of God in Man (Lond. 1837, 8vo) ; Harness, Sernwns on the Im- age of God (Lond. 1841, 8 vo) ; Bihliotheca Sacra, xii, 409 ; Jackson, Thos., Original State of Man, in Works, ix, 1 ; Van Blildert, Works, v, 143 ; Harris, Man Primeval (N. Y. 1851, 12mo).
Image of Jealousy. See Jealousy, Image of.
Imagery (r"2T"2, maskith', an image, as rendered Lev. xxvi, 1 ; or picture, as rendered Numb, xxxiii, 52), only in the phrase "chambers of his imagery" (Ezek. viii, 12). The scenes of pictorial representation referred to by this phrase are connectetl with an instructive pas- sage in the history of Ezekiel and the Jewish exiles, who were stationed in Assyria, on the banks of the Che- bar. At one of their interesting prayer-meetings for the restoration of Israel, which had been held so often and so long without any prospect of brighter days, and when the faith and hopes of many of the unfortunates were waxing dim and feeble, Ezekiel, in presence of his friends, consisting of the exiled elders of Judah, wa3 suddenly rapt in mystic vision, and graciously shown, for his own satisfaction, as well as that of his pious as- sociates, the reasons of God's protracted controversy with Israel, and the sad necessity there was for still dealing hardly with them. Transported by the Spirit (not bodily, indeed, nor by external force, but in imag- ination) to the city and Temple of Jerusalem, he there saw, as plainlj^ as if it had been with the eye of sense, atrocities going on within the precincts of the holy place — the perpetration of which in the very capital of Judaaa, the place which God had chosen to put his name there, afforded proof of the woful extent of national apostasy and corruption, and was sufficient to justify, both to the mind of the prophet and his circle of pious associates, the severity of the divine judgments on Is- rael, and the loud caU there was for prolonging and in- creasing, instead of putting a speedy end to, the dire calamities they had so long been suffering (Ezek. viii). See Ezekiel.
The first spectacle that caught his eye as he peram- bulated, in mystic vision, the outer court of the Temple — that court where the people usually assembled to worship — was a colossal statue, probably of Baal, aromid which crowds of devotees were performing their frantic revelries, and whose forbidden ensigns were proudly bla- zoning on the walls and portals of the house of him ivho had proclaimed himself a God jealous of his honor (ver. 3 ; Lowth, ad loc). Scarcely had the prophet recover- ed from his astonishment and horror at the open and undisguised idolatry of the multitude in that sacred in- closure, Avhen his celestial guide bade him turn another way, and he woiUd see greater abominations. Leading him to that side of the court along which were ranged the houses of the priests, his conductor pointed to a mud wall (ver. 7), which, to screen themselves from observa- tion, the apostate servants of the true God had raised ; and in that wall was a small clunk, by widening which
BIAGERY
502
IMAGERY
he discovered a passage into a secret chamber, which ■was completely impervious to the raj^s of the sun, but which he found, on entering it, lighted up by a profu- sion of briUiant lamps. The sides of it were covered with numerous paintings of beasts and reptiles— the fa- vorite deities of Egypt ; and with their eyes intently fixed on these decorations was a conclave of seventy persons, in the garb of priests— the exact number, and, in all probabihty, the individual members of the Sanhe- drim, who stood" in the attitude of adoration, holding in their hands each a golden censer, containing all the costly and odoriferous materials which the pomp and magnificence of the Egyptian ritual required. " There was every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed round about." The scene described was wholly formed on the model of Egyptian worship ; and every one who has read the works of Wilkinson, Bekoni, Eichardson, and others, will perceive the close resemblance that it bears to the outer walls, the sanctuaries, and the hiero- glyphical figures that distinguished the ancient mythol- ogy of Egypt (see Kitto, Pict. Bible, note ad loc.) . What were the strange and unsightly images engraven on the walls of this chamber discovered by Ezekiel, and that formed the objects of the profane reverence of these apostate councillors, may be known from the following metrical description, which the late Mr. Salt, long the British consul in Egypt, has drawn of the gods worship- ped bv the ancient idolatrous inhabitants of that coun- try ("Egypt," in Hall's Life of Salt, ii, 41G). Those ■who have prosecuted their researches among the rub- bish of the temples, he says, have found in the deeply- sequestered chambers they were able to reach — " The wildest Images, unheard of, strange, That ever puzzled antiquarians' brains: Genii, with heads of birds, hawks, ibis, drakes, Of lions, foxes, cats. fish. rri)!:rs, and suakes, ' Bulls, rams, and jiiDukivs, liijjpopotami.