marking dislinotly Urnt man, in hie bodily nature, is related to the rest of creatP,d flelng, which Ima in him its completion, the creation of man has not a day to itself; 1 It is not sopamtod from the creation of the lower animals even so widely aR that is from the creation of the vegetable kingdom. Man is reminded that he has, in common with other animals, a material frame composed of the en.me con- stituents as theirs ; that his body is but the perfection of animal organisation ; indeed, that in some respects the very beasts of the field are his superiors, if he does not realise his own true position as man, On this side of man's nature lie those dang·ers and temptations which are of all the most common, and to mankind in general the most powerful. But in the complete revelation of man's origin, his physical relation to the animal and material world is far less distinctly marked than his relation to God. In his creation it is no longer, "God said ; and it was so;" or, "God said, Let the earth bring forth; and it was so;" but" God said, Let us make man in our im!lge, aftei our likeneB!\- 11 "So God created man in hie image; in the image of God created he him." The creation of man therefore as one who, though possessing an animal nature, is yet in his entire being allied to the infinite and eternal God, is an act of n different order from that of calling into existence the phenomena of the visible nniverst:, and the varied forms of organic life. He who is ushered on the stage of created being by so solemn a preparat:on is the son of God, the representative upon the earth of the Creator himself, who commits to him charge and authority over all his works. 10. That these remarkable words; "the image of 3:od,'' do not mean only a state of spiritual and moral purity,-although without doubt such must be the initial and normal state of one thus created,-we must certainly infer from the fact that the same words are used of man, after his fall from this state of pmity, both in the Ohl Testament and in the New. 2 They undoubtedly imply that man is not like the rest of creation, formed and determined by his environments. He· has reason to judge, spirit to enlighte~ him, will to determine him, and is therefore responsible to God for his actions. He has· a personality which gives every individual man personal rights ; he is an end in himself, and cannot, like other creatures, be used merely as means to an end; his life has a sacredness almost Divine, and he has a dignity and authority resembling that of him whose offspring he is. 3 But all these results and conse- quences of man's state by creation have been more or less obscured, if not inter- rupted, by his fall. It is important, therefore, that we should look beyond all the indications of the image of God in man, whether in his reason or his conscience, to the fact itself of that mysteri.ous relation between man and his infinitely holy md glorious Creator, which was constituted by his creation in the image and likeness of God. This relation is evidently the source-(a) Of all the duties which man owes to God of 1,ove, of belief, of obedience, and of the imitation of God,1 bis heavenly Father.. (b) Of duties which he owes to his brother man as being equally with him- self, by his origin, a son of God. Those rights of man which are called natural, as belonging equally to the whole human race, and which are sometimes represented as n discovery of modern pl1ilosophy, have no rational basis whatever except in th:tt relation to God which all men of nil nations a'ld classes possess alike by th:>ir
1 Augustin. 'De Genesi Imp. Lib.' § 55. Hie animadvertencla. quredam et conjunctio, et cliscretio animalium. Nam codcm die factum hominem dicit quo Lostias. 2 Gen. ix. 6 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; cf. J,m1es iii. 9. 8 Co1upare Ps. lxxxii. 0; "I lrnve snid, Ye are gods; l\mlall of you nre children of the Mo ,f High," nnd our Lord's comment on this, John x. 34-36. ' Of. 'Hooker's Fomth Clnss ol' Lnws,' § 6, supm. viii INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCII.