"bleness nor shadow of turning." For by bringing the different passages of Scripture together for their mutual illustration, and explaining them as so many corresponding parts of one connected whole, the Christian will be convinced that the divine plan, however varied in its execution, has from the beginning had one and the same object in view; namely, the eternal happiness of God's favoured creature, together with the means of securing it. He will be convinced, that as the original design of man's being created in God's image was, that he might become a creature fitted for immortality; so the design of his being redeemed from the immediate effects of the Fall was, that he might be restored to that divine image, for the accomplishment of the same divine purpose. That as the first Adam had been driven from the tree of life, the emblem of immortality, in consequence of his transgression; so his descendants might, through the medium of the second Adam, and by the conduct of the Holy Spirit, be brought back to it again. That, in the symbolical language of the Book of Reve

lation,

lation, which appears designed to bring to an uniform conclusion the scene originally opened in Paradise;" they that do his "commandments, may have a right to "the tree of life, and may enter in through "the gates of the city." Reo. xxii. 14.

"God created man in his own image." As God is a spiritual Being, by "his own

image," in which he was pleased to create the first man, must be understood something of a spiritual nature; for in nothing else could any resemblance between man and his Divine Maker consist. By the image of God then we understand that spiritualized state of perfection, by which God was pleased to dignify and exalt his favourite creature man, as an intellectual and moral agent above all other parts of his creation. Holiness and righte ousness are two prominent distinctions in the nature of the Divine Being; in confor mity to which, man's resemblance to his Maker must originally have consisted. This resemblance being lost by the Fall, it became necessary that it should be so far recovered, as to restore man to a capacity for the divine favour. The renovation

of things is the restoring them to their pri mitive state. The Apostle, therefore, in describing man's restoration under the covenant of grace from the effect of the Fall, speaks with a marked reference to this his original creation. "Seeing," says he to his Christian disciples, " that ye

"have put on the new man, which is re"newed in knowledge after the image of "Him that created him." And in what this Divine image consisted, the same Apostle elsewhere particularly informs us; where he expressly describes the new man, i. e. man recovered by grace from the effect of the Fall, and, " renewed in the "spirit of his mind, as again created after God, or in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. iv.

14.

Whence it follows, that man, according to his original creation, so far at least as God was pleased to communicate his perfections to him, was designed to be the representative of his Creator here below, in those essential attributes of the Deity, righteousness and true holiness.

;

With this view it may be presumed, "God created man in his own image." Or, according to that passage in the writings of Solomon, which may be considered as a comment on the words of Moses "God made man upright;" the original word signifies straight and direct, without either error in his understanding, or perverseness in his will; in other words, with án exact harmony of faculties and affections among themselves, together with a sweet subordination of them unto the reasonable will or conscience; whilst that held consort with the will or law of God. Considered with reference to these advantageous circumstances of his original creation, St. Paul calls man "the image and "glory of God;" which image is elsewhere described by the same Apostle, as consisting "in righteousness and true ho"liness." Whence it follows, that God made man with that moral and natural perfection, and rectitude of disposition, which was agreeable to a rational being, created for the service and worship, as well as the glory of his Creator. An ac

count

count, which, if taken together, furnishes, it is presumed, a sufficiently intelligent description of the being created in God's own image.

For the establishment of this doctrine respecting the perfection of man's original condition, Scripture, though not particular on the subject, hath still furnished some information. The account given of the divine proceeding on the important subject of man's creation, as it is to be met. with in the second chapter of Genesis, runs thus. "And the Lord God formed "man of the dust of the ground, and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of "life, and man became a living soul." The information which the general reader of the Bible draws from the preceding language is, that God made man a living creature, as he did other animals with which this lower world was furnished. But the circumstance of the original word which is translated life, having a plural termination, may fairly lead to the conclusion, that besides the mere animal life conveyed to man, in common with the other creatures, he had also another kind