Remains of John Boyse, Sermon 4
GEN. 1. 26.
And God sayd, let vsus make man, in our Image after our owne likenesse.
THe Scripture considers man in a fourefold estate, the first of his confection, as being in his originall integrity created according to Gods owne likenesse. The 2. of his infection, as hauing by sinne defaced this imprinted Image.
The 3. of his refection, as being renewed againe by Christ which is the brightnesse of Gods glory and expresse Character of his person.
The 4. of his perfection in the Kingdome of glory, when he shall enioy Gods presence, seeing him (as the blessed Apostle speakes) euen face to face.
Our present text is a briefe Chronicle reporting his first estate, namely the creation of man wherein two poyntes are to be discussed, especially
1. The mystery of the most high and sacred Trinity creating.
2. The dignity of man Created,
The first is closely couched vnderunder these two words faciamus, and Imago, let vsus make, in the plural number, aAug. Confes l. 13. c. 22. et Lomb. li. 1. dist. … Idem Beda in Loc.noting the Trinity, but in the singular Image, not Images, noting the vnitie: the word our imports moe then one, the word likenesse one and no moe: this then in the Iudgement of all orthodoxe Diuines is meant of the three in heauen, the Father, the Word, & the Holy Spirit, which three are one. 1. Iohn. 5. 7. Hereupon elswhere termed according to the Hebrew phrase, God our makers. Iob. 35. 10. psal. 149. 2. Esay. 54▪ 5. and Eccle. 12. 1. Remember thy Creators in the dayes of thy youth.
If this note seeme to be forced and vnkind, beside the streame of all antiquitie, there be manifest and manifold reasons euidently demonstrating the same.
1. Man is the workemanship of the whole Trinity, Ergo these wordes of God, let vsus make, concern the whole Trinity, the antecedent is indeniable, because opera▪ Trinitatis quoad extra sunt cōmunicabilia, that is, all the works of the Trinity without it selfe are communicable, the workes of the Trinity within it selfe are incommunicable; So God the father is sayd only to beget, God the sonne to bee begotten, and God the holy Ghost to proceed; but all the workes of the Trinitie without it selfe are common vntounto three persons, and therefore Moses saith in the beginning of this chapter bCaluin in loc.according to the wordes originall, in principio dij creauit intimating the creation of the world to bee the worke of the whole Trinitie. Creauit dij, three persons, but one God. It is bad latine yet good diuinitie, for God the sonne did create so well as God the father. Iohn. 1. 3. by him al things were made, and God the holy Ghost also aswell as God the sonne, for the spirit moued vponupon the waters. Gen. 1. 2. where by spirit we neither vnderstand an Angel which is cDiVillet in Loc.Caietans idle phansie▪ nor yet the winde as dLib. contr. Hermogenem.Tertullian and ePaul Fagius com in Gen. 1.Dauid Kimchi conceited: nor the piercing aire as fQuast. 8. in Gen.Theodorete imagined: but it was Gods owne spirit: whereby the creatures were fostered and formed. Iob. 26. 13. His spirit hath garnished the heauens, and so diuines ascribe the work of creation in the masse of the matter, vntounto God the father: In the disposition of the forme, vntounto God the sonne: in the continuance and conseruation of both, vntounto God the holy spirit: the consultation or rather agreement in saying, let vsus make man, is of the whole trinitie gGibbins. Qu. 12. in Gen.wherein God the father, as the first in order, speaketh vntounto the sonne and holy Ghost, and the sonne and the holy Ghost speake it and order it with the father, the which because it is written for mans instruction is also spoken after the manner of men.
2. To whom I pray sayd God (let vsus make man) If not to God the son and holy Ghost? vntounto some Demi-gods, as hApud Paraum com. in lo… idem. S…xt. Sene us. … lib. 5. annotat. 17.Philo Iudaus a scholler of Plato most absurdly coniectured? or because the workes and actions of men are partly good, and partly bad, that God he spake to some Cacodamon as the Manichees impiously dreamed, refering the making of that which is good vntounto God, but the making of that which is bad vntounto some badspirit. Ista referre est refellere, the very repetition of these fantasies is a sufficient confutation of them vntounto you who know that all which God made was good, yea very good, and that God in the beginning made man righteous, but they hauehave sought many inuentions. Eccl. 7. 31.
Or did God speake this in the plurall after the maner of great Princes, only for his honour? Nos Radulphus Romanus Imperator mandamus &. As some Iewes hauehave fondly construed it. nb vcb vbi Answere1. Paraus vbi supra. et in Gen 3. 22. idem Tremellius in loc. is made that the stately stile Nos, is not ancient, at the least not so gray▪headed, and Christian interpreters obserue from Aben Ezra who was himselfe a Iew; That the Scripture doth not afford such an example of any King or Potentate, who speakes of himselfe plurally, We wil and Command. Againe, Princes in our age vse that stile, that they might seeme to doe nothing alone, but all as it were by the Counsell of their Nobles and other great ministers of state. Whereas God neither needes nor admits any Counsellour, and so consequently could not speake of himselfe in this sense, Let vsus make.
Or did God say this vntounto the beastes of the field, or vntounto the birdes of the Heauen, or vntounto the fish of the Sea? Nō: for then the base should hauehave made the more Noble, and the seruants hauehave created their Lord and master, for so the Scripture doth esteeme man as Lord of the creatures: Rule (saith God) ouer the fish of the Sea, and ouer the foules of the ayre, and ouer eueryevery thing that moueth vponupon the earth. Gen. 1. 28. All things are put in subiection vnderunder his feete. Psal. 8. 6. Againe man was created according to his Image who spake this, and according to their Image to whom it was spoken; But he was not framed to the likenesse of any beast. Ergo the conceit is bruitish to thinke that Almighty God spake to beastes in saying, Let vsus make man.
Or did God speake this vntounto his glorious Angels? No, Because then creatures should hauehave beene creators; For albeit there be some question about the time when Angels were made, Yet it is without all controuersie, that they were created, as Moses in his entrance, to this Booke doth intimate, saying, In the beginning God created heauen and earth. That is (as himselfe doeth expound himselfe in the 4. Commandement.) The heauen and the earth, and all that is therein. And the blessed Apostle doth construe Moses, all things inuisible aswel as visible, Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, For the same hand saithkSoliloq…. cap 9. Augustine, that made silly worms creeping on the earth, created also the stately thrones singing in the heauens.
If God then vttered these wordes neither to the creatures more base, nor yet to his Angels excelling all earthly beauties; It is certaine that they were addressed to God the Sonne, and to God the holy Ghost; And so without any further dispute, we may conclude, that the most ineffable mystery of the blessed Trinity in Vnitie, is in them obscurely touched and couched: I say not that it is here set downe clearely, nor in any place of the old Testament, lest happily Gods people, the Iewes, exceedingly giuen to superstition & Idolatry, should adore three gods in stead of three persons, and so Tritheisme prooue so bad as Atheisme: Nay (beloued) in the new Testament where these mysteries are reuealed more plainely, you may well note; That in the rehearsing of the Trinity, there is an Item for the Vnity, as in the wordes of our blessed Sauiour. Mat. 28. 19. Goe teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the holy Ghost. He doth expresse three persons, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, But lBasil. Epist. 64. et Ambros. de s …to l. c. 14.saying, In the Name, not names, He notes the vnity of essence; For God is Vnus in Numine, Howsoeuer Trinus in numero, I and my Father saith Christ are all one. Iohn. 10. 30. Vnum sumus, as mRetract. lib. 1 cap. 4.Augustine pithily, not vnus, all one power, but not all one person. God the Father is not aliud, but alius, another person albeit not another essence then is God the Son. For in speaking of the Trinity wee must especially take heede of nThom par. 1. qn. 31. …ut. 2.two rockes, of Arrius on the right hand, who together with the Trinity of persons maintained a Trinity of essences: of Sabellius on the left hand, who with the vnity of essence maintained an vnity of persons. These two we must heedfully shunne, lest (as S. Paul speakes) wee make shipwracke of faith, euen sayling in the middle way, neither confounding the persons, nor diuiding the substance. But leauing this argument which is so high and hard, that a good Christian ought rather by beleeuing to adore simply, then by disputing explore subtilly, I come to speake of mans dignitie more principally intended in our text, and more naturally gathered out of eueryevery word in the same.
1. Out of the word faciamus, When almighty God made light, he sayd onelyonly, Let there be light, and there was light, and when hee made herbes hee sayd onelyonly, let the ground bring foorth herbes, and it did so, Hee spake the word and it was done, He commanded, and it was effected. Psal. 33. 9. But when he made man, he breathed himselfe, as oQuast. in Gen.Abbinus is bold to speake, and as pP…dag. l. 1. cap. 3.Clemens Alexandrinus and other of the most ancient Doctours, He held a Counsell, let vsus make man, So that whereas all other creatures were made with his bare word only, man was framed as it were with his owne handes, as qLib. de Prouidentia, vti magdeb. Cent. 5. col. 244.Prosper hath it, hunc manibus, quo plus genitoris haberet, Dignatur formare suis.
Neither was this in respect of any hardnesse in the doing, for shall any thing be hard to the Lord? Gen. 18. 14. If hee had sayd onelyonly let man bee made, as he sayd only, let there be a firmament, qLib. de Prouidentia, vti magdeb. Cent. 5. col. 244.her Para… in loc. could hauehave done the one, aswell as the other, and as easily; but it was to shew ther greatnesse of the worke: For as wise men in managing matters of importance, vse the deeper consultation, and mature care, to performe them: Euen so the scripture speaking after the manner of men, affirmes of God, that he tooke heere deliberation, and sosGibi… in loc. commends the wonderfull and exquisite workemanship of God in the creating of man as being a more tHilar. in ps. … ▪ 19. sect. 10.noble creature then heauen itself.
2. The dignity of mans creation is much amplified by the circumstance of time when he was made, to wit, after all other things were created, for as uQu…st. in Gen.Albinus and other obserue, Deus imprimis parauit domum, et deinde dominum, Almighty God first created the whole world as an house, then he made man as the master of this house. God, saith xEpist 38.Ambrose, like the feast▪ maker in the Gospels history, first prepared his dinner, he prouided his oxen and his fatlings, and got all things ready, then he doeth inuite his guestes and say, come to the marriage. When he had created all thinges for man, he put man in possession of all, and sa…d, Ruleouer the fish in the sea, & ouer the foules in the heauen, and ouer eueryevery thing that moueth vponupon the earth.
AgaineyApuleius Florid. lib. 3. Serum concilium is Serium, & vsually the last workes of a cunning Artificer, are most absolute; zHexa… l. …. cap. vltim.S. Ambrose therefore doth obserue, that God hauing framed man, instantly rested himselfe and made Holy-day. He made birds flying in the aire, fish swimming in the Sea, worms creeping on the ground, and yet he did not rest. He made lilleys and other flowers of the field which are more beautifull in the spring, then Solomon in all his Royalty, but yet he did not rest; he made the goodly lights, & glorious Angels of heauen, and yet he did not rest; But assoon as he had made mā, hee rested▪ hallowed a Sabbath, as hauing now made him for whom al other things were made.
3 God made man last, as an abridgement of all his other Creatures, and an Index, as it were to his great Booke in Folio, therefore called of the Hebrewes, Olam Hakaton, and of the Greekes microcosmos, that is, a little world. When as the Lord had furnished the heauen and earth with all the Creatures and ornaments thereof, hee made man consisting of an heauenly and earthly nature. Hauing the beauties of things without life euen the chiefest, as of the Sunne and Moone and starres. Eccle. 12. 1. 2. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth, when the Sun is not darke, nor the light, nor the Moone, nor the starres. He hath also growth as plants. Gen. 49. 22. Ioseph shall be a fruitfull bough, euen a fruitfull bough by the well side. So Dauid saith, our children grow vp as the yong plants. Psal. 144. 12. Sense and sensible properties, as beastes. Gen. 49. 9. Iudah as a lyons whelpe shall come vp from the spoyle. Dan as a serpent by the way, as an adder by the path biting the horse heeles. Reason and wisdome, as Angels. 2. Sam. 14. 20. My Lord is wise according to the wisdome of an Angel. God added to mans being, life, which he denyed vntounto stones: to life, sense, which he denyed vntounto plants: to sense, speech and vnderstanding, which hee denyed vntounto bruit beastes: heeHomo receptorium diuin… bonitatis Iren. bestowed vponupon this one creature the perfections of all the rest.
Lastly, man was happily made last, after heauen and earth were created, because saith aEpist. 38.Ambrose, Terra exercitium est homin…, Coelum Corona. Earth is the place where man is to seeke God, heauen the place where man is to see God. Earth is the place where man is to run his race, heauen is the place where he receiues the price. If any man seriue for mastery saith Paul, he is not crowned, except he striue as he ought to doe. 2. Tim. 2. 5.
This world is the Theater where man is to wrestle with flesh and blood, and with spirituall wickednesses in high places; He must fight with beastes and birdes, and with all the fruites of the earth at his table, he must in his pilgrimage here fight with a great many dangers, aswell by land as sea, he must in his warfare here fight with the pomps of the world, and with the power of hell, hee must fight with all the creatures, and make them to serue him, that he may the better serue God. It was therefore fit that the earth should be created before man, as being the stage wheron he must act his part, and that heauen should be created before man, as being his reward and Crowne.
But the dignity of mans creation appeares yet in the next word, Image, more fully. Let vsus make man according to our Image.
Some peradu nture will obiect here, that God wil hauehave no likenesse or Image of himselfe.
The Papistes indeed bMagdeb. Ep. in Cent. 8.crucifie certaine textes in the Bible to prooue their idolatrous adoring of Images; But saith Esay, to whom will yee liken God, or what similitude will ye set vp vntounto him, He will not, he cannot, he should not bee pictured, cAug. de Ciu. Dei. l. 8 c. 23.Homo enim dificit ab illo qui eum fecit, quum sibi praeficit ipse quod fecit. Man is then vnlike himselfe, if he thinke any thing like to God beside himselfe.
dThom. part. 1. qu. 93. art. 1.Answere is made, that God set vp his Image himselfe, who knew best to make it, Let vsus make man in our Image. Whosoeuer therefore defaceth it, commits high treason, insomuch that whereas it is no sinne simply to kill a beast, it is a fearefull o…trage to slay a man, and murther for a man to destroy himselfe. Thou shalt not kill thy neighbour, Ergo not thy selfe, because thy selfe is neerest vntounto thy selfe. If a man sent to …he goale by lawfull authority for fellony breake prison, he shall dye for it, although he quit himselfe of the fact wherewith hee was charged.
And so (beloued) If thy soule breake out of thy body before God open the prison doores, and deliuer it out of her bonds, it is in danger of hell fire: the resolute Romanes and o…her, in killing themselues did magnè, but not benè, saith eDe ciu. Dei. l. 1 c. 22.Augustine, and the reason is plaine, Man is Gods Image, and his superscription is vponupon him, and so consequently will not suffer his stampe to bee battered, or contemptuously defaced.
In eueryevery creature there bee certaine prints of the deity, for seculum is speculum, The heauens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shewe…h his handy-worke, Vniuersus mundus (fCardinal …usanus. as one sayd) nihil aliud est quam Deus explicatus, In the creation of …he visible world, we may behold …he inuis…ble thinges of God. Rom. 1. 20. In omnibus creaturis est aliqualis Dei similitudo per modum vesligij, (saith g Aquin.) Sed in sola rationali creatur q Part 1. qu. …3. art. 6.a similitudo Dei per modum Imaginis. In other thinges we may see Gods power, and some other expresse trackes of the Trinity, but man and only man is Gods Image: all the doubt is, what is meant by this Image, and in what part of man it is placed?
hCom in Gen. l. 2. c. 2.Rupertus vnderstandeth here by Image, the second person of the Trinity, God the sonne, and by likenesse or similitude, the third person of the Trinity, God the holy Ghost. But in that the Lord sayd, Let vsus make man in our Image, He doth intimate that God is the liuely representation and Image, not of one or two persons only, but of the whole Trinity.
iApud Willet in loc.Other thinke, that man was created according to the likenesse of that humane nature which our blessed Sauiour Christ the sonne of God, was in fulnesse of time to assume, but the Scripture teacheth euidently the contrary, that Christ tooke vponupon him the likenesse of man, and not man his likenesse. Phil. 2. 7.
kIn Cosmopoea. pag. 104.Augustinus Eugubinus, and lApud Willet. idam melito Asianus. vti. Sext Senens. Bibl. l. 5. annot. 18.Oleaster thinke that God tooke vponupon him an humane shape when he created man, and therefore sayd, Let vsus make man in our Image. But neither did God the father appeare euer in any such shape, neither could it be sayd to bee Gods Image, being assumed only for a time.
Other (as mExposit in Gen. 1.Paulus Fagius reports) affirme that the soules immortallity represents Gods eternity. Therefore man hauing a soule immortall is like to God eternall.
nHexam. hom. 10.Basil, oHom. 8. in Gen. et Homil. ad pop Antio.Chrysostom, and some other referre this likenesse to mans dominion ouer the creatures, being as it were a God on earth, which occasioned p…lem. Alex. P…dag. l 3. c. 1.Heraclitus to terme men mortall Gods, and the Gods immortall men.
Other hauehave this conceit, that as there is nothing in heauen or earth like to God, so God created man that among millions of men there should not bee found one in all features and figures of the body like to another. These Doctours shoote faire, but farre off. It is true which is deliuered by them in this particular, but it commeth a great deale short of the marke.
Some of the Fathers and Schoole-Doctours heere distinguish betweene Image and likenesse. Saint Basil in Hexam. Hom. 10. Ambrose lib. De dignitate conditione humanae. Lomb. 1. sent: Dist. 16. and Aquin. vponupon our text referre Image to the naturall giftes of the soule, will, vnderstanding, memory: but likenesse to the supernaturall gifts of grace, holinesse, and righteousnesse, which occasioned Eucherius to say, Imago est omnium, similitudo paucorum.
qPart. 1. qu. 93. art. 6.Aquine doth auow that Gods Image may be seene in the most admirable frame of the body, but the likenesse in our mindes onelyonly. For as rCa. 1. …editatBernard obserues, the mind of man is properly Gods similitude, wherein there be three powers or facul…ies, Memory, Vnderstanding, Will. In our memory wee resemble God the Father, which is the ancient of dayes. Dan. 7. 9. In our vnderstanding God the Sonne, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge. Colos. 2. 3. in our will, God the holy Ghost, by whom his grace worketh all in all. 1. Cor. 12. 6.
The which opinion Augustine fauoureth in his 102. Epistle, and S. s Ambrose in his Treatise concerning8 cap. 2. mans dignity, saith, as the Sonne is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both, euen so the will is begotten, as it were, by the vnderstanding, and memory proceedes from both.
Now (beloued) howsoeuer it be true that these naturall giftes of reason, and supernaturall giftes of grace, were conferred by God vponupon man in his creation: Yet if wee compare one Scripture with another, it will appeare, that Moses here makes no difference betweene likenesse and Image. But that (as t…n Loc.Caluin and u other obserue) they doe signifie the same thing. For inv Paraeus, Willot. Gibbins. the next verse without any mention of the word likenesse, it is sayd, that God created man in his Image, in the Image of God created hee him. And in the 5. Chapter at the 1. verse, without any mention of the word Image, God created Adam, in the likenesse of God made he him. And so the meaning of our text, in our Image, according to our likenesse, is nothing else but in our Image which is likest vsus. As if the Lord had sayd, let vsus make man in our Image, that he may be (as a creature may be) like vsus, and the same his likenesse may bee our Image.
But wee shall vnderstand more fully what is Gods Image by considering in what part of man it was placed.
u Audius the founder of the monstrous Anthropomorphitex Epiphanius Hares 70. et Aug. Hares. 50. heresie, supposed it was placed in the figure of the body, which (lest happily there should be raysed any wicked errour which they would not acknowledge for their owne) the Papistes are content to like well and defend, in whose Churches and other places of deuotion, it is eueryevery where to find the likenesse of God the Father depictured vponupon their walles and windowes in the figure of a man. As if they had learned of yCic. de inuent. lib. 2.Zeuxis, to draw his Physiognomy, and they professe it lawfull both to hauehave such Images, and to worship them also, from zConsilium. Constant.our text, that God created Adam in his likenesse. But it is a strange peruersenesse, quoth Tertullian, aduersus Marcion. Lib. 2. Cap. 27. To thinke that there are humane thinges in God rather then diuine thinges in man, and to conceiue of God to hauehave the Image of a man, rather then a man to hauehave the Image of God.
Other affirme, that the likenesse of God is placed in the mind only; For, saith aHexam. l. 6. cap. 7.Ambrose, who sayd, let vsus make man in our Image? Was it not God? and what is God? flesh and bones? or a spirit? Christ answereth in the 4. of S. Iohn. at the 24. verse. God is a spirit, Ergo, man is like to God, as being endued with an vnderstanding spirit.
But because God created the whole man in his Image, consisting of a body made of the dust of the ground, and of a soule that was the breath o… life, which being vnited by the spirit became a liuing soule: It is *Caue et …ide … of the world. p…g. 24.euident (so farre as their seuerall nature could conteine) that God crea…ed in that Image, bA…g de Tri… l…b 11. cap. 1 Ca…u. Instit l. … c. 15 sec… 3.both body and soule. But as waxe is more apt then clay to receiue a print, So the soule being a spirit, was much more capable of the impression of the Image of God. Yet that which the body could receiue, it did in very notable sort expresse, being so wonderfully framed of such an excellent proportion and beauty, that no creature in the world may be compared with it, and moreouer of so sound a temperature, cAug. de peccat. meri. tis et remissione. lib. 1. cap. 2.that had not Adam sinned, it would hauehave continued without corruption for euer.
But the soule being a spirit (as God is a spirit,) it is apter a great deale to beare Gods Image. For in the very substance of the soule, there is a liuely print thereof, not as though the soule were of the substance of God, for as dContra Fae…ieem. l. 2. c. 21.Augustine pithily distinguisheth, it is, … deo, non de deo.
But first, in that it is a substance spirituall and immortall, as God is the liuing God. Heb. 10. 31.
Secondly, for that it is indued with vnderstanding and memorie, which are the very character of Gods wisdome.
Thirdly, in respect of quicknesse and agility, conceiuing at one time so many matters, so different, so farre distant, which is the shadow of Gods vbiquity.
But St. Paul in saying man was in the beginning created after the Image of God, in knowledge. Colos. 3. 10. And the same in righteousnesse and holinesse. Ephes. 4. 24. Shewes plainely that this Image consists not so much in the substance of the soule, or in the naturall faculties thereof, as in the supernaturall giftes of grace, knowledge, illumination, holinesse, Iustice of the soule. For Adam had an illuminated vnderderstanding, and a rectified will, louing God aboue all things, and his neighbour as himselfe.
The two wordes of S. Paul, Holinesse, and Righteousnesse conteine mans whole duty; holinesse his duty to God, righteousnesse his duty to man. In this Image man was created, and so consequently this Image consists in the soule, more then in the body, and in the supernaturall graces of the soule, more then in the naturall powers of the soule.
For 1. If this Image consisted onelyonly in the soules spirituall essence; then it would follow that wicked spirits and wicked men should hauehave Gods Image, because the substance of the spirit and soule remaineth in them; but the scripture teacheth expresly, that the wicked hauehave not Gods Image, but the deuils stampe. So Christ affirmed of Iudas, hauehave not I chosen you twelue? and one of you is a deuill, and S. Peter when he committed a foule fact, come behind me Sathan. Mat. 16. 23. and of the Pharisees, yee are of your father the deuill. Iohn. 8. 44. And the text is plaine, 1. of Iohn 3. 8. he that committeth sin is of the deuill.
2. God cannot properly be sayd to damne his owne Image, or to send it into hell fire, but the soules of reprobate sinners are damned, Ergo, this Image is not altogether in the soules substance, that Image saith eOperum. fol. 14. 99.Ambrose wherein thou wert created; after the likenesse of God, is not condemned, but crowned.
3. That Image of God, after which Adam was created, is by his fall vtterly lost, and extinguished, for otherwise this Image needed not to be renewed, or reuiued in vsus, as it is by Christ, in whom all true beleeuers are new creatures, and new men and a new lumpe, but the substance of the reasonable soule, with all the naturall powers thereof, are not altogether lost in vnregenerate men, ergo, this Image principally consisted in the gifts of grace. To this purpose S. fContr. Faustin. l. 24. c. 2.Augustine sayd that the whole man both in his inward and outward parts inueterauit is waxen old, and decayed by sinne, but the inward man is new reuiued by grace, and the outward man hereafter shall be restored in the resurrection.
Another question is moued here, whether the man only was created after this image of God, & not the woman, and the reason of this doubt is grounded vponupon the words of S. Paul, man is the Image and glory of God, the woman the glory of man. Answere is made by Moses in the very next verse to my text. God created man in his Image, male and female created he them. As for the place, man is the glory of God, woman, the glory of man; gCaluin. in loc.It is to be construed, of the preheminence, and authority giuen vntounto man, aboue the woman, in which one respect, the Image of God is expressed in the man, more then in the woman. But if we consider the principall part of that Image, consisting in holinesse, and righteousnesse, the woman was▪created, according to it, as well as the man, in Christ, as the blessed Apostle teacheth vsus, there is neither male, nor female, but all are one, women are the daughters of God, so well as men are the sonnes of God.
Now (beloued) because the day present, is a Sabbath, and the Sabbath in the beginning, was instituted in honour of the creation, and man, of all the creatures, is the most excellent; It is our duty, so long as either man or woman hath any being, all the dayes of our life, but vponupon the Sunday more principally to magnifie the Lord, for his infinite rich mercy; who created vsus, not liuelesse as stones are, nor senselesse as the plants are, nor witlesse as the beastes are, but according to his owne likenesse in nature, knowledge, holinesse, righteousnesse, glory, appointing vsus to be Lords of this ample vniuerse, making all things for man, and man for himselfe.
2. This ought to teach vsus to take heed of corrupting our selues, by sin, or our neighbours through our lewd examples, and to hate our sinnes as a serpent, by meanes whereof, the likenesse of God is so miserably defaced in vsus: for man in his originall integrity, created to the likenesse of God, is by the foulenesse of sin, a deuill, and a very vermine; humana sub cute plurimae latent ferae, sayd Carolus Bouillus: The Scriptureh Dialog. de i…ort. ani. ma. saith as much, in calling a subtile dissembler, a foxe. Luke. 13. 32. a soule-murthering prophet, a rauenous wolfe. Mat. 7. 15. a vaine man, a wild asses colt. Iob. 11. 12. A proud man in honour like horse and mule, without vnderstanding. Psal. 32, 10. A voluptuous man, giuen ouer to worke all vncleannesse, euen with greedinesse, a Sow wallowing in the myre. 2. Pet. 2. 22. In a word the children of men set on fire to doe mischiefe, whelpes of Lyons. Psal. 57. 4. and generations of vipers. Mat. 3. 7.
3. This should make vsus to labour earnestly, for true faith in Christ Iesus, by whom this Image shall againe be restored, and as new borne babes, doe desire the sincere milke of the word, that wee may grow from strength to strength, and from vertue to vertue, till wee bee of full growth in Christ, and hauehave this▪Image throughly repayred in vsus.
4. This should incite vsus to giuegive the God of our saluation humble and hearty thankes, for redeeming vsus with his precious blood, when we were thus vtterly lost, and made, by sin, vnlike to God, and our selues, as the Fathers in their deuotions vse to speake. If we doe owe to God our selues, for creating vsus, after his Image, then vndoubtedly more then our selues, for redeeming vsus, and restoring in vsus his defaced Image through originall sinne in Adam, and actuall sinne in our selues.