Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 29
SERMON XXIX.
Preached to the King, at the Court.
The second Sermon on GEN. 1. 26.
And God said, Let us make man, in our Image, after our likenesse.
BY fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole Compasse of mans voyage, from his lanching forth in this world, to his Anchoring in the next; from his hoysing sayle here, to his striking sayle there. In which Compasse we designed to you his foure quarters; first, his East, where he must beginne, the fundamentall knowledge of the Trinity (for, that we found to be the specification, and distinctive Character of a Christian) where, though that be so, we shewed you also, why we were not called Trinitarians, but Christians: and we shewed you, the advantage, that man hath, in laying hold upon God, in these severall notions; that the Prodigall sonne hath an indulgent Father; that the decayed Father hath an abundant Sonne; that the dejected spirit hath a Spirit of comfort, to fly to in heaven. And, as we shewed you from Saint Paul, that it was an Atheisme to be no Christian, (without God, says he, as long as without Christ) so we lamented the slacknesse of Christians, that they did not seriously, and particularly, consider the persons of the Trinity, and especially the holy Ghost, in their particular actions. And then we came to that consideration, whether this doctrine were established, or directly insinuated, in this plurall word of our text, Faciamus, Let us, us make man: and we found that doctrine, to be here, and here first of any place in the Bible. And finding God to speake in the plurall, we accepted (for a time) that interpretation, which some had made thereof; that God spake in the Person of a Soveraigne Prince; and therefore (as they do) in the plurall, We. And thereby having established reverence to Princes, we claim'd in Gods behalfe the same reverence to him: That men would demeane themselves, here, when God is spoken to in prayer, as reverently, as when they speake to the King. But after this, we found God to speake here, not onelyonly as our King; but as our maker; as God himselfe; and God in Counsell, Faciamus: and we applied thereunto, the difference of our respect to a Person of that honorable rank, when we came before him at the Counsell Table, and when we came to him at his own Table: and thereby advanced the seriousnesse of this consideration, God in the Trinity. And farther we failed not, with that our Eastern winde. Our West we considered in the next word, Hominem; that though we were made by the whole Trinity, yet the whole Trinity made us but men, and men, in this name of our text, Adam; and Adam is but earth, and that's our West, our declination, our Sunset. We passed over the foure names, by which man is ordinarily expressed in the Scriptures; and we found necessary misery in three of them; and possible, nay likely misery in the fourth, in the best name. We insisted upon the name of our text, Adam, earth; and had some use of these notes; First, that if I were but earth, God was pleased to be the Potter; If I but a sheep, he a shepheard; If I but a cottage, he a builder. So he worke upon me, let me be what he will. We noted that God made us earth, not ayre, not fire: That man hath bodily, and worldly duties to performe; and is not all Spirit in this life. Devotion, is his soule; but he hath a body of discretion, and usefulnesse to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being earth, we are equall. We tryed that equality, first in the root, in Adam; There if any man will be nobler earth then I, he must have more originall sinne then I: for that was all Adams patrimony, all that he could give. And we tryed this equality in another furnace, in the grave; where there is no meanes to distinguish Royall from Plebeian, nor Catholique from Hereticall dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth, was red earth: and considered in what respect it was red, even in Gods hands, but found that in the bloud-rednesse of sinne, God had no hand: but sinne, and destruction for sinne, was wholly from our selves: which consideration, we ended with this, that there was Macula alba, a white spot of leprosie, as well, as a red; and we found the overvaluation of our own purity, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from us, to be that white spot. And so far we sayled, with that Western winde. And are come to our third point in this our Compasse, our North.
In this point,Aquilo. the North, we place our first comfort. The North is not always the comfortablest clime: nor is the North always a type of happines in the Scriptures. Many times God threatens stormes from the North. But even in those Northern stormes, we consider that action, that they scatter, they dissipate those clouds, which were gathered, and so induce a serenity:Iob. 37. 12. And so, fair weather comes from the North. And that's the use which we have of the North in this place. The consideration of our West, our low estate; that we are but earth, but red earth, dyed red by our selves: and that imaginary white, which appeares so to us, is but a white of leprosie. This West enwraps us in heavy clouds of murmuring, in this life; that we cannot live so freely as beasts doe; and in clouds of desperation for the next life; that we cannot dye so absolutely as beasts doe, we dye all our lives, and yet we live after our deaths. These are our clouds;Prov. 25. 23. And then the North shakes these clouds. The North Winde driveth away the raine, says Solomon. There is a North in our text, that drives all those teares from our eyes.Cant. 4. 16. Christ calls upon the North, as well as the South, to blow upon his Garden, and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversity, as well as prosperity, opens the bounty of God unto us: and oftentimes better. But that's not the benefit of the North in our present consideration. But this is it, that first our sunne sets in the West. The Eastern dignity, which we received in our first Creation, as we were the worke of the whole Trinity, falls under a Western cloud, that that Trinity made us but earth. And then blowes our North, and scatters this cloud. That this earth hath a nobler forme, then any other part or limbe of the world. For, we are made by a fairer pattern, by a nobler Image, by a higher likenesse. Faciamus; Though we make but a man, Let us make him, in our Image, after our likenesse.
The variety which the holy Ghost uses here,Imago similitudo. in the pen of Moses, hath given occasion to divers, to raise divers observations, upon these words, which seem divers, Image and likenesse; as also in the variety of the pharse. For it is thus conceived, and laid, in our Image and then after our likenesse. I know it is a good rule, that Damascen gives, Parva, parva non sunt, ex quibus magna proveniunt: Nothing is to be neglected as little, from which great things may arise. If the consequence may be great, the thing must not be thought little. No Jod in the Scripture shall perish; therefore no Jod is superfluous. If it were superfluous, it might perish. Words, and lesse particles then words have busied the whole Church. In the Councell of Ephesus, where Bishops in a great number excommunicated Bishops in a greater, Bishop, against Bishop, and Patriarch, against Patriarch; in which case, when both parties had made strong parties in Court, and the Emperor forbare to declare himselfe, on either side for a time, he was told, that he refused to assent to that, which six thousand Bishops had agreed in: the strife was but for a word, whether the blessed Virgin might be called Deipara, the mother of God, for Christipara, the mother of Christ, (which Christ all agree to be God) Nestorius, and all his party agreed with Cyrill, that she might be. In the Councell of Chalcedon, the difference was not so great, as for a word composed of syllables. It was but for a syllable, whether Ex, or In. The Heretiques condemned then, confessed Christ, to be Ex duabus naturis, to be composed of two natures, at first; but not to be in duabus naturis, not to consist of two natures after: and for that In, they were thrust out. In the councell of Nice, it was not so much as a syllable made of letters. For it was but for one letter; whether Homoousion, or Homousion, was the issue. Where the question hath not been of divers words, nor syllables, nor letters, but onelyonly of the place of words; what tempestuous differences have risen? How much Sola fides and fides sola, changes the case? Nay where there hath been no quarrell for precedency, for transposing of words, or syllables, or letters; where there hath not been, so much as a letter in question; how much doth an accent vary a sense? An interrogation, or no interrogation will make it directly contrary. All Christian expositors read those words of Cain, My sin is greater then can be pardoned, positively; and so they are evident words of desperation. The Jews read them with an interrogation, Are my sinnes greater, then can be pardoned? And so they are words of compunction, and repentance. The Prophet Micah says, that Bethlehem is a small place; the Evangelist Saint Matthew says no small place.…. …. 2. 6. An interrogation in Micahs mouth reconciles it; Art thou a small place? amounts to that, thou art not. Sounds, voices, words must not be neglected. For, Christs forerunner Iohn Baptist qualified himselfe no otherwise: He was but a voice. And Christ himselfe is Verbum; the Word, is the name, even of the Sonne of God. No doubt but Statesmen and magistrates finde often the danger of having suffered small abuses to passe uncorrected. We that see State businesse but in the glasse of story, and cannot be shut out of Chronicles, see there, upon what little objects, the eye, and the jealousie of the State is oftentimes forced to bend it selfe. We know in whose times in Rome a man might not weep; he might not sigh; he might not looke pale; he might not be sicke; but it was informed against, as a discontent, as a murmuring against the present government, and an inclination to change. And truly many times upon Damascens true ground, though not always well applied, Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. In our own Spheare, in the Church, we are sure it is so. Great inconveniencies grew upon small tolerations. Therefore in that businesse, which occasioned all that trouble, which we mentioned before, in the Councell of Ephesus, when Saint Cyrill writ to the Clergy of his Dioces about it; at first, he says prastiterat abstinere, it had been better, these questions had not been raised. But says he, Si his nugis nos adoriantur, if they vex us with these impertinencies these trifles; And yet these which were but trifles at first, came to occasion Councells; and then to divide Councell, against Councell; and then to force the Emperour to take away the power of both Councells, and govern in Councell, by his Vicar generall, a secular Lord, sent from Court. And therefore did some of the Ancients, (particularly Philastrius) cry down some opinions for Heresies, which were not matters of faith, but of Philosophy; and even in Philosophy truly held by them, who were condemned for heretiques, and mistaken by their Judges, that condemned them. Little things were called in question, left great things should passe unquestioned. And some of these upon Damascens true ground, (still true in the rule, but not always in the application) Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may be great. Descend we from those great Spheares, the State, and the Church, into a lesser, that is, the Conscience of particular men, and consider the danger of exposing those vines to little Foxes;C…ct. 2. 15. of leaving small sinnes unconsidered, unrepented, uncorrected. In that glistring circle in the firmament, which we call the Galaxy, the milky way, there is not one Star of any of the six great magnitudes, which Astronomers proceed upon, belonging to that circle. It is a glorious circle, and possesses a great part of heaven: and yet is all of so little stars, as have no name, no knowledge taken of them. So certainly are there many Saints in heaven, that shine as stars; and yet are not of those great magnitudes, to have been Patriarchs, or Prophets, or Apostles, or Martyrs, or Doctors, or Virgins: but good and blessed soules, that have religiously performed the duties of inferiour callings, and no more. And, as certainly are there many soules tormented in hell, that never sinned sinne of any of the great magnitudes, Idolatry, Adultery, Murder, or the like; but inconsiderately have slid, and insensibly continued in the practise, and habite of lesser sinnes. But Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. When our Saviour said, that we shall give an account of every Idle word,Mat 12. 36. in the day of Judgement; what great hills of little sands will oppresse us then? And, if substances of sinne were removed, yet what circumstances of sinne would condemne us? If idle words have this weight, there can be no word thought idle, in the Scriptures. And therefore I blame not in any, I decline not in mine own practise, the making use of the variety, and copiousnesse of the holy Ghost, who is ever abundant, and yet never superfluous in expressing his purpose, in change of words. And so no doubt we might doe now, in observing a difference between these words in our text, Image, and likenesse; and between these two formes of expressing it, in our Image, and after our likenesse. This might be done: but that that must be done, will possesse all our time; that is, to declare, (taking the two words for this time to be but a farther illustration of one another, Image, and likenesse, to our present purpose, to be all one) what this Image, and this likenesse imparts; and how this North scatters our former cloud, what our advantage is, that we are made to an Image, to a pattern; and our obligation to set a pattern before us, in all our actions.
God appointed Moses to make all that he made according to a pattern. God himselfe made all that he made according to a pattern. God had deposited, and laid up in himselfe certain formes, patternes, Idea's of every thing that he made. He made nothing of which he had not preconceived the forme, and predetermined in himselfe, I will make it thus. And when he had made any thing, he saw it was good; good because it answered the pattern, the Image; good, because it was like to that. And therefore, though of other creatures, God pronounced they were good, because they were presently like their pattern, that is, like that forme, which was in him for them, yet of man, he forbore to say that he was good because his conformity to his pattern was to appeare after in his subsequent actions. Now, as God made man after another pattern, and therefore we have a dignity above all, that we had another manner of creation, then the rest: so have we a comfort above all, that we have another manner of Administration then the rest. God exercises another manner of Providence upon man, then upon other creatures.Mat. 10. 23. A Sparrow falls not without God, says Christ: yet no doubt God works otherwise in the fall of eminent persons, then in the fall of Sparrows. For yee are of more value then many Sparrows, says Christ there of every man; and some men single, are of more value then many men. God does not thanke the Ant for her industry, and good-husbandry in providing for her selfe. God does not reward the Foxes,Iudg. 15. for concurring with Sampson in his revenge. God does not fee the Lion, which was the executioner upon the Prophet,1 Reg. 13. 23. which had disobeyed his commandement: nor those two she-Beares,2. Reg. 2. 25. which slew the petulant children, who had caluminated and reproached Elisha. God does not fee them before, nor thanke them after, not take knowledge of their service. But for those men,Exod. 32. 25. that served Gods execution upon the Idolaters of the Goden Calfe, it is pronounced in their behalfe, that therein they consecrated themselves to God; and for that service God made that tribe, the tribe of Levi his portion,Gen, 22. 16. his Clergy, his consecrated Tribe. So, Quiae fecisti hoc, says God to Abraham, by my selfe I have sworn; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy Sonne thine onelyonly sonne: in blessing, I will blesse thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee. So neither is God angry with the dog that turnes to his vomit,2 Pet. 2. 22. nor with the sow, that after her washing wallowes in the mire. But of Man in that case he says; It is impossible for those who were once enlightned,Heb. 6. 4. if they fall away, to renew them againe by repentance. The creatures live under his law; but a law imposed thus, This they shall doe, this they must doe. Man lives under another manner of law; This you shall doe; that is, this you should doe, this I would have you doe: And fac hoc, doe this, and you shall live; disobey, and you shall die. But yet, the choise is yours: Choose ye this day life, or death. So that this is Gods administration in the Creature, that he hath imprinted in them an Instinct, and so he hath something to preserve in them: In man his administration is this, that he hath imprinted in him a faculty of will, and election; and so hath something to reward in him. That instinct in the creature God leaves to the naturall working thereof in it selfe: But the free will of man God visites, and assists with his grace to doe supernaturall things. When the creature does an extraordinary action above the nature thereof, (as, when Balaams Asse spake) the creature exercises no faculty, no will in it selfe; but God forced it to that it did. When man does any thing conducing to supernaturall ends; though the worke be Gods, the will of man is not meerly passive. The will of man is but Gods agent; but still an agent it is: And an agent in another manner, then the tongue of the beast. For, the will considered, as a will, (and grace never destroyes nature, nor, though it make a dead will a live will, or an ill will a good will, doth it make the will, no will) might refuse or omit that that it does. So that because we are created by another pattern, we are governed by another law, and another providence.
Goe thou then the same way. If God wrought by a pattern, and writ by copy, and proceeded by a precedent, doe thou so too. Never say, there is no Church without error: therefore I will be bound by none; but frame a Church of mine owne, or be a Church to my selfe. What greater injustice, then to propose no Image, no pattern to thy selfe to imitate; and yet propose thy selfe for a pattern, for an Image to be adored? Thou wilt have singular opinions, and singular ways differing from all other men; and yet all that are not of thy opinion must be heretiques; and all reprobates, that goe not thy wayes. Propose good patterns to thy selfe; and thereby become a fit pattern for others. God, we see, was the first, that made Images; and he was the first, that forbad them. He made them for imitation; he forbad them in danger of adoration.Arnob. For, Qualis dementiae est id colere, quod melius est? What a drowzinesse, what a lazinesse, what a cowardlinesse of the soule is it, to worship that, which does but represent a better thing then it selfe? Worship belongs to the best, know thou thy distance, and thy period, how far to goe, and where to stop. Dishonor not God by an Image in worshiping it; and yet benefit thy selfe by it, in following it. There is no more danger out of a picture, then out of a history, if thou intend no more in either, then example. Though thou have a West, a darke and a sad condition, that thou art but earth, a man of infirmities, and ill counsailed in thy selfe: yet thou hast herein a North, that scatters and dispells these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures, and otherwise; Images, patterns, of good and holy men to goe by. But beyond this North this assistance of good examples of men; thou hast a South, a Meridionall heighth, by which thou seest thine Image, they pattern, to be no copy; no other man, but the originall it selfe, God himselfe: Faciamus ad nostram, Let us make man in our Image, after our likenesse.
Here we consider first,4 Part. Meridies. Vbi Imago. where this Image is, and then what it does: first, in what part of man God hath imprinted this his Image; And then what this Image confers, and derives upon man; what it works in man. And, as when we seek God in his essence, we are advised to proceed by negatives, God is not mortall, not passible: so when we seek the Image of God in man, we beginne with a negative; This Image is not in his body.Non in Corpore. Teriullian declined to thinke it was; nay Tertullian inclined others to thinke so. For he is the first, that is noted, to have been the author of that opinion, that God had a body.Deus non est Corpus. Yet Saint Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresie: because (says he) Tertullian might meance, that it was so sure, that there is a God; and that that God was a certaine, though not a finite Essence; that God was so far from being nothing, as that he had rather a body. Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of Tertullian, that charitable Father Saint Augastine, would excuse him of heresie. I would Saint Augustines charity might prevaile with them, that pretend to be Augustinianissimi, and to adore him so much in the Roman Church, not to cast the name of Heresie upon every probleme; nor the name of Heretique, upon every inquirer of Truth. Saint Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresie in a point concerning God, and they will condemne us of heresie, in every point that may be drawne to concerne not the Church,Chrysost. but the Court of Rome; not their doctrine, but their profit. Malo de Misericordia Deo rationem reddere, quàm de crudelitate, I shall better answer God for my mildenesse, then for my severity. And, though anger towards a brother, or a Raca, or a foole, will beare an action: yet he shall recover lesse against me at that bar, whom I have called weake, or mislead, (as I must necessary call many in the Roman Church) then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretique. For, I dare call an opinion heresie for the matter, a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretique. For that consists much in the manner. It must be matter of faith, before the matter be heresie. But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction, before that man be an heretique. But how excusable so ever Tertullian be herein in Saint Augustines charity: there was a whole sect of heretiques, one hundred years after Tertullian, the Audiani, who over literally taking those places of Scripture, where God is said to have hands, and feet, and eyes, and eares, beleeved God to have a body like ours; and accordingly interpreted this text; that in that Image, and that likenesse, a bodily likenesse, consisted this Image of God in man. And yet even these men, these Audians, Epiphanius, who first takes knowledge of them, calls but Schismatiques, not Heretiques: so loth is charity to say the worst of any. Yet we must remember them of the Roman perswasion, that they come too neare giving God a body in their pictures of God the Father. And they bring the body of God, that body which God the Sonne hath assumed, the body of Christ too neare, in their Transubstantiation: not too near our faith, (for so it cannot be brought too near; so, it is as really there as we are there) too neare to our sense: not too neare in the Vbi; for so it is there: There, that is, in that place to which the Sacrament extends it selfe. For the Sacrament extends as well to heaven, from whence it fetches grace, as to the table, from whence it delivers Bread and Wine: but too neare in modo. For it comes not thither that way. We must necessarily complaine, that they make Religion too bodily a thing. Our Saviour Christ corrected Mary Magdalens zeale, where she flew to him,Ioh. 20. 17. in a personall devotion; and he said, Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father. Fix your meditations upon Christ Jesus so, as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and entangle not your selves so with controversies about his body, as to lose reall charity, for imaginary zeale; nor enlarge your selves so far in the pictures and Images of his body, as to worship them, more then him. As Damdscen says of God, that he is Super-principale principium, a beginning, before any beginning we can conceive; and prae-aeterna aeternitas, an eternity infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine: so he is Super-spiritualis Spiritus, such a Super-spirit, as that the soule of man, and the substance of Angels is but a body, compared to this Spirit. God hath no body, though Tertullian disputed it; though the Audians preached it; though the Papists paint it. And therefore this Image of God is not in the body of man, that way.
Nor that way neither,Non Corpus assumptum. which some others have assigned, that God, who hath no body as God, yet in the creation did assume that forme, which man hath now, and so made man in his Image, that is, in that forme, which he had then assumed. Some of the Ancients thought so; and some other men of great estimation in the Roman Church have thought so too; In particular, Oleaster, a great officer in the Inquisition of Spaine. But great inquirers into other men, are easie neglecters of themselves. The Image of God is not in mans body this way.Non ut venturus Christus. Nor that third way, which others have imagined; that is, that when God said, Let us make man after our likenesse, God had respect to that forme, which in the fulnesse of time, his Sonne was to take upon him, upon earth. Let us make him now, (says God at first) like that which I intend hereafter, my Son shall be. For, though this were spoken before the fall of man, and so before any occasion of decreeing the sending of Christ: yet in the Schoole a great part of great men adhered to that opinion, that God from all eternity had a purpose that his Sonne should become man in this world, though Adam had not fallen: Non ut Medicus, sed ut Dominus ad nobilitandum genus humanum, say they: though Christ had not come as a Redeemer, if man had not needed him by sin, but had kept his first state; yet as a Prince that desired to heap honour upon him whom he loves, to doe man an honour, by his assuming that nature, Christ, say they, should have come, and to that Image, that forme, which he was to take then was man made in this text, say these imaginers. But alas, how much better were wit, and learning bestowed to prove to the Gentiles; that a Christ must come; (that they beleeve not) to prove to the Iews, that the Christ is come; (that they beleeve not) to prove to our own Consciences, that the same Christ may come again this minute to Judgment, (we live as though we beleeved not that) then to have filled the world, and torne the Church, with frivolous disputations, whether Christ should have come, if Adam had not fallen? Wo unto fomentors of frivolous disputations. None of these ways, not because God hath a body; not because God assumed a body, not because it was intended, that Christ should be born, before it was intended, that man should be made, is this Image of God in the body of man. Nor hath it in any other relation, respect to the body, but as we say in the Schoole, Arguitivè, and Significativè that because God hath given man a body of a nobler forme, then any other creature; we inferre, and argue, and conclude from thence, that God is otherwise represented in man, then in any other creature. So far is this Image of God in the body, that as you see some Pictures, to which the very tables are Jewells; some. Watches, to which the very cases are Jewells, and therefore they have outward cases too; and so the Picture, and the Watch is in that outward case, of what meaner stuffe soever that be: so is this Image in this body as in an outward case; so, as that you may not injure, nor enfeeble this body, neither by sinfull intemperance and licentiousnesse, nor by inordinate fastings or other disciplines of imaginary merits, while the body is alive; (for the Image of God is in it) nor to defraud thy body of decent buriall, and due solemnities after death; for the Image of God is to returne to it. But yet the body is but the out-cafe, and God lookes not for the gilding, or enamelling, or painting of that: but requires the labour, and cost therein to be bestowed upon the Tablet it selfe, in which this Image is immediately, that is the soule. And that's truly the Vbi, the place where this Image is: And there remaines onelyonly now, the operation thereof, how this Image of God in the soule of man works.
The Sphear then of this intelligence,In anima. the Gallery for this Picture, the Arch for this Statue, the Table, and frame and shrine for this Image of God, is properly immediately the soule of man. Not immediately so, as that the soule of man is a part of the Essence of God: For so effentially, Christ onelyonly is the Image of God. Saint Augustine at first thought so: Putaham te Deus, Corpus Lucidum, & me frustum de illo Corpore; I tooke thee, ô God, (says that Father) to be a Globe of fire, and my soule a sparke of that fire; thee to be a body of light, and my soule to be a beame of that light. But Saint Augustine does not onelyonly retract that in himselfe, but dispute against it, in the Manichees. But this Image is in our soule, as our soule is the wax, and this Image the seale. The Comparison is Saint Cyrills, and he addes well, that no seale but that, which printed the wax at first, can fit that wax, and fill that impression after. No Image, but the Image of God can fit our soule. Every other seale is too narrow, too shallow for it. The magistrate is sealed with the Lion; The woolfe will not fit that seale: the Magistrate hath a power in his hands, but not oppression. Princes are sealed with the Crown; The Miter will not fit that seale. Powerfully, and gratiously they protect the Church, and are supreame heads of the Church; But they minister not the Sacraments of the Church. They give preferments; but they give not the capacity of preferment. They give order who shall have; but they give not orders, by which they are enabled to have, that have. Men of inferiour and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Crosse; a Rose, or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seale. Ease, and plenty in age, must not be looked for without Crosses and labour and industry in youth. All men, Prince, and People; Clergy, and Magistrate, are sealed with the Image of God, with the profession of a conformity to him: and worldly seales will not answer that, nor fill up that seale. We should wonder to ses a Mother in the midst of many sweet Children passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight. We should wonder to see a man, whose Chambers and Galleries were full of curious master-peeces, thrust in a Village Fair to looke upon six-penny pictures, and three farthing prints. We have all the Image of God at home, and we all make babies, fancies of honour, in our ambitions. The master-peece is our own, in our own bosome; and we thrust in countrey Fairs, that is, we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather, in night-journies, and watchings: we indure the oppositions, and scornes, and triumphs of a rivall, and competitor, that seeks with us, and shares with us: we indure the guiltinesse, and reproach of having deceived the trust, which a confident friend reposes in us, and solicit his wife, or daughter: we endure the decay of fortune, of body, of soule, of honour, to possesse lower Pictures; pictures that are not originalls, not made by that hand of God, nature; but Artificiall beauties. And for that body, we give a soule, and for that drugge, which might have been bought, where they bought it, for a shilling, we give an estate. The Image of God is more worth then all substances; and we give it, for colours, for dreames, for shadowes.
But the better to prevent the losse,Tota Trinitas in omni facultate. let us consider the having of this Image: in what respect, in what operation, this Image is in our soule. For, whether this Image, bee in those faculties, which we have in Nature; or in those qualifications, which we may have in Grace; or in those super-illustrations, which the blessed shall have in Glory; hath exercised the contemplation of many. Properly this Image is in Nature; in the naturall reason, and other faculties of the immortall Soule of man. For, thereupon does Saint Bernard say, Imago Dei uri potest in Gehenna, non exuri: Till the soule be burnt to ashes, to nothing, (which cannot be done no not in hell) the Image of God cannot be burnt out of that soule. For it is radically, primarily, in the very soule it selfe. And whether that soule be infused into the Elect, or into the Reprobate, that Image is in that soule, and as far, as he hath a soule by nature, he hath the Image of God by Nature in it. But then the seale is deeper cut, or harder pressed, or better preserved in some, then in others; and in some other considerations, then meerly naturall. Therefore we may consider Man who was made here to the Image of God; and of God, in three Persons, to have been made so, in Gods intendment, three ways: Man had this Image in Nature, and does deface it; he hath it also in Grace here, and so does refresh it; and he shall have it in Glory hereafter, and that shall fix it, establish it. And in every of these three, in this Trinity in man, Nature, Grace, and Glory, man hath not onelyonly the Image of God, but the Image of all the Persons of the Trinity, in every of the three capacities. He hath the Image of the Father, the Image of the Sonne, the Image of the holy Ghost in Nature; and all these also in Grace; and all in Glory too. How all these are in all, I cannot hope to handle particularly; not though I were upon the first graine of our sand, upon the first dram of your patience, upon the first flash of my strength. But a cleare repeating of these many branches, that these things are thus, that all the Persons of the heavenly Trinity, are (in their Image) in every branch of this humane Trinity, in man, may, at least must suffice.
In Nature then,In natura Deus, man, that is, the soule of man hath this Image, of God, of God considered in his Unity, intirely, altogether, in this, that this soule is made of nothing, proceeds of nothing. All other creatures are made of that pre-existent matter, which God had made before, so were our bodies too; But our soules of nothing. Now, not to be made at all, is to be God himselfe: OnelyOnly God himselfe was never made. But to be made of nothing; to have no other parent but God, no other element but the breath of God, no other instrument but the purpose of of God, this is to be the Image of God. For this is nearest to God himselfe, who was never made at all, to be made of nothing. And then man, (considered in nature) is otherwise the nearest representation of God too. For the steppes, which we consider are four; First, Esse, Beeing; for some things have onelyonly a beeing, and no life, as stones: Secondly, Vivere, Living; for some things have life, and no sense; as Plants: and then, thirdly, Sentire Sense; for some things have sense, and no understanding. Which understanding and reason, man hath with his Beeing, and Life, and Sense; and so is in a nearer station to God, then any other creature, and a livelier Image of him, who is the root of Beeing, then all they, because man onelyonly hath all the declarations of Beeings. Nay if we consider Gods eternity, the soule of man hath such an Image of that, as that though man had a beginning, which the originall, the eternall God himselfe had not; yet man shall no more have an end, then the originall, the eternall God himselfe shall have. And this Image of eternity, this past Meridian, this after-noone eternity, that is, this Perpetuity and after everlastingnesse is in man meerly as a Naturall man, without any consideration of grace. For the Reprobate can no more die, that is, come to nothing, then the Elect. It is but of the naturall man, that Theodoret says, a King built a City, and erected his statue in the midst of the City; that is, God made man, and imprinted his Image in his soule. How will this King take it, (says that Father) to have his statue thrown down? Every man does so, if he doe not exalt his naturall faculties; If he doe not hearken to the law written in his heart; if he doe not as much as Plato, or as Socrates in the wayes of vertuous actions, he throwes down the Statue of this King; he defaces the Image of God. How would this King take it (says he) if any other Statue, especially the Statue of his enemy, should be set up in this place? Every man does so too, that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine, or false appearances of happinesse in matter of conversation. For these a naturall man may avoid in many cases, without that addition of grace, which is offered to us as Christians. That comparison of other creatures to man,40. 14. which is intimated in Ieb, is intended but of the naturall man. There speaking of Behemoth, that is, of the greatest of Creatures, he says, in our translation, that he is the chiefe of the ways of God: Saint Hierome hath it, Principium; and others before him, Initium viarum Dei: That when God went that progresse over all the world, in the Creation thereof, he did but beginne, he did but set out at Behemoth, at the best of all such Creatures; he, all they were but Initium viarum, the beginning of the wayes of God. But Finis viarum, the end of his journey, and the Eve, the Vespers of his Sabbath was the making of man, even of the naturall man. Behemoth, and the other creatures were Vestigia, (says the Schoole) in them we may see, where God hath gone, for all beeing is from God, and so every thing that hath a beeing hath filiationem vestigii a testimony of Gods having passed that way, and called in there. But man hath filiationem Imaginis, an expression of his Image; and does the office of an Image or Picture, to bring him, whom it represēts, the more lively to our memory. Gods abridgement of the whole world was man. Reabridge man into his least volume, in pura naturalia, as he is but meer man, & so he hath the Image of God in his soul.
He hath it,Pater in Intellectu. as God is considered in his Unity, (for as God is, so the soule of man is, indivisibly, impartibly one, intire) and he hath it also, as God is notified to us in a Trinity. For as there are three Persons in the Essence of God: so there are three faculties in the Soule of man. The Attributes, and some kind of specification of the Persons of the Trinity are, Power to the Father, Wisedome to the Sonne, and Goodnesse to the holy Ghost. And the three faculties of the Soule have the Images of these three. The Understanding is the Image of the Father, that is, Power. For no man can exercise power, no man can governe well without understanding the natures and dispositions of them whom he governes. And therefore in this consists the power, which man hath over the creature, that man understands the nature of every creature, For so Adam did, when he named every creature according to the nature thereof. And by this advantage of our understanding them, and comprehending them, we master them, and so obliviscuntur quod nata sunt, says Saint Ambrose; the Lion, the Beare, the Elephant have forgot what they were borne to. Induuntur quod jubentur; they invest and put on such a disposition, and such a nature, as we enjoine them, and appoint to them. Serviunt ut famuli; (as that Father pursues it elegantly) and verberantur, ut timidi: they waite upon us as servants; who, if they understood us as well, as we understand them, might be our Masters: and they receive correction from us, as though they were afraid of us; when, if they understood us, they would know, that we were not able to stand in the teeth of the Lion, in the horne of the Bull, in the heels of the Horse. And adjuvantur ut infirmi; they counterfeit a weakenesse, that they might be beholden to us for help: and they are content to thanke us, if we afford them any rest, or any food; who, if they understood us, as well, as we doe them, might teare our meate out of our throates; nay teare out our throats for their meat.
So then in this first naturall faculty of the soule, the Understanding, stands the Image of the first Person,Filius in Voluntate. the Father, Power: and in the second faculty which is the Will, is the Image, the Attribute of the second Person the Sonne, which is Wisdome: for wisdome is not so much in knowing, in understanding, as in electing, in choosing, in assenting. No man needs goe out of himselfe, nor beyond his owne legend, and the history of his owne actions for examples of that, that many times we know better, and choose ill wayes. Wisdome is in choosing in Assenting. And then,Spiritus in Memoria. in the third faculty of the soule, the Memory, is the Image of the third person, the holy Ghost, that is, Goodnesse. For to remember, to recollect our former understanding, and our former assenting, so far as to doe them, to Crowne them with action, that's true goodnesse. The office, that Christ assignes to the holy Ghost, and the goodnesse, which he promises in his behalfe is this,Iob. 14. 20. that he shall bring former things to our remembrance. The wiseman places all goodnesse in this faculty, the memory, properly nothing can fall into the memory, but that which is past, and yet he says, Whatsoever thou takest in hand,Eccles. 7. 36. remember the end, and thou shalt never doe amisse. The end cannot be yet come, and yet we are bid to remember that. Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, says Saint Augustine. As all senses are called fight, in the Scriptures, (for there is Gustate Dominum, and Audite, and Palpate; Taste the Lord, and heare the Lord, and feele the Lord, and still the Videte, is added, taste, and see the Lord) so all goodnesse is in remembring, all goodnesse, (which is the Image of the holy Ghost) is in bringing our understanding and our assenting into action. Certainly beloved, if a man were like the King but in countenance, and in proportion, he himselfe would thinke somewhat better of himselfe, and others would be the lesse apt to put scornes, or injuries upon him, then if he had a Vulgar, and course aspect. With those, who have the Image of the Kings power, (the Magistrate) the Image of his Wisdome, (the Counsell) the Image of his Goodnesse, (the Clergy) it should be so too. There is a respect due to the Image of the King in all that have it. Now, in all these respects man, the meer naturall man, hath the Image of the King of Kings. And therefore respect that Image in thy selfe, and exalt thy naturall faculties. Aemulate those men, and be ashamed to be outgone by those men, who had no light but nature. Make thine understanding, and thy will, and thy memory (though but naturall faculties) serviceable to thy God; and auxiliary and subsidiary for thy salvation. For, though they be not naturally instruments of grace; yet naturally they are susceptible of grace, and have so much in their nature, as that by grace they may be made instruments of grace: which no faculty in any creature, but man, can be. And doe not thinke that because a naturall man cannot doe all, therefore he hath nothing to doe for himselfe.
This then is the Image of God in man,In Gratia. the first way, in nature; and most literally this is the intention of the text. Man was this Image thus; and the roome furnished with this Image was Paradise. But there is a better roome then that Paradise for the second Image, (the Image of God in man by grace) that is, the Christian Church. For though for the most part this text be understood De naturalibus, of our naturall faculties: yet Origen, and not onelyonly such Allegoricall Expositors, but Saint Basill, and Nyssen and Ambrose, and others, who are literall enough, assigne this Image of God, to consist in the gifts of Gods grace, exhibited to us here in the Church. A Christian then in that second capacity, as a Christian, and not onelyonly as a man, hath this Image of God; of God first considered intirely. And those expressions of this impression, those representations of this Image of God, in a Christian by grace, which the Apostles have exhibited to us; that we are the sonnes of God; the feed of God; the off-spring of God; and partakers of the divine nature, (which are high and glorious exaltations) are enlarged, and exalted by Damascen to a farther height,Orat. de Assumpt. Mariae. when he says; Sicut Deus homo, it a ego Deus; As God is man, so I am God, says Damascen. I, taken in the whole mankinde, (for, so Damascen takes it out of Nazianzen; and he says, Sicut verbum caro, ita caro verbum, as God was made man, man may become God) but especially I; I, as I am wrought upon by grace, in Christ Jesus. So a Christian is made the Image of God intirely. To which expression Saint Cyrill also comes neare, when he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem, man in the forme of God; which is a mysterious, and a blessed metamorphosis, and transfiguration: that, whereas it was the greatest trespasse,Esai. 14. 14. of the greatest trespasser in the world, the Devill, to say Similis ero Altissimo, I will be like the Highest: it would be as great a trespasle in me, not to be like the Highest, not to conforme my selfe to God, by the use of his grace, in the Christian Church. And whereas the humiliation of my Saviour is in all things to be imitated by me: yet herein I am bound to depart, from his humiliation; that whereas he being in the forme of God, tooke the forme of a servant; I being in the forme of a servant,Phil. 2. 5. may, nay must take upon me the forme of God, in being Deiformis homo, a man made in Christ, the Image of God. So have I the Image of God intirely, in his unity, because I professe that faith,Ephe. 4. 5. which is but one faith; and under the seale of the Baptisme, which is but one Baptisme. And then, as of this one God; so I have also the Image of the severall persons of the Trinity, in this capacity, as I am a Christian, more then in my naturall faculties.
The Attributes of the first Person,Pater. the Father, is Power, and none but a Christian hath power over those great Tyrants of the world, Sinne, Satan, Death, and Hell. For thus my Power accrues and growes unto me. First, Possum Iudicare, 1 Cor. 6. 5.I have a Power to Judge; a judiciary, a discretive power; a power to discerne between a naturall accident; and a Judgement of God, and will never call a Judgement, an accident; and between an ordinary occasion of conversation and atentation of Satan, Possum judicare, and then Possum resistere, Ephe. 6. 13.which is another act of power. When I finde it to be a tentation, I am able to resist it: and Possum stare, (which is another) I am able, not onley to withstand,Ibid. but to stand out this battell of tentations to the end; And then Possum capere, Mat. 19. 12.that which Christ proposes for a tryall of his Disciples, Let him, that is able to receive it, receive it, I shall have power to receive the gift of continency, against all tentations of that kinde. Bring it to the highest act of power, that with which Christ tryed his strongest Apostles,20. 21. Possum bibere calicem, I shall be able to drinke of Christs Cup; even to drinke his bloud, and be the more innocent for that, and to powre out my bloud,Phil. 4. 13. and be the stronger for that. In Christo omnia possum, there's the fulnesse of Power, in Christ I can doe all things, I can want, or I can abound, I can live, or I can die. And yet there is an extension of Power,1 Iohn 39. beyond all this, in this Non possum peccare, being borne of God in Christ, I cannot sinne. This that seemes to have a name of impotence, Non possum, I cannot, is the fullest omnipotence of all, I cannot sinne; not sinne to death; not sinne with a desire to sinne; not sinne, with a delight in sinne; but that tentation, that overthrowes another, I can resist, or that sinne, which being done, casts another into desperation, I can repent. And so I have the Image of the first Person, the Father, in Power.
The Image of the second Person,Filius. whose Attribute is Wisdome, I have in this, that Wisdome being the knowledge of this world, and the next, I embrace nothing in this world, but as it leads me to the next. For, thus my wisdome, my knowledge growes. First,2 Tim. 1. 12, Scio cui credidi, I know whom I have beleeved in:Rom. 6. 9. I have not mislaid my foundation; my foundation is Christ; and then Scio non moriturum; my foundation cannot sinke,8. 27. I know that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more; againe Scio quod desideret Spiritus, I know what my spirit, enlightned by the Spirit of God, desires; I I am not transported with illusions, and singularities of private spirits. And as in the Attribute of Power, we found an omnipotence in a Christian, so in this, there is an omniscience, 1. Cor. S. 1.Scimus, quia omnem Scientiam habemus; there's all together; we know that we have all knowledge, for all Saint Pauls universall knowledge was but this, Iesum Crucifixum, 2. 2.I determine not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and him Crucified; and then, the way by which he would proceed, and take degrees in this Wisdome, was Sultitia praedicandi, 1. 21.the way that God had ordained, when the world by Wisedome knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve. These then are the steps of Christian Wisedome, my foundation is Christ, of Christ I enquire no more, but fundamentall doctrines, him Crucified, and this I apply to my selfe, by his ordinace of Preaching. And in this wisdome, I have the Image of the second Person.
And then, of the third also in this, that his Attribute beeing Goodnesse, I as a true Christian,Spiritus Sanctus. call nothing good, that conduces not to the glory of God in Christ Jesus, nor any thing ill, that drawes me not from him. Thus I have an expresse Image of his Goodnesse,Rom. 8. 28. that Omnia cooperantur in bonum, all things worke together for my good, if I love God. I shall thanke my fever, blesse my poverty, praise my oppressor, nay thanke, and blesse, and praise, even some sinne of mine, which by the consequences of that sinne, which may be shame, or losse, or weaknesse, may bring me to a happy sense of all my former sinnes; and shall finde it to have been a good fever, a good poverty, a good oppression, yea a good sinne. Vertit in bonum, says Ioseph to his brethren, you thought evill,Gen. 50. 20. but God meant it unto good; and I shall have the benefit of my sinne, according to his transmutation, that is, though I meant ill, in that sinne, I shall have the good,Amos 3. 6. that God meant in it. There is no evill in the City, but the Lord does it; But, if the Lord doe it, it cannot be evill to me. I beleeve that I shall see Bona Dei, the goodnesse of the Lord,Psal. 27. 13. in the land of the living, that's in heaven; but David speakes also of Signum in bonum, shew me a token of good, and God will shew me a present token of future good, an inward infallibility, that this very calamity shall be beneficiall, and advantageous unto me. And so, as in Nature I have the Image of God, in my whole soule, and of all the three Persons, in the three faculties thereof, the Understanding, the Will, and the Memory, so in Grace, in the Christian Church, I have the same Images, of the Power of the Father, of the Wisedome of the Sonne, of the Goodnesse of the holy Ghost, in my Christian profession: And all this we shall have in a better place, then Paradise, where we considered it in nature, and a better place then the Church, as it is Militant, where we considered it in grace, that is, in the kingdome of heaven, where we consider this Image in glory; which is our last word.
There we shall have this Image of God in perfection; for, if Origen could lodge such a conceit,In gloria Deus. that in heaven, at last, all things should ebbe backe into God, as all things flowed from him, at first, and so there should be no other Essence but God, all should be God, even the Devill himselfe, how much more may we conceive an unexpressible association, (that's too far off) an assimilation, (that's not neare enough) an identification, (the Schoole would venture to say so) with God in that state of glory. Where, as the Sunne by shining upon the Moone, makes the Moone a Planet, a Star, as well, as it selfe, which otherwise would be but the thickest, and darkest part of that Spheare, so those beames of Glory which shall issue from my God, and fall upon me, shall make me, (otherwise a clod of earth, and worse, a darke Soule, a Spirit of darkenesse) an Angell of Light, a Star of Glory, a something, that I cannot name now, not imagine now, nor to morrow, nor next yeare, but, even in that particular, I shall be like God, that as he, that asked a day to give a definition of God, the next day asked a week, and then a monethmonth, and then a yeare, so undeterminable would my imaginations be, if I should goe about to thinke now, what I shall be there: I shall be so like God, as that the Devill himselfe shall not know me from God, so far, as to finde any more place, to fasten a tentation upon me, then upon God, nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdome, then of Gods being driven out of it; for, though I shal not be immortall as God, yet I shall be as immortall, as God. And there's my Image of God; of God considered altogether, and in his unity, in the state of Glory.
I shall have also then; the Image of all the three Persons of the Trinity.Pater. Power is the Fathers; and a greater Power, then he exercises here, I shall have there: here he overcomes enemies; but yet here he hath enemies; there, there are none; here they cannot prevaile, there they shall not be. So Wisedome is the Image of the Sonne;Filius. And there I shall have better Wisdome, then spirituall Wisdome it selfe is here: for, here our best Wisedome is, but to goe towards our end, there it is rest in our end; here it is to seek to bee Glorified by God, there it is, that God may be everlastingly glorified by mee. The Image of the holy Ghost is Goodnesse,Spiritus Sanctus. here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill; faith mixt with scruples and good workes mixt with a love of praise, and hope of better, mixt with feare of worse. There I shall have sincere goodnesse, goodnesse impermixt, intemerate, and indeterminate goodnesse; so good a place, as no ill accident shall annoy it; so good company, as no impertinent, no importune person shall disorder it; so full a goodnesse, as no evill of sinne, no evill of punishment for former sinnes, can enter; so good a God, as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger, nor in need of his mercy, but shall fill us first, and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant; and give us a satiety, that we can with no more, and an infallibility, that we can lose none of that, and both at once. Where, as the Cabalists expresse our nearenesse to God, in that state, in that note, that the name of man, and the name of God, Adam, and Iehovah; in their numerall letters, are alike, and equall, so I would have leave, to expresse that inexpressible state, so far, as to say, that if there can be other world imagined besides this that is under our Moone, and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds, besides this God, to whose Image we are thus made, in Nature, in Grace, in Glory; I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven, then of those Gods in those other worlds; I shall be like the Angels in a glorified Soul, and the Angels shall not be like me in a glorified body. The holy noblenesse, and the religious ambition, that I would imprint in you, for attaining of this Glory, makes me medismiss you with this note, for the feare of missing that Glory; that as we have taken just occasion, to magnifie the goodnesse of God, towards us, in that he speakes plurally, Faciamus, Let us, All us do this, and so powers out the blessings of the whole Trinity upon us, in this Image of himselfe, in every Person of the three, and in all these wayes, which we have considered: so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us, God collects himselfe, summons himself assembles himselfe, musters himselfe, and threatens plurally too: for, of those foure places in Scripture, in which onelyonly (as we noted before) God speakes of himselfe in a Royall plurall, God speakes in anger, and in a preparation to destruction, in one of those foure, intirely; as intirely, he speakes of mercy, but in one of them, in this text; here he says, meerly out of mercy, Faciamus, Let us, us, all us, make man, and in the same plurality,Gen. 11. the same universality, he says after, Descendamus & confundamus, Let us, us, all us, goe downe to them, and confound them, as meerly out of indignation, and anger, as here out of mercy. And in the other two places where God speakes plurally, he speakes not meerly in mercy, nor meerly in justice, in neither; but in both he mingles both. So that God carries himselfe so equally herein, as that no Soul, no Church, no State, may any more promise it selfe patience in God, if it provoke him, then suspect anger in God, if we conforme our selves to him. For, from them, that set themselves against him, God shall withdraw his Image, in all the Persons, and all the Attributes; the Father shall withdraw his Power, and we shall be enfeebled in our forces, the Sonne his Wisdome, and we shall be infatuated in our counsailes, the holy Ghost his Goodnesse, and we shall be corrupted in our manners, and corrupted in our Religion, and be a prey to temporall, and spirituall enemies, and change the Image of God into the Image of the Beast: and as God loves nothing more then the Image of himselfe, in his Sonne, and then the Image of his Sonne Christ Jesus, in us, so he hates nothing more, then the Image of Antichrist, in them, in whom he had imprinted his Sonnes Image, that is, declinations towards Antichrist, or concurrencies with Antichrist in them, who were borne, and baptized, and catechised, and blessed in that profession of his truth. That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause, or colour of jealousies, or suspitions thereof, in them, whom he hath placed over us, to conforme us to his Image, in a holy life, that sinnes continued, and multiplyed by us against him, doe not so provoke him against us, that those two great helps, the assiduity of Preaching, and the personall, and exemplary piety and constancy in our Princes, be not by our sinnes made unprofitable to us. For that's the heighth of Gods malediction upon a Nation, when the assiduity of preaching, and the example of a Religious Prince, does them no good, but aggravates their fault.