Treatise of Divinity, Book 3 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
2. Of Man.
WHen God had created heaven & earth, he rested not in heaven nor any heavenly thing: neither in earth, nor any earthly thing, but only in man,*Vocabulum homo est duar… ̄ substantiarum fibula. Tertullian. Man was made last, because he was worthiest, the soule was inspired last, because yet more noble Dr. Halls Contemp. of Paradise. Man was created after Gods image. 1. To awe the creature, whose Soveraigne he was. 2. That hee might acknowledg God to be his Lord, and do him homage, and that God and he might delight in each other: ad imaginem at similitudinem, id est, imaginem valde similem. Eman Sa ad loc. Significatur absoluta similitudo utraque voce que quid sit ita effectum ad exemplar altetius ut pro…im… adillud accedat, & quam maximè exprimat ac referat, ut in eo agnoscas illud ipsum Archetrpo…ad cujus effigiem sit factum. Mercetus in loc. because he is a heavenly thing for his soule, and earthly in regard of his bodie. Man is a living creature made after the image of God, Gen. 1. 26.
The efficient cause of man was the Holy trinity, God the Father, Son, and holy Ghost.
In the Creation of man 3. things are considerable:
1. The consultation of the Trinity, let us make man, Gen. 1. 26. quia rationalis creatura quasi cum consilio facta videretur.
2. The worke made, not an Hermophradite as some would have it (though Adam comprehended both sexes) but hee is distinguished into both sexes: thus it followes after, male and female.
3. The pattern of it, the image of God, 1 Cor. 11. 7. Col. 3. 10. Bellarmine distinguisheth between an age and similitude; the first (saith he) consists in naturall endowments: the other in supernaturall graces: rather image and similitude represent an exact likenesse. These two words are in an inverted order joyned together, 5 ch. ver. 3 JAmes 3. ch. 9. v. mentions only likenesse, leaving out image, which is a certaine signe, that there is no difference betweene them, but that the second is added to insinuate the perfection of the image.
There is a four-fold image or likenesse?
1. Where there is a likenesse with an absolute agreement in the same nature, and so the Son of God is called the expresse image of the Father.
2. By participation of some universall common nature, so a man and beast are like in the common nature of animality.
3. By proportion onelyonly, as when we say, the Governor of a Common-wealth, and the Pilot of a ship are like.
4. By agreement of order,The Schoolemen make Images and similitudes divers; and again they distinguish between imaginem Dei, & ad imaginem Dei. when one thing is a patterne or exemplar, and the other thing is made after it: now when man is said to be like God, it is meant in those two last waies Christ was the essential image of God. Mans was imago repraesentantis aliter imago imperatoris in nummo; aliter, in filio. Augustine.
The Image of God in which man was cteated, is the conformity of man unto God, 1. In his soule. 2. In his body for his soule. 3. In the whole person for the union of both.
The soule of a man is conformable to God in respect of its nature, faculties, and habits.
1. In respect of its nature, essence, or being, as it is a spirituall and immortall substance.This was great controversie between Hierom & August. An anima sit ex traduce, an immortalis. Hierome held the immediate creation of it, and this is most suitable to the perfection and simplicity of the soule. Austin did at least incline to the latter, that it is by propagation. That of Zach. 12. 1. & Heb. 12. 9. makes it the more probable opinion, that it is by immediate creation, & for that of original sinne, the soule is created as part of man, and so justly deprived of that originall excellency. The Scripture witnesseth, 1. that the soule of man is a spirit, Matth. 27. 20. Acts 7. 59, 2. That it is immortall.
1. Because it cannot bee destroyed by any second cause Matth. 10. 28.
2. Being served from the bodie, it subsists by it selfe, and goes to God, Eccles. 12. 7. Luke 16. 22.
3. Because it is a simple and immateriall substance, not depending on matter: the minde workes the better, the more it is abstracted from the body, when it is asleep or dying.
4. Because it transcends all terrene and mortall things, and with a wonderful quicknesse searcheth after heavenly, divine, and eternall things. There is an invincible argument for the thing secretly imprinted in the instinct and conscience of the soule it selfe. Because it is every good mans hope that it shall be so, and wicked mans feare.
5. The foode of the soule is immortall, 1 Pet. 1. 23. the evident promises of eternall life prove the soule to be immortall, He that beleeveth in me hath eternall life: and to day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise. Nothing can satisfie the soule but God.
6. Man is capable of vertue and vice, of immortall desires and affections.
7. The soules of Adam and Eve were not made of any matter, but came by immediate creation, in whom God gave a specimen, what he would perpetually doe with other men. That is but a Cavill, that Solomon, Eccles. 12. 7. speakes only of our first Parents.
Children are called the fruit of their Parents body, to note that,aBishop Lake on Ps. 132. 11. See Numb. 27. 16. Ps. 35. 15. Esay 57. 16. that they are only fathers of their flesh: they have another, namely God, which is Father of their Spirits. Saint Paul teacheth it, Heb. 12. 9. and the use of it. And this checks their opinion who will have soules propagated, no lesse then bodies.
Many collect the immortality of the soule, and salvation of Jobs children, because they were not doubled as the rest of his estate was.
2. The soule of man is conformable to God in respect of itsImago divinae sapientiae in intellectu effulsit imago bonitatis mansuetudinis, tolerantiae in ejus animo, imago charitatis & misericordiae in cordis affectibus imago justitiae sanctitatis & puritatis divinae in voluntate imagocomitatis, benignitatis & veritatis ingestibus & verbis, & imago divinae potentiae in dominio concesso super omnia animalia. Rivetus. faculties, in its understanding, will and memory, is like the Trinity.
3. In the qualities, graces, and admirable endowments of it. In the understanding there was 1. An exact knowledg of God and all Divine things, Coloss. 3. 10. knowledg is a principall part of Gods image, by reason hee was enabled to conceive of things spirituall and universall.
2. A perfect knowledge of all inferiour things, Adam knew Eve, See Mr. Burgesse on 1 Tim. 1. 8. Lect. 12 p. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. Adam was by his naturall frame and disposition apt & fit to know, do, and forbeare all that God would have him know, doe, and forbeare, Gen. 9. 6.and imposed names on the creatures sutable to their natures. He had most exquisite prudence in the practicall part of his understanding in all doubtfull cases. Hee knew what was to be done. 2. In the will there was holinesse, Ephes. 4. 24. 3. His affections were under the power of grace. From this image did necessarily follow peace with God, fellowship and union. He knew God to be his Creator and to love him, in all good things, he enjoyed God, and tasted his sweetness. Mans body also after a sort is an image of Divine perfection.
Observe 1. The Majesticall forme of it,Os homini sublime ded…t, &c. Man only hath a hand, which is the instrumēt of instruments. All other oreatures but man have only four muscles, one to turne downewards, another to hold forwards, a third to the right hand, a fourth to the left: only man h…th a … muscle in his eye to rou…e it up to God. Columb. de re Anotem. of which the Heathens tooke notice; but the structure of the bodie a man should be taught to contemn the earth which his feete tread upon, and to set his heart upon heaven whether his eyes naturally tend.
2. Gods artifice in it, Psal. 139. 15. Thou hast curiously wroug… me and I was wonderfully made. Materiam superabat opus. Of the basest matter, dust, God made the noblest creature.
3. The serviceablenesse of every part for its end and use.
4. There is matter of humiliation, because it was made of the dust,Dr. Clerke. Gen. 3, 19. Job. 14. 18, 10. and 5, 15. The Greek name makes man proud, cals him foreign bids him aspire, looke up, but the Hebrew bAdam ab Adamah Homo ab humo.and Latine humble him, bids him stoop, looke downe.
Adams bodie was mortall conditionally if he had not eaten of the tree, there could be noe outward cause of his death, for Gods protection kept that off: nor noe in ward cause because originall righteousnesse was in his soule, and for old age and weaknesse, the tree of life would have preserved him from that.
3. The whole person (consisting both of soule and bodie) was conformable to God,Experientia docet multò excellentius in statu inocentiae habuisse hominem hanc potentiam, quam instatu peccati. Tunc subjectio animalium erga hominem fuisset perfecta, quae nunc diffioilis est, & non obtinetur nisi adhibita cura maxima & assiduo labore sunt n… quaedam animalia fera & indomitv, quae nunquam cicurantur, See Gen. 2. 7. in respect of his felicitie and dominion over the creatures, Gen. 1. 26, 28. The image of God doth not principally consist in this, but secondarily, therefore though the man and woman were created perfectly after Gods image in other respects, yet in this respect the woman had not the image of God, as the Apostle sheweth. The power which Adam had over the creatures, was not absolute and direct (that God reserved to himselfe) but it was for Adams use, then the stoutest and fiercest beasts would be ruled by Adam, this dominion since the fal is lost for a great part of our rebellion against God, the creatures rebellion should mind us of ours: we may see somtimes a little child driving before him 100. oxen or kine this or that way as he pleaseth: for the infusing of the soul, the time when it was infused, it is most probable that the body was first made as the organe or instrument, and then the soule put into it, as God did make heaven and earth before man was made.
God did not create all the soules of men at once, but he creates them daily as they are infused into the bodie.
There are these two Questions to be resolved.
1. Whether immortalitie was naturall to Adam.
2. Whether originall righteousnesse was naturall to Adam.
For the first. A thing is immortall foure wayes.
1. Absolutly, soe that their is no inward or outward cause of mortalitie 1. Tim. 6. soe God onelyonly.
2. when it is not soe by nature, but immortalitie is a perfection voluntarily, put into the constitution of the creature by the Creator, soe Angels are immortall.
3. Not by any singular condition of nature but by Grace, so the bodies of the Saints glorified.
4. When it is mortall inwardly but yet conditionally it is immortall, that is, if he doe his dutie and soe Adam was immortall.
For the second Question.Affirmatiuam tuentur ci Evā geli Pontificios contra.
The properties of it are these.
1. It is originall righteousnesse, because it is the naturall perfection of the whole man and all his faculties, for distinction sake we call it originall righteousnesse. It is soe both in regard of it selfe, for it was the first in the first man.
2. in regard of man, because he had it from his very begining.
3. In regard of his posterity, because it was to be propagated to others.
2. It is universall, it was the rectitude of all parts, it could not else be an image of God, unlesse it did universally resemble him in all holinesse. His understanding had all things for truth, his will for good, his affections for obedience.
3. Harmonious every facultie stood in a right order, the will subject to the understanding and the affections to both.
4. It was due to him not by way of desert, as if God did owe Adam any thing but conditionally, supposing God made Adam to injoye himselfe and by way of meanes.
5. Naturall.Rivetus exercitat. 6. in Cap. 1. Genes. 1. Subjectiuè, that which inwardly adheres to the nature of a thing from its begining. 2. perfectivè, that which perfects nature for its end and actions. 3. propagativè. when it would have beene propagated in a naturall way, if man had continued in innocencie, but constitutivè and consecutivè, supernaturall.
The Papists denie that that was naturall to man in innocencie, and therefore they say mans nature is not corrupted by the fall, because a supernaturall gift onelyonly is taken from him, all his naturals being left, which is the opinion of the Pelagians who affirme, that the nature of man fallen is perfect before the committing of actuall sinnes.
Paradise is spoken of in the 2. of Genesis. See Sir Walter Raleigh in the History of the world, page 1. Multi quia locum à Mose hic descriptum reperire nusquam potuerunt, hortum, arbores, flumina, aquas, & omnia haec in allegorias transformarunt, quod rect August. refellit, quamvis & ipse se idem sensisse, fateatur. Alij eodem decepti errore Paradisum finxerunt proximè sphaeram Lunae in aere suspensum. Pareus in loc.Some of the Ancients (as Origen, Philo) yea and of latter Authors have turned all this into an allegorie, but now that it was a reall corporal place, we may prove. 1. because God planted a garden and put Adam into it, and there went a river out of it which was divided into foure streames; but these were visible, and corporeall as Euphrates and Tigris, & in the third Chapter, it is said that Adam hid himselfe with the leaves of the tree, therefore the trees in paradise were reall and not allegoricall, and lastly Adam was cast out of it. The ground of allegorizing all these things ariseth from the vanitie of mans minde, which thinketh these things too low for the Spirit of God to relate, and therefore indeavours to find out many mysteries.
2. In what part of the earth it was.Mihi dubium non est, terram Canaan fuisse delicias totius orbis terrarum, itaque facile illis accedo, qui eo in loco fuisse ante diluvium Paradisum putant. Solus ille locus est, in q…o postea Deus voluit Ecclesiā & populum suum esse Lutherus in decimum caput Genes.
Some have thought it to be the whole world, but that cannot bee, for it is said, God tooke Adam and put him into it, and likewise that he was cast out of it; others thought Paradise to be a very high place reaching to the very globe of the Moone, but that cannot be habitable for the subtiltie of the aire, others (as Oleaster and Vatablus) thinke it was in Mesopotamia onelyonly, and that it hath lost his beautie by the floud. But the safest way is not to trouble our selves any further then Moses text, which saith it was in the region of the East, in respect of Judaea, Aegypt, or Arabia, and as for the limits and bounds of it, they cannot now be knowne.
However had his invention of Alcinous Gardens, (as Justin Mayrter noteth) out of Moses his discription of paradise, Gen. 2. & those praises of the Elisian sieldes were taken out of this storie, ver erat aeternum &c. Ovid Metam Homer lib. 2. and from the talke betweene Eve and the Serpent, Aesops fables were derived.
Thirdly. Whether the waters of the floud did destroy it.
Bellarmine and generally the Papists will not admit, that it was destroyed by Noahs floud,Paradise was a little modell of heaven, and a sign of the great heaven, assuring Adam, that if he continued in obedience to God, he should be translated in: to heaven, to enjoy God supernaturally, as there he did enjoy him naturally: for the Law saying, Doe this and live, means it of ever lasting life. So Mr. Wheately held, but Mr. Ball seemes to differ from him in his booke of the Covenant. Pareus in capu… secundum. Gen. …. 7. and it is to maintaine a false opinion, for they say that Enoch and Elias (who are yet in their bodies) are the two witnesses spoken of, and that they shall come when Antichrist shall be revealed, and then he shall put them to death, and therefore they hold that Enoch and Elias are kept alive in this paradise which they say still remaineth; but that this is a meere fable, appeareth, because John Baptist is expresly said by Christ to be the Elias that was to come, because he came in the Spirit of Elias. Therefore we hold that wheresoever Paradise was, yet in the great floud it was destroyed, not but that the ground remaineth still, onelyonly the forme, beautie and fruitfullnesse is spoiled Gen. 7. 19. Paradise signifieth a garden, the word being translated out of Greeke into Latine, and soe into french and English, In Hebrew it is called Heden, which signifieth delights, a Garden of all manner of delights, a place beset with all kinde of fruitefull and beautifull trees. There were two speciall trees in it, one called the tree of life, the other of the knowledge of good and evill.
Some say it was called the tree of life from the effect, because of the hidden power and force it hadaThe Poets from the tree of life tooke their Nectar, and Ambrosia, Nectar, signifieth making young, and Ambrosia Immortality: therefore they are said to bee the meate and drinke of the Gods. of sustaining and prolonging mans life. Although it be a dispute, whether it had this force as meat to prolong life or as medicine to prevent death, old age and diseases, as likewise whether this power in the tree were naturall or supernaturall.
Therefore others say it was called soe not from the effect, but signification, because it was an outward signe, that God would give them immortalitie if they did continue.
It is questioned, whether the tree of lif was a Sacrament.
Pareus answers, that it was a Sacrament three wayes.
1. As an admonishion to them, that the life which they had, they had it from God, for as often as they tasted of it, they were to remember that God was the author of life,
2. As it was a symboll of a better life in heaven, if he did continue in obedience.
3. Sacramentally of Christ, as in whom Adam and Angels did obtaine life. Rev. 2. 7. He is called the tree of life in the midst of Paradise, but that is onelyonly allegoricall and allusive, soe that what the tree of life was to Adam in innocencie, the same is Christ to us in our corrupt estate.
2. The tree of Good and Evill.
It was not so called from any internall forme as if it selfe were knowing good and evill,Pareus. nor from the effect, as if by eating thereof it would have procured wisedome in man and made him wiser, nor yet was it called so from the lying promise of the Devill, concerning omniscience, for God called it so before they met together, therefore it was named so from the Event, for God by this name foretold what would follow, if man did not abstaine from it; that he should experimentally know what was good and what was evill, hee should practically feele what he had lost and what evill he had plunged himselfe into. Some have thought, that those words Gen. 3. 24. should not be understood Historically but allegorically,Pareus. that is, that God gave him noe hopes of coming into this place againe, but the text contradicts that, some have understood by Cherubims, some species and images of terrible creatures,Corrrollaties from Gods goodnesse to man in his Creation. as wee call Scarecrowes, but that is simple to thinke that Adam was so childish to be afraid of those; others interpret it of the fire of Purgatory. The more probable Interpretation is, that by Cherubims are meant Angels, who did after a visible manner shake up and downe this fiery sword,1. It serves to blame mankind for his wonderfull naughtiness in striving against God, who hath bestowed so great and undeserved benefits upon him. 2. Let us seriously consider of our selves and of our making, that we may come to a due knowledge of God, of our selves, One saith, the soule is not altogether immateriall, for what hath accidents, hath matter, nothing but that is the subject of accidents. 2. what is finite is materiall: seeing finitenesse is the attribute of matter by which it is contained within its own limits: but it subsists, lives and workes, being separated from the body, it is immateriall. Moses doth therfore call them Cherubims, because the Jewes knew what he meant, having such formes over the Arke. Therefore it is taken for Angels, not simply but as they appeared in some shape. It is a curiositie to enquire how long they staid there, although it is certaine they ceased when Paradise was destroyed, which was by the floud
Therefore this serves 1. For information, to instruct us.
1. That everyman and woman hath a soule, there is a bodie and a spirit wch enlivens & acts the bodie for all performances of the Compositum we must glorifie God in both. 1. Cor. 6. 20.
2. It is immortall by Gods appointing (but in it selfe endable because it hath a begining) that it may be capable of everlasting weale or woe.
3. It is soe immortall that it admits of no cessation or intermission, the Anabaptists say it is asleep when it parts frō the bodie, as soone as it leaves the bodie, it goes either to Abrahams bosome or a place of torment.
4. At the last day it shall be united with the bodie, and the bodie raised up for it, and both be happie or miserable for ever.
2. Be thankfull to God that hath given us our soules, and redeemed them by the bloud of his Son, propter hanc Deus facit mundum propter hanc filius Dei venit in mundum, Chrysost. blesse him especially for sovle-mercies Ephes. 1. 3. 3. John. 2, 4. and let the soule praise him Psal. 103. and 104. first and last
Wee should love our selves. Psal. 22. 26. David calleth his soule his darling, it is the immediate worke of God.