BOOK II.

DOCTRINES RELATING TO MAN.

"And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. i, 26, 27.) Man was created in the image of God, and invested with dominion and authority. St. Paul, in Col. iii, 10, says: "Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," and in Eph. iv, 24, "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." From these passages it is evident that the image of God consists in "knowledge," in "righteousness," and in "true holiness." The likeness of God in which man was created was that of the moral perfections of his Maker. That this moral image of God in man implies and rests upon the natural image of God, must be apparent; for unless he had been endowed with _knowledge_, _spirituality_, and _will_, he would have been wholly incapable of moral qualities. In the Book of Wisdom, which conveys the ideas of the ancient Jews, we find this language: "For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity." As a moral being, man was created under law; the language of which was: "Of every tree of the garden mayest thou freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii, 16, 17. The history informs us that the woman, tempted through the agency of the serpent, which was "more subtile than any beast of the field," took of the fruit, gave it to her husband, who also ate; that for this act of disobedience they were expelled from the garden, made subject to death, and laid under other maledictions. "By Adam's transgressions," says Paul, Rom. v, "many were made sinners." Through him death passed upon all men. As the federal head of the race, he was the fountain of sin and death to his posterity.

The prohibition under which our first parents were placed has been the subject of much ridicule, and the occasion of many a "fool-born jest;" and the whole transaction has been declared to be unworthy of the parties concerned. Where would the test be placed if not in the government of man's own appetites? Social and political relations he had none. We do not suppose that the prohibition under which our first parents were placed was the only rule of their conduct. This precept was made prominent by special injunction, and the result showed that it was a sufficient test. The law was simple and explicit. It was not difficult of observation, and it accorded with the circumstances of those on whom it was enjoined.

The immediate visible agent in the seduction of man to sin was the serpent; but the testimony of Scripture is in proof that the real tempter was that subtile and powerful evil spirit whose general appellations are the devil and Satan; the former signifying traducer and false accuser, and the latter, an adversary. That the devil was the real tempter is the uniform teaching of the Scriptures, and that an order of fallen spirits, under the guidance of an arch-leader, are permitted to have influence on earth, to war against the virtue and peace of man, though under constant control and government, and that this entered into the circumstances of the trial of our first parents, and that it enters into ours.

It is not our purpose in this connection to discuss either the theory of temptation, or the extent of Satanic influence, but to present man's relation to the Divine government as revealed in the Scriptures. In consequence of the apostasy of Adam, all men have sinned. After Adam had lost the image of God he begat a son in his own likeness. The image of God, in which Adam was created, we have shown to have been _divine knowledge_, _righteousness_, and _true holiness_. The likeness of Adam is, by unquestionable analogy, the _moral character which he possessed after his apostasy_. In this likeness Seth is said to have been begotten. That Cain was _depraved_ will not be denied. The same thing is indirectly, but conclusively, taught concerning Abel; for he is declared to have lived and died in faith; and that faith had reference to a future promised Redeemer. Christ, as a Redeemer, could not have been an object of faith to Abel had he not been a sinner; or, in other words, had he not borne the likeness of apostate Adam. If this was the nature of the immediate children of Adam, it can not be denied that it is equally the nature of his remotest progeny, or that they do not all bear the likeness of their common parent. St. Paul argues this doctrine at length in his Epistle to the Romans, and his conclusions are that all are under sin--that judgment has come upon all men to condemnation. St. Paul teaches the same doctrine by asserting the impossibility of being justified by the works of the law. If one sinless man existed in this world, he could not fail to be justified by the works of the law; for the law itself says: "_He that doeth these things_"--that is, the things required in the law--"_shall live by them_." As, therefore, no flesh--no child of Adam--shall be justified by the works of the law, it follows conclusively that every one is sinful. The necessity of the new birth, as taught by our Savior to Nicodemus, is founded on this doctrine: "Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God." The only use or effect of the new birth is, that in it holiness is implanted in the mind. But if any man were sinless he could not need regeneration, nor be regenerated. He would already possess that holiness which is communicated in regeneration, and, of course, would see the kingdom of God as certainly and easily, at least, as sinners who had been born again. In 2 Cor. v, 14, Paul says: "We thus judge, that if one died for all then were all dead;" that is, in sins. What the Scriptures thus clearly assert is fully borne out by observation and experience. Men, every-where, are sinful. It is not an incident of climate, or education, or surroundings; it is as universal as humanity.

Human laws are made to repress and restrain sin. They exist in every country, and are enforced upon men by an iron necessity. The penalties by which they attempt to restrain and punish sin are various and dreadful. And although the most efficacious that human experience and ingenuity can devise, yet they always fall short of their purpose. The propensity to evil in the human heart has defied all their force and terror, and boldly ventured on the forbidden perpetration in the face of all their threatenings. No ingenuity on the one hand, and no suffering on the other, has, in any country, or in any age, been sufficient to overcome this propensity. The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that human nature is universally sinful, and in the language of the creed, that "man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil."