assigned to the body; by others, to the soul. It has, also, been placed
in the circumstance of his having “_dominion_” over the other creatures.
As to the body, it is not necessary to prove that in no sense can it
bear the image of God; that is, be “_like_” God. An upright form has no
more likeness to God than a prone or reptile one; God is incorporeal,
and cannot be the antitype of any thing material.
Equally unfounded is the notion that the image of God in man consisted
in the “dominion” which was granted to him over this lower world.
Limited dominion may, it is true, be an image of large and absolute
dominion; but man is not said to have been made in the image of God’s
dominion, which is an accident merely, for, before creatures existed,
God himself could have no dominion:--he was made in the image and
likeness of God himself. Still farther, it is evident that man,
according to the history, was made in the image of God _in order_ to his
having dominion, as the Hebrew particle imports; and, therefore, his
dominion was consequent upon his formation in the “image” and “likeness”
of God, and could not be that image itself.
The notion that the original resemblance of man to God must be placed in
some one essential quality, is not consistent with holy writ, from which
alone we can derive our information on this subject. We shall, it is
true, find that the Bible partly places it in what is essential to human
nature; but that it should comprehend nothing else, or consist in one
quality only, has no proof or reason; and we are, in fact, taught that
it comprises also what is so far from being essential that it may be
both lost and regained. When God is called “the Father of spirits,” a
likeness is suggested between man and God in the _spirituality_ of their
nature. This is also implied in the striking argument of St. Paul with
the Athenians: “Forasmuch, then, as we are the OFFSPRING of God, we
ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or
stone, graven by art and man’s device;”--plainly referring to the
idolatrous statues by which God was represented among Heathens. If
likeness to God in man consisted in bodily shape, this would not have
been an argument against human representations of the Deity; but it
imports, as Howe well expresses it, that “we are to understand that our
resemblance to him, as we are his offspring, lies in some higher, more
noble, and more excellent thing, of which there can be no figure; as who
can tell how to give the figure or image of a thought, or of the mind or
thinking power?” In _spirituality_, and, consequently, immateriality,
this image of God in man, then, in the first instance, consists. Nor is
it any valid objection to say, that “immateriality is not peculiar to
the soul of man; for we have reason to believe that the inferior animals
are actuated by an immaterial principle.” This is as certain as analogy
can make it: but though we allow a spiritual principle to animals, its
_kind_ is obviously inferior; for that spirit which is incapable of
induction and moral knowledge, must be of an inferior order to the
spirit which possesses these capabilities; and this is the kind of
spirit which is peculiar to man.
The sentiment expressed in Wisdom ii, 23, is an evidence that, in the
opinion of the ancient Jews, the image of God in man comprised
_immortality_ also. “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to
be an image of his own eternity:” and though other creatures were made
capable of immortality, and at least the material human frame, whatever
we may think of the case of animals, would have escaped death, had not
sin entered the world; yet, without admitting the absurdity of the
“natural immortality” of the human soul, that essence must have been
constituted immortal in a high and peculiar sense which has ever
retained its prerogative of continued duration amidst the universal
death not only of animals, but of the bodies of all human beings. There
appears also a manifest allusion to man’s immortality, as being included
in _the image of God_, in the reason which is given in Genesis for the
law which inflicts death on murderers: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by
man shall his blood be shed: for in _the image of God_ made he man.” The
essence of the crime of homicide is not confined here to the putting to
death the mere animal part of man; and it must, therefore, lie in the
peculiar value of life to an immortal being, accountable in another
state for the actions done in this, and whose life ought to be specially
guarded for this very reason, that death introduces him into changeless
and eternal relations, which were not to be left to the mercy of human
passions.
To these we are to add the _intellectual powers_, and we have what
divines, in perfect accordance with the Scriptures, have called, “the
NATURAL image of God in his creatures,” which is essential and
ineffaceable. Man was made capable of _knowledge_, and he was endowed
with liberty of _will_.
This natural image of God was the foundation of that MORAL image by
which also man was distinguished. Unless he had been a spiritual,
knowing, and willing being, he would have been wholly incapable of
_moral_ qualities. That he had such qualities eminently, and that in
them consisted the image of God, as well as in the natural attributes
just stated, we have also the express testimony of Scripture: “Lo this
only have I found, that God made man UPRIGHT; but they have sought out
many inventions.” There is also an express allusion to the moral image
of God, in which man was at first created, in Colossians iii, 10: “And
have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image
of Him that created him;” and in Ephesians iv, 24: “Put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” In these
passages the Apostle represents the change produced in true Christians
by the Gospel, as a “renewal of the image of God in man; as a new or
second creation in that image;” and he explicitly declares, that that
image consists in “knowledge,” in “righteousness,” and in “true
holiness.”
This also may be finally argued from the satisfaction with which the
historian of the creation represents the Creator as viewing the works of
his hands as “_very good_,” which was pronounced with reference to each
of them individually, as well as to the whole: “And God saw _every
thing_ that he had made, and behold it was very good.” But, as to man,
this goodness must necessarily imply moral as well as physical
qualities. Without them he would have been imperfect as _man_; and had
they, in their first exercises, been perverted and sinful, he must have
been an exception, and could not have been pronounced “very good.” The
goodness of man, as a rational being, must lie in devotedness and
consecration to God; consequently, man was at first holy. A rational
creature, as such, is capable of knowing, loving, serving, and living in
communion with the Most Holy One. Adam, at first, did or did not exert
this capacity; if he did not, he was not _very good_,--not good at all.
4. On the intellectual and moral endowments of the progenitor of the
human race, erring views appear to have been taken on both sides.
In knowledge, some have thought him little inferior to the angels;
others, as furnished with but the simple elements of science and of
language. The truth seems to be that, as to _capacity_, his intellect
must have been vigorous beyond that of any of his fallen descendants;
which itself gives us very high views of the strength of his
understanding, although we should allow him to have been created “lower
than the angels.” As to his _actual knowledge_, that would depend upon
the time and opportunity he had for observing the nature and laws of the
objects around him; and the degree in which he was favoured with
revelations from God on moral and religious subjects.
On the degree of moral excellence also in the first man, much license
has been given to a warm imagination, and to rhetorical embellishment;
and Adam’s perfection has sometimes been fixed at an elevation which
renders it exceedingly difficult to conceive how he could fall into sin
at all. On the other hand, those who either deny or hold very slightly
the doctrine of our hereditary depravity, delight to represent Adam as
little superior in moral perfection and capability to his descendants.
But, if we attend to the passages of holy writ above quoted, we shall be
able, on this subject, to ascertain, if not the exact degree of his
moral endowments, yet that there is a certain standard below which they
cannot be placed.--Generally, he was made in the _image_ of God, which,
we have already proved, is to be understood _morally_ as well as
_naturally_. Now, however the image of any thing may be limited in
extent, it must still be an accurate representation as far as it goes.
Every thing good in the creation must always be a miniature
representation of the excellence of the Creator; but, in this case, the
“goodness,” that is, the perfection, of every creature, according to the
part it was designed to act in the general assemblage of beings
collected into our system, wholly forbids us to suppose that the image
of God’s moral perfections in man was a blurred and dim representation.
To whatever _extent_ it went, it necessarily excluded all that from man
which did not resemble God; it was a likeness to God in “righteousness
and true holiness,” whatever the degree of each might be, and excluded
all admixture of unrighteousness and unholiness. Man, therefore, in his
original state, was _sinless_, both in act and in principle. Hence it is
said that “God made man UPRIGHT.” That this signifies moral rectitude
cannot be doubted; but the import of the word is very extensive. It
expresses, by an easy figure, the _exactness_ of truth, justice, and
obedience; and it comprehends the state and habit both of the heart and
the life. Such, then, was the condition of primitive man; there was no
obliquity in his moral principles, his mind, or affections; none in his
conduct. He was perfectly sincere and exactly just, rendering from the
heart all that was due to God and to the creature. Tried by the exactest
_plummet_, he was _upright_; by the most perfect rule, he was
_straight_.
The “_knowledge_” in which the Apostle Paul, in the passage quoted above
from Colossians iii, 10, places “the image of God” after which man was
created, does not merely imply the faculty of understanding, which is a
part of the _natural_ image of God; but that which might be lost,
because it is that in which we may be “_renewed_.” It is, therefore, to
be understood of the faculty of knowledge in right exercise; and of that
willing reception, and firm retaining, and hearty approval, of religious
truth, in which knowledge, when spoken of morally, is always understood
in the Scriptures. We may not be disposed to allow, with some, that Adam
understood the deep philosophy of nature, and could comprehend and
explain the sublime mysteries of religion. The circumstance of his
giving names to the animals, is certainly no sufficient proof of his
having attained to a philosophical acquaintance with their qualities and
distinguishing habits, although we should allow their names to be still
retained in the Hebrew, and to be as expressive of their peculiarities
as some expositors have stated. Sufficient time appears not to have been
afforded him for the study of the properties of animals, as this event
took place previous to the formation of Eve; and as for the notion of
his acquiring knowledge by intuition, this is contradicted by the
_revealed_ fact, that angels themselves acquire their knowledge by
observation and study, though no doubt, with great rapidity and
certainty. The whole of this transaction was supernatural; the beasts
were “brought” to Adam, and it is probable that he named them under a
Divine suggestion. He has been also supposed to be the inventor of
language, but his history shows that he was never without speech. From
the first he was able to converse with God; and we may, therefore, infer
that language was in him a supernatural and miraculous endowment. That
his understanding was, as to its capacity, deep and large beyond any of
his posterity, must follow from the perfection in which he was created;
and his acquisitions of knowledge would, therefore, be rapid and easy.
It was, however, in moral and religious truth, as being of the first
concern to him, that we are to suppose the excellency of his knowledge
to have consisted. “His reason would be clear, his judgment uncorrupted,
and his conscience upright and sensible.” The best knowledge would, in
him, be placed first, and that of every other kind be made subservient
to it, according to its relation to that. The Apostle adds to knowledge,
“righteousness and true holiness;” terms which express, not merely
freedom from sin, but positive and active virtue.
Sober as these views of man’s primitive state are, it is not, perhaps,
possible for us fully to conceive of so exalted a condition as even
this. Below this standard it could not fall; and that it implied a
glory, and dignity, and moral greatness of a very exalted kind, is made
sufficiently apparent from the degree of guilt charged upon Adam when he
fell: for the aggravating circumstances of his offence may well be
deduced from the tremendous consequences which followed.
5. The salvation of Adam has been disputed; for what reason does not
appear, except that the silence of Scripture, as to his after life, has
given bold men occasion to obtrude their speculations upon a subject
which called for no such expression of opinion. As nothing to the
contrary appears, the charitable inference is, that as he was the first
to receive the promise of redemption, so he was the first to prove its
virtue. It is another presumption, that as Adam and Eve were clothed
with skins of beasts, which could not have been slain for food, these
were the skins of their sacrifices; and as the offering of animal
sacrifice was an expression of faith in the appointed propitiation, to
that refuge we may conclude they resorted, and through its merits were
accepted.
6. The Rabbinical and Mohammedan traditions and fables respecting the
first man are as absurd as they are numerous. Some of them indeed are
monstrous, unless we suppose them to be allegories in the exaggerated
style of the orientals. Some say that he was nine hundred cubits high;
whilst others, not satisfied with this, affirm that his head touched the
heavens. The Jews think that he wrote the ninety-first Psalm, invented
the Hebrew letters, and composed several treatises; the Arabians, that
he preserved twenty books which fell from heaven; and the Musselmen,
that he himself wrote ten volumes.
7. That Adam was a type of Christ, is plainly affirmed by St. Paul, who
calls him “the figure of him who was to come.” Hence our Lord is
sometimes called, not inaptly, the Second Adam. This typical relation
stands sometimes in SIMILITUDE, sometimes in CONTRAST. Adam was formed
immediately by God, as was the humanity of Christ. In each the nature
was spotless, and richly endowed with knowledge and true holiness. Both
are seen invested with dominion over the earth and all its creatures;
and this may explain the eighth Psalm, where David seems to make the
sovereignty of the first man over the whole earth in its pristine glory,
the prophetic symbol of the dominion of Christ over the world restored.
Beyond these particulars fancy must not carry us; and the typical
CONTRAST must also be limited to that which is stated in Scripture, or
supported by its allusions. Adam and Christ were each a public person, a
_federal head_ to the whole race of mankind; but the one was the
fountain of sin and death, the other of righteousness and life. By
Adam’s transgression “many were made sinners,” Rom. v, 14–19. Through
him, “death passed upon all men, because all have sinned” in him. But he
thus prefigured that one man, by whose righteousness the “free gift
comes upon all men to justification of life.” The first man communicated
a living soul to all his posterity; the other is a quickening Spirit, to
restore them to newness of life now, and to raise them up at the last
day. By the imputation of the first Adam’s sin, and the communication of
his fallen, depraved nature, death reigned over those who had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam’s transgression; and through the
righteousness of the Second Adam, and the communication of a divine
nature by the Holy Spirit, favour and grace shall much more abound in
Christ’s true followers unto eternal life. See REDEMPTION.
ADAMA, one of the five cities which were destroyed by fire from heaven,
and buried under the waters of the Dead Sea, Gen. xiv, 2; Deut. xxix,
23. It was the most easterly of all those which were swallowed up; and
there is some probability that it was not entirely sunk under the
waters; or that the inhabitants of the country built a new city of the
same name upon the eastern shore of the Dead Sea: for Isaiah, according
to the Septuagint, says, “God will destroy the Moabites, the city of Ar,
and the remnant of Adama.”
ADAMANT, שמיר, Ἀδάμας, Ecclus. xvi, 16. A stone of impenetrable
hardness. Sometimes this name is given to the diamond; and so it is
rendered, Jer. xvii, 1. But the Hebrew word rather means a very hard
kind of stone, probably the _smiris_, which was also used for cutting,
engraving, and polishing other hard stones and crystals. The word occurs
also in Ezek. iii, 9, and Zech. vii, 12. In the former place the Lord
says to the Prophet, “I have made thy forehead as an adamant, firmer
than a rock;” that is, endued thee with undaunted courage. In the
latter, the hearts of wicked men are declared to be as adamant; neither
broken by the threatenings and judgments of God, nor penetrated by his
promises, invitations, and mercies. See DIAMOND.
ADAMITES, sects reputed to have professed the attainment of a perfect
innocence, so that they wore no clothes in their assemblies. But Lardner
doubts their existence in ancient, and Beausobre in modern, times.
ADAR, the twelfth month of the ecclesiastical, and the sixth of the
civil, year among the Hebrews. It contains but twenty-nine days, and
answers to our February, and sometimes enters into March, according to
the course of the moon, by which they regulated their seasons.
ADARCONIM, אדרכונים, a sort of money, mentioned 1 Chron. xxix, 7, and
Ezra viii, 27. The Vulgate translates it, _golden pence_, the LXX,
_pieces of gold_. They were darics, a gold coin, which some value at
twenty drachms of silver.
ADER. Jerom observes, that the place where the angels declared the birth
of Jesus Christ to the shepherds, was called by this name, Luke ii, 8,
9. The empress Helena built a church on this spot, the remains of which
are still visible.
ADDER, a venomous serpent, more usually called the viper. In our
translation of the Bible we find the word adder five times; but without
sufficient authority from the original.
שפיפון, in Gen. xlix, 17, is probably the cerastes; a serpent of the
viper kind, of a light brown colour, which lurks in the sand and the
tracks of wheels in the road, and unexpectedly bites not only the unwary
traveller, but the legs of horses and other beasts. By comparing the
Danites to this artful reptile, the patriarch intimated that by
stratagem, more than by open bravery, they should avenge themselves of
their enemies and extend their conquests.--פתן, in Psalm lviii, 4; xci,
13, signifies an asp. We may perhaps trace to this the Python of the
Greeks, and its derivatives. (See _Asp_.)--עכשוב, עכשוב found only in
Psalm cxl, 3, is derived from a verb which signifies _to bend back on
itself_. The Chaldee Paraphrasts render it עכביש, which we translate
elsewhere, _spider_: they may therefore have understood it to have been
the tarantula. It is rendered _asp_ by the Septuagint and Vulgate, and
is so taken, Rom. iii, 13. The name is from the Arabic _achasa_. But
there are several serpents which coil themselves previously to darting
on their enemy; if this be a character of the asp, it is not peculiar to
that reptile.--צפע, or צפעני, Prov. xxiii, 32; Isaiah xi, 8; xiv, 29;
lix, 5; and Jer. viii, 17, is that deadly serpent called the basilisk,
said to kill with its very breath. See COCKATRICE.
In Psalm lviii, 5, reference is made to the effect of musical sounds
upon serpents. That they might be rendered tame and harmless by certain
charms, or soft and sweet sounds, and trained to delight in music, was
an opinion which prevailed very early and universally.
Many ancient authors mention this effect; Virgil speaks of it
particularly, _Æn._ vii, v, 750.
_Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos,
Fronde super galeam et felici comptus oliva,
Archippi regis missu fortissimus Umbro;
Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,
Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat._
“Umbro, the brave Marrubian priest, was there,
Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war.
The smiling olive with her verdant boughs
Shades his bright helmet and adorns his brows;
His charms in peace the furious serpent keep;
And lull the envenom’d viper’s race to sleep:
His healing hand allay’d the raging pain,
And at his touch the poisons fled again.”
_Pitt._
Mr. Boyle quotes the following passage from Sir H. Blunt’s Voyage into
the Levant:--
“Many rarities of living creatures I saw in Grand Cairo; but the most
ingenious was a nest of serpents, of two feet long, black and ugly, kept
by a Frenchman, who, when he came to handle them, would not endure him,
but ran and hid in their hole. Then he would take his cittern and play
upon it. They, hearing his music, came all crawling to his feet, and
began to climb up him, till he gave over playing, then away they ran.”