Sermon CX

SERMON CX.

PREACHED TO THE KING, AT THE COURT.

The Second Sermon on Genesis i. 26.
And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness.

By fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole compass of man's voyage, from his launching forth in this world, to his anchoring in the next; from his hoising sail here, to his striking sail there. In which compass we designed to you his four quarters; first, his east, where he must begin, the fundamental knowledge of the Trinity, (for, that we found to be the specification, and distinctive character of a Christian) where, though that be so, we showed you also, why we were not called Trinitarians, but Christians: and we showed you, the advantage, that man hath, in laying hold upon God, in these several notions; that the prodigal son hath an indulgent Father; that the decayed father hath an abundant Son; that the dejected spirit hath a Spirit of comfort, to fly to in heaven. And, as we showed you from St. Paul, that it was an atheism to be no Christian, (without God, says he, as long as without Christ) so we lamented the slackness 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 plural 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 speak in the plural, we accepted (for a time) that interpretation, which some had made thereof; that God spake in the person of a Sovereign Prince; and therefore (as they do) in the plural, we. And thereby having established reverence to princes, we claimed in God's behalf the same reverence to him: that men would demean themselves here, when God is spoken to in prayer, as reverently, as when they speak to the king. But after this, we found God to speak here, not only as our king; but as our maker; as God himself; and God in council, faciamus: and we applied thereunto, the difference of our respect to a person of that honourable rank, when we came before him at the council table, and when we came to him at his own table: and thereby advanced the seriousness of this consideration, God in the Trinity. And farther we sailed not, with that our eastern wind. 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 is our west, our declination, our sunset. We passed over the four 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 shepherd; if I but a cottage, he a builder. So he work upon me, let me be what he will. We noted that God made us earth, not air, not fire: that man hath bodily, and worldly duties to perforin; and is not all spirit in this life. Devotion, is his soul; but he hath a body of discretion, and usefulness to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being earth, we are equal. We tried that equality, first in the root, in Adam; there if any man will be nobler earth than I, he must have more original sin than

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I: for that was all Adam's patrimony, all that he could give. And we tried this equality in another furnace, in the grave; where there is no means to distinguish royal from plebeian, nor Catholic from heretical dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth, was red earth: and considered in what respect it was red, even in God's hands, but found that in the blood-redness of sin, God had no hand: but sin, and destruction for sin, was wholly from ourselves: which consideration, we ended with this, that there was macula alba, a white spot of leprosy, as well, as a red; and we found the over-valuation of our own purity, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from us, to be that white spot. And so far we sailed, with that western wind. And are come to our third point in this our compass, our north.

In this point, the north, we place our first comfort. The north is not always the comfortablest clime: nor is the north always a type of happiness in the Scriptures. Many times God threatens storms from the north. But even in those northern storms, we consider that action, that they scatter, they dissipate those clouds, which were gathered, and so induce a serenity: and so, fair weather comes from the north¹. And that is 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 ourselves: and that imaginary white, which appears so to us, is but a white of leprosy. This west enwraps us in heavy clouds of murmuring, in this life; that we cannot live so freely as beasts do; and in clouds of desperation for the next life; that we cannot die so absolutely as beasts do, we die all our lives, and yet we live after our deaths. These are our clouds; and then the north shakes these clouds. The north wind driveth away the rain, says Solomon^*. There is a north in our text, that drives all those tears from our eyes. Christ calls upon the north, as well as the south, to blow upon his garden³, and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversity, as well as prosperity, opens the bounty of God unto us; and oftentimes better. But that is not the benefit of the north in our present consideration. But this is it, that first our sun sets in the west. The eastern dignity, which

Job xxxvii. 12.

* Prov. xxv. 23.

³ Cant. iv. 16.

we received in our first creation, as we were the work of the whole Trinity, falls under a western cloud, that that Trinity made us but earth. And then blows our north, and scatters this cloud. That this earth hath a nobler form, than any other part or limb of the world. For, we are made by a fairer pattern, by a nobler image, by a higher likeness. Faciamus; though we make but a man, Let us make him, in our image, after our likeness.

The variety which the Holy Ghost uses here, in the pen of Moses, hath given occasion to divers, to raise divers observations, upon these words, which seem divers, image and likeness, as also in the variety of the phrase. For it is thus conceived, and laid, in our image, and then after our likeness. 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 less particles than words, have busied the whole church. In the council 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 forbore to declare himself, on either side for a time, ho 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 Cyril, that she might be. In the council 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 heretics condemned then, confessed Christ, to be ex diiabus 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 council 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 only 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 quarrel 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 than can be pardoned, positively; and so they are evident words of desperation. The Jews read them with an interrogation, Are my sins greater, than can be pardoned? And so they are words of compunction, and repentance. The prophet Micah says⁴, that Bethlehem is a small place; the evangelist St. Matthew ^s says, no small place. An interrogation in Micah's mouth reconciles it; Art thou a small place? amounts to that, Thou art not. Sounds, voices, words must not be neglected. For, Christ's forerunner John Baptist qualified himself no otherwise: he was but a voice. And Christ himself is Verbum; the Word, is the name, even of the Son of God. No doubt but statesmen and magistrates find often the danger of having suffered small abuses to pass uncorrected. We that see state business but in the glass of story, and cannot be shut out of chronicles, see there, upon what little objects, the eye, and the jealousy of the state is oftentimes forced to bend itself. We know in whose times in Rome a man might not weep; he might not sigh; he might not look pale; he might not be sick; 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 Damascene 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 sphere, in the church, we are sure it is so. Great inconveniences grew upon small tolerations. Therefore in that business, which occasioned all that trouble, which we mentioned before, in the council of Ephesus, when St. Cyril writ to the clergy of his diocese about it; at first, he says, Prwstiterat 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 impertinences, these trifles; and yet these

* Micah v. 2. ^'Matt. ii. 6.

which were hut trifles at first, came to occasion councils; and then to divide council, against council; and then to force the emperor to take away the power of both councils, and govern in council, by his vicar-general, 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 heretics, and mistaken by their judges, that condemned them. Little things were called in question, lest great things should pass unquestioned. And some of these upon Damascen's 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 spheres, 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*; of leaving small sins unconsidered, unrepented, uncorrected. In that glistering 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 souls, that have religiously performed the duties of inferior callings, and no more. And, as certainly are there many souls tormented in hell, that never sinned sin of any of the great magnitudes, idolatry, adultery, murder, or the like; but inconsiderately have slid, and insensibly continued in the practice, and habit of lesser sins. 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, in the day of judgment; what great hills of little sands will oppress us then! And, if substances of sin were removed, yet what circumstances of sin would condemn us! If idle words have this weight, there can

^e Cant. ii. 15. ⁷ Matt. xii. 36.

be no word thought idle, in the Scriptures. And therefore I blame not in any, I decline not in mine own practice, the making use of the variety, and copiousness 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 do now, in observing a difference between these words in our text, image, and likeness; and between these two forms of expressing it, in our image, and after our likeness. This might be done: but that that must be done, will possess 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 likeness, to our present purpose, to be all one) what this image, and this likeness 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 himself made all that he made according to a pattern. God had deposited, and laid up in himself certain forms, patterns, ideas of everything that he made. He made nothing of which he had not preconceived the form, and predetermined in himself, I will make it thus. And when he had made anything, he saw it was good; good becauso 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 form, which was in him for them, yet of man, ho forbore to say that ho was good because his conformity to his pattern was to appear 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, than the rest: so have wo a comfort above all, that we have another manner of administration than the rest. God exercises another manner of Providence upon man, than upon other creatures. A sparrow falls not without God, says Christ⁸: yet no doubt God works otherwise in the fall of eminent persons, than in the fall of sparrows. For ye are of more value than many sparrows, says Christ there of every man; and some men single, are of morQ value than many men. God does

⁸ Matt. x. 23.

not thank the ant for her industry, and good husbandry, in providing for herself. God does not reward the foxes, for concurring with Samson in his revenge⁹. God does not fee the lion, which was the executioner upon the prophet, which had disobeyed his commandment10: not those two she-bears, which slew the petulant children, who had calumniated and reproached Elisha¹¹. God does not fee them before, nor thank them after, nor take knowledge of their service. But for those men, that served God's execution upon the idolators of the golden calf, it is pronounced in their behalf, that therein they consecrated themselves to God¹*; and for that service God made that tribe, the tribe of Levi his portion, his clergy, his consecrated tribe. So, Quiafecisti hoc, says God to Abraham, By myself I have sworn¹³; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: in blessing, I will bless thee; and in multiplying, I will multiply thee. So neither is God angry with the dog that turns to his vomit, nor with the sow, that after her washing wallows in the mire But of man in that case he says; It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, if they fall away, to renew them again by repentance¹⁵. The creatures live under his law; but a law imposed thus, this they shall do, this they must do. Man lives under another manner of law; this you shall do; that is, this you should do, this I would have you do: and fac hoc, do this, and you shall live; disobey, and you shall die. But yet, the choice is yours: choose ye this day life, or death. So that this is God's 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 natural working thereof in itself: but the free will of man God visits, and assists with his grace to do supernatural things. When the creature does an extraordinary action above the nature thereof, (as when Balaam's ass spake) the creature exercises no faculty, no will in itself; but God forced it to that it did. When man does anything conducing to supernatural ends; though the

P Judge xv. ¹⁰ 1 Kings xiii. 23. ¹¹ 2 Kings ii. 25. ^I8 Exod. xxxii. 25. ¹⁸ Gen. xxii. 16. ¹⁴ 2 Peter ii. 22. ¹⁵ Heb. vi. 4.

work be God's, the will of man is not merely passive. The will of man is but God's agent; but still an agent it is: and an agent in another manner, than the tongue of the beast. For, the will considered, as a will, (and grace never destroys 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.

Go thou then the same way. If God wrought by a pattern, and writ by copy, and proceeded by a precedent, do thou so too. Never say, There is no church without error: therefore I will be bound by none; but frame a church of mine own, or be a church to myself. What greater injustice, than to propose no image, no pattern to thyself to imitate; and yet propose thyself 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 heretics; and all reprobates, that go not thy ways. Propose good patterns to thyself; and thereby become a fit pattern for others. God, we see, was the first, that made images; and he was the first that forbade them. He made them for imitation; he forbade them in danger of adoration. For, Qualis dementiw est id colere, quod melius estTM! What a drowziness, what a laziness, what a cowardliness of the soul is it, to worship that, which does but represent a better thing than itself! Worship belongs to the best, know thou thy distance, and thy period, how far to go, and where to stop. Dishonour not God by an image in worshipping it; and yet benefit thyself by it, in following it. There is no more danger out of a picture, than out of a history, if thou intend no more in either, than example. Though thou have a west, a dark and a sad condition, that thou art but earth, a man of infirmities, and ill-counselled in thyself: yet thou hast herein a north, that scatters and dispels these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures, and otherwise; images, patterns of good and holy men to go by. But beyond this north this assistance of good examples of men; thou hast a south, a meridional height, by which thou seest thine image, thy pattern, to be no copy; no other man, but the

¹⁸ Aruobius.

original itself, God himself: Faciamus ad nostram, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Here we consider first, 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 mortal, not passible: so when we seek the image of God in man, we begin with a negative; this image is not in his body. Tertullian declined to think it was; nay Tertullian inclined others to think so. For he is the first, that is noted, to have been the author of that opinion, that God had a body. Yet St. Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresy: Because (says he) Tertullian might mean, that it was so sure, that there is a God; and that that God was a certain, though not a finite essence; that God was so far from being¹ nothing, as that he had rather a body. Because it was possible to give a gbod interpretation of Tertullian, that charitable father St. Augustine, would excuse him of heresy. I would St. Augustine's charity might prevail with them, that pretend to be Augustinianissimi, and to adore him so much in the Roman church, not to cast the name of heresy upon every problem; nor the name of heretic, upon every inquirer of truth. St. Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresy in a point concerning God, and they will condemn us of heresy, in every point that may be drawn to concern not the church, but the court of Rome; not their doctrine, but their profit. Malo de misericordia Deo rationem reddere, quam de crudelitate¹¹, I shall better answer God for my mildness, than for my severity. And, though anger towards a brother, or a raca, or a fool, will bear an action: yet he shall recover less against me at the bar, whom I have called weak, or misled, (as I must necessary call many in the Roman church) than he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretic. For I dare call an opinion heresy for the matter, a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretic. For that consists much in the manner. It must be matter of faith, before the matter be heresy. But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction, before that man be an

¹⁷ Chrysostom.

heretic. But how excusable soever Tertullian be herein in St. Augustine's charity: there was a whole sect of heretics, 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 ears, believed God to have a body like ours; and accordingly interpreted this text: that in that image, and that likeness, a bodily likeness, consisted this image of God in man. And yet even these men, these Audians, Epiphanius, who first takes knowledge of them, calls but schismatics, not heretics: so loath is charity to say the worst of any. Yet we must remember them of the Roman persuasion, that they come too near giving God a body in their pictures of God the Father. And they bring the body of God, that body which God the Son hath assumed, the body of Christ too near, 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 near to our sense: not too near in the ubi; for so it is there: there, that is, in that place to which the sacrament extends itself. 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 near in modo. For it comes not thither that way. We must necessarily complain, that they make religion too bodily a thing. Our Saviour Christ corrected Mary Magdalen's zeal¹³, where she flew to him, in a personal 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 yourselves so with controversies about his body, as to lose real charity, for imaginary zeal; nor enlarge yourselves so far in the pictures and images of his body, as to worship them, more than him. As Damascen says of God, that he is super-principale principium, a beginning, before any beginning we can conceive; and prw-wterna wternitas, an eternity infinitely elder than any eternity we can imagine: so he is super-spiritualis spiritus, such a super-spirit, as that the soul 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.

¹⁸ John xx. 17.

And therefore this image of God is not in the body of man, that way.

Nor that way neither, which some others have assigned, that God, who hath no body as God, yet in the creation did assume that form, which man hath now, and so made man in his image, that is, in that form, 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 Spain. But great inquirers into other men, are easy neglecters of themselves. The image of God is not in man's body this way. Nor that third way, which others have imagined; that is, that when God said, Let us make man after our likeness, God had repect to that form, which in the fulness of time, his Son 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 School a great part of great men adhered to that opinion, that God from all eternity had a purpose that his Son 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 do man an honour, by his assuming that nature, Christ, say they, should have come, and to that image, that form, 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 believe not) to prove to the Jews, that the Christ is come; (that they believe not) to prove to our own consciences, that the same Christ may come again this minute to judgment, (we live as though we believed not that) than to have filled the world, and torn the church, with frivolous disputations, whether Christ should have come, if Adam had not fallen! Woe unto fomenters 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 School, Arguitive, and significative; that because God hath given man a body of a nobler form, than any other creature; we infer, and argue, and conclude from thence, that God is otherwise represented in man, than 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 jewels; some watches, to which the very cases are jewels, and therefore they have outward cases too; and so the picture, and the watch is in that outward case, of what meaner stuff 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 sinful intemperance and licentiousness, 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 burial, and due solemnities after death; for the image of God is to return to it. But yet the body is but the out-case, and God looks not for the gilding, or enamelling, or painting of that: but requires the labour, and cost therein to be bestowed upon the tablet itself, in which this image is immediately, that is, the soul. And that is truly the ubi, the place where this image is: and there remains only now, the operation thereof, how this image of God in the soul of man works.

The sphere then of this intelligence, 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 soul of man. Not immediately so, as that the soul of man is a part of the essence of God: for so essentially, Christ only is the image of God. St. Augustine at first thought so: Putabam te Deus, corpus lucidum, et me frustum de Mo corpore; I took thee, 0 God, (says that father) to be a globe of fire, and my soul to be a spark of that fire, thee to be a body of light, and my soul to be a beam of that light. But St. Augustine does not only retract that in himself, but dispute against it, in the Manichees. But this image is in our soul, as our soul is the wax, and this image the seal. The comparison is St. Cyril's, and he adds well, that no seal 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 soul. Every other seal is too Harrow, too shallow for it. The magistrate is sealed with the lion; the wolf will not fit that seal: the magistrate hath a power in his hands, but not oppression. Princes are sealed with the crown; the mitre will not fit that seal. Powerfully, and graciously they protect the church, and are supreme 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 inferior and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the cross; a rose, or a bunch of grapes will not answer that seal. 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 seals will not answer that, nor fill up that seal. We should wonder to see 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 masterpieces, thrust in a village fair to look upon sixpenny 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 masterpiece is our own, in our own bosom; and we thrust in country fairs, that is, we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather, in night journeys and watchings -- we endure the oppositions, and scorns and triumphs of a rival, and competitor, that seeks with us, and shares with us: we endure the guiltiness, 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 soul, of honour, to possess lower pictures; pictures that are not originals, not made by that hand of God, Nature; but artificial beauties. And for that body, we give a soul, and for that drug, which might have been bought, where they bought it, for a shilling, we give an estate. The image of God is more worth than all substances; and we give it, for colours, for dreams, for shadows.

But the better to prevent the loss, let us consider the having of this image: in what respect, in what operation, this image is in our soul. For, whether this image, be 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 natural reason, and other faculties of the immortal soul of man. For, thereupon does St. Bernard say, Imago Dei uri potest in Gehenna, non exuri: Till the soul be burnt to ashes, to nothing, (which cannot be done no not in hell) the image of God cannot be burnt out of that soul. For it is radically, primarily, in the very soul itself. And whether that soul be infused into the elect, or into the reprobate, that image is in that soul, and as far, as he hath a soul by nature, he hath the image of God by nature in it. But then the seal is deeper cut, or harder pressed, or better preserved in some, than in others; and in some other considerations, than merely natural. ₍ 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 God's 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 only 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 Son, 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 grain of our sand, upon the first dram of your patience, upon the first flash of my strength. But a clear 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 human trinity, in man, may, at least must suffice.

In nature then, man, that is, the soul of man hath this image, of God, of God considered in his unity, entirely, altogether, in this, that this soul 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 souls of nothing. Now, not to be made at all, is to be God himself: only God himself 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 God, this is to bo the image of God. For this is nearest to God himself, 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 steps, which we consider are four; first, esse, being; for some things have only a being, and no life, as stones: secondly, mere, 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 being, and life, and sense; and so is in a nearer station to God, than any other creature, and a livelier image of him, who is the root of being, than all they, because man only hath all the declarations of beings. Nay if we consider God's eternity, the soul of man hath such an image of that, as that though man had a beginning, which the original, the eternal God himself had not; yet man shall no more have an end, than the original, the eternal God himself shall have. And this image of eternity, this past meridian, this afternoon eternity, that is, this perpetuity and after-everlastingness is in man merely as a natural man, without any consideration of grace. For the reprobate can no more die, that is, come to nothing, than the elect. It is but of the natural 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 soul. How will this king take it, (says that father) to have his statue thrown down? Every man does so, if he do not exalt his natural faculties; if he do not hearken to the law written in his heart; if he do not as much as Plato, or as Socrates in the ways of virtuous actions, he throws 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 I Every man does so too, that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine, or false appearances of happiness in matter of conversation. For these a natural 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, which is intimated in Job is intended but of the natural man. There speaking of behemoth, that is, of the greatest of creatures, he says, in our translation, that he is the chief of the ways of God: St. Hierome hath it, principium; and others before him, initium viarum Dei: that when«God went that progress over all the world, in the creation thereof, he did but begin, 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 ways 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 natural man. Behemoth, and the other creatures were vestigia, (says the School) in them we may see, where God hath gone, for all being is from God, and so everything that hath a being hath filiationem vestigii, a testimony of God's 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 represents, the more lively to our memory. God's abridgment of the whole world was man. Re-abridge man into his least volume, in pura naturalia, as he is but mere man, and so he hath the image of God in his soul.

He hath it, as God is considered in his unity, (for as God is, so the soul of man is, indivisibly, impartibly one, entire) 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 soul of man. The attributes, and some kind of specification of the persons of the Trinity are, power to the Father, wisdom to the Son, and goodness to the Holy Ghost. And the three faculties of the soul 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 govern well without understanding the natures and dispositions of them M'hom he governs. 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

¹⁹ Job XL. 15.

so Oblimscuntur quod nata sunt, says St. Ambrose; the lion, the bear, the elephant have forgot what they were born to. Induuntur quod jubentur; They invest and put on such a disposition, and such a nature, as we enjoin them, and appoint to them. Serviunt ut famuli; (as that father pursues it elegantly) and verberantur, ut timidi: they wait 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 horn of the bull, in the heels of the horse. And adjmantur ut infirmi; they counterfeit a weakness, that they might bo beholden to us for help: and they are content to thank us, if wo afford them any rest, or any food; who, if they understood us, as well, as we do them, might tear our meat out of our throats ; nay tear out our throats for their meat.

So then in this first natural faculty of the soul, the understanding, stands the image of the first person, the Father, power: and in the second faculty which is the will, is the image, the attribute of the second person the Son, which is wisdom: for wisdom is not so much in knowing, in understanding, as in electing, in choosing, in assenting. No man needs go out of himself, nor beyond his own legend, and the history of his own actions for examples of that, that many times we know better, and choose ill ways. Wisdom is in choosing, in assenting. And then, in the third faculty of the soul, the memory, is the image of the third person, the Holy Ghost, that is, goodness. For to remember, to recollect our former understanding, and our former assenting, so far as to do them, to crown them with action, that is true goodness. The office, that Christ assigns to the Holy Ghost, and the goodness, which he promises in his behalf is this, that he shall brine former things to our remembrance⁸⁰. The wise man places all goodness 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, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amiss*¹. The end cannot be yet come, and yet we are bid to remember that. Vis us per omnes sensus recurrit, says

*° Job xiv. 20. "Eccles. vii. 36.

VOL. IV. 2 M

St. Augustine. As all senses are called sight, in the Scriptures, (for there is gustate Dominum, and audite, and palpate; taste the Lord, and hear the Lord, and feel the Lord, and still the videte, is added, taste, and see the Lord) so all goodness is in remembering all goodness, (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 himself would think somewhat better of himself, and others would be the less apt to put scorns, or injuries upon him, than if he had a vulgar, and coarse aspect. With those, who have the image of the king's power, (the magistrate) the image of his wisdom, (the counsel) the image of his goodness, (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 mere natural man, hath the image of the King of kings. And therefore respect that image in thyself, and exalt thy natural faculties. Emulate 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 natural 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 do not think that because a natural man cannot do all, therefore he hath nothing to do for himself.

This then is the image of God in man, the first way, in nature; and most literally this is the intention of the text. Man was this image thus; and the room furnished with this image was paradise. But there is a better room than 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 natural faculties: yet Origen, and not only such allegorical expositors, but St. Basil, and Nyssen and Ambrose, and others, who are literal enough, assign this image of God, to consist in the gift of God's grace, exhibited to us here in the church. A Christian then in that second capacity, as a Christian, and not only as a man, hath this image of God; of God first considered entirely. 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 sons of God; tho seed of God; the offspring of God; and partakers of the Divine nature, (which are high and glorious exaltations) are enlarged, and exalted by Damascen to a further height, when he says"; Sicut Deus homo, ita ego Deus; as God is man, so I am God, says Damascen. I, taken in the whole mankind, (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 entirely. To which expression St. Cyril also comes near, when he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem, man in the form of God; which is a mysterious, and a blessed metamorphosis, and transfiguration: that, whereas it was the greatest trespass, of the greatest trespasser in the world, the devil, to say iSimilis ero Altissimo, I will be like the Highest⁸³: it would be as great a trespass in me, not to be like the Highest, not to conform myself 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 form of God, took the form of a servant; I being in the form of a servant, may, nay must take upon me the form of God", in being Deifotmis homo, a man made in Christ, the image of God. So have I the image of God. entirely, in his unity, because I profess that faith, which is but one faith"; and under the seal of that baptism, which ia but one baptism. And then, as of this one God; so I have also the image of the several persons of the Trinity, in this capacity, as I am a Christian, more than in my natural faculties.

The attributes of the first person, the Father, is power, and none but a Christian hath power over those great tyrants of the world, sin, Satan, death, and hell. For thus my power accrues and grows unto me. First, Possum judicare, I have a power to judge", a judiciary, a discretive power; a power to discern

^2* Orat. de Assumpt. Marise. ⁸³ Isaiah xiv. 14. "Phil. ii. 5.

"Ephes. iv. 5. ²⁵ 1 Cor. vi. 5.

between a natural accident, and a judgment of God, and will never call a judgment, an accident; and between an ordinary occasion of conversation and a temptation of Satan. Possum judicare, and then possum resistere", which is another act of power. When I find it to be a temptation, I am able to resist it: and possum stare, (which is another) I am able, not only to withstand, but to stand out this battle of temptations to the end; and then possum capere, that which Christ proposes for a trial of his disciples, let him, that is able to receive it, receive it*⁸, I shall have power to receive the gift of continency, against all temptations of that kind. Bring it to the highest act of power, that with which Christ tried his strongest apostles, Possum bibere calicem**, I shall be able to drink of Christ's cup; even to drink his blood, and be the more innocent for that, and to pour out my blood, and be the stronger for that. In Christo omnia possum³⁰, there is the fullness of power, in Christ I can do all things, I can want, or I can abound, I can live, or I can die. And yet there is an extension of power, beyond all this, in this Non possum peccare, being born of God in Christ, I cannot sin³¹. This that seems to have a name of impotence, non possum, I cannot, is the fullest omnipotence of all, I cannot sin; not sin to death; not sin with a desire to sin; not sin, with a delight in sin; but that temptation, that overthrows another, I can resist, or that sin, 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, whose attribute is wisdom, I have in this, that wisdom 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 wisdom, my knowledge grows. First, Scio cui credidi^3*, I know whom I have believed in: I have not mislaid my foundation; my foundation is Christ; and then Scio non moriturum; my foundation cannot sink, I know that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more⁸³; again Scio quod desideret spiritus^3*, I know what my spirit, enlightened by the

⁸⁷ Ephes. vi. 13. ^8s Matt. xix. 12. ¹⁸ John xx. 22.

³⁰ Phil. iv. 13. »» 1 John iii. 9. ^8* 2 Tim. i. 12.

³³ Rom. vi. 9. ³⁴ Rom. viii. 27.

spirit of God, desires; I am not transported with allusions, 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, Scimus, quia omnem scientiam habemus*'; there is all together; we know that we have all knowledge, for all St. Paul's universal knowledge was but this, Jesum crucifixumTM, I determine not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified; and then, the way by which he would proceed, and take degrees in this wisdom, was ttultitia prwdicandi³¹, the way that God had ordained, when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesss of preaching to save them that believe. These then are the steps of Christian wisdom, my foundation is Christ, of Christ I inquire no more, but fundamental doctrines, him crucified, and this I apply to myself, by his ordinance of preaching. And in this wisdom, I have the image of the second person.

And then, of the third also in this, that his attribute being goodness, I, as a true Christian, call nothing good, that conduces not to the glory of God in Christ Jesus, nor anything ill, that draws me not from him. Thus I have an express image of his goodness, that omnia co-operantur in bonumTM, all things work together for my good, if I love God. I shall thank my fever, bless my poverty, praise my oppressor, nay thank, and bless, and praise, even some sin of mine, which by the consequences of that sin, which may be shame, or loss, or weakness, may bring me to a happy sense of all my former sins; and shall find it to have been a good fever, a good poverty, a good oppression, yea a good sin. Vertit in bonum, says Joseph to his brethren³⁹, you thought evil, but God meant it unto good; and I shall have the benefit of my sin, according to his transmutation, that is, though I meant ill, in that sin, I shall have the good, that God meant in it. There is no evil in the city, but the Lord does it⁴⁰; but, if the Lord do it, it can be evil to me. I believe that I shall see bona Dei, the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living⁴¹, that is in heaven; but David speaks also of signum in bonum, show me a token of good, and God will show me a present token of future

"1 Cor. viii. 1. ³⁶ 1 Cor. ii. 2. ³⁷ 1 Cor. i. 21. ⁸⁸ Rom. viii. 28. ³⁹ Gen. I.. 20. ⁴⁰ Amos. iii. 6. ⁴¹ Psalm xxvii. 13.

good, an inward infallibility, that this very calamity shall be beneficial, and advantageous unto mo. And so, as in nature I have the image of God, in my whole soul, 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 wisdom of the Son, of the goodness of the Holy Ghost, in my Christian profession: and all this we shall have in a better place, than paradise, where we considered it in nature, and a better place than tho church, as it is militant, where we considered it in grace, that is, in the kingdom 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, that in heaven, at last, all things should ebb back 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 devil himself, how much more may we conceive an inexpressible association, (that is too far off) an assimilation, (that is not near enough) an identification, (the School would venture to say so) with God in that state of glory. Where-, as the sun by shining upon the moon, makes the moon a planet, a star, as well, as itself, which otherwise would be but the thickest, and darkest part of that sphere, so those beams of glory which shall issue from my God, and fall upon me, shall make me, (otherwise a clod of earth, and worse, a dark soul, a spirit of darkness) an angel of light, a star of glory, a something, that I cannot name now, not imagine now, nor to-morrow, nor next year, 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 mouth, and then a year, so undeterminable would my imaginations be, if I should go about to think now, what I shall be there: I shall be so like God, as that the devil himself, shall not know me from God, so far, as to find any more place, to fasten a temptation upon me, than upon God, nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdom, than of God's being driven out of it; for, though I shall not be immortal, as God, yet I shall be immortal as God. And there is 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. Power is the Father's; and a greater power, than he exercises here, I shall have there: here he overcomes enemies; but yet here he hath enemies; there, there are none; here they cannot prevail, there they shall not be. So wisdom is the image of the Son; and there I shall have better wisdom, than spiritual wisdom itself is here: for, here our best wisdom is, but to go towards our end, there it is to rest in our end; here it is to seek to be glorified by God, there it is, that God may be everlastingly glorified by me. The image of the Holy Ghost is goodness, here our goodness is mixt with some ill; faith mixt with scruples and good works mixt with a love of praise, and hope of better, mixt with fear of worse. There I shall have sincere goodness, goodness impermixt, intemerate, and indeterminate goodness; so good a place, as no ill accident shall annoy it; so good company, as no impertinent, no importune person shall disosder it; so full a goodness, as no evil of sin, no evil of punishment for former sins, 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 fulness in the same instant; and give us a satiety, that we can wish no more, and an infallibility, that we can lose none of that, and both at once. Where, as the Cahalists express our nearness to God, in that state, in that note, that the name of man, and the name of God, Adam, and Jehovah, in their numeral letters, are alike, and equal, so I would have leave, to express that inexpressible state, so far, as to say, that if there can be other worlds imagined besides this, that is under our moon, 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, than 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 nobleness, and the religious ambition, that I would imprint in you, for attaining of this glory, makes me dismiss you with this note, for the fear of missing that glory; that as we have taken just occasion, to magnify the goodness of God, towards us, in that he speaks plurally, Faciamus, Let us, all us do this, and so pours out the blessings of the whole Trinity

upon us, in this image of himself, in every person of the three, and in all these three ways, which we have considered: so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us, God collects himself, summons himself, assembles himself, musters himself, and threatens plurally too: for, of those four places in Scripture, in which only (as we noted before) God speaks of himself in a royal plural, God speaks in anger, and in a preparation to destruction, in one of those four, entirely; as entirely, he speaks of mercy, but in one of them, in this text; here he says, merely out of mercy, Faciamus, Let us, us, all us, make man, and in the same plurality, the same universality, he says after, Descendamus et confundamus", Let us, us, all us, go down to them, and confound them, as merely out of indignation, and anger, as here out of mercy. And in the other two places where God speaks plurally, he speaks not merely in mercy, nor merely in justice in neither; but in both he mingles both. So that God carries himself so equally herein, as that no soul, no church, no state, may any more promise itself patience in God, if it provoke him, than suspect anger in God, if we conform ourselves 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 Son his wisdom, and we shall be infatuated in our counsels, the Holy Ghost his goodness, and we shall be corrupted in our manners, and corrupted in our religion, and be a prey to temporal, and spiritual enemies, and change the image of God into the image of the beast: and as God loves nothing more than the image of himself, in his Son, and than the image of his Son Christ Jesus, in us, so he hates nothing more than the image of autichrist, in them, in whom he had imprinted his Son's image, that is, declinations towards antichrist, or concurrences with antichrist in them, who were born, and baptized, and catechized, and blessed in that profession of his truth. That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause, or colour of jealousies, or suspicions thereof, in them, whom he hath placed over us, to conform us to his image, in a holy life, that sins continued, and multiplied by us against him, do not so provoke him against us, that those two

^4* Gen. ii. 7.

great helps, the assiduity of preaching, and the personal, and exemplary piety and constancy in our princes, be not by' our sins made unprofitable to us. For that is the height of God's malediction upon a nation, when the assiduity of preaching, and the example of a religious princo, does them no good, but aggravates their fault.