LECTURE XII.

Of the Creation of MAN.

HIS great theatre being built, besides those spectators, who had been but lately placed in the higher seats, it pleased the supreme Creator and Lord to have another company below, as it were in the area: these he called forth into being by creation, and man was introduced into this area, "to be a spectator of him and of his works; yet not a spectator only, but also to be the interpreter of them." Nor yet was man placed therein merely to be a spectator and an interpreter; but also, in a great measure, to be possessor and lord thereof; or, as it were, the Creator's "substitute †," in a spacious and convenient house ready built, and stored with all sorts of useful furniture.

Now, that man himself is a grand and noble piece of workmanship, appears even from this circumstance, that the most wise operator, when he was going to create him, thought fit to preface his deSo sign with these words, "Let us make man." that he was created, not merely by a word of command like the rest of the creatures, "but by a consultation of the blessed Trinity .'

And, indeed, man is a wonderful composition, the conjunction of heaven and earth; "The breath of God, and the dust of the ground;" the bond of union between the visible and invisible world, and truly a world in miniature, a kind of mixt world, nearly related to the other two §." Nor is he only * ὡς θέατήν τε αυτῦ καὶ τῶν αυτὸ ἔρλων, καὶ ἐ μόνον θεατήν αγγά καὶ ἐξηγήτην. Arrian.

+ ὑποκατάρατονο

Faciamus hominem. Ut non solo jubentis ermone sicut reliqua, sed consilio sanctæ Trinitatis conditus sit. Arnob.

§ Μικροκόσμο, μικτός τις κόσμου, συγγηνής τῶν δύο κόσμων, Greg. Nyss.

a lively epitome and representation of the greater world, but also dignified with the image of his great Creator. He made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the stars, and then all sorts of living creatures; but, in the words of the poet, "a more divine creature, and more capable of elevated sentiments, was yet wanting, and one that could rule over the rest, therefore man was born, &c. *"

The rest of the creatures, according to the observation of the schoolmen, which is not amiss, had the impression of the divine foot stamped upon them, but not the image of the Deity. These he created, and reviewing them, found them to be good, yet he did not rest in them; but, upon the creation of man, the Sabbath immediately followed. He made man, and then rested, having a creature capable of knowing that he was his Creator, one that could worship him, and celebrate his sabbath, whose sins, if he should commit any, he might forgive, and send, cloathed with human nature, his only begotten Son, "in whom he is absolutely well pleased," and over whom, as the person that fulfilled his good pleasure, he rejoices for ever, to redeem his favourite creature. By the production of man, the supreme Creator exhibited himself in the most admirable light, and, at the same time, had a creature capable of admiring and loving him; and, as St. Ambrose observes, "one that was under obligation to love his Creator the more ardently, the more wonderfully he perceived himself to be madet." And man, says the same author, was made a two footed animal, that he might be, as it were, one of the inhabitants of the air, that he might " aspire at high things, and fly with the wings of sublime thoughts."

* Sanctius his animal, mentisq; capacius altæ,

Deerat ad huc, & quod dominari in cætera posset,

Natus homo est. Ovid. 1 Met.

+ Et quidem tanto ardentius amaret conditorem, quanto mirabilius se ab eo conditum intelligeret.

Et factus est homo bipes, ut sit unus quasi de volatilibus, qui alta visu petat, & quodam remigio volitet sublimum cogitationum. VOL. IV.

U

ac

And, indeed, the structure of man is an instance of wonderful art and ingenuity, whether you consider the symmetry of his whole fabric taken together, or all his parts and members separately. Gregory Nyssen speaks very much to the purpose, when he says, "The frame of man is awful and hard to be explained, and contains in it a lively representation of many of the hidden mysteries of God." How wonderful is even the structure of his body, which, after all, is but the earthen case of his soul? cordingly it is in the Chaldaic language called Nidne, which signifies a sheath. How far does the workmanship exceed the materials? and how justly may we say, "What a glorious creature out of the meanest elements +?" The Psalmist's mind seems to have dwelt upon this meditation, till he was quite lost in it, "how fearfully, says he, and wonderfully am I made!" And that celebrated physician, who studied nature with such unwearied application, in his book upon the structure of the human body, in which, after all, there is nothing divine, often expresses his admiration in these words, "Who is worthy to praise the wisdom and power of the Creator?" and many other such exclamations. The Christian writers, however, are most full upon this subject, particularly St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and others, who carry their observations so far as the nails, and hair, especially that on the eyelids. And Nyssen, on the words, "Let us make man," " has the following observation: "Man is a grand and noble creature-How can man be said to be any great matter? seeing he is a mortal creature, subject to a great many passions: from the time of birth, to that of his old age, exposed to a vast many evils and distresses, and of whom it is written, "Lord, what is man! that thou should be mindful of him!"

* ἡ τῶ ἀνθρώπε κατασκευὴ φοβερὰ τὶς καὶ δυσερμήνευτος καὶ πολλὰ καὶ ἀπόκρυφα ἐν αὐλῆ μυστήρια θεῖ ἐξεικώνιζεσα.

† Οἷοςίξ δις.

† Τὶς ἵκανος ἐσὶ τὴν δημιεργοῦ σοφίαν καὶ δύναμιν ἔπαινεῖν.

&c. The history we have of the production of man, delivered me from this difficulty; for we are told, that God took some of the dust of the earth, and out of it formed man; from these words I understood, that man was at once nothing, and yet something very grand." He intended to say, that the materials out of which man was made, were low, and as it were, nothing; but, if you consider the wonderful workmanship, how great was the honour conferred upon him! "The earth did not spontaneously produce man as it did grasshoppers; God did not commit the production of this or that particular creature to his ministering powers; no, the gracious Creator took the earth in his own hand t." But besides the noble frame of his body, though it was made of the dust of the earth, that divine breath, and by means of it, the infusion of a precious.soul, mixes heaven and earth together; not indeed in the common acceptation of that term, as if things so vastly different were promiscuously jumbled together, and the order of nature subverted; but only implying, that the two parts of the human constitution are compounded with inexpressible art, and joined in a close union. As to the misery of the human race, and the contemptible figure in which the life of man appears, it is to be ascribed to another source, very different from the earthly materials out of which his body was made. That he was created happy, beautiful, and honourable, he owed to his great and good Creator; but he himself is the author of his own misery. And hence it is, that though, with regard to his original and pure nature, we ought, for the strongest reasons, to speak more honourably of him, than of any

* Μίγα ἄνθρωπος καὶ τιμίον. * Ἀλλὰ πῶς μεγὰ ὁ ἄνθρωπο; τό ἐπικηρον ζωον τὸ μυρίοις πάθεσιν ὑποκειμενον, το ἐκγεννητῆς εις γῆρας μυρίων κακῶν ἑσμὸν ἐξαπλῶν. Περὶ ὦ κι πηλαι. Κύριε τίς ἐσιν ὁ ἄνθρωπο, ότι μιμνήσκη αυλό, μς, ἀλλὰ μοι την τοιάυλην διαπόρησαν ἔλυσεν ἱςορία τῆς γεννήσεως τε ἀνθρώπες avayvwçdεioα, &c. Orat. ii.

† εκ ἡ γῆ αυτομάτως πες της τέτλιγαο ἐξέβρας, ἀλλ' ἐκ ἔνπε τώδε καὶ τῶδι ποιῆσαι λειτεργίκαις δυνάμεσιν, ἄλλ ἰδιὰ χειρὶ φιλοτεχνῖι γῆν ἔλαβεν.

other part of the visible world; yet, if we view him, "in his present circumstances no part of the

creation, to be sure, deserves to be lamented in more mournful strains.

But what words can express, what thought can comprehend, the dignity and powers of that heavenly soul that inhabits this earthly body, and the divine image that is stamped upon it? The philosophers of all ages and nations have been inquiring into the nature of it, and have not yet found it

out.

A great many have also amused themselves with too whimsical conjectures and fancies, and endeavoured to discover, by very different methods, a figure of the blessed Trinity in the faculties of the soul. Nor was Methodius satisfied with finding a representation of this mystery in the soul of every particular man, but also imagined he had discovered it in the three first persons of the human race, viz. Adam, Eve, and their first born son, because in them he found unbegotten, begotten, and proceeding, as also unity of nature, and the origination of all mankind. But not to insist upon these, it is certain, the rational, or intellectual, and immortal soul, so long as it retained its original purity, was adorned with the lively and refulgent image of the Father of Spirits, its eternal Creator; but afterwards, when it became polluted and stained with sin, this image, though not immediately quite ruined, was, however, miserably obscured and defaced. It is true, the beautiful and erect frame of the human body, which gives it an advantage over all other creatures, and some other external graces, that man possesses, may possibly be some reflected rays of the divine excellence; but I should hardly call them the image of God: as St. Ambrose well observes, "How can flesh, which is but earth, be said to be made after the image of God, in whom there is no earth at all? and shall we be said

* διΘ· νῦν βρότῳ ἐσίν.