not contented Himself with merely giving us an exact description of them in the words which we have just considered. Read the gospels; there is developed before our eyes the life of one whom the Bible calls the second Adam, one who is designated the image of God, the express image (xapaкrep) of the person (vπooraσis) of God, the image of the invisible God.* What divine traits does that image bear! What a reflection of the divine perfections! What wisdom! What love! What devotion! What holiness! There, my brethren, we clearly behold the being made "after God in righteousness and true holiness," of which the Apostle speaks.

Now see how the image of God in man develops itself in the idea of the inspired Apostle, and in the manifestation of the Son of God on earth. We too, place some traits of this image in the understanding. Not, indeed, in the understanding which requires to be "renewed in knowledge," because it has forgotten the things which are above, and has lost the knowledge of the name of its heavenly Father; but in the clear and

* 2 Cor. iv. 4; Heb. i. 3; Col. i. 15.

enlightened understanding of the first man, created after the image of God; a spiritual understanding, the reflection of the supreme intelligence, capable of rising to God, of seeking God, of adoring God in His works, and in all His moral perfections; an understanding without error and without darkness, possessing a full knowledge of the author of its being, and all the means of continually making new progress in that knowledge by experience. Now to know God is life eternal; it is the perfection. of the understanding; it is the image of God. Such is the first feature of the Divine image, a feature which constituted the grandeur and the glory of the first man, that creature of love, unto whom the celestial intelligences themselves are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto him, and to lead him unto salvation!* Such is He, whose dignity and greatness the minstrel of Zion has celebrated upon his harp: "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned Him with glory and honour; Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands."+

*Heb. ii. 14.

Psalm viii. 7-9. comp. Gen. i. 26.

We do not, however, mean to represent man, created in the image of God, notwithstanding the superiority of his understanding, as a savant, in the ordinary meaning of that word, nor as a philosopher, or metaphysician : it was not by the way of reasoning that he arrived at the knowledge of things; he had no need of such a process. The superiority, even of his understanding, consisted, perhaps, chiefly in its simplicity, its ignorance of what is false, its inexperience of evil, in that practical ingenuousness, which constitutes the charm of the unsophisticated character of a child, a character which Jesus commands us to acquire anew. Always disposed to learn, never presuming upon itself, plying those around it with questions, listening to their answers with an entire confidence-such is the child in the arms of its father, such was Adam before his God, who condescended to instruct him, and whose word was never called in doubt. The Scripture confirms us in the idea, that this was indeed an admirable feature of God's image, when it tells us, that "God made man upright, but that (afterwards, alas!) they sought out many inventions (reasonings)."*

* Eccles. vii. 29.

The Apostle Paul also countenances this opinion, when, in his tender solicitude for the Christians at Corinth, who were exposed to the sophistry of a false philosophy, he writes to them, with an evident allusion to the seduction of our first parents, "I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."* Finally, Jesus Christ also establishes it, when, showing us, in this humble and noble simplicity, this child-like candour, full of openness and confidence, a characteristic feature of the children of his kingdom, he addresses to his still presumptuous disciples this solemn declaration: "Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."+

This feature of character leads us to another, which is inseparable from it. This simplicity in the mind supposes or produces simplicity in the heart. When an individual is straightforward in thought, he is straightforward in his actions. Hence, when the Bible tells us

* 2 Cor. xi. 3.

Matt. xviii. 3.

that "God made man upright," it employs a word which, in the original language, means straightness, as, for example, of a way or a line; and to be upright, is to follow, without deviation, this way, or this line. Now, man created after the image of God, followed without effort, as by instinct, this way of uprightness. This feature, so beautiful and so noble, is reproduced in the new man, which, according to the Apostle, is "created after God in righteousness," that is, in uprightness of mind and of heart. It also deserves to be noticed, that the Jews, though deprived of the revelations of the New Testament, thus understood the primitive state of man, and placed chiefly in this feature, which we have just described, the image of God in man. We read in the Book of Wisdom, ascribed to Solomon, these remarkable words: "God created man to be incorruptible, and made him to be an image of his own likeness."*

Finally, my brethren, let us not forget, (and this consideration includes all that remains for us to say on the image of God in man,) that this being, "created after God in righte

*Wisd. ii. 25.