SERMON 141:
The Image of God
An Introductory Comment
This is John Wesley's first 'university sermon', preached in
St. Mary's on November 15, 1730 (i.e., a fortnight after the preceding sermon preached at All Saints). In style and substance, it compares favourably with his second university
sermon, and thus might also have been worthy of publication (cf. No. 17, '
The Circumcision of the Heart').
It must have made a mark for the young don in St. Mary's; it is lively and deals with the prime issue of Christian anthropology: the original design of human nature considered in the light of the crucial biblical metaphor of 'the image of God' and in the face of the tragic consequences of the Fall.
The argument is ordered into three stages: first, the original perfections of the imago Dei in Adam and Eve; second, the fall and defacement of that image; and third, the mystery of grace and the promise of the image's restoration. It is, therefore, an important statement of Wesley's early basic understanding of the ordo salutis. The clearest of the sermon's three sections is its first: the Adamic perfections
(cf. No. 5, 'Justification by Faith', I.4 and n.). This idea was a commonplace
in Oxford, but Wesley's development of it is not. Clearly, he was working
from the tradition of 'original righteousness' (iustitia originalis) that
had come to him from Christian Platonism through the Cambridge Platonists
and John Norris. There are even echoes here from the medieval rabbis (especially
Maimonides) and their speculations about Adam's intellectual and moral
perfections. We know of Wesley's interest in this tradition and of its
mediation to him through the Old Testament commentaries of Matthew Poole
and Matthew Henry.
Indeed, so fulsome do Adam's perfections appear here that the wonder rises irresistibly as to why a creature so perfect should ever have fallen from his paradisiacal state. Wesley's answer is an interesting echo of Milton's 'I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistured virtue, unexercised and unbreathed' (Areopagitica, 1644). God had designed the virtue of obedience as the precondition to all the others, and this had to be tested by an arbitrary command. When this was disobeyed (and Wesley leaves the 'explanation' for this disobedience quietly unexplained), the whole bright galaxy of those other perfections also fell away into ruin.
Thereafter, human nature has been, in effect, an inversion of its original
design擁n intellect, will, and affections. One of the more interesting 'asides'
in this sermon is Wesley's description of the physiological effects of
Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit. This amounts to a speculative account
of a correlation between bad nutrition and the course and onset of atherosclerosis預
hypothesis far enough beyond its own time that modern medicine is still
in process of drawing it out.
The manuscript is in the Colman Miscellany in the Methodist Archives, Manchester,
on nine leaves, with a front cover leaf missing. The leaves are numbered
irregularly: pp. 1-5, followed by an unnumbered page with text, and pp.
6-10; then a blank page and pp. 11-15, followed by a back cover bearing
notes about places and dates of preaching. The gathering is sewn between
pp. 7 and 8. The text is in Wesley's abbreviated longhand and cipher, with
very few revisions. This, with the back cover notations, suggests that
this was the 'fair copy' that Wesley used in the pulpit. His diary indicates
that he had composed the sermon during the five days October 27-31; at
the bottom of p. 15 there is an appended note: 'tr[anscribed] Nov. 1, 3:30
aft[ernoon], 33 min.' On the back cover there is the following list of
preaching occasions:
At St. Mary's, Nov. 15, 1730
Queen's Square Chapel, London, Feb. 7 [1731]
Stanton
St. Margaret's, Old Fleetstreet, London
St. Michael's [Oxford], Jan. 7, 1733 [viz., just a week after he had preached
'The Circumcision of the Heart' in St. Mary's]
This is its first publication.
The Image of God
Genesis 1:27
In the first chapter of Genesis at the twenty-seventh verse it is thus
written:
So God created man in his own image.
[1.] A truth that does so much honour to human nature, that gives so advantageous
an account of it as this, could not fail, one would think, of being well
entertained by all to whom that nature belonged. And accordingly some there
have been in all ages who gladly received and firmly retained it; who asserted,
not only that man was sprung from God, but that he was his likeness from
whom he sprung; that the image of his divine Parent was still visible upon
him, who had transfused as much of himself into this his picture as the
materials on which he drew would allow.1
[2.] But to this it has constantly been opposed: if man was made in the
image of God, whence flow those numberless imperfections that stain and
dishonour his nature? Why is his body exposed to sickness and pain, and
at last to a total dissolution? Why is his soul still more disgraced and
deformed by ignorance and error, by unruly passions, and what is worse
than all, as it contains them all, by vice? A fine picture葉his ignorant,
wretched, guilty creature熔f a wise, happy, and holy Creator!
[3.] I am ashamed to say there are [those] of our age and nation who greedily
close with this old objection, and eagerly maintain that they were not
made in the image of the living God, but of the beasts that perish;2 who
heartily contend that it was not the divine but the brutal likeness in
which they were created, and earnestly assert 'that they themselves are
beasts'3 in a more literal sense than ever Solomon meant it. These consequently
reject with scorn the account God has given of man, and affirm it to be
contrary to reason and [to the account] itself, as well as it is to their
practice.
[4.] The substance of his account is this: 'God created man upright; in
the image of God created he him; but man found out to himself many inventions.'4
Abusing the liberty wherewith he was endowed, he rebelled against his Creator,
and wilfully changed the image of the incorruptible God into sin, misery,
and corruption.5 Yet his merciful, though rejected, Creator would not forsake
even the depraved work of his own hands, but provided for him, and offered
to him a means of being 'renewed after the image of him that created him'.6
[5.] That it may appear7 whether this account of man is contrary to itself and reason or no, I shall endeavour to show the parts of it more distinctly, by inquiring: I, how man was made in the image of God; II, how he lost that image; and III, how he may recover it.
I. Man was originally made in the image of God.
1. First with regard to his understanding. He was endued, after the likeness
of his Maker, with a power of distinguishing truth from falsehood; either
by a simple view wherein he made the nearest approach to that all-seeing
Nature, or by comparing one thing with another (a manner of knowledge perhaps
peculiar to himself) and often inferring farther truths from these preceding
comparisons.8
(1.) And in several properties of it, as well as in the faculty itself,
man at first resembled God. His understanding was just; everything appeared
to him according to its real nature. It never was betrayed into any mistake;
whatever he perceived, he perceived as it was. He thought not at all of
many things, but he thought wrong of none. (2.) And as it was just, it
was likewise clear. Truth and evidence went hand in hand; as nothing appeared
in a false light, so neither in a glimmering one. Light and darkness there
were, but no twilight; whenever the shades of ignorance withdrew, in that
moment the broader day appeared, the full blaze of knowledge shined. e
was equally a stranger to error and doubt; either he saw not at all, or
he saw plainly. (3.) And hence arose that other excellence of his understanding:
being just and clear, it was swift in its motion. Nothing was then as quick
as thought but that which alone is capable of it耀pirit. How far anything
of which we have any conception must fall short of expressing its swiftness
will be readily seen by all who observe but one instance of it in our first
father: in how short a space he 'gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls
of the air, and to every beast of the field'.9 And names not arbitrarily
imposed, but expressive of their inward natures. (4.) Sufficiently showing
thereby not only the swiftness, but likewise the greatness of his understanding.
For how extensive a view must he have had who could command so vast a prospect!10
What a comprehension was that, to take in at once almost an infinity of
objects! Such doubtless it was that the visible creation would soon have
been too small for its capacity.
2. And yet even this just, this clear, this swift, this comprehensive understanding
was the least part of that image of God wherein man was originally made.
Far greater and nobler was his second endowment, namely, a will equally
perfect. It could not but be perfect while it followed the dictates of
such an understanding. His affections were rational, even, and regular擁f
we may be allowed to say 'affections', for properly speaking he had but
one: man was what God is, Love. Love filled the whole expansion of his
soul; it possessed him without a rival. Every movement of his heart was
love: it knew no other fervour. Love was his vital heat; it was the genial
warmth that animated his whole frame. And the flame of it was continually
streaming forth, directly to him from whom it came, and by reflection to
all sensitive natures, inasmuch as they too were his offspring; but especially
to those superior beings who bore not only the superscription, but likewise
the image of their Creator.11
3. What made his image yet plainer in his human offspring was, thirdly,
the liberty he originally enjoyed; the perfect freedom implanted in his
nature, and interwoven with all its parts. Man was made with an entire
indifference,12 either to keep or change his first estate: it was left
to himself what he would do; his own choice was to determine him in all
things. The balance did not incline to one side or the other unless by
his own deed. His Creator would not, and no creature besides himself could,
weigh down either scale.13 So that, in this sense, he was the sole lord
and sovereign judge of his own actions.
4. The result of all these預n unerring understanding, an uncorrupt will,
and perfect freedom揚ave the last stroke to the image of God in man, by
crowning all these with happiness. Then indeed to live was to enjoy, when
every faculty was in its perfection, amidst abundance of objects which
infinite wisdom had purposely suited to it, when man's understanding was
satisfied with truth, as his will was with good; when he was at full liberty
to enjoy either the Creator or the creation; to indulge in rivers of pleasure,14
ever new, ever pure from any mixture of pain.
II. How it was this wise, virtuous, happy creature was deprived of these
perfections, how man lost the image of God, we are, secondly, to inquire.
And the plain answer is this: the liberty of man necessarily required that
he should have some trial;15 else he would have had no choice whether he
would stand or no, that is, no liberty at all. In order to this necessary
trial God said unto him, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it.'16 To secure him from transgressing this sole command, as far
as could be done without destroying his liberty, the consequence was laid
before him: 'In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'17
Yet man did eat of it, and the consequence accordingly was death on him
and all his descendants, and preparatory to death, sickness and pain, and
folly and vice and slavery.
And 'tis easy to observe by what regular steps all these would succeed
each other, if God did not miraculously prevent it, but suffer nature to
take its course. But we should observe, first, that man even at his creation
was a compound of matter and spirit; and that it was ordained by the original
law that during this vital union neither part of the compound should act
at all but together with its companion; that the dependence of each upon
the other should be inviolably maintained; that even the operations of
the soul should so far depend upon the body as to be exerted in a more
or less perfect manner, as this was more or less aptly disposed.
This being observed, we may easily conceive how the forbidden fruit might
work all those effects which are implied in the word 'death', as being
introductory to, and paving the way for it. Which particulars of the following
account are founded on Scripture and consequently certain, and which are
built on conjecture and therefore proposed only as probable, it will not
be hard to distinguish.
1. Its first effect must have been on his body, which, being before prepared
for immortality, had no seeds of corruption within itself and adopted none
from without. All its original particles were incorruptible, and therefore
the additional ones taken in, being for pleasure rather than use, cannot
be supposed ever to have cleaved to its native substance, ever to have
adhered to any part of it, as none needed any reparation. By this means
both the juices contained must have been still of the same consistence,
and the vessels containing them have kept the same spring, and remained
ever clear and open.18
On the contrary, the fruit of that tree alone of whose deadly nature he
was forewarned seems to have contained a juice, the particles of which
were apt to cleave to whatever they touched. Some of these, being received
into the human body, might adhere to the inner coats of the finer vessels;
to which again other particles that before floated loose in the blood,
continually joining, would naturally lay a foundation for numberless disorders
in all parts of the machine. For death in particular; since, more foreign
matter cleaving to the former every day, the solid parts of the body would
every day lose something of their spring, and so be less able to contribute
their necessary assistance to the circulation of the fluids. The smaller
channels would gradually fill up, especially those that lie near the extremities,
where the current, by reason of its distance from the fountain, was always
more slow and languid. The whole tide, as the force that threw it forward
abated, must [also] have abated its swiftness in proportion, till at length
that force utterly failing, it ceased to move, and rested in death.19
Indeed had Adam taken the antidote as well as the poison, had he again
put forth his hand, and taken of the fruit of the Tree of Life,20 nothing
of this could have followed. 'Tis sure this would have made him live for
ever, naturally speaking, notwithstanding he had eaten death. 'Tis likely
it would have done so by its thin, abstersive21 nature, particularly fitted
to counteract the other, to wipe off its particles, wheresoever adhering,
and so restore the eater to immortality.
However this be, thus much is certain: the moment wherein that fruit was
tasted, the sentence of death passed on that body, which before was impassive
and immortal. And this immortal having put on mortality,22 the next stroke
fell on its companion: the soul felt a like change through all her powers,
except only that she could not die. The instrument being now quite untuned,
she could no longer make the same harmony: 'the corruptible body pressed
down the soul',23 with which it soared so high during its incorruption.
2. His understanding first found the want of suitable organs; its notions
were just no longer. It mistook falsehood for truth, and truth for falsehood.
Error succeeded and increased ignorance. And no wonder, when it was no
longer clear; when it not only saw through a glass, but darkly too,24 that
glass being now grown thick and dull, having lost great part of its transparency.
And hence it was that doubt perplexed it as well as error, that it could
neither rest in knowledge nor ignorance. Through clouds like these its
most laborious steps could win but little ground. With its clearness went
its swiftness too; confusion and slowness came together. Instead of being
able to find out the natures of ten thousand creatures almost in a moment,
it became unable to trace out fully the nature of any one in many years.
Nay, unable (so was the largeness of its capacity impaired, as well as
the swiftness of its progress) with that apprehension for which the visible
world was before but a scanty prospect, to take in at one view all the
properties of any single creature therein.
3. How much the will suffered when its guide was thus blinded we may easily
comprehend. Instead of the glorious one that possessed it whole before,
it was now seized by legions of vile affections.25 Grief and anger and
hatred and fear and shame, at once rushed in upon it; the whole train of
earthly, sensual, and devilish26 passions fastened on and tore it in pieces.
Nay, love itself, that ray of the Godhead, that balm of life, now became
a torment. Its light being gone, it wandered about seeking rest and finding
none;27 till at length, equally unable to subsist without any and to feel
out its proper object, it reclined itself upon the painted trifles, the
gilded poison of earthly enjoyments.
4. Indeed, what else could the human mind do when it had no freedom left?
Liberty went away with virtue; instead of an indulgent master it was under
a merciless tyrant. The subject of virtue became the slave of vice. It
was not willingly that the creature obeyed vanity; the rule was now perforce;
the sceptre of gold was changed into a rod of iron. Before, the bands of
love indeed drew him28 toward heaven; yet if he would, he could stoop down
to earth. But now, he was so chained down to earth he could not so much
as lift up his eyes toward heaven.29
5. The consequence of his being enslaved to a depraved understanding and
a corrupted will could be no other than the reverse of that happiness which
flowed from them when in their perfection. Then were the days of man evil
as well as few;30 then, when both his faculties were decayed, and bitterness
poured on their earthly objects, and heavenly ones withdrawn, the mortal,
foolish, vicious, enslaved creature was delivered over to his [un]sought-for
misery.
How such a creature as this, as every fair inquirer finds by experience
himself to be, could come from the hands of the good God, has been the
just wonder of all ages. And let the infidel look to it; let him surmount
the difficulty if he can upon any scheme beside the Christian. Upon this
indeed it is no difficulty at all; all is rational, plain, and easy, while
we observe, on the one hand, that not the good God but man himself made
man what he is now; on the other, how he may recover what he wilfully lost,
which is the subject of our third inquiry.
III. Who indeed shall recover us from the body of this death?31 Who shall
restore our native immortality? We answer with the Apostle, 'I thank God,
Jesus Christ our Lord!'32 'As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all
be made alive'33預ll who accept of the means which he hath prepared, who
walk by the rules which he hath given them. All these shall by dying conquer
the first death, and shall never taste the second.34 The seeds of spiritual
death they shall gradually expel, before this earthly tabernacle is dissolved,
that this too, when it has been taken down and thoroughly purged, may be
rebuilt 'eternal in the heavens'.35
1. The first step to this glorious change is humility, a knowledge of ourselves,
a just sense of our condition: which the evil spirit himself, either overruled
by or mimicking the true God, recommended on the front of his temple in
those celebrated words, 'Know Thyself',36 which a better prophet than he
recommends to all those who would 'be transformed by the renewing of their
minds'・I say unto every man溶ot to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think.'37
'Tis almost needless to remark how conducive this is to the attainment
of all other knowledge; or, in other words, how conducive it is to the
improvement of the understanding. An erroneous opinion of ourselves naturally
leads us into numberless errors; whereas to those who know their own folly
(beside the natural advantage of it) the Lord of nature 'giveth the spirit
of wisdom, and enlightens the eyes of their understanding, after the likeness
in which they were created'.a
2. The understanding, thus enlightened by humility, immediately directs
us to reform our will by charity.38 To root out of our souls all unmanly
passions, and to give place to them, no, not an hour; to put away all malice,
uncleanness, intemperance, 'all bitterness, wrath, and evil-speaking';39
to collect the scattered beams of that affection which is truly human,
truly divine, and fix them on that Sovereign Good 'in whom we live, move,
and have our being';40 for his sake, lastly, and after his example, to
be 'kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us'.b
3. Thus it is that the 'law of the Spirit of life makes us free from the
law of sin and death';41 thus it restores us, first to knowledge, and then
to virtue, and freedom, and happiness. Thus are we 'delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God';42
into that liberty which not only implies the absence of all pain, unless
what is necessary to future pleasure, but such a measure of present happiness
as is a fit introduction to that which flows at God's right hand for evermore!43
[IV.1.]44 One thing I would observe from what has been said揺ow extremely
pitiable their condition is who are insensible of their innate disease,
or refuse the only cure of it. 'Tis true, even those who are not invested
with authority (such doubtless 'bear not the sword in vain')45 are apt
to look upon these as the proper objects of anger, and not of compassion.
Yet our Lord, when he beheld even that city which had killed the servants,
and was about to murder the son, of its master, wept over it, and suffered
all other passions to melt down into commiseration.46 Yet those whom we
are often tempted to behold with passions of quite another nature, 'who
are alienated from the image of God through the ignorance that is in them',47
are by our confession not more guilty than these, and little less unhappy.
They are always sick, often in pain; destruction and unhappiness are in
their ways; the way of peace have they not known,48 'an evil disease cleaves
to them';49 their inward parts are very misery.50 Their understanding is
darkened;51 clouds of ignorance and error are ever before their eyes, 'because
the God of this world hath blinded their hearts',52 and infinitely increased
its native corruption. Their love is fixed on mean, perishing, unsatisfying
objects, and the frequent anguish that must flow from such a choice is
sharpened by innumerable restless passions, that tear asunder their helpless
prey. God help him who is a slave to such masters! Man cannot; he can only
pity him! He can only, when he seeth such a one dragging his chain, and
possibly talking loud of his own freedom, plunging through the flames of
a fever into those that never shall be quenched,53 and perhaps dreaming
he is in perfect health, recommend [him] to that All-sufficient Mercy to
which all things are possible!
2. Yes, one step farther he may, he ought to go: he ought to acknowledge
the riches of that mercy shown to himself, and indeed to all of us who
have our education in a truly Christian country;54 who have all the opportunities
of obtaining a better mind which the art of man and the wisdom of God can
give; of obtaining this knowledge楊nowledge, the basis of whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are honourable or lovely55夕which] is held out
to us with no sparing hand; we are suffered, courted, pressed to enjoy
it. Others are glad if they can snatch a few drops from the rivulets that
flow hence: we lie at the fountain-head of these living waters,56 and command
all their various streams. The attainment of knowledge is the pleasure
of many; of us, 'tis the business too. Our business it is to know in particular
that we are all originally foolish and vicious, and that there is no truth
in our whole religion more absolutely necessary to be known than this.
Because if man be not naturally corrupt, then all religion, Jewish and
Christian, is vain, seeing it is all built on this預ll method[s] of cure
presupposing the disease. We can scarce avoid knowing how slight all objections
against this fundamental truth must be while there is even this one argument
for it: if man be naturally mortal, then he is naturally sinful; seeing
one cause must work both sin and death. The seeds of natural being likewise
the seeds of moral corruption, must undermine our understanding as well
as our life, and the affections with the understanding. We are almost forced
to know both the necessity and the divine efficacy of our religion; to
see that if man be naturally corrupt, then Christianity is of God; seeing
there is no other religion, as 'there is no other God which can deliver
after this sort'57 from that corruption. We, lastly, have daily opportunities
of knowing, if Christianity be of God, then of how glorious a privilege
are they thought worthy who persuade others to accept of its benefits.58
Seeing when the author of it 'cometh in the clouds of heaven',59 and 'those
that slept in the dust of the earth shall awake,'60 they who have saved
others from sin and its attendant death61 'shall shine as the brightness
of the firmament'; they who have reprinted the image of God on many souls
'as the stars for ever'!62
Now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed
all honour and praise, now and for ever.