Not existence as established and seen in operation. It can tell us little or nothing about origins, because they lie back of its reach of observation and investigation. To such things as the origin of life, of sensation, of selfconsciousness, it cannot extend its sight. For this reason the origin of man is extra-scientific, as something beyond our range of observation and analysis. But theological anthropology views him specially in his spiritual endowments and relations to God and a future life. less scientific in its methods than the secular sciences, and accepting all that philosophic anthropology can establish, this carries the view up to the human attributes in which the religious instincts are rooted and through which man is designed and adapted for fellowship with his Maker. It takes man, indeed, in all his nature, faculties, and condition as scientific examination shows him to be. The spiritual investigation always assumes and acknowledges the realities that are natural. But the whole view of man is secured only when, in addition to all that rational science can show of him, he is viewed also in the light of revelation-the revelation given for human duty and life by Him who knows what is in man. Our full anthropology must be theological. It is in God's light that we see light' as to what men are and are meant to be. It is to be observed, however, that theological anthropology restricts its consideration of man to his constitution, endowment, and condition as nature presents him, and as he becomes a subject of divine care and providence. It omits those special characteristics which distinguish his life as regenerate and sanctified, since these things belong peculiarly to the action of a restorative supernatural redemption and are described under that division of theology. The subject embraces: I. His State of Integrity; II. His State of Sin; and III. Specific Truths Common to Both States. CHAPTER I. MAN'S PRIMITIVE STATE. This designates his original condition, as created by God. With the full consent of science, Christian theology holds man as presenting the highest creational reach in the grade of being in this world. In him the process came to its summit and crown. The world was built and prepared for his habitation; and the whole work, in the long ages of its advance, was justified only when he appeared, as a being lofty enough in endowments to be given possession of and dominion over it. As basal for correct understanding of this state, we must remind ourselves of the chief facts which the Scripture revelation gives concerning his creation. The account of man's creation is given in Gen. i. 2627, ii. 7, and reflected in many passages throughout the Old and New Testament Scriptures: "And God said, let us create man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man after His image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Echoes of this account reverberate through the whole volume of revelation. It clearly covers the following (383) points: First, that man is not a mere product of simply natural, i. e., precedently established, earthly forces. His existence is referred to a cause directly moving from outside of nature, a uniquely distinct creative act of God. The creative act is not, as in precedent creations, an appeal to the inanimate world: "Let the waters bring forth," "Let the earth bring forth," but is special and peculiar in divine counsel and plan: "Let us make man." Secondly, that while constituted in individuality, man was created also a race. The whole organization of man includes a structural continuity of the species. The term "Adam" is primarily generic, for the racially, or bisexually organized creature designated by that term, and of whom it is added: "Male and female created He them." Manifestly the truth here involved is that, in exalting the earthly creation into the lofty grade of personality, God organized personal individuality into social life. Thirdly, that man, by creation, is a compound being. He is made of the "dust of the ground" and a life created by the 'breathing' of God. He is composed in part of material from the physical earth, and in the higher and distinguishing reality which makes him Man, i. e., a rational "soul," of an immaterial part given by the divine spiration or direct action of creative power. power. We do not take the phraseology "breathing into him the breath of life" literally, but as a symbolism of expression for a direct and positive gift of spirit-life. Fourthly, that he exists in a single race or species. The Scriptures place this single pair at the beginning of the entire race descent (Gen. i. 28; iii. 20; ix. 19; Acts xvii. 26). This fact underlies the doctrine of original sin, and the adaptation and applicability of the provision of salvation for all men (Rom. v. 12-19; 1 Cor. xv. 21-22; Heb. ii. 16). The truth of the unity of the race is supported in manifold forms of natural evidence. For example: (a) Physiology exhibits the human organization as always and everywhere having specific sameness. (b) The propagation of fertile offspring by crossings between all varieties of the human race, in contrast with the law of infertility of hybrids of different animal species. (c) Psychology shows the identity of the mental faculties and laws throughout the entire race. (d) The historic pointings, as they are read in the earliest and remotest records and monuments, imply a common starting-point for the migrations of mankind, and (e) Philology, in the root forms of human language, suggests a common origin of all the most important tongues of the world. But this reminder of preliminary facts in man's creation opens the way to a proper understanding of the characteristic endowments and position given him, as expressed in the declaration that he was made “in the image of God" and "after His likeness." Despite frequent effort to distinguish between these two terms, "image" and "likeness," we must regard them as essentially synonymous. The duplication of terms has, rather, intensive force, making the idea emphatic. Quenstedt defines: "The image of God is a natural perfection, consisting of an entire conformity with the wisdom, justice, immortality, and majesty of God, which was divinely created in the first man, in order that he might truly know, love, and glorify God his Creator."1 1. Beyond doubt, the fundamental characteristic of man's being, made in the image and likeness of God, consisted in his personality, i. e., his endowment with the powers of intelligence, sensibility, and self-determin 1 II., 9. |