X. Ques. How did God create man?
Q. 1. Why did God create man male and female?
Q. 2. What is meant by the image of God, after which man was at first created?
Q. 3. Wherein doth consist the image of God, which was put upon man, in his first creation?
Q. 4. What is included in this image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, as man had it at
first?
Q. What knowledge had he when he was created, in his understanding?
Q. 6. What righteousness had man at first in his will?
Q. What holiness had man at first in his affections?
Q. 8. What dominion had man at his first creation?
Ans. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness,
with dominion over the creatures.
A. God created man male and female, for their mutual help, and for the propagation of mankind. "And,
God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make an help meet for him." Gen. 2:18.
"God created man male and female; and God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it" &c. Gen. 1:27-28.
A. By the image of God we are to understand the similitude or likeness of God. "And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness." Gen. 1:26.
A. 1. Negatively, the image of God doth not consist in any outward visible resemblance of his body to
God, as if God had any bodily shape. 2. Positively, the image of God doth consist in the inward
resemblance of his soul to God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. "Renewed in knowledge, after
the image of Him that created him." Col. 3:10. "Put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness." Eph. 4:24.
A. The image of God in man at the first doth include the universal and perfect rectitude of the whole soul:
knowledge in his understanding, righteousness in his will, holiness in his affections.
A. Man had, in his first creation, the knowledge of God, and his law, and his creatures, and all things
which were necessary to make him happy.
A. Man had at first in his will a disposition, accompanied with an executive power, to every thing which
was right, and to give that which was both due to God and also to man, had there been any man besides
himself.
A. Man's affections at first were holy and pure, free from all sin and defilement, free from all disorder and
distemper; they were placed upon the most holy, high, and noble objects. Man at first had true and chief
love to God; his desires were chiefly after him, and his delight was chiefly in him, and no creature in the
world had too great a share. As for grief, and shame, and the like affections, though they were in man
radically, yet they were not in man actively, so as to put forth any acts, until he had committed the first
sin; then be began to mourn and be ashamed.
A. Man had dominion, not only over himself aud his own affections, but he had also dominion over the
inferior creatures, the fish, and the fowls, and the beasts; many of which, since man's disobedience to the
command of God, are become disobedient to the command of man. "God said unto them, Have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creature that moveth upon the
earth." Gen. 1:28.