Eccl. xvii. 3.IMAGE, or representation of any thing. God created man after his own image; that is to say, he created him as another self upon earth, a kind of Demi-God in the world, to exercise a dominion in it subordinate to his. Otherwise, he created him after his image, wise, immortal, good, just, provident, knowing, &c. Lastly, God imprinted his image in man, his holiness, virtue, wisdom. He created man, and gave him a body and reasonable soul; as in after ages his word, his wisdom, was to assume the nature of man; his body and soul. Adam by Tertull. de resurr. carnis, c. 5. Col. iii. 9, 10. & Rom. viii. 29.his sin disfigured the image of God, he forfeited the gifts of grace and immortality; but Jesus Christ, hath formed a-new in us this image of his grace: or rather, we being prevented and assisted by him, renew in ourselves the image of God, which was defaced by sin, As we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Ex. xx. 4.God forbids the Hebrews to make any image or representation of what is in heaven, or earth, or in the waters, with an intention to worship it. But he does not forbid to make images or figures only to represent, instruct, or adorn. Thus Moses and Solomon made Cherubims over the ark, and in the tabernacle. Moses made a brazen Serpent; Solomon cast Lions and Oxen, and placed them in the Temple. And the Christian Church permits the use of images, mages, provided they are used only in such a relative worship , whereby we honour the Saints, whose resemblance they bear; and believe that there is no virtue or any thing divine in them; address no prayers to them, or place any confidence in them.
Besides the common acceptation of the word Image, whereby a bare representation is meant of something real, for example, of an horse, an ox, a star, &c. the representation whereof with a design of worshipping them, is forbidden by the law; this name is farther understood in several other senses: for example; Ps. xxxix. 7.In imagine pertransit homo: Man passes away like a phantom: And Imaginem ipsorum Ps. lxxiii. 20.ad nihilum rediges, Thou shalt reduce their image, their shadow, their figure, thou shalt reduce them to nothing. The life of man is as it were smoke, a shadow, a vain representation: it passes away, it is dispersed, it vanishes like a cloud. Job, or rather his Job v. 16.friend Eliphaz says, that at midnight an image, a phantom, appeared to him, he did not know it; but he heard as it were a voice, or as it were the murmur of a gentle and light wind. Stetit imago coram oculis meis, & vocem quasi aurœ lenis audivi.
Imago is sometimes taken in a contrary sense, for a lively and real representation, in opposition to a transient image, a phantom, something that appears in a dream, and has no consistency or reality: for example; The Hebr. x. 1.law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things. It represented these good things in a light and superficial manner, like the shadows which appear by night, and have nothing solid and permanent; whereas the Gospel represents the same good things under a lively, solid, firm, stable and real figure; the law was but a shadow, whereof the Gospel is the reality and substance.
Thus in St. Paul’s epistles, Jesus Christ 2 Cor. iv. 4. Col. i. 15.is called the image of the Father: Evangelium gloriæ Christi, quæ est imago Dei. And again, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. And in Hebr. i. 3.another place he calls him the brightness of his glory, the express image of the Father’s substance. This without doubt is not a meer image and no more, a ray only, but a real and substantial image, of the same nature and substance with the Father; it is an emanation from the Father, an efflux of his light and substance.
S. Paul requires, that as we have born the image of the earthy, we should likewise bear the image of the heavenly. As we have born the image of sinful and offending Adam, as we have imitated him in his sin and disobedience, so we should endeavour to draw again upon our souls the features of the heavenly man Christ Jesus; his obedience, his humility, his patience, meekness, &c.
Image is taken often for a statue, figure, or idol: for example, Take good heed with yourselves, lest ye make you a graven image, the likeness of male or female, with an intention to adore them: and elsewhere, The Israelites went into the house of Baal, and brake in pieces his images. And the author of the book of Wisdom, speaking of the causes of Idolatry, says, that a father afflicted for the death of his son, made an image of him, to which he paid divine honour: and S. John in the Revelations, xiii. 14, 15. God permitted the beast to seduce men, and it commanded them to make an image of the beast, which became a living an animated image; and all they who shall refuse to adore the image of the beast shall be put to death. By this animated and living image of the beast, to which the inhabitants of the Earth pay their worship and adorations, the Heathen Idols are meant, which Julian the Apostate in some sort brought to life, by reviving and restoring the worship of them, which had been dead and abolished over almost the whole Empire.