A

SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATION

OF THE

TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH VERSES,
OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS.

"And God said, Let us m ke 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 in his own image, in the image of God created
he him; male and female created he them."

CONTENTS OF THE WORK.

Scriptural reasons assigned for computing the natural day by the "evening
and the morning"-The purpose of Christ's Incarnation, declared before
the creation of the first Adamn -The scriptural signification of the words
"image and likeness used in the sacred history of the creation of man
-The reason why blasphemy against the Holy Ghost hath not forgive-
ness in this world, or the next-The appearance of the rainbow scriptu-
rally and astronomically determined-The justice and propriety of as-
cribing human properties, and parts to the Deity-The reasonable soul of
man spoken of.

ADDRESSED то

MAN,

BY A LAYMAN OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY

HENRY SIMPKINS, 701, STRAND, LONDON.

[ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.]

(1843)

Tais

INTRODUCTION.

THE reader is here presented with a very singular work; being a Scriptural Illustration of the 26th and 27th verses of the First Chapter of Genesis, containing Jehovah's purpose of the Incarnation of God the Word made flesh, declared before the creation of the first Adam; to which the Fathers, in the early ages of the Church, have not assigned any definite meaning; and which, to this day, forms a portion of Scripture deemed incomprehensible.

Did singularity constitute the cause for publication, even one line of this book ought

never to have been written; but if the omniscience of Jehovah is duly estimated, and the object eternally designed by the Incarnation of the divine Word, or Son of God-resulting in the salvation of mankind by the sacrifice of Christ is fully appreciated, agreeably to the entire volume of revelation, from the foundation of the world to the advent of Immanuel, God manifest in the flesh; it will then be found, that the 26th and 27th verses of the first chapter of Genesis, do, in their comprehensive and completed meaning, certainly infold the entire contents of the law and the gospel; and as such, that the very brief, but most amazingly significant history of the creation of man, forming the subject of this small treatise, may justly be regarded as an epitome of all sacred writ.

In continuance, it may be observed, that notwithstanding those endless diversities of opinions which are entertained by different

Trinitarian communities, yet in this work there will be found so entire an absence of all that asperity of feeling, the result of conflicting opinions and of which infidels of our day avail themselves so largely, for the ultimate gratification of their sinister purposes-that even the openly avowed heretic may peruse and compare the views here advanced and advocated, without any actual cause of complaint.

In the second place, attention to the work is earnestly invited, which certainly has a tendency rather to allay than increase the schisms existing in the church of Christ, because the writer believes that faith is more a matter for consideration between the Creator and his creature Man, than our fathers, probably with the best intentions, seem to have been aware of.

In conclusion, comparison between the written word of God, and the arguments put