Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/76

64 of an earthly nature. Nevertheless, he was the image of God. His memory, intelligence, and will are an image of the three co-equal and indivisible Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity. He was, therefore, the glory of God, in a sense beyond all other creatures, for no other could render to God the , the obsequium rationabile, the obedience of reason and of faith, and serve Him as a son and as a friend.

And man, when created, was crowned with glory and honour. His nature was itself his glory, for it reflected the perfections of God. The light of his reason was his crown, radiant with the knowledge of God and of himself. And God set him over all the works of His hands. He gave him sovereignty and lordship—a dominion of use and of enjoyment held by divine grant, and limited by the law of the divine perfections. This warrants no excess beyond the intentions and conditions of the dominion which God delegated to man.

Man was, then, the first-fruits of the old creation.

2. But what the first Adam was among creatures the second Adam is among men. The first man was only man in stature and perfection, united indeed with God by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; but in no way above or beyond the dimensions of man-