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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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non peccare" would have become a "non posse peccare," <strong>and</strong> the “posse<br />

non mori" would have been merged into "non posse mori." <strong>The</strong> abode of<br />

unfallen man was the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. "<strong>The</strong> state of integrity<br />

was that happy condition of man in which he was conformed to the image<br />

of God. <strong>The</strong> ‘image of God’ is natural perfection, consisting, in conformity<br />

with God the prototype, in wisdom, righteousness, purity, immortality, <strong>and</strong><br />

majesty. It was concreate in the parents of our race, so that they rightly<br />

knew <strong>and</strong> worshipped our Creator, <strong>and</strong> lived in holiness, <strong>and</strong> would have<br />

obtained a yet more glorious blessedness." 246<br />

"In the widest conception of the image of God, there pertains to it<br />

everything which marks man as a rational being. In this general sense, the<br />

image of God is not lost entirely, though obscured. In its more specific<br />

sense, it embraces the religious element in man, <strong>and</strong> its chief part is<br />

original righteousness. This involves the conformity of the underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />

with the knowledge <strong>and</strong> wisdom of God; conformity of the will with the<br />

holiness of God, <strong>and</strong> with freedom; conformity of the affections with the<br />

purity of God. <strong>The</strong> secondary conformity consisted, partly, in the<br />

conformity within man, <strong>and</strong> partly, in that which was without man. <strong>The</strong><br />

body of man unfallen was an image of the immortality of God. It was free<br />

from suffering <strong>and</strong> from calamity. It imaged the eternity of God by its<br />

immortality, its freedom from necessity of dying. Rom. v. 12; vi. 23. <strong>The</strong><br />

perfection without man, which belongs to the image of God, was<br />

conformity of his outward dominion, with the power <strong>and</strong> majesty of the<br />

Creator. He was Lord of the world, in which he had been placed; all the<br />

creatures of the world, in which he had been placed, were under his<br />

dominion. Gen. i. 26, ib. ii. 19." 247<br />

Over against just <strong>and</strong> Scriptural views of the image of God are<br />

arrayed first the views which suppose it to have been one of corporeal<br />

likeness. This was the view of the Anthropomorphites. Next the Socinians<br />

<strong>and</strong> many Arminians, conceding that it was in conjunction with<br />

immortality, yet restricted it to the dominion over the animal world. <strong>The</strong><br />

Pelagians <strong>and</strong><br />

246 Hollazius.<br />

247 Quenstedt. See Hutterus Rediv. (Hase) ~ 80, <strong>and</strong> Luthardt Komp. d. Dogm. ~ 41.

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