Chapter XXIII Man Is Made in the Image of God
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.—Gen. 1:26.
All the creatures, in their different orders and degrees of subordination, may be said to imitate their Maker. Those beings that are endued with life and sense come nearer to him than the vegetable; the rational, than the irrational. As, then, all the creatures in their order seem respectively to approach nearer and nearer unto God, and man is the end and perfection of them all, it follows, that he must be in the highest degree of conformity and likeness unto God.
2. For as the wax represents the perfect impression of the seal, so God has fixed a stamp or impression of himself upon all creatures; but to man, before his fall, he gave his own image and the brightness of that glory, which the rest of the creatures partake of in lower degrees. Thus it appears from the orders of created beings, that man was entirely created after the image of God. And as God is a pure spirit, a holy, just, and understanding mind, so there is in man a spiritual and understanding soul, in which the brightness and glory of the divine image shone and manifested itself.