was also to be their end. 3. It undoubtedly is the essential property of every image, that it be a just representation of the object which it is intended to express; and as the reflection in a mirror is vivid in a degree proportioned to the clearness of the mirror itself, so the image of God becomes more or less visible, according to the purity of the soul in which it is beheld. 4. Hence God originally created man perfectly pure and undefiled; that so the divine image might be beheld in him, not as an empty, lifeless shadow in a glass, but as a true and living image of the invisible God, and as the likeness of his inward, hidden, and unutterable beauty. There was an image of the wisdom of God, in the _understanding_ of man; of his goodness, gentleness, and patience, in the _spirit_ of man; of his divine love and mercy, in the _affections_ of man’s heart. There was an image of the righteousness and holiness, the justice and purity of God, in the _will_ of man; of his kindness, clemency, and truth, in all the _words_ and _actions_ of man; of his almighty power, in man’s _dominion_ over the earth, and inferior creatures; and lastly, there was an image of God’s eternity, in the _immortality_ of the human soul. 5. From the divine image thus implanted in him, man should have acquired the knowledge both of _God_ and of _himself_. Hence he might have learned, that God, his Creator, is all in all, the Being of beings, and the chief and only BEING, from whom all created beings derive their existence, and in whom, and by whom, all things that are, subsist. Hence, also, he might have known, that God, as the Original of man’s nature, is all that _essentially_, of which he himself was but the image and representation. For since man was to bear the image of the divine goodness, it follows that God is the sovereign and universal goodness _essentially_ (Matt. 19:17); and, consequently, that God is essential love, essential life, and essential holiness, to whom alone (because he is all this _essentially_), worship and praise, honor and glory, might, majesty, dominion, and virtue, are to be ascribed: whereas these do not appertain to the creature, nor belong to anything but God alone.