perfect way than man—present to the Creator the gratitude due to Him from His creation. We are certainly not always wrong, if we believe we hear a song of praise to God in the existence also of Sirius and the rock crystal, of the violet and the boa-constrictor. But however that may be, we can know with regard to ourselves that we are not excused if we are not grateful—for in our existence as men we are certainly called to such gratitude. In the creation story in the Bible (Gen. 1:26 ff.)—a passage adopted by the Confessio Scotica—we read “God created man ad imaginem et similitudinem ipsius,” i.e. to be the image and likeness of Himself. This is misunderstood already in the Greek translation of the Old Testament—the Septuagint—and it is to be feared that the Confessio Scotica also fell into this misunderstanding,—as if what was described here was a condition or quality of being God’s exact likeness, imparted to man at his creation and attaching to his existence thenceforward, so that we would have to ask in what respect this condition of being like God is really to be perceived now in man as man, or in what respect it was to be perceived in Adam. We would then have to ask if for example man’s reason or his humanity was the image of God. For answers of this nature men will seek in vain. For the text speaks not of a quality, but of that for which man’s “nature” is appointed in his existence, life and action. Man is appointed to be, and it is his glory to be, the image of God, to reflect His glory and therefore to be grateful to Him. It is as man that he is appointed for this. And therefore he is appointed to recognise God’s glory and so to act as to give God the glory, since in these consist human existence, life and action. He is appointed to recognise that God is the one and only Lord and to act in a way which takes this into account. He is to recognise God’s majestic Person and to act as one responsible to this majestic Person. We cannot know if this recognition and this action, for which man is appointed, is more pleasing to God than the roaring of the sea, or the gentle falling of snow flakes. Once again we are not asked this. But what we can know is that at any rate we are summoned so to know and act, summoned to the knowledge of God and the service of God as certainly as we men quâ men are called to be His image and to show Him gratitude—the same gratitude which the whole creation owes Him. The sea and the snowflakes owe Him this gratitude too, but our gratitude can take only the form of the knowledge of God and the service of God; for we are not snowflakes or drops of water. And in this form our gratitude will be directed towards the Creator and Lord of the whole earth, the Creator of the sea and the boa-constrictor. How could we honour Him, if not as the One who has also created all other creatures for His glory? This is the source of the confidence in which we may move about in the midst of the whole world, as we wander through its heights and depths. We cannot have confidence in any creature, since we can have confidence in God alone, but we can and should have confidence in the case of every creature in its Creator and Lord. But to do this, to be able to live a life of trust in God in this dark world, we must do what we are under an obligation to do—we must show gratitude for the unspeakable grace of our creation and must reflect God’s glory, and this is effected by our recognising Him and doing what is right in His sight.
V
Let us note in conclusion that the whole subject would consist in abstract conjectures and reflections devoid of any significance for life and also destined to break down at once as empty speculations, if they sought to be anything else than an exposition of the fact that God has revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ. What do we know from any other source about “God,” the “world” and “Man,” and their mutual relations? We know absolutely nothing, and everything becomes confused myth and wild metaphysic as soon as we turn aside from the statement of that fact by which God Himself has confirmed, explained and laid down the relationship of God, the world and man, and God’s ordinance. By God’s taking thought for man in Jesus Christ, now as in the past, He has provided us with knowledge about the creating, sustaining and governing of the world and man and about His glory and ours. Any book other than the Gospel, which we might open here, in order to find out about God, the world and man, could only lead us astray. It was no mere chance that the Confessio Scotica in its exposition of the Creation of man and his special appointment to be God’s image, did not use the word God abstractly but said concretely Our God, Immanuel. To learn to see the Creator and Lord of all in “Our God,” Immanuel, Jesus Christ, is the problem of the Christian doctrine of creation, a problem which is difficult and yet easy, easy and yet difficult.
(Art. 2c–3)
Fra quhilk honour and perfectioun, man and woman did bothe fal: the woman being deceived be the Serpent, and man obeying the voyce of the woman, both conspyring against the Soveraigne Majestie of GOD, who in expressed words had before threatned deith, gif they presumed to eit of the forbidden tre.
ART III
OF ORIGINAL SINNE
Be quhilk transgressioun, commonlie called Original sinne, wes the Image of GOD utterlie defaced in man, and he and his posteritie of nature become enimies to GOD, slaves to Sathan, and servandis unto sin. In samekle that deith everlasting hes had, and sall have power and dominioun over all that have not been, ar not, or sal not be regenerate from above: quhilk regeneratioun is wrocht be the power of the holie Gost, working in the hartes of the elect of GOD, ane assured faith in the promise of GOD, reveiled to us in his word, be quhilk faith we apprehend Christ Jesus, with the graces and benefites promised in him.
I
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