Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
Adam Clarke
V.—MAN.
THE CREATION OF MAN.—Let us figure to ourselves, for we may
innocently do it, the state of the divine nature previously to the formation
of the human being. Infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect and selfsufficient,
the supreme Being could feel no wants;—to him nothing was
wanting, nothing needful. As the "good man is satisfied from himself,"
from the contemplation of his conscious rectitude; so, comparing
infinitely great with small things, the divine mind was supremely satisfied
with the possession and contemplation of its own unlimited excellences.
From unmixed, unsullied goodness sprang all the endlessly varied
attributes, perfections, and excellences of the divine nature; or rather, in
this principle all are founded, and of this each is an especial modification.
Benevolence is, however, an affection inseparable from goodness. God,
the All-sufficient, knew that he could, in a certain way, communicate
influences from his own perfections: but the being must resemble himself
to whom the communication could be made. His benevolence, therefore,
to communicate and diffuse his own infinite happiness, we may naturally
suppose, led him to form the purpose of creating intelligent beings, to
whom such communication could be made. He, therefore, in the
exuberance of his eternal goodness, projected the creation of man, whom
he formed in his own image, that he might be capable of those
communications. Here, then, was a motive worthy of eternal goodness,
the desire to communicate its own blessedness; and here was an object
worthy of the divine wisdom and power, the making an intelligent
creature a transcript of his own eternity, Psalm viii, 5, just less than God;
and endowing him with powers and faculties of the most extraordinary
and comprehensive nature.
I do not found these observations on the supposition of certain
excellences possessed by man previously to his fall: I found them on what
he is now. I found them on his vast and comprehensive understanding; on