9. But now let us continue our reading of
this Scripture, to shew how the consistency of truth is unaffected by
these dishonest objections. The next words are, And God made
man; after the image of God made He him. The image is in
common; God made man after the image of God. I would ask him who
denies that God’s Son is true God, in what God’s image he
supposes that God made man? He must bear constantly in mind that
all things are through the Son; heretical ingenuity must not, for its
own purposes, twist this passage into action on the part of the
Father. If, therefore, man is created through God the Son after
the image of God the Father, he is created also after the image of the
Son; for all admit that the words After Our image and likeness
were spoken to the Son. Thus His true Godhead is as explicitly
asserted by the Divine words as manifested in the Divine action; so
that it is God Who moulds man into the image of God, Who reveals
Himself as God, and, moreover, as true God. For His joint
possession of the Divine image proves Him true God, while His creative
action displays Him as God the Son.