48. But there is no danger that the one
faith will cease to be such through diversity in its preaching.
The Evangelist had taught that our Lord said, He that hath seen Me,
hath seen the Father also St. John xiv. 9.. But has
Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, forgotten or kept back the meaning
of the Lord’s words, when he says, Who is the image of the
invisible God Col. i. 15.? I
ask whether He is the visible likeness of the invisible God, and
whether the infinite God can also be presented to view under the
likeness of a finite form? For a likeness must needs repeat the
form of that of which it is the likeness. Let those, however, who
will have a nature of a different sort in the Son determine what sort
of likeness of the invisible God they wish the Son to be. Is it a
bodily likeness exposed to the gaze, and moving from place to place
with human gait and motion? Nay, but let them remember that
according to the Gospels and the Prophets both Christ is a Spirit and
God is a Spirit. If they confine this Christ the Spirit within
the bounds of shape and body, such a corporeal Christ will not be the
likeness of the invisible God, nor will a finite limitation represent
that which is infinite.