49. But, as it is, neither did the Lord leave us in doubt: He who hath seen Me, hath seen the Father also; nor was the Apostle silent as to His nature, Who is the image of the invisible God. For the Lord had said, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not442    St. John x. 37., teaching them to see the Father in Himself in that He did the works of the Father; that through perceiving the power of His nature they might understand the nature of that power which they perceived. Wherefore the Apostle proclaiming that this is the image of God, says, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him were all things made in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and in Him, and He is before all, and for Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church, Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell, and through Him all things should be reconciled to Him443    Col. i. 15–20.. So through the power of these works He is the image of God. For assuredly the Creator of things invisible is not compelled by any necessity inherent in His nature to be the visible image of the invisible God. And lest He should be regarded as the likeness of the form and not of the nature, He is styled the likeness of the invisible God in order that we may understand by His exercise of the powers (not the invisible attributes) of the Divine nature, that that nature is in Him.

49. Imago Dei est, quatenus ei divinae naturae virtus. ---Sed neque Dominus incertum reliquit, Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem (Joan. XIV, 9); neque Apostolus 0272B tacuit qualis esset, Qui est imago Dei invisibilis (Coloss. I, 15). Dominus enim dixerat, Si non facio opera patris mei, nolite mihi credere (Joan. XVI, 37), hinc videri in se Patrem docens, quod opera ejus efficeret; ut intellecta naturae virtus naturam intellectae virtutis ostenderet, per quod Apostolus hanc imaginem Dei esse significans, ait, Qui est imago Dei invisibilis, primogenitus omnis creaturae; quia in ipso constituta sunt omnia in coelis et in terra, visibilia et invisibilia, sive Throni, sive Principatus, sive Potestates, sive Dominationes, omnia per ipsum et in ipso condita sunt, et ipse est ante omnes, et omnia ipsi constant, et ipse est caput corporis Ecclesiae, qui est initium, primogenitus ex mortuis, ut fieret in omnibus ipse primatum tenens; quia in ipso 0272C complacuit omnem plenitudinem habitare, et per 0273A ipsum reconciliari omnia in eum (Coloss. I, 15 et seqq.). Per horum igitur operum virtutem imago Dei est. Nam utique invisibilium Conditor non est in ea naturae necessitate, ut invisibilis Dei imago visibilis sit. Ac ne formae potius, quam naturae imago esse intelligeretur; idcirco invisibilis Dei imago est, natura in eo Dei per naturae suae virtutem intelligenda, non invisibili qualitate.