prattle of his reason, which
he made the sole standard for heaven to conform to.

3. O shameless reason! How can we poor, miserable mortals grasp this
mystery of the Trinity? we who do not understand the operation of our
own physical powers--speech, laughter, sleep, things whereof we have
daily experience? Yet we would, untaught by the Word of God, guided
merely by our fallible head, pronounce upon the very nature of God.
Is it not supreme blindness for man, when he is unable to explain the
most insignificant physical operation daily witnessed in his own
body, to presume to understand something above and beyond the power
of reason to comprehend, something whereof only God can speak, and to
rashly affirm that Christ is not God?

4. Indeed, if reason were the standard of judgment in such matters, I
also might make a successful venture; but when the conclusions of
even long and mature reflections upon the subject are compared with
Scripture, they will not stand. Therefore we must repeat, even though
a mere stammering should be the result, what the Scriptures say to
us, namely: that Jesus Christ is true God and that the Holy Spirit is
likewise true God, yet there are not three Gods; not three divine
natures, as we may speak of three brothers, three angels, three suns,
three windows. There is one indivisible divine essence, while we
recognize a distinction as to the persons.

SCRIPTURE PROOF THAT CHRIST IS GOD.

Paul, speaking of Christ in Hebrews 1, 3, refers to him as the
express image of God's substance. Again, in Colossians 1, 15 he says
of Christ: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
all creation." We must take these words for what they say--that all
creatures, even angels and men, are ranked below Christ. This
classification leaves room for God only: taking away the creature,
only God remains. It is one and the same thing, then, to say that
Christ is the firstborn of all creatures and that Christ is true and
essential God.

5. To make the matter as clear as possible Paul uses the expression
"image of the invisible God." If Christ be the image of God he must
be a person distinct from him whose image he is, but at the same time
in one divine essence with the Father. He and the Father are not one
person, but two, and yet Christ could not be the express image of the
Father's person, or essence, if he were not equally divine. No
creature can be an image of the divine essence, for it does not
po