7

These all, however, are traces in which we can see the reflection of our

God. For since the apprehended species is a likeness produced in the medium

and then impressed upon the organ itself, and by means of that impression

leads to its principle and source - that is to say, to the object of

knowledge - manifestly it follows that the eternal light generates out of

itself a likeness or coequal radiance which is consubstantial and

coeternal. And He Who is the image and likeness of the invisible God [Col.,

1, 15] and "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance"

[Hebr., 1, 3], He Who is everywhere through His primal generation, as an

object generates its likeness in the whole medium, is united by the grace

of union to an individual of rational nature - as a species to a corporeal

organ - so that by that union He may lead us back to the Father as to the

primordial source and object. If then all knowable things can generate

their likeness (species), obviously they proclaim that in them as in a

mirror can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the

Son, eternally emanating from God the Father.