Barnabas says:—“And for this the Lord was contented to suffer for our souls, though he be the Lord of the world; to whom God said, the day before the formation of the world, Let us make man after our image and similitude.”[175]
Hermas:—“He was present in counsel with his Father for the forming of the creature.”[176]
Theophilus of Antioch:—“He directed these words, Let us make man, to none other than his own Word and his own Wisdom.”[177]
Irenæus:—“His Word and Wisdom, his Son and Spirit, are always present with him, to whom also he spake, saying, Let us make man, &c.”[178] Again:—“Man was fashioned after the image and likeness of the uncreated God, the Father willing his creation, the Son ministering and forming him, the Holy Ghost nourishing and increasing him.”[179]
Tertullian:—“Nay, because his Son is ever present with him, the second person, his Word; and the third, the Spirit in the Word; therefore he spake in the plural, Let us make man in our image.”[180]
Novatian:—“Who does not acknowledge the Son to be the second person after the Father, when he reads that it was said to the Son by the Father, Let us make man.”[181]
Origen:—“To him also spake he (the Father,) Let us make man after our image.”[182]
Athanasius:—“Who is this that God converses with here? To whom are these notifications and determinations of his pleasure directed? Not to any of the creatures already made; much less to those things which were not yet created; but, undoubtedly to some person, who was then present with the Father, to whom he communicated his councils, and of whose agency he made use in the creation of them. And who could this be but his eternal Word? With whom can we conceive the Father holding his conference, but with his Son, the divine LOGOS, that Wisdom of God, that was present with him, and acted with him, in the creation of the world, who was in the beginning with God, and was God? and who saith of himself, When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then was I by him, as one brought up with him.”
St. Augustine:—“Had God said no more than, Let us make man, it might, with some color, be understood as spoken to the angels, whom the Jews pretend he employed in framing the body of man, and other creatures; but seeing it immediately follows, after our image, it is highly profane to believe, that man was made after the similitude of angels; and that the similitude of God and angels is one and the same.”
St. Ambrose speaks to the same purpose:—“God would not speak thus to his servants, because it is not to be thought, that servants were partners with their Lord, in his works of creation; or the works with their Author. And, supposing this should be admitted, that the work was common to God and angels, yet the image was not common.”