except together with something denser than it).’ — This is an argument of no value, for they coined this analogy in order to show that God can be seen. Once they themselves admit that He was not seen, the analogy serves no purpose; it merely becomes a proof for something they know to be false.

Moreover, their assertion that a subtle entity can be seen only within something dense is itself unsound. A subtle substance such as the human spirit cannot be seen in this life, even though its existence is known and a person is conscious of his own spirit and its qualities; seeing it with the physical eye is quite another matter.

This is made clear by the following.

Eleventh Point

They say: ‘We have found that the rational, verbal spirit of a human being — that is, the rational soul — is subtler than any subtle creature. For that reason it was the most fitting of God’s creation to serve as a veil for God; thus it became His veil, while the sanguine soul was a veil for it, and the dense body yet another veil.’

On this basis, the creative Word of God, they claim, intermingled with the complete human soul in its body, its blood, and its rational, verbal spirit. By its own subsistence the Word of God then became the sustaining principle of the triune human nature, whose essence was perfected by that sustaining principle of the Word. For it was not created, nor did it exist at all, save by a command of the Word of God who created it and sustained it — not from anything that pre-existed in Mary’s womb, nor from any other cause, but solely through the sustaining principle of the creative Word, which in their doctrine is one of the persons of the divine Trinity.