2. Another very strong and explicit statement is: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona [son of John] because _flesh and blood_ hath not revealed it to thee, but my _Father_ who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:17). As Christ has asked, "What do men say the Son of Man is" (Matt. 16:13). There is an evident antithesis and contrast between the opinion of men and the profession of Peter, which is based upon revelation. The striking opposition between _men, flesh and blood,_ and the Father, evidently conveys the sense that God hath not flesh and blood like man, but is a spirit. 3. That God is a spirit is proved moreover by the fact that he is called invisible in the Bible. All material beings are visible. Absolutely invisible beings are immaterial or bodiless: God is absolutely invisible, therefore God is immaterial or bodiless. Moses' unshaken faith is thus described by St. Paul: "He was strong _as seeing him that is invisible_" (Heb. 11:27). "No man hath seen God at any time" (1 John 4:12). "The King of kings--whom no man hath seen nor can see." (I Tim. 15:16). In the light of these clear, revealed statements, how shall we explain the various apparitions of God mentioned in the Bible? Tertullian, (A. D. 160-245), Ambrose (330-397), Augustine (354-430) and other Fathers, whose deep scholarship is acknowledged by Protestants and Catholics alike, informs us that God the Father is called invisible because he never appeared to bodily eyes; whereas the Son manifested himself as an angel, or through an angel, and as man after his incarnation. He is the eternal revelation of the Father. It is necessary to remark that whenever the eternal Son of God, or angels at God's behest, showed themselves to man, they became visible only through a body or a material garb assumed for the occasion (see Cardinal Newman's "Development of Christian Doctrine," 9th edition, pp. 136 and 138). I am well aware of St. Paul's, "We now see as through a glass darkly, but then face to face." (I Cor. 12:13.) "In thy light we shall see light." (Ps. 35:10.) The first and chief element of the happiness of heaven will consist in the beatific vision; that is, in seeing God face to face, unveiled as he really is. The "face to face" however is, literally true only of our blessed Savior who ascended into heaven with his sacred body. Otherwise, as God is a spirit, he has no body and consequently no face. In paradise, spirits (angels and our souls) see spirits. We shall see God and angels, not with the eye of the body, nor by the vibrations of cosmic light, but with the spiritual eye, with the soul's intellectual perception, elevated by a supernatural influx from God. As in ordinary vision, the image of an object is impressed on the retina, so in the beatific vision, the perfect image of God will be reflected on the soul, impressing on it a vivid representation of him. We shall thus enjoy an intellectual possession of him, very different from our possession of earthly things.