Patristic A.D. 253
“(tom. xiii. c. 20) But if the Father seeks, He seeks through Jesus, Who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and to teach men what true worship was. God is a Spirit; i. e. He constitutes our real life, just as our breath (spirit) constitutes our bodily life.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 4:19-24
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗