Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea (C. 350-351 AD):
20
“The generation of the Son from the Father is otherwise than that which accords
with the nature of men; and He is not only like, but is in fact inseparable from the
substance of the Father. He and the Father are indeed one, as He did say Himself;
and the Word is ever in the Father and the Father in the Word, as is the way of
radiance in relation to light. The term itself indicates this; and the Council, so
understanding the matter, did well, therefore, when it wrote homoousios, so that it
might defeat the perverseness of the heretics, while proclaiming that the Word is
other than created things.”
27
“And concerning the everlasting co-existence of the Word with the Father, and
that He is not of another essence or subsistence, but proper to the Father’s, as the
Bishops in the Council said, you may hear again from the labor-loving Origen
also…’But it is not innocent nor without peril, if because of our weakness of
understanding we deprive God, as far as in us lies, of the Only-begotten Word ever
co-existing with Him; and the Wisdom in which He rejoiced; else He must be
conceived as not always possessed of joy.’ See, we are proving that this view has
been transmitted from father to father; but ye, O modern Jews and disciples of
Caiaphas, how many fathers can ye assign to your phrases?”
The Monk’s History of the Arian Impiety (358 AD):
52
“For if a judgment had been passed by Bishops, what concern had the Emperor
with it? Or if it was only a threat of the Emperor, what need in that case was there
of the so-named Bishops? When was such a thing heard of before from the
beginning of the world? When did a judgment of the Church receive its validity
from the Emperor? or rather when was his decree ever recognized by the Church?
There have been many Councils held heretofore; and many judgments passed by
the Church; but the Fathers never sought the consent of the Emperor thereto, nor
did the Emperor busy himself with the affairs of the Church.”
Four Letters to Serapion of Thmuis (C. 359-360 AD):
1, 24
“We are all said to be partakers of God through the Holy Spirit. ‘Do you not
know,’ it says, ‘that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone ruins the temple of God, him will God ruin; for it is holy, this temple of
God, which is just what you are.’ If the Holy Spirit were a creature, there could be
no communion of God with us through Him. On the contrary, we would be joined
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