Letter 85: The divine Paul names love as the chief of all goods, and commands that the children of the faith be nourished by it.
To Bishop Basil.
The divine Paul names love as the chief of all goods, and commands that the children of the faith be nourished by it. Your piety possesses great wealth of this love, and so has shared with me what was fitting — and brought me welcome news. For to those who fear the Lord, what news is more welcome than the health and harmony of the doctrines of truth?
Be well assured, most godly friend, that we were greatly delighted to hear the intelligence about our common acquaintance. In proportion to our earlier distress — when we heard that he was describing the natures of flesh and Godhead as one, and openly attributing the passion of salvation to the impassible Godhead — so was all our joy when we read your holiness's letters and learned that he now preserves intact the distinct properties of the two natures: that he denies both the transformation of God the Word into flesh and the transformation of flesh into the nature of Godhead, and affirms instead that in the one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word made man, the properties of each nature remain without confusion.
We praise the God of all for this harmony in the divine faith. We have, moreover, written to both Cilicias — though our information is incomplete — to ask whether there really are any in those regions who oppose the truth. We have charged the godly bishops there to investigate whether any are dividing the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, and either to bring them to their senses by admonition, or to cut them off from the roll of the brethren. For we equally reject both those who dare to assert one nature of flesh and Godhead, and those who divide the one Lord Christ into two sons and venture beyond the definitions of the Apostles.
Let your holiness be assured: we are disposed to peace. It is the enemies of peace who have forced this controversy upon us.
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