To Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, Denying That He Preaches Two Sons

In another letter I have already told your holiness how openly those who slander our teaching are spreading their lies about us. Now I do the same by means of the very godly bishops. I have them as witnesses that my teaching is orthodox, and not only them but countless other people who are my hearers in the churches of the East. Above and beyond all these, I have my conscience, and the one who sees my conscience. I know too how often the divine Apostle appealed to the testimony of his conscience: “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience,” and again, “I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience also bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.” Know then, holy and godly sir, that no one has ever at any time heard us preach two sons. In fact this teaching seems to me abominable and impious, for there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. I acknowledge him both as eternal God and as man at the end of days, and I give him one worship as the only Son. Yet I have learned the distinction between flesh and Godhead, for the union is without confusion. Drawn up in battle line, so to speak, against the madness of Arius and Eunomius, we very easily refute the blasphemy they have ventured against the only Son. We do it by applying to man what was said of the Lord in humility and suits the nature he took on, and on the other hand by applying to God what befits the divine and signifies the divine nature. We do not divide him into two persons; we teach that both kinds of statement belong to the only Son: the second to him as God, Creator and Lord of all, and the first to him as made man for our sake. For divine Scripture says that he was made man, not by a change of the Godhead, but by taking on human nature from the seed of Abraham. The divine Apostle says this openly in these words: “For truly he did not take on the nature of angels, but he took on the seed of Abraham; and so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect.” And again: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but as referring to one, ‘And to your seed,’ which is Christ.” [a]

These passages, and others like them, have been cut out of divine Scripture by Simon, Basilides, Valentinus, Bardesanes, Marcion, and the man who is named after his own mad heresy. So they call the Master Christ God only, and describe him as having nothing human about him, but as appearing to people as a man only in imagination and outward show. On the other hand, the Arians and Eunomians say that God the Word took on only a body, and that he himself took the place of a soul in the body. Apollinarius describes the Master’s body as having a soul; but, drawing from I know not where the idea of a distinction between soul and mind, he denies the mind its share in the salvation that was accomplished. The teaching of the divine apostles, on the contrary, lays down that a soul both rational and intelligent was taken on together with the flesh, and that the salvation held out in hope to those who believe is complete. [h] There is yet another gang of heretics, who think otherwise. Photinus, Marcellus, and Paul of Samosata claim that our Lord and God was only a man. When we argue with these, we have to bring forward proofs of the Godhead, and show that the Master Christ is eternal God. But when we contend with the former faction, which calls our Lord Jesus Christ God only, we have to marshal against them the forces of divine Scripture and gather from it the evidence that he took on manhood. For a physician must use remedies suited to the disease, and fit the medicine to the case. [j]

So now I beg your holiness to scatter the slander raised against me, and to bridle the tongues that now revile me for nothing. For after the incarnation I worship one Son of God, one Lord Jesus Christ, and I denounce as impious all who hold otherwise. Be pleased, sir, to give me too your holy prayers, so that by God’s grace I may reach the far side of this ocean of danger and drop anchor in the windless harbor of the Lord.