But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
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Athanasius the Apostolic
AD 373
This enables us to see that the Council of Nicaea breathes the spirit of Scripture. God says in Exodus, “I am that I am,” and through Jeremiah, “Who is in his substance and has seen his word?” and just below, “if they had stood in my subsistence and heard my words.” Now subsistence is essence and means nothing else but very being, which Jeremiah calls existence, in the words “and they heard not the voice of existence.” - "Letter to the Bishops of Africa 4"
What if these formulas also are scriptural, and of these two formulas, one is used with such clearness that one knows it has not been invented by me but has already been authorized by sacred Scripture? David, who sings hymns in the book of Psalms, which is called the key of all the mysteries, in the thirty-fifth psalm chants a psalm to God, sings praise to God in this way: “For in you is the source of life. In your light we shall see the light.” Do we think that that is addressed to God or to Christ or to both? Because to both, it is rightly addressed, for in the Father is the Son, and in the Son is the Father. But if it is addressed to God the Father, it will be this: “If they had stood in my substance, they would have also seen my Word.” But if it is addressed to the Son, it will be this: “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father also.” - "Against Arius 2.12"
I should. Some copies read avertissent, "they would have turned "conformably with the Hebrew, and we should suspect that this was a mistake of the transcriber, if St. Jerome did not agree with the Vulgate in his commentary, (Calmet) though not in express terms: (Haydock) "I also should not have abandoned them to impurity. Let us behold how heretics, having once given way to despair. Seek the gratification of their sensual appetite. "(St. Jerome)
