Letter 78: Severus tells the church in Antioch to hold fast to confession and avoid compromising communion.

Severus writes to the holy church of God in Antioch, to the devout clergy and to the people. Even when he left their Christ-loving city, he says, they did not cease to show concern for him. Now he answers their search for the exact nature of the right faith and for the way to guard it carefully. He reminds them that suffering for Christ is not abandonment but a gift, as Paul says when he tells believers that it has been given to them not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him. Their trials must therefore become a place of intelligent faith, not panic. The question is how to keep communion pure while bearing hardship. Severus warns that communion with heretics can ruin even the labors of the solitary life and lead a person toward destruction. He cites John the Evangelist and Basil to show that fellowship in the sacraments cannot be separated from sound confession. Even if someone came from heaven, Basil says, Severus could not reckon him a sharer in the mysteries if he were not in accord with the sound word of faith. Those who make the Son or the Spirit a creature are far from the truth, and their words should be avoided as destructive of souls. The church in Antioch must therefore endure without bitterness and remain clear without compromise. Peace is good only when it belongs to the truth. Their suffering is seen by God, and the issue is weighty: it is fearful to fall into the hands of the living God.

To the holy church of God in Antioch, the devout clergymen and those that are among the people, Severus greeting in the Lord. Neither at an earlier time when I left your Christ- loving city did you omit. And after other things. And to others again, showing how great are the benefits of sufferings for Christ's sake, he wrote in an epistle, " Unto you it was given not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake,"" calling it a gift given by God that they should suffer in the cause of piety. Fitly therefore and as beseems your intelligence and the earnestness of your character you are searching and inquiring both as to the exact nature of the right faith, and as to the way to observe this with carefulness. For a man to be polluted by the communion of heretics ruins all the labours and ^ Ps. cxlvi. II. - Ph. i. 29. toils even of the solitary life, and leads to hell and final destruction: from which the divine John the P^vangelist also tried to hinder men, writincr thus: [Here follows the citation given on p. 263]. The God-clad Basil too, the great doctor of the church, wrote in an epistle to a certain monk named Urbicius, saying: [Here follows the citation given on p. 259]. p- 303- In the letter to count Terence also he speaks thus: " But, even if a man come from heaven itself, but is not in accord with the sound word of faith, I cannot reckon him a communicator in the sacraments."^ And in writing- to the same Terence's daughters who were deaconesses he repeats the same things in a terrifying form, because the Arians and Fighters against the Spirit were disturbing the churches of God and were surging against them tyrannically; "But they who speak of either the Son or the Spirit as a creature, or reduce Him in any way to a subsidiary and servile office, are far from the truth: whose com- munion one should shun and from whose words one should turn away as being destructive of souls." ^ And to Patrophilus the bishop he wrote thus: " If these things seem to you a fit subject for grief, impute the separation to those who were the cause. But, if you judge them indifferent, pardon us when we do not consent to be of the leaven of those who teach other things."^ Gregory also the Theologian wrote thus about the Arians who were in power at that time, as ^ Ep. 214. 2. 2 Ep lo^ 3 Ep. 250. I said, and compelled the orthodox to communicate one charge only, that they did not assent to the impiety and were not polluted by the communion; which we shun as serpent's poison, that does not hurt the body but blackens the depths of the soul."^ Let no one therefore cause you to depart from that which is right. For "in a very little while He that cometh will come and will not tarry ":" and " He will render to every man according to his deeds." ^ For it is in very truth " a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God