638. Since the Apostolic church worshipped the Lord God Jesus Christ, together with God the Father in Him, it can be likened to the garden of God. Arius, who arose at that time, can be likened to the serpent sent from hell; and the Council of Nicaea to Adam's wife, who held out the fruit to her husband and persuaded him to eat it; after which they became aware of their nakedness, and covered it with figleaves. Their nakedness means their previous state of innocence, figleaves the truths of the natural man, which in the process of time were falsified. That earliest church can also be equated with twilight and dawn, from which the day advanced to the tenth hour*; but then a thick cloud came up, beneath which the day advanced to evening and then to night, when some people saw the moon rise. By its light a few people saw something from the Word, while the rest plunged so deep into the darkness of night that they could see no trace of divinity in the Lord's Humanity. And this despite Paul's saying that in Jesus Christ the whole fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), and John's saying that the Son of God sent into the world is the true God and everlasting life (1 John 5:20, 21).
The earliest or Apostolic church could never have guessed that a church would follow it which worshipped several Gods at heart and one with its lips; one which would separate charity from faith, and the forgiveness of sins from repentance and a keen desire for a new life; one which would introduce the idea of total impotence in spiritual matters; least of all, that an Arius would raise his head, and after his death rise again to dominate the church secretly until it reached its end.
* In the ancient reckoning the time between sunrise and sunset was divided into twelve hours.
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