To Florus 4.21

He is certainly an apostle, loved by the Lord Jesus with a special affection (compare John 13:23). Yet if neither the Gospel he wrote nor the weight of his letters revealed his intention, these words I have quoted could count in no way against created things: they would have to give way to all the Scriptures that declare the world was made by God. But he himself secured his position in the revered opening of the Gospel he wrote. “The Word,” he says, “was God. Everything was made through him, and without him nothing was made” (John 1:1, 3) (John 13:23). And afterward: “He was the true light, which enlightens every human being coming into this world. He was in this world, and the world was made through him” (John 1:9–10). Again: “The Word became flesh, to dwell among us” (John 1:14). These testimonies leave no obscurity in his meaning. They show that he knows and proclaims God as creator of the whole world and of everything in it, and thoroughly demonstrate that the Manichaeans have no way into his teaching. For someone who proclaims God as creator of all natures can use the names of substances figuratively to signify excessive desire, without damage to the faith.