The “passionless generation,” to which so much importance was attached at Nicæa and by Athanasius, is also asserted by Cyril when he says that God “became a Father not by passion (οὐ πάθει Πατὴρ γενόμενος) Ib. vii. 5:  see note there..”  The eternal generation is most emphatically declared again and again:  the Son, he says, “began not His existence in time, but was before all ages eternally and incomprehensibly begotten of the Father; the Wisdom, and the Power of God, and His Righteousness personally subsisting Ib. iv. 7.:”  “Throughout His being (ἐξ οὗπερ ἦν), a being by eternal generation, He holds His royal dignity, and shares His Father’s seat Ib..”  Believe that of One God there is One Only-begotten Son, who is before all ages God the Word; not the uttered word diffused into the air, nor to be likened to impersonal words; but the Word, the Son, Maker of all who partake of reason, the Word who heareth the father, and Himself speaketh Ib. iv. § 8..”