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I shall here insert the letter respecting the faith, written by
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, as it describes the effrontery of the
Arians, who not only despise our fathers, but reject their own: it
contains a convincing proof of their madness. They certainly honour
Eusebius, because he adopted their sentiments, but yet they openly
contradict his writings. He wrote this epistle to some of the
Arians, who were accusing him, it seems, of treachery. The letter
itself explains the writer's object. Epistle of Eusebius, Bishop
of Caesarea, which he wrote from Nicoea when the great Council was
assembled.
"You will have probably learnt from other sources what was decided
respecting the faith of the church at the general council of Nicaea,
for the fame of great transactions generally outruns the accurate
account of them: but lest rumours not in strict accordance with the
truth should reach you, I think it necessary to send to you, first,
the formulary of faith originally proposed by us, and, next, the
second, published with additions made to our terms. The following is
our formulary, which was read in the presence of our most pious
emperor, and declared to be couched in right and proper language.
The Faith put forth by us.
"'As in our first catechetical instruction, and at the time of our
baptism, we received from the bishops who were before us and as we have
learnt from the Holy Scriptures, and, alike as presbyters, and as
bishops, were wont to believe and teach; so we now believe and thus
declare our faith. It is as follows:
"'We believe in one God, Father Almighty, the Maker of all
things, visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life,
Only-begotten Son, First-born of every creature, begotten of the
Father before all worlds; by Whom all things were made; Who for our
salvation was incarnate, and lived among men . He suffered and rose
again the third day, and ascended to the Father; and He will come
again in glory to judge the quick and the dead. We also believe in one
Holy Ghost.
"'We believe in the being and continual existence of each of these;
that the Father is in truth the Father; the Son in truth the Son;
the Holy Ghost in truth the Holy Ghost; as our Lord, when sending
out His disciples to preach the Gospel, said, 'Go forth and teach
all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father. and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost .' We positively affirm that we hold
this faith, that we have always held it, and that we adhere to it even
unto death, condemning all ungodly heresy. We testify, as before
God the Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have thought
thus from the heart, and from the soul, ever since we have known
ourselves; and we have the means of showing, and, indeed, of
convincing you, that we have always during the past thus believed and
preached.'
"When this formulary had been set forth by us, there was no room to
gainsay it; but our beloved emperor himself was the first to testify
that it was most orthodox, and that he coincided in opinion with it;
and he exhorted the others to sign it, and to receive all the doctrine
it contained, with the single addition of the one word
'consubstantial.' He explained that this term implied no bodily
condition or change , for that the Son did not derive His existence
from the Father either by means of division or of abscission, since an
immaterial, intellectual, and incorporeal nature could not be subject
to any bodily condition or change . These things must be understood as
bearing a divine and mysterious signification. Thus reasoned our
wisest and most religious emperor. The addition of the word
consubstantial has given occasion for the composition of the following
formulary.
The Creed published by the Council.
"'We believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of all things
visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, begotten of the Father; only-begotten, that is, of the
substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Very God
of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the
Father: by Whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth:
Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and
was incarnate, and was made man; He suffered, and rose gain the
third day; He ascended into heaven, and is coming to judge both quick
and dead. And we believe in the Holy Ghost. The holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church anathematizes all who say that there was a time when
the Son of God was not; that before He was begotten He was not;
that He was made out of the nonexistent; or that He is of a different
essence and of a different substance from the Father and that He is
susceptible of variation or change.'
"When they had set forth this formulary, we did not leave without
examination that passage in which it is said that the Son is of the
substance of the Father, and consubstantial with the Father.
Questions and arguments thence arose, and the meaning of the terms was
exactly tested. Accordingly they were led to confess that the word
consubstantial signifies that the Son is of the Father, but not as
being a part of the Father. We deemed it right to receive this
opinion; for that is sound doctrine which teaches that the Son is of
the Father, but not part of His substance. From the love of peace,
and lest we should fall from the true belief, we also accept this
view, neither do we reject the term 'consubstantial.' For the same
reason we admitted the expression, 'begotten, but not made;' for
they alleged that the word 'made' applies generally to all things
which were created by the Son, to which the Son is in no respect
similar; and that consequently He is not a created thing, like the
things made by Him, but is of a substance superior to all created
objects. The Holy Scriptures teach Him to be begotten of the
Father, by a mode of generation which is 'incomprehensible and
inexplicable to all created beings. So also the term 'of one
substance with the Father,' when investigated, was accepted not in
accordance with bodily relations or similarity to mortal beings. For
it was also shown that it does not either imply division of substance,
nor abscission, nor any modification or change or diminution in the
power of the Father, all of which are alien from the nature of the
unbegotten Father. It was concluded that the expression 'being of
one substance with the Father,' implies that the Son of God does
not resemble, in any one respect, the creatures which He has made;
but that to the Father alone, who begat Him, He is in all points
perfectly like: for He is of the essence and of the substance of none
save of the Father. This interpretation having been given of the
doctrine, it appeared right to us to assent to it, especially as we
were aware that of the ancients some learned and celebrated bishops and
writers have used the term ' consubstantial' with respect to the
divinity of the Father and of the Son.
"These are the circumstances which I had to communicate respecting
the published formulary of the faith. To it we all agreed, not
without investigation, but, after having subjected the views submitted
to us to thorough examination in the presence of our most beloved
emperor, for the above reasons we all acquiesced in it. We also
allowed that the anathema appended by them to their formulary of faith
should be accepted, because it prohibits the use of words which are not
scriptural; through which almost all the disorder and troubles of the
Church have arisen. And since no passage of the inspired Scripture
uses the terms 'out of the non-existent,' or that 'there was a time
when He was not,' nor indeed any of the other phrases of the same
class, it did not appear reasonable to assert or to teach such things.
In this opinion, therefore, we judged it fight to agree; since,
indeed, we had never, at any former period, been accustomed to use
such terms . Moreover, the condemnation of the assertion that before
He was begotten He was not, did not appear to involve any
incongruity, because all assent to the fact that He was the Son of
God before He was begotten according to the flesh. And here our
emperor, most beloved by God, began to reason concerning His divine
origin, and His existence before all ages. He was virtually in the
Father without generation , even before He was actually begotten,
the Father having always been the Father, just as He has always been
a King and a Saviour, and, virtually, all things, and has never
known any change of being or action.
"We have thought it requisite, beloved brethren, to transmit you an
account of these circumstances, in order to show you what examination
and investigation we bestowed on all the questions which we had to
decide; and also to prove how at one time we resisted firmly, even to
the last hour, when doctrines improperly expressed offended us, and,
at another time, we, without contention, accepted the articles which
contained nothing objectionable, when after a thorough and candid
investigation of their signification, they appeared perfectly
comformable with what had been confessed by us in the formulary of faith
which we had published."
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