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"To my lord Paulinus, Eusebius sendeth greeting in the Lord.
"The zeal of my lord Eusebius in the cause of the truth, and
likewise your silence concerning it, have not failed to reach our
ears. Accordingly, if, on the one hand, we rejoiced on account of
the zeal of my lord Eusebius; on the other we are grieved at you,
because even the silence of such a man appears like a defeat of our
cause. Hence, as it behoves not a wise man to be of a different
opinion from others, and to be silent concerning the truth, stir up,
I exhort you, within yourself the spirit of wisdom to write, and at
length begin what may be profitable to yourself and to others,
specially if you consent to write in accordance with Scripture, and
tread in the tracks of its words and will.
"We have never heard that there are two unbegotten beings, nor that
one has been divided into two, nor have we learned or believed that it
has ever undergone any change of a corporeal nature; but we affirm that
the unbegotten is one and one also that which exists in truth by Him,
yet was not made out of His substance, and does not at all participate
in the nature or substance of the unbegotten, entirely distinct in
nature and in power, and made after perfect likeness both of character
and power to the maker. We believe that the mode of His beginning not
only cannot be expressed by words but even in thought, and is
incomprehensible not only to man, but also to all beings superior to
man. These opinions we advance not as having derived them from our own
imagination, but as having deduced them from Scripture, whence we
learn that the Son was created, established, and begotten in the same
substance and in the same immutable and inexpressible nature as the
Maker; and so the Lord says, 'God created me in the beginning of
His way; I was set up from everlasting; before the hills was I
brought forth.'
"If He had been from Him or of Him, as a portion of Him, or by
an emanation of His substance, it could not be said that He was
created or established; and of this you, my lord, are certainly not
ignorant. For that which is of the unbegotten could not be said to
have been created or founded, either by Him or by another, since it
is unbegotten from the beginning. But if the fact of His being called
the begotten gives any ground for the belief that, having come into
being of the Father's substance, He also has from the Father
likeness of nature, we reply that it is not of Him alone that the
Scriptures have spoken as begotten, but that they also thus speak of
those who are entirely dissimilar to Him by nature. For of men it is
said, 'I have begotten and brought up sons, and they have rebelled
against me ;' and in another place, 'Thou hast forsaken God who
begat thee ;' and again it is said, 'Who begat him drops of dew
?' This expression does not imply that the dew partakes of the nature
of God, but simply that all things were formed according to His
will. There is, indeed, nothing which is of His substance, yet
every thing which exists has been called into being by His will. He
is God; and all things were made in His likeness. and in the future
likeness of His Word, being created of His tree will. All things
were made by His means by God. All things are of God.
"When you have received my letter, and have revised it according to
the knowledge and grace given you by God, I beg you will write as
soon as possible to my lord Alexander. I feel confident that if you
would write to him, you would succeed in bringing him over to your
opinion. Salute all the brethren in the Lord. May you, my lord,
be preserved by the grace of God, and be led to pray for us."
It is thus that they wrote to each other, in order to furnish one
another with weapons against the truths. And so when the blasphemous
doctrine had been disseminated in the churches of Egypt and of the
East, disputes and contentions arose in every city, and in every
village, concerning theological dogmas. The common people looked on,
and became judges of what was said on either side, and some applauded
one party, and some the other. These were, indeed, scenes fit for
the tragic stage, over which tears might have been shed. For it was
not, as in bygone days, when the church was attacked by strangers and
by enemies, but now natives of the same country, who dwelt under one
roof, and sat down at one table, fought against each other not with
spears, but with their tongues. And what was still more sad, they
who thus took up arms against one another were members of one another,
and belonged to one body.
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