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| Confutation of Arianism deduced from the Writings of Eustathius and Athanasius.
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Chapter VII.—Confutation
of Arianism deduced from the Writings of Eustathius and
Athanasius.
The above-named bishops, however, did not consent to it in sincerity,
but only in appearance. This was afterwards shewn by their plotting
against those who were foremost in zeal for religion, as well as by
what these latter have written about them. For instance, Eustathius,
the famous bishop of Antioch, who has been already mentioned, when
explaining the text in the Proverbs, ‘The Lord created me in
the beginning of His way, before His works of old340
| 340 Prov. viii.
22,
lxx. Κύριος
ἔκτισέ με
ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν
αὐτοῦ εἰς
ἔργα αὐτοῦ | ,’ wrote against them, and refuted
their blasphemy.
341
| 341 At
this point, according to Valesius, a quotation from the homily of
Eustathius on the above text from Proverbs viii.
22,
begins. On Eustathius, see notes on Chapters III. and XX. | “I will now proceed to relate how
these different events occurred. A general council was summoned at
Nicæa, and about two hundred and seventy bishops were convened.
There were, however, so many assembled that I cannot state their exact
number, neither, indeed, have I taken any great trouble to ascertain
this point. When they began to inquire into the nature of the faith,
the formulary of Eusebius was brought forward, which contained
undisguised evidence of his blasphemy. The reading of it before all
occasioned great grief to the audience, on account of its departure
from the faith, while it inflicted irremediable shame on the writer.
After the Eusebian gang had been clearly convicted, and the impious
writing had been torn up in the sight of all, some amongst them by
concert, under the pretence of preserving peace, imposed silence on all
the ablest speakers. The Ariomaniacs, fearing lest they should be
ejected from the Church by so numerous a council of bishops, sprang
forward to anathematize and condemn the doctrines condemned, and
unanimously signed the confession of faith. Thus having retained
possession of their episcopal seats through the most shameful
deception, although they ought rather to have been degraded, they
continue, sometimes secretly, and sometimes openly, to patronize the
condemned doctrines, plotting against the truth by various arguments.
Wholly bent upon establishing these plantations of tares, they shrink
from the scrutiny of the intelligent, avoid the observant, and attack
the preachers of godliness. But we do not believe that these atheists
can ever thus overcome the Deity. For though they ‘gird
themselves’ they ‘shall be broken in
pieces,’ according to the solemn prophecy of Isaiah342
| 342 Is. viii. 9, lxx.
ἐὰν
γὰρ πάλιν
ἰσχύσητε
πάλιν
ἡττηθήσεσθε | .”
These are the words of the great
Eustathius. Athanasius, his fellow combatant, the champion of the
truth, who succeeded the celebrated Alexander in the episcopate, added
the following, in a letter addressed to the Africans.
“The bishops convened in
council being desirous of refuting the impious assertions invented by the
Arians, that the Son was created out of that which was non-existent343
, that He is a creature and created
being344
, that there was a period in which He was
not345
, and that He is mutable by nature, and
being all agreed in propounding the following declarations, which are
in accordance with the holy Scriptures; namely, that the Son is by
nature only-begotten of God, Word, Power, and sole Wisdom of the
Father; that He is, as John said, ‘the true God346
,’ and, as Paul has written,
‘the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the person
of the Father347
,’ the followers of Eusebius,
drawn aside by their own vile doctrine, then began to say one to
another, Let us agree, for we are also of God; ‘There is but
one God, by whom are all things348
;
‘Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new, and all things are of God349
.’ They
also dwelt particularly upon what is contained in ‘The Shepherd350
| 350 Herm.
Pastor. Vis. v. Mand. i. | :’ ‘Believe above all that there
is one God, who created and fashioned all things, and making them to be
out of that which is not.’
“But the bishops saw
through their evil design and impious artifice, and gave a clearer
elucidation of the words ‘of God,’ and wrote, that the Son
is of the substance of God; in order that while the creatures, which do
not in any way derive their existence of or from themselves, are said
to be of God, the Son alone is said to be of the substance of the
Father; this being peculiar to the only-begotten Son, the true Word of
the Father. This is the reason why the bishops wrote, that He is of the
substance of the Father.
“But when the Arians, who
seemed few in number, were again interrogated by the Bishops as to
whether they admitted ‘that the Son is not a creature, but Power,
and sole Wisdom, and eternal unchangeable351
| 351 ἀπαράλλακτος, cf. James i. 17, Παρ᾽ ᾦ
οὐκ ἔνι
παραλλαγή |
Image of the Father; and that He is very God,’ the Eusebians were
noticed making signs to one another to shew that these declarations
were equally applicable to us. For it is said, that we are
‘the image and glory of God352
;’ and ‘for always we who
live353
| 353 2 Cor. iv. 11 ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς
οἱ ζῶντες. The ἀεί of St. Paul
qualifies not “οἱ
ζῶντες”
but the παραδιδόμεθα
which follows, “For we who live are ever being
delivered to death.” | :’ there are, also, they said,
many powers; for it is written—‘All the power of God
went out of the land of Egypt354
.’ The
canker-worm and the locust are said to be ‘a great power355
.’ And elsewhere it is written, The
God of powers is with us, the God of Jacob helper356
.’ To which may be added that we are
God’s own not simply, but because the Son called us
‘brethren357
.’ The
declaration that Christ is ‘the true God’ does not distress
us, for, having come into being, He is true.
“Such was the corrupt
opinion of the Arians; but on this the bishops, having detected their
deceitfulness in this matter, collected from Scripture those passages
which say of Christ that He is the glory, the fountain, the stream, and
the express image of the person; and they quoted the following words:
‘In thy light we shall see light358
;’ and likewise, ‘I and
the Father are one359
.’ They then,
with still greater clearness, briefly declared that the Son is of one
substance with the Father; for this, indeed, is the signification of
the passages which have been quoted. The complaint of the Arians, that
these precise words are not to be found in Scripture, is proved
groundless by their own practice, for their own impious assertions are
not taken from Scripture; for it is not written that the Son is of the
non-existent, and that there was a time when He was not: and yet they
complain of having been condemned by expressions which, though not
actually in Scripture, are in accordance with true religion. They
themselves, on the other hand, as though they had found their words on
a dunghill, uttered things verily of earth. The bishops, on the
contrary, did not find their expressions for themselves; but, received
their testimony from the fathers, and wrote accordingly. Indeed, there
were bishops of old time, nearly one hundred and thirty years ago, both
of the great city of Rome and of our own city360
| 360 Alexandria. The allusion, according to Valesius, is to Dionysius,
Bishop of Rome, 259–269, and to Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria.
The Letter of Athanasius to the Africans was written, according to
Baronius, in 369. So τριῶν may suit
the chronology better than τριάκοντα | ,
who condemned those who asserted that the Son is a creature, and that
He is not of one substance with the Father. Eusebius, the bishop of
Cæsarea, was acquainted with these facts; he, at one time,
favoured the Arian heresy, but he afterwards signed the confession of
faith of the Council of Nicæa. He wrote to the people of his
diocese, maintaining that the word ‘consubstantial’ was
‘used by illustrious bishops and learned writers as a term for
expressing the divinity of the Father and of the Son361
| 361 Ath.
Ep. ad Afros 5 and 6. | .’”
So these men concealed their
unsoundness through fear of the majority, and gave their assent to the decisions
of the council, thus drawing upon themselves the condemnation of the
prophet, for the God of all cries unto them, “This people
honour Me with their lips, but in their hearts they are far from
Me362
.” Theonas and Secundus, however,
did not like to take this course, and were excommunicated by common
consent as men who esteemed the Arian blasphemy above evangelical
doctrine. The bishops then returned to the council, and drew up twenty
laws to regulate the discipline of the Church.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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