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| To the people of Evæsæ.
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Letter
CCLI.3096
To the people of Evæsæ.3097
| 3097 Euassai.
Possibly Ptolemy’s Σείουα.
Ramsay, Hist. Geog. A. M. 304. Now Yogounes,
i.e. ῞Αγιος
᾽Ιωάννης. |
1. My occupations
are very numerous, and my mind is full of many anxious cares, but I
have never forgotten you, my dear friends, ever praying my God for your
constancy in the faith, wherein ye stand and have your boasting in the
hope of the glory of God. Truly nowadays it is hard to find, and
extraordinary to see, a Church pure, unharmed by the troubles of the
times, and preserving the apostolic doctrine in all its integrity and
completeness. Such is your Church shewn at this present time by
Him who in every generation makes manifest them that are worthy of His
calling. May the Lord grant to you the blessings of Jerusalem
which is above, in return for your flinging back at the heads of the
liars their slanders against me, and your refusal to allow them entry
into your hearts. I know, and am persuaded in the Lord, that
“your reward is great in heaven,”3098
even on account of this very
conduct. For you have wisely concluded among yourselves, as
indeed is the truth, that the men who are “rewarding me evil
for good, and hatred for my love,”3099
are accusing me now for the very same points which they are found to
have themselves confessed and subscribed.
2. Their presenting you with their own
signatures for an accusation against me is not the only contradiction
into which they have fallen. They were unanimously deposed by the
bishops assembled at Constantinople.3100
| 3100 i.e. in
January 360. Soc. ii. 41–43; Soz. iv. 24. | They
refused to accept this deposition and appealed to a synod of impious
men,3101
| 3101 The Synod of
Lampsacus in 365 is probably referred to, but Socrates (v. 14)
mentions several synods of the Homoiousians. | refusing to
admit the episcopacy of their judges, in order not to accept the
sentence passed upon them.
The reason alleged for their non-recognition was
their being leaders of wicked heresy. All this3102
| 3102 i.e.
the deposition. | happened nearly seventeen years ago.
The principal men of those who deposed them were Eudoxius, Euippius,
George,3103
Acacius, and others
unknown to you.3104
| 3104 A
ms. variety is “to
me.” |
The present tyrants of the churches are their
successors, some ordained to fill their places, and others actually
promoted by them.
3. Now let those who charge me with unsound
doctrine tell me in what way the men whose deposition they refused to
accept were heretical. Let them tell me in what way those
promoted by them, and holding the same views as their fathers, are
orthodox. If Euippius was orthodox, how can Eustathius, whom he
deposed, be other than a layman? If Euippius was a heretic, how
can any one ordained by him be in communion with Eustathius now?
But all this conduct, this trying to accuse men and set them up again,
is child’s play, got up against the Churches of God, for their
own gain.
When Eustathius was travelling through
Paphlagonia, he overthrew the altars3105
of Basilides
of Paphlagonia,3106
| 3106
i.e.Basilides, bishop of Gangra. cf.
Letter ccxxvi. p. 268. | and used to perform
divine service on his own tables.3107
Now he
is begging Basilides to be admitted to communion. He refused to
communicate with our reverend brother Elpidius, because of his alliance
with the Amasenes;3108
| 3108
i.e.the Arian bishop of Amasia, who was intruded into
the place of Eulalius. On the state of the Amasene church at
his time, cf. Soz. vii. 2. | and now he comes as
a suppliant to the Amasenes, petitioning for alliance with them.
Even ye yourselves know how shocking were his public utterances against
Euippius: now he glorifies the holders of Euippius’s
opinions for their orthodoxy, if only they will cooperate in promoting
his restitution. And I am all the while being calumniated, not
because I am doing any wrong, but because they have imagined that they
will thus be recommended to the party at Antioch. The character
of those whom they sent for last year from Galatia, as being likely by
their means to recover the free exercise of their episcopal powers, is
only too well known to all who have lived even for a short time with
them. I pray that the Lord may never allow me leisure to recount
all their proceedings. I will only say that they have passed
through the whole country, with the honour and attendance of bishops,
escorted by their most honourable bodyguard and sympathizers; and have
made a grand entry into the city, and held an assembly with all
authority. The people have been given over to them. The
altar has been given over to them. How they went to Nicopolis,
and could do nothing there of all that they had promised, and how they
came, and what appearance they presented on their return, is known to
those who were on the spot. They are obviously taking every
single step for their own gain and profit. If they say that they
have repented, let them shew their repentance in writing; let them
anathematize the Creed of Constantinople; let them separate from the
heretics; and let them no longer trick the simple-minded. So much
for them and theirs.
4. I, however, brethren beloved, small and
insignificant as I am, but remaining ever by God’s grace the
same, have never changed with the changes of the world. My creed
has not varied at Seleucia, at Constantinople, at Zela,3109
| 3109 cf.
Letter ccxxvi. p. 268. | at Lampsacus, and at Rome. My present
creed is not different from the former; it has remained ever one and
the same. As we received from the Lord, so are we baptized; as we
are baptized, so we make profession of our faith; as we make profession
of our faith, so do we offer our doxology, not separating the Holy
Ghost from Father and Son, nor preferring Him in honour to the Father,
or asserting Him to be prior to the Son, as blasphemers’ tongues
invent.3110
| 3110 cf.
De Sp. S. chap. xii. p. 18. | Who could be
so rash as to reject the Lord’s commandment, and boldly devise an
order of his own for the Names? But I do not call the Spirit, Who
is ranked with Father and Son, a creature. I do not dare to call
slavish that which is royal.3111
And I
beseech you to remember the threat uttered by the Lord in the words,
“All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men;
but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto
men, neither in this world, neither in the world to
come.”3112
Keep
yourselves from dangerous teaching against the Spirit.
“Stand fast in the faith.”3113
Look over all the world, and see
how small the part is which is unsound. All the rest of the
Church which has received the Gospel. from one end of the world to
the other, abides in this sound and unperverted doctrine. From
their communion I pray that I may never fall, and I pray that I may
have part and lot with you in the righteous day of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He shall come to give to every one according to his
conduct.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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