Section 20
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LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. xin Sozomen* in his Ecclesiastic History. Afterwards, when there was a considerable contest amongst the bishops, relative to a creed or form of faith, our Eusebius proposed a formula, at once simple and ortho dox, which received the general commendation both of the bishops and of the emperor himself. Something, notwithstanding, seeming to be wanting in the creed, to confute the impiety of the new opinion, the fathers of the Nicene Council, determined that these words, " VERY GOD OF VERY GOD, BEGOTTEN NOT MADE, BEING OF ONE SUB STANCE WITH THE FATHER," should be added. They also annexed anathemas against those who should assert that the Son of God was made of things not existing, and that there was a time when he ex isted not. At first, indeed, our Eusebius refused to admit the term ** consubstantial"\ but when the import of that word was explained to him by the other bishops, he consented, and as he himself relates in his letter;}: to his diocess at Caesarea, subscribed to the creed. Some affirm that it was the necessity of circumstances, or the fear of the emperor, and not the conviction of his own mind, that compelled Eusebius to subscribe to the Nicene Council. Of some, present at the synod, this might be believed, but this we cannot think of Euse bius bishop of Caesarea. After the Nicene Council, too, Eusebius al ways condemned§ those who asserted that the Son of God was made of things not existing. Athanasius likewise affirms the same con cerning him, who though he frequently mentions that Eusebius sub scribed to the Nicene Council, nowhere intimates that he did that in dissimulation. Had Eusebius subscribed to that Council, not accord ing to his own mind, but fraudulently and in pretence, why did he afterwards send the letter we have mentioned to his diocess at Caesarea, and therein ingenuously profess that he had embraced that faith which had been published in the Nicene Council ? After that Council, the Arians through fear of the emperor, were, for a short time quiet. But by artfully ingratiating themselves into the favour of the prince, they resumed boldness, and began by every * In the first book cf that work, chap. 19. •j- 'O^oouo-tos, consubstantial, of the same substance, or of the same essence, co-e&sential. t See this letter in Socrates, book i. chap. 8. § This is evident from his books against Marcellus, particularly from the 9th and 10th chapters of his first book, De Ecclesiustica Thcologia. 2