Section 515
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COUNCIL OF NICE. 33 when they were asked whether the Word of God could be changed, as the devil is changed, they were not afraid to reply, Yes, he can, since he is mutable by his nature, being begotten and created. Such declarations having been made by Anus with unblushing effrontery, we, with the bishops in Egypt and Lybia, having met together, in number nearly a hundred, have excom municated him and his followers. But Eusebius has received them, endeavoring to mix falsehood with truth, and ungodliness with piety. He will not, however, prevail. The truth is vic torious. Light has no fellowship with darkness, nor has Christ any agreement with Belial. For, who ever heard such things? or who, now hearing them, is not struck with amazement, and does not stop his ears, that the pollution of such expressions may not penetrate into them? Who, when he hears John saying " in the beginning was the Word," will not condemn those who assert that there was a time when he was not ? Or who, hear ing in the gospel the words " only begotten Son," and " by him all things were made," will not abhor those, who affirm that he is one of the creatures ? How indeed can he be one* of those who were made by him ? or how can he be the only begotten, who, according to their opinion, is to be included in the number of creatures? How can he be made from nothing, when the Father says, " My heart hath sent forth a good Word," and in another place, " I have begotten thee from the womb, before the morning," or how is he unlike the substance of the Father, who is the perfect image and splendor of the Father, and who says, — " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father" But if the Son be the reason and wisdom of the Father, how could there have been a time when he was not ? For it is the same as if they should say, that God was once without his Word and wisdom. How can he be subject to change and variation, when he says, of himself, " I am in the Father, and the Father in me," and " I and my Father are one?" He declared also by the prophet, * The expression in Socrates, is taog eivai TUV 61 avrov yevopevuv, the equal of those things which were made by him. But the reading of the manuscript of Leo Allatius, ei$ eivai TUV Si avrov yevopevuv, preferred by Valesius, is followed by the translator.