ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ' ΑΥΤΟ'ΘΕΟΣ OR AN Historical Account OF THE HERESIE Denying the GODHEAD OF CHRIST LONDON Printed by Tho. Hodgkin for Robert Clavell at the Sign of the Peacoak in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1696. TO THE READER AFter the Heresie denying the Divinity of Christ had been long silenced by Argument and Discipline it was again brought upon the Stage by Arius whose Character makes not much for its Credit For tho' in holy Orders he was proud and aspiring subtle witted and an excellent Proficient in the Art of Flattery Besides he was one that had such an overweaning Conceit of his own Abilities that he thought all to be his Inferiours in Desert And through this his vain unhappy Temper he became impatient of Contradiction full of Envy and Stomach and bold to broach Heresie And it was observed That Discipline and good Counsel which usually make others better made Arius the worse and the more his Heresie was condemned the more he labour'd to propagate and defend it Sulpitius lib. 2. observes that the Arian Heresie receiv'd no small Advantage from the Quality of the Persons chosen to be its publick Managers Who as he tells us were Senes callidi old stanch Disputants who had been long vers'd in Controversie Whereas the Managers chosen by the Orthodox were Young Men parùm docti parùm cauti fuller of Warmth than of Learning And this had a great Influence upon the Cause all Men concluding of the rest on either side by the Quality of the Managers Besides the Orthodox dealt plainly argued with Openness and Simplicity and in their Forms of Confession were clear and ingenuous Whereas the Hereticks wrought with great Subtilty declining no Artifice that might advantage their Cause and in their Confessions they loved Ambiguity and Equivocation and which did not a little turn to their Advantage they always laboured to beget in the several Emperours their Favourites a good liking of their Doctrine and either to gain them to it or not greatly to disapprove it But according to an Ancient Writer it may justly create our Wonder Phrob contna Ar. that notwithstanding the Authors of this Venom are long since dead and gone the wicked Doctrine shou'd still remain and that after so many Confutations and Censures thereof any shou'd be found to maintain and diffuse it But our Wonder will cease when we consider with judicious Hooker That the Weeds of Heresie being grown up to Ripeness do even in cutting down sometimes scatter those Seeds which for a while lie unseen and buried in the Earth but afterwards freshly spring up again no less pernicious than at the first And the same learned Author observes that the Heresies concerning the Holy Trinity have of later Years grown up no where so fast as where the Athanasian Creed and the Gloria Patri have not been made use of And no Wonder that Heresies should thrive in those Places where the best Preservatives against them have been neglected For as to the Creed of Athanasius what is it else but a Divine Explication of the chief Articles of the Christian Faith Which Creed was so highly valued by the Church that she made it part of her Liturgy And as for the Gloria or the Hymns and Sentences of Glory they were a Part of the Liturgy long before the Athanasian Belief And they were ever look'd upon as an heavenly Acclamation of joyful Applause to his Praise in whom we believe And from the beginning the Church of Christ by a secret universal Impulse of God's Spirit always ty'd it self to end neither Sermon nor almost any special Matter wherein the Things of God were concerned without some peculiar Words of Honour and Glory to the Trinity which all true Christians believe and worship And whoever omitted to do this was suspected to want a right Faith of the Trinity and to doubt of the Equality of the Persons For if we really believe The Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost to be all one the Glory Equal and the Majesty Coeternal why do we not publickly own it by ascribing equal Glory to each of them And where can we do this with more Solemnity than at the Close of those Homilies and Discourses which we make unto the People The Use of the Gloria was never quarrell'd at or omitted by any till Arius who being press'd with this Usage of the Church as an Argument against the Heresie which makes the Son inferiour to the Father labour'd to corrupt this Hymn saying Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost But the Church was careful to maintain the ancient Usage Con. Va. c. 7. adding on Purpose against Arius As it was in the Beginning is now and ever shall be The Gloria Patri it has ever been esteem'd the Christians Creed and Hymn For the Summ of the Christians Faith is the Mystery of the Trinity by which he declares against all Hereticks in the World And it is also the Christians Hymn wherewith he ought to close all his Religious Services Praises Prayers Thanksgivings Confession of Faith and Sins And as to the great Mystery contain'd in the Gloria it was well with Christianity when Men went no farther therein than the Scripture led them and when they rested in such Discoveries of the Trinity as God has been pleas'd to give in his Word By which Word if we wou'd once guide our Sentiments and submit them to it we might hope to see all those Disputes buried in silence which now make so great a Noise Ridente Turcâ non dolente Judaeo And if those very Men who are at present so keenly engag'd in Debates about the Trinity wou'd speak out they wou'd tell us That Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is a Mystery surpassing their Abilities to explain and that it surmounts the Power of humane Nature to give a satisfactory Answer to all the Doubts Cavils and Questions which bold Men may raise about it Let the Mysteries of Christianity continue at that Distance where God has set them to be believ'd and ador'd and then Peace and Truth will meet and embrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR AN Historical Account OF THE HERESIE Denying the GODHEAD of CHRIST WE may know the better how to determine of the Opinion which denies the Divinity of our Saviour if we pursue it through its whole History and consider where it first took Root when it began to spread and how in time it over-ran so great a Part of the Christian Church Now in doing this we must look beyond the Annals of Christianity For long before that Christianity was known by Name in the World its Author was robb'd of his Godhead by that very People which hop'd for the largest Benefits from him For at least ever since the Schools of the Rabbins gain'd Authority among the Jews that infatuated Nation have been of Opinion that the Messiah whom they still expect is not to be the Son of
times of the Apostles as we may conclude from the Mention Eusebius makes of the Throne of James Brother of the Lord yet this Throne was no more than the Bishop's Chair which was but little higher than the rest of the Clergies But Paul erected a Tribunal in the Church for himself and sate on a Seat higher than it was before For though the Bishops ever sate somewhat higher than the rest of the People yet we find not that they had a Tribunal This Piece of State was the peculiar Invention of Paul the Apostate as was also the Secretum or Place railed about in the inner Court and hung with Curtains where none sate but the Judices majores or Judges of Life and Death or such as heard Trials of Criminals And when Paul chose to have such a Secretum it shewed he was of an ambitious Spirit and that he immoderately affected secular Grandeur having rejected not only the Divinity of Christ but also his Doctrine and Practice concerning Lowliness and Humility For Vanity swell'd him so much that on all Occasions he courted Applause and expected that those who were Auditors of his Homilies should express their Praise and Commendation of what he said by shaking their Oraria or Handkerchiefs as Spectators did at Theatres to declare their Approbation of what was acted And to manifest yet further his insatiable Thirst of Praise he privily excited the Chorepiscopi or Vicar-Bishops to make publick Discourses and Harangues in his Commendation and to extol his Merits and Government in their Popular Meetings But the infamous Carriage of this haughty Heretick was not bounded with filthy Lucre and vain Ostentation but it went on to a vehement Suspicion of Incontinency with those Women whom the Antiochians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he had always with him those that were young and beautiful with whom he liv'd in great sensual Delights as Feasting Drinking and indulging himself in the common Incentives of Lust This sort of Women are neither Wives nor Concubines but such as were kept by the Clergy upon a Pretence of Piety Valesius says they were by some called Sisters and by others Commanentes because they constantly abode with those Presbyters and Deacons who chose them as was pretended not upon the Account of Lust but for Religion And the Clergy of those Times gave it out they did this in Imitation of the Apostles who carried Women along with them whither ever they went to preach the Gospel Which Practice was founded upon those Words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 9.5 But this Custom of superinduced Women was condemned by the Synod and it is warmly inveighed against by Jerom. in his Ep. to Eustochius And notwithstanding that the least of the mention'd Crimes was in the purer Days of Christian Discipline Ground enough to cast any guilty thereof much more a Bishop out of the Communion of the Church yet Paul tho' he deserv'd to be was not censur'd for his Manners but his Heresie in denying Christ to be God And for a further Proof of the Pride and Obstinacy of this ill Man he slighted even Excommunication and was so far from being humbled thereby that he grew more insolent For being Canonically excommunicated and deprived by the Antiochian Fathers he would not quit the Possession of his Church but kept it for some Years after the Sentence of being deposed was pass'd against him and would not obey the Decree of the Synod But the better to fortifie his Contumacy he put himself under the Protection of Zenobia an Eastern Queen into whose Favour by servile Flatteries he had slily insin uated himself But when Zenobia was conquer'd the Christian Prelates petitioned Aurelianus that this Paul who had formerly conspired with Zenobia against the Romans might be removed from the See of Antioch And Aurelianus was at that time so well affected toward the Christians that he granted their Request and gave Command that the Bishop's Palace should be resigned to whom the Christian Bishops should assign it by their Letters Thus was the Heretick with great Disgrace thrust out of the Church by the secular Power in the third Year of Aurelianus It is remarkable that in the first Council at Antioch Paul seem'd to have recanted his Heresie but returning to it again as a Dog to his Vomit he was deprived by the Second which was held on Purpose to examine and censure his Doctrine concerning Christ which saith the Council was no other than what Annas and Caiphas taught concerning the Messias namely that he was to be the Son of God no otherwise than by Favour and the divine Grace that accompanied him after God had made choice of him to be the Saviour of Mankind Paul of Samosata being now suppress'd his Heresie was no more heard of till the Reign of Constantine who having vanquished his Collegue Licinius and after put him to death upon his new Revolt had Command over the whole Roman Empire and being proclaim'd Emperor and Augustus he endeavoured to augment the Affairs of the Christians who by his Means enjoyed a profound and secure Peace which in all Probability might have continu'd had not the Christians fallen into intestine Wars among themselves which broke forth first in the Churches of Alexandria occasioned by a private Dispute in the College there But in a very short Space as Socrates observes over-ran all Aegypt Lybia and Thebais and the rest of the Cities and Provinces The Quarrel began thus Alexander who succeeded Achilles in the See of Alexandria discoursing one Day in the Presence of his Presbyters and the rest of his Clergy too curiously concerning the Mystery of the Holy Trinity he asserted this Point of Divinity That there was an Unity in the Trinity But Arius one of Alexander's Presbyters being skilful in the Faculty of Reasoning supposed that the Bishop designed to introduce the Opinion of Sabellius who affirmed the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be but one Substance one Person under three several Names Which in the Time of the old Testament gave the Law under the Notion of the Father In the New Testament was made Man in the Capacity of the Son and descended afterwards upon the Apostles in Quality of the Holy Ghost which Opinion Dionysius opposed with so much Eagerness and Warmth of Disputation that he bent it too much the contrary Way asserting not only a Distinction of of Persons in the Trinity but also a Difference of Essence an Inequality of Power and Glory For which Dionysius was severely censured as one of those who in great Measure opened a Gap to those Arian Impieties which afterwards broke into the Church Arius as Socrates observes fell into an Opinion wholly opposite to that of Sabellius not out of any Dislike to Sabellianism but only to oppose the Bishop He was of a perverse and contentious Humour and one that had too good an Opinion of his own Abilities When Alexander gravely taught his Clergy that there was an Unity in the Trinity
or that the same numerical Godhead was in every one of three Persons of the Holy Trinity what Lover of Truth and Peace would have excepted against it And yet Arius a nimble sharp Disputant flew in the Face of the Bishop and meerly out of a Spirit of Opposition confronts his Assertion of an Unity in the Trinity And from thence draws a Conclusion that was very remote and unnatural For according to Socrates Arius argued thus If the Father begot the Son he that was begotten hath a Beginning of his Existence And there was a time when the Son was not and by necessary Consequence he must derive his Existence from nothing This was the Form and Matter of Arius's Argumentation as Socrates relates it which I leave the Logician to examine only to observe that this was no extempere or occasional Objection brought by Arius against what had been discoursed by the Bishop but the very Judgment and Thoughts which he had concerning the second Person in the Trinity whom he held was not from Eternity but took his being in Time and was made of nothing as will appear in the Sequel of this Discourse Now to shew that Arius did not draw his Conclusion only by way of Argument but that it was his fix'd and resolute Opinion he presently began to make Proselytes and to excite many to be of his Judgment Among whom some think the first and chief was Eusebius who had formerly been Bishop of the Church of Berytus but was surreptitiously crept into the Bishoprick of Nicomedia in Bithynia And from this Spark saith the Historian was kindled a great Fire many patronizing Arius's Heresie and appearing in its Maintenance and Defence Alexander hearing and seeing what was done became highly incens'd and having conven'd a Council of many Bishops he degraded Arius as an Heretick and those that embrac'd his Opinion and gave the Bishops of every City an Account of his Proceedings in a circular Letter a Copy whereof as it stands in Socrates now follows A Copy of the Letter written by Alexander Bishop of Alexandria to his Fellow-Bishops concerning the degrading of Arius To our well-beloved and dearest Fellow-Ministers of the Catholick Church in all Places Alexander wishes Health in the Lord. WHereas there is one Body of the Catholick Church and it is commanded in the holy Scriptures that we should keep the Bond of Peace and Concord it is requisite that we should write and inform one another of what things are done among us to the end that if one Member suffer or rejoyce we may either joyntly rejoyce or suffer together In our Diocess therefore there are lately started up Men that are impious and Enemies of Christ who teach such Apostacy as one may judge and justly term the Fore-runner of Antichrist which I would most gladly have buried in Silence that the Mischief might have been consumed by being included among the Apostates only lest haply by its further Progress into other Places it should have infected the 〈◊〉 of the Simple But because Eusebius now Bishop of Nicomedia supposing that the Affairs are wholly at his Dispose in Regard that having deserted the Church of Berytus he has sordidly coveted that of Nicomedia and has not been prosecuted by any does patronize even these Apostates and has boldly attempted to write Letters up and down in Commendation of them that thereby he might seduce some Ignorant Persons into this worst Heresie and most displeasing to Christ I thought it therefore necessary being sensible of what is written in the Law to be no longer silent but to give you all Notice that you might know who are the Apostates and likewise the detestable Expressions of their Heresie and that if Eusebius write to you you should give no Heed to him For he is now desirous to renew his former Malevolence which seem'd to have been silenced and forgot by Length of Time and pretends to write Letters in their Behalf But in Reality he declares that he uses his Utmost to do this upon his own Account Now the Names of those that are turned Apostates are these Arius Achilles Aithales Carpones Another Arius Sarmates Euzoius Lucius Julianus Menas Helladius Gaius Secundus also and Theonas who were sometimes Bishops And the Tenets which they have invented and maintain'd contrary to the Authority of Scripture are these following viz. God they say was not alway a Father but there was a Time when God was not a Father The Word of God was not from everlasting but had his Beginning from Nothing For God who is made him who was not of Nothing Therefore there was a Time when he was not For the Son is a Creature and Work Neither is like to the Father as to his Essence nor is he by Nature the genuine Word of the Father nor his true Wisdom But he is one of his Works and one of his Creatures and is only improperly stiled The Word and the Wisdom For he himself exists by the proper Word of God and by the Wisdom that is in God by which God made all things and him also Wherefore he is by Nature mutable and subject to Change as well as all other rationable Beings So that the Word is different disagreeable and separate from the Essence of God and the Father cannot be declared or set forth by the Son and is invisible to him For the Son does not perfectly and accurately know the Father neither can he perfectly behold him For the Son knows not his own Essence what it is For our sakes he was made that God might make use of him as an Instrument in order to our Creation nor had he ever existed had it not pleased God to create us In this Heap of Blasphemies are summ'd up the Dogmata of Arius and his Sectaries And when one ask'd them if the Word of God could be chang'd as the Devil was they were not afraid to answer that he might because he is said they of a Nature subject to Change in that he is begotten and created We therefore with the Bishops of Egypt and Lybia near an hundred in Number being met together have Excommunicated Arius for these his Principles and for his impudent Assertion of them together with all his Adherents But Eusebius has given them Entertainment endeavouring to mix Falshood with Truth and Impiety with Godliness But he shall not prevail For Truth getteth the Victory and Light has no Communion with Darkness nor hath Christ any Agreemont with Belial For who ever heard the like or what Man if he should now hear them would not be amaz'd thereat and stop his Ears lest the Filth of those Doctrines should penetrate and infect them What Man is he who when he hears these Words of Saint John In the Beginning was the Word will not condemn those that affirm There was a Time when the Word was not Or who is the Man that hears these Words of the Gospel The only begotten Son and by him all things were made will
Pieces of Gold the whole Mass or by Derivation as Children from their Parents or by Eruption as a Branch from the Root But seeing that the Son of God could by none of these Ways be from the Father they cou'd not therefore give Consent to this Draught of the Creed in which the Word Homoousios was used Great and tedious were the Cavils and Debates about this one Word Homoousios which Eusebius and his Party would by no Means admit of and because it was not eras'd out of the Creed they refused to subscribe the Degradation of Arius which Obstinacy of theirs mov'd the Synod to anathematize Arius and all of his Opinion forbidding Arius in particular to enter into Alexandria The Emperour also by his Edict banish'd Arius Eusebius and Theognis But the two latter soon after their Exile repented of their Contumacy and sent their penitentiary Libels to the most eminent Bishops and in these Libels they declared their Assent to the Word Homoousios and their Belief of it as it was used in the Creed and in every thing agreed to the Exposition of the Faith And upon their doing this they were by Imperial Order recalled from Banishment and restored to their own Churches At the same time Eusebius sirnamed Pamphilus Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine having made some Hesitancy in the Synod whether he might safely admit of this Form of Faith having taken time maturely to consider what in this Case he might with a safe Conscience and a satisfied Reason conclude he at length gave his Assent and subscribed And lest any of the People of his Diocess shou'd be offended at his Backwardness in subscribing the Creed and have an Ill Opinion of him for scrupling the Use of the Word Homoousios he sent a Letter unto them wherein he explained that Term and apologiz'd for his Hesitancy Eusebius Pamphilus 's Letter to those of his Diocess IT is very probable Beloved that you may have heard what hath been done concerning the Ecclesiastick Faith in the great Council conven'd at Nice and in Regard that Report doth usually out-run an accurate Narrative of the Matters transacted lest by such a bare Report the Matter might be represented to you otherwise than really it is we thought it requisite to send to you first the Form of Faith which we our selves proposed to the Council and likewise that other published by the Bishops who made some Additions to ours That Form of Faith drawn up by us we read in the Presence of our most pious Emperour and it appeared to all to be sound and Orthodox and is as follows WE believe in one God the Father Almighcy Maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Iesus Christ the Word of God God of God Light of Light Life of Life the only begotten Son the first born of every Creature begotten of God the Father before all Worlds by whom also all things were move who for our Salvation was incarnate and convers'd among Men who suffered and rose again the third Day he ascended unto the Father and shall come again in Glory to judge the Quick and the Dead VVe also believe in the Holy Ghost we believe that each of these Persons is and doth subsist That the Father is truly the Father the Son really the Son and the Holy Ghost really the Holy Ghost As our Lord also when he sent his Disciples out to preach said Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Concerning which Articles we do averr that we thus maintain and hold them that these are our Sentiments of them that this was our Opinion formerly that this Opinion we will retain till Death that we we will persevere in this Belief and anathematize every impious Heresie VVe call God Almighty and Iesus Christ our Lord to VVitness that these were sincerely and heartily our Sentiments ever since we were capable of knowing our selves And that we do now speak and think what is most true and we are ready to demonstrate to you by most infallible Proofs and to persuade you that both in times past we thus believed and likewise thus preached Eusebius Pamphilus having given the People of his Diocess this Account of the Creed which he proposed to the Council he farther tells 'em That there was no body could oppose it That the Emperour did attest its Truth protesting that he was of the same Opinion and exhorted all to assent to and subscribe it and unanimously to agree in the Profession of it Only he desired that the Word Homoousios might be inserted tho' others with greater Probability affirm that that Word was added by the Bishops and that the Emperour explained it saying that he supposed that the Word Homoousios was not to be taken in such a Sense as is agreeable to the Affections of the Body and therefore that the Son had not his Subsistence from the Father either by Division or Abscission For it is impossible saith he that an immaterial intellectual and incorporeal Nature shou'd be subject to any corporeal Affection But that our Sentiments of such things should be expressed in Divine and Mysterious Terms The Emperour having thus Philosophized upon the Word Homoousios the Bishops drew up another Form of Belief in which they inserted that Word but in all other things it was the same with the first Now that the Form of Faith was agreed upon by the Bishops Eusebius Caesarienses gravely and maturely enquired of them What they meant by these Words Of the Substance of the Father and of the same Substance with the Father Which gave Occasion to many Questions and Answers and to an accurate Examination of the Importance of the Words And at last it was acknowledg'd by the Bishops that these Words To be of the Substance did only signifie thus much That the Son is of the Father but not as a Part of the Father To which Sense of the Words Eusebius Caesariensis thought it both reasonable and safe to give his Assent And having Peace before his Eyes as the Mark at which he aim'd and being cautious lest he should fall from a right Apprehension of the Faith he also admitted of the Words Begotten not made For Made said the Fathers is a common Term attributed to all other Creatures which were made by the Son of whom the Son hath no Resemblance Wherefore he is no Creature like those which were created by him but he is of a far more excellent Substance than any Creature Which Substance is begotten of the Father but in such a Manner of Generation as is ineffable and inexpressible by any created Being For his Generation who shall be able to declare Who can express how he was eternally begotten Who can explain of set forth his Divine Extraction No Man knoweth the Son but the Father That Light that shone before the World that Intellectual and Essential Wisdom that was before all Ages the living
Calumny against our selves for this we declare to you that we have unanimously agreed to the Determination about the Faith And also after we had made Researches into the Notion of Homoousios with our utmost Earnestness labour'd for Peace having never been Followers of any Heresie And when we had suggested whatever came into our Minds upon the Account of the Churches Security and had fully satisfied those that ought to be persuaded by us we subscrib'd the Faith but have not subscrib'd the Anathematism Not that we had any thing to object against the Faith but because we did not believe the Person accused to be such a one as he was represented having been fully satisfied that he was no such Person partly by the private Letters that he wrote us and partly by the Discourse that he made in our Presence But if your Holy Council was then satisfied we now make no Resistance but agree to what you have determined And by this Libel we do fully declare and confirm our Consent which we are induc'd to do not because we look upon our Exile to be tedious and burthensome but that we might avoid the Suspicion of Heresie For if you shall now vouchsafe to let us return to your Presence you shall find us to be of the same Opinion with you in all Points and quietly adhere to what you have determin'd And since it hath seem'd to your Piety to treat with great Gentleness even Arius who is accus'd for these things and to recall him from Banishment Seeing that he who seem'd guilty is recall'd and has made his Defence in Reference to those things laid to his Charge upon this Consideration it may justly seem absurd that we should be silent and by that Means yield an Argument against our selves Do you therefore as befits the Piety of such as love Christ Remind the Emperour of us and to offer up our Supplications to him and speedily to determine concerning us as shall be most agreeable to your Prudence By this Libel it appears that Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis Bishop of Nice did subscribe the Faith which had been published but wou'd not give their Consent to the deposing of Arius It likewise appears by the same Libel that Arius was recall'd from Banishment before the two Bishops which was done by the Emperour and not the Fathers But tho' he was recall'd yet he was forbid to enter Alexandria And this Socrates concludes from the Way he afterwards invented for his own Return into that Church and City which was saith Socrates his making use of a counterfeit Repentance 'T is certain Eusebius of Nicomedia and his Confederates made it their Business to bring Arius back again to Alexandria But how they prevail'd in their Design and after what Manner the Emperour was wrought upon to admit Arius and Euzoius into his Presence comes now to be succinctly reported The Emperour Constantine had a Sister call'd Constantia who had been married to Licinius once Collegue with him in the Empire This Constantia had a Priest for her Confident who was reckon'd among her Domesticks and a great Favourer of Arianism This Man prompted thereunto by Eusebius and those of his Faction did in his familiar Discourse with Constantia let fall some Words concerning Arius saying That the Synod had done him Wrong and that his Sentiments were not as they represented Constantia was easily induc'd to believe what was told her by the Presbyter But she wanted Confidence to declare it to the Emperour It happen'd that Constantia fell dangerously sick and was daily visited by the Emperour and finding her Distemper to grow mortal and expecting nothing but immediate Death she recommended the Presbyter to his Royal Favour praising his Diligence and Piety assuring the Emperour of his good Affection to his Government Constantia dying her Brother made the same Presbyter one of his greatest Confidents who having by Degrees got a Liberty of speaking to the Emperour took his Opportunity to tell him many things concerning Arius affirming he had no other Sentiments than what were agreeable to the Synod's Determination and that if the Emperour would admit him to his Presence he would give Consent unto what the Synod had decreed He told him also that Arius without all Reason had been falsly accus'd The Emperour seem'd much surpriz'd with what the Presbyter told him and said that if Arius would consent to the Synod's Determination and declare that he was of the same Judgment with the Nicene Fathers he would admit him to his Presence and also send him back to Alexandria with Repute and Honour And the Emperour having said thus he immediately wrote to Arius after this Manner Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to Arius IT has sometime since been made known to your Gravity that you should repair to our Court in order to your being admitted to the Enjoyment of our Presence And we much admire that you have not forthwith perform'd this Wherefore immediately take a publick Chariot and come with speed to our Court that having experienc'd our Care and good Will you may return to your own Country God preserve you Beloved Brother Dated before the first of the Calends of December Arius upon receiving this Letter instantly repair'd to Constantinople being accompanied with Euzoius whom Alexander had divested of his Deaconship when he depos'd Arius and his Associates The Emperour admits them both into his Presence and ask'd them whether they would agree to the Nicene Faith and they readily giving their Assent the Emperour commanded them to deliver in a Libel containing their Faith Whereupon they drew up a Libel of Repentance which they presented to the Emperour and was as follows Arius and Euzoius to our most Religious and most Pious Lord Constantine the Emperour ACcording to the Order of your Piety most acceptable to God our Lord the Emperour we declare our Faith and in Writing profess in the Presence of God that we and all our Adherents do believe as follows WE believe in one God the Father Almighty and in the Lord Iesus Christ who was made before all VVorlds God the VVord by whom all things were made that are in Heaven and that are in Earth VVho came down from Heaven and was incarnate and suffered and rose again and ascended into the Heavens who also shall come again to judge the Quick and the Dead VVe also believe in the Holy Ghost and in the Resurrection of the Flesh and in the Life of the VVorld to come and in the Kingdom of Heaven and one Catholick Church of God which is spread from one God of the VVorld to the other This Faith we have received from the Holy Gospels the Lord saying to his Disciples Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost If we do not believe these things and if we do not admit of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in such Manner as the Holy Catholick