Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/59

Rh When Eusebius of Nicomedia received the epistle, he wrote as follows to Paulinus, bishop of Tyre.

"To my Lord Paulinus, Eusebius sendeth greeting in the Lord.

"The zeal of my Lord Paulinus, and likewise his silence concerning the truth, have not failed to reach our ears. If, on the one hand, we have rejoiced on account of the zeal of my lord, on the other, we have grieved, because the silence of such a man appears like the condemnation of our cause.

"Hence, as it behooves not a wise man to be of a different opinion from others, and yet to be silent concerning the truth, I exhort you to stir up within yourself the spirit of wisdom, that you may be able to write what may be profitable to yourself and to others; which will certainly be the case, if you will examine the Holy Scriptures, and follow them in your writings. We have never heard that there are two unbegotten beings, nor that one has been divided into two. We have neither been taught, my lord, nor do we believe that the Divinity has ever undergone any change of a temporal nature; but we affirm that there is one who is unbegotten, and that there also exists another who did in truth proceed from him, yet who was not made out of his substance, and who does not at all participate in the nature or substance of him who is unbegotten. We believe him to be entirely distinct in nature and in power, and yet to be a perfect likeness, in character and in power, of him from whom he originated.

"We believe that the mode of his beginning cannot be expressed by any words; and that it is