Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/97

Rh "The bishops, being convened to the Council, were desirous of refuting the impious assertions of the Arians, that the Son was created out of nothing; that he is a creature and created being; that there was a period in which he did not exist; and that ho is mutable by nature.

"They all agreed in propounding the following declarations, which are in accordance with the Holy Scriptures: namely, that the Son is by nature the only begotten Son of God, the Word, the Power, and the Wisdom of the Father; that he is, as John said, 'very God,' and, as Paul has written, 'the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the person of the Father.' (Heb. i. 3.)

"The followers of Eusebius, who were led by evil doctrines, then assembled for deliberation, and came to the following conclusions: We are also of God. 'There is but one God of whom are all things.' (1 Cor. vi. 8.) 'Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new, and all things are of God.' (2 Cor. v. 17, 18.) They also dwelt particularly upon the following doctrine, contained in the Book of the Pastor: 'Believe above all that there is one God, who created and restored all things, calling them from nothing into being.'

"But the bishops saw through their evil design and impious artifice, and gave a clearer elucidation of these words, by explaining them as referring to God, and wrote that the Son of God is of the substance of God; so that while the creatures, which do not in any way derive their existence of, or from,