Letters 1 part 28/32

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not adhere to the sound words of the faith, but, thrusting aside the sayings of the Spirit, prefers his own teaching to the teachings of the Gospel, keep yourselves from such a one.

May the Lord grant that we may one day come together with one another in the same place, so that whatever has escaped our discourse may be supplied through personal meeting.

For indeed we have written to you but a few things out of many, not wishing to exceed the proper measure of a letter, and at the same time convinced that for those who fear the Lord, even a brief reminder suffices.

TO OURBICIUS THE MONK. You did well to write to us;

for you showed no small fruit of love, and continue to do this.

Do not, however, think that you need to make an apology when you write to us.

For we know ourselves, and we know that by nature every man has equal honor with all others;

and among us superiority is not according to birth, nor according to abundance of wealth, nor according to bodily constitution, but according to superiority in the fear of God.

Since I hear that there are some who falsify the correct doctrine concerning the Incarnation of the Lord with perverse notions, I urge them, through your love, to abstain from that absurd idea which some are reported to hold — namely, that God Himself was changed into flesh, and did not, through Mary, take up the lump of Adam, but was Himself transformed by His own divinity into material nature.

But this absurdity is very easy to refute.

But since the blasphemy carries its own evidence, I think that for one who fears the Lord, even the mere reminder suffices.

For if He was changed, He was also altered.

But far be it from us to say or even to think this, when God has said:

"I am, and I have not changed."

Then how did the benefit of the Incarnation pass over to us, if our body, joined to the divinity, did not become superior to the dominion of death? For He who was changed took up for Himself His own body, which He came to possess when His divine nature was made gross for Him.

And how was the incomprehensible divinity circumscribed within the bulk of a small body, if indeed the whole nature of the Only-Begotten was changed?

But I do not think that anyone possessing reason and the fear of God suffers from this malady.

But since a report has come to me that some among those with your love are afflicted with this weakness of reasoning, I considered it necessary not to furnish a bare greeting, but that our letter should contain something that can also build up the souls of those who fear the Lord.

We therefore exhort that these men receive ecclesiastical correction, and that you abstain from communion with the heretics, knowing that indifference in these matters takes away our boldness in Christ.

For even if our wounds remain the same, still it brings us some relief to have ready physicians who are able, should they seize the opportunity, to bring swift healing to our pains.

for visiting the sick is among the greatest of commandments.

But if the good God, the wise steward of our life, reserves this grace for another time, still write to us whatever ought to be written by you for the encouragement of the afflicted and the correction of the brokenhearted.

For already the Church has suffered many breaches, and great is our affliction over them, with no expectation of help from any other quarter, unless the Lord, through you who genuinely serve Him, sends forth the healing.

Now the audacious and shameless heresy of the Arians, having openly broken away from the body of the Church, remains in its own error and does us little harm, because their impiety is evident to all.

But those who have put on the sheep's clothing, presenting a mild and gentle exterior, while inwardly tearing apart without mercy the flocks of Christ, and, because they set out from among us, easily inflicting harm on the more simple — these are the difficult ones, hard to guard against.

We request that these men be made publicly known, through your exactness, to all the Churches throughout the East, so that either they may walk uprightly and be genuinely with us, or, remaining in their perversity, may confine the harm to themselves alone, being unable, through unguarded communion, to transmit their own disease to those near them.

It is necessary to mention these by name, so that you yourselves may also recognize those who are working disturbances among us, and may make it known to your Churches.

as though it were perhaps on account of some private quarrels that we had chosen this pettiness toward them.

But the farther removed you happen to be from them, the more credibility you have among the peoples — besides also having the grace from God cooperating with you in the care for those who are oppressed.

And if a greater number should together, in agreement, decree the same doctrines, it is clear that the multitude of those decreeing will render the reception of the doctrine incontestable to all.

There is, then, one man among those causing us much grief: Eustathius, from Sebaste in Lesser Armenia, who long ago was a disciple of Arius, and when he was flourishing in Alexandria, composing his wicked blasphemies against the Only-Begotten, he followed him and was numbered among his most genuine disciples; but when he returned to his own country, he gave to the most blessed bishop Hermogenes of Caesarea, who was examining him for his false doctrine, a confession of sound faith.

And having thus received ordination from him, Eustathius, immediately after Hermogenes' falling asleep, ran to Eusebius, bishop of Constantinople, who himself, no less than anyone, professed the impious doctrine of Arius.

Then, having been driven out from there for whatever reasons, he came and again defended himself before those in his homeland,

concealing his impious mind, while putting forward a certain correctness of expression.

And having obtained the bishopric, as he did, he is immediately seen to have written an anathema of the homoousion at the assembly held by them at Ancyra.

And from there, going to Seleucia, he wrote, together with those of like opinion, things that all know.

And in Constantinople he again agreed with the proposals put forward by the heretics.

And thus, having been driven out of the bishopric because he had previously been deposed at Melitene, he devised for himself the plan of coming to you as a way to be restored.

And what exactly was proposed to him by the most blessed bishop Liberius, and what he himself agreed to, we do not know, except that he brought back a letter restoring him, which, having presented it to the synod at Tyana, he was restored to his see.

This man now ravages that very faith on which he was received, and he associates with those who anathematize the homoousion, and is the ringleader of the heresy of the Pneumatomachi.

Since, then, it was from that very place that he obtained the power to wrong the Churches, and he has used the confidence given him by you for the destruction of many, it is necessary that the correction likewise come from there, and that it be written to the Churches what were the terms on which he was received, and how, having now changed, he nullifies the grace given to him through the Fathers of that time.

For through his facility in writing, having a tongue sufficient for him on every subject, he has filled the inhabited world with his own compositions, disregarding the reproof which says:

"Beware of making many books;"

for in a multitude, clearly, many sins have also been committed.

For how is it possible to escape sin through much speaking? Indeed, some of his theological statements have their foundation constructed not from scriptural proofs, but from human sources.

And he also has fables — or rather Judaizing accounts — concerning the resurrection, in which he again says that we shall return to the legal worship, and that we shall again be circumcised, and keep the sabbath, and abstain from foods, and offer sacrifices to God, and worship in Jerusalem at the temple, and altogether that from Christians we shall become Jews.

What could be more ridiculous than these things, or rather more foreign to the evangelical doctrine? Then also his teachings about the Incarnation have caused such disturbance to the brotherhood, that few of those who have encountered them now preserve the ancient character of piety;

while the majority, attending to these innovations, have turned aside into disputes and contentious inventions concerning these unprofitable words.

concerning his ordination he has something reprehensible, you yourselves might well say.

But it grieves us that he has become attached to the doctrines of Marcellus, and admits without discrimination into his communion those who follow him.

You know, most honored brothers, that the doctrine of Marcellus involves the negation of all our hope, in that it neither confesses the Son as existing in His own hypostasis, but as having been brought forth and then again returning to that from which He came, nor does it allow the Paraclete to subsist distinctly; so that one would not err in declaring this heresy wholly alien to Christianity, and calling it a corrupted Judaism.

We request that care be taken of these matters by you.

This could come about, if you would deign to write to all the Churches throughout the East, that those who falsify these things, if they should correct themselves, are to be in communion;

but if they should choose to persist obstinately in their innovations, that they be separated from.

And we ourselves are not unaware that we ought, sitting in council together with your prudence, to have taken counsel on these matters in common.

But since the occasion does not permit it, and delay is harmful, as the harm from them has taken root, we have of necessity sent the brothers, so that whatever has escaped instruction by letter, they, teaching it themselves in person, might move your piety to grant the help sought by the Churches of God.

Only pray, I beg you, that the Lord may not deliver us up finally to the enemies of the cross of Christ, but may guard His own Churches until the time of peace, which the righteous Judge Himself knows when He will grant.

For He will grant it, and will not abandon us to the very end.

But whatever the case may be, pray that the Good One may either remove the afflictions, or preserve us unshaken through the afflictions.

We greet, through you, the whole company deemed worthy to be with your piety.

All who are with us greet your piety.

Be strong and of good cheer in the Lord, praying earnestly for me, that you may be preserved to the Church of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

...ancient Israel, whom, having led into the land of the Assyrians through the captivity, He extinguished the idolatry there through the sojourn of the saints.

And now, thus, indeed, we find, upon consideration, that the Lord, setting before you the contest for piety, has opened for you, through exile, an arena of blessed contests, while to those who encounter your good will and purpose, He has granted clear examples unto salvation.

Since, then, by the grace of God we have learned of the correctness of your faith, we have learned of your diligent care for the brotherhood, and that you do not pass by carelessly or negligently the things that are of common benefit and necessary for salvation, but if you are inclined to do anything for the building up of the Churches, we thought it right to become partakers of your good portion, and to unite ourselves through this letter to your piety.

For this reason we have also sent our most beloved son Elpidius, the fellow deacon, both to convey the letter, and also, on his own part, to be able to report to you whatever has escaped the instruction contained in the letter.

But what especially strengthened us in our desire for union with you was the report of your zeal for the correctness of piety — that neither a multitude of writings nor a variety of sophistries turned aside the firmness of your heart, but you recognized those who innovate against the apostolic doctrines, and did not consent to keep silent about the harm being wrought by them.

For indeed we found great grief among all who cling to the peace of the Lord, on account of the manifold innovations of Apollinarius of Laodicea, who grieved us all the more because he seemed, from the beginning, to be one of us.

For to suffer something at the hands of an open enemy, even if it should exceed in pain, is somehow bearable to the one afflicted, as it is written:

"For if an enemy had reproached me, I could have borne it."

But to experience some harm from one of like mind and one's own kin — this is utterly unbearable, and admits of no consolation.

For him whom we expected to have as a fellow shield-bearer of the truth, we now find hindering, in many ways, those who are being saved, by dragging around their minds and tearing them away from the rectitude of the doctrines.

For what hot-headed and reckless deed has he not committed? What newer and more perilous scheme has he not devised in words? Has not every Church been divided against itself, especially those governed by the orthodox, by men sent out by him to create schism and to establish a separate assembly of his own? Is not the great mystery of piety mocked, as bishops go about without people or clergy, carrying about an empty name, accomplishing nothing for the advancement of the Gospel of salvation? Are not his teachings about God full of impious doctrines, the old impiety of vain-minded Sabellius having now been renewed by him in his treatises? For if what the Sebastenes circulate has not been fabricated by enemies, but are truly his own writings, he has left no excess of impiety unattempted, calling the same person Father and Son, and again Son and Father, and other dark, impious words which we could not even bear to admit into our hearing, praying that we may have no part with those who uttered those words.

Is not the doctrine of the Incarnation confused by him? Has not the saving dispensation of our Lord become doubtful to many because of his muddled and obscure questionings about the flesh-taking? To gather all these together and set them forth for refutation requires a long time and a long discourse.

Who has so obscured and effaced the subject of the promises as his mythologizing? He has dared to interpret the blessed hope laid up for those who have conducted their lives according to the Gospel of Christ in so base and abject a manner that it has degenerated into old wives' tales and Jewish fables.

...the observance of the legal worship, and again a typical high priest after the true High Priest, and a sacrifice for sins after the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and partial baptisms after the one baptism, and the ash of a heifer sprinkling the Church which, through faith in Christ, has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and cleansings of leprosy after the freedom from suffering of the resurrection, and the offering of jealousy, when they neither marry nor are given in marriage, loaves of the presentation after the bread from heaven, lamps burning after the true light — and altogether, if now the law of commandments has been abolished in doctrine, it is clear that then the doctrines of Christ will be annulled by the legal observances.

At these things shame and confusion have covered our faces, and heavy grief has filled our hearts.

("For in the multitude of words one cannot escape sin"), but rather to set before him closely and precisely the doctrines of orthodoxy, so that his correction may become evident and his repentance be made known to his brethren.

It is also reasonable to remind your reverence concerning the followers of Marcellus, that you may make no decree about them either rashly or lightly.

But since that man departed from the Church on account of impious doctrines, it is necessary that those who follow him, having anathematized that heresy, be so received into communion, so that those who are joined to us through you may be accepted by the whole brotherhood; since indeed at present no small grief has come upon many who heard that when they came to your honor, you both received them and gave them a share in ecclesiastical communion.

It was necessary, then, that all who are joined to you in the same fellowship be fully assured, so that what was done might be more firmly established by the agreement of the many, and peace not be torn apart by the acceptance of some while others withdrew.

Thus it was fitting for us to deliberate firmly and gently concerning matters that concern all the Churches throughout the inhabited world.

For it is not the one who quickly makes a decree who is praiseworthy, but the one who fixes each matter firmly and immovably, so that when examined in later time his judgment appears the more approved — this man is acceptable both to God and to men, as one who administers his words with discernment.

These things — as much as conversation by letter allowed us — we have addressed to your reverence.

May the Lord grant that we may one day come together with one another, so that having ordered all things for the perfecting of the Churches of God together with you, we may together with you receive the reward prepared by the righteous Judge for faithful and wise stewards.

You have well and fittingly taken me to task, as a spiritual brother taught true love by the Lord, because we do not make known to you all things, both small and great, of our affairs here.

For it is indeed incumbent upon you also to be concerned about our affairs, and upon us to report our affairs to your love.

But know, most honored and most beloved brother to us, that the continuity of afflictions and this great turmoil now shaking the Churches makes us no longer surprised at anything that happens.

For just as those whose ears are constantly battered in bronze-workshops become accustomed to the noises, so we, through the frequency of untoward reports, have now become habituated to keep our hearts undisturbed and unshaken by irrational events.

As for the things long since contrived by the Arians against the Church, although many and great and reported throughout the whole world, yet they are bearable to us, because they come from open enemies and adversaries of the word of truth.

We are astonished at them when they do not do their usual deeds, not when they dare something great and audacious against piety.

But what grieves and troubles us are the things done by those who are of one soul and one faith with us.

Yet nonetheless, because these too are many and continually fall upon our ears, even these no longer appear extraordinary to us.

For this reason we were neither disturbed by the disorderly events that happened recently, nor did we trouble your ears with them — knowing on the one hand that rumor would of itself convey what had been done, and on the other hand waiting for others to become messengers of the distressing news; and further, we judged it unreasonable for us to be indignant at such things, as though resenting the fact that we had been overlooked.

To those, however, who did these things, we wrote fitting words, exhorting them that, since the brothers there had suffered some discord, they should not depart from love, but await correction from those able to heal the faults in a churchly manner.

Since you did this well, moved by a fitting impulse, we have praised you and given thanks to the Lord, because there remains preserved with you some remnant of the old good order, and the Church has not lost her own strength amid our persecution.

For the canons were not persecuted along with us.

Often, then, though troubled by the Galatians, I was never able to answer them, as I was awaiting your judgments.

And now, if the Lord grants it and they are willing to bear with us, we hope to bring the people to the Church, so that it will not be said in reproach that we have gone over to the Marcellians, but rather that they have become members of the body of the Church of Christ — so that the wicked blame cast upon them from the heresy may be dissolved by our reception of them, and we may not be put to shame as though we had attached ourselves to them.

And this I attribute to the difficulty of the times.

For it seems we are prospering in nothing, on account of our sins, if even the most zealous of the brothers are not found to be agreeable or well-suited for service, because not everything is carried out according to our judgment.

Even if nothing else established their orthodoxy, at any rate the war waged by the Arians against them provides no small proof of their soundness to those who reason fairly.

And your reverence ought also to be joined to them in love, on account of the fellowship of sufferings endured for Christ's sake.

But of this be persuaded, most truly honored one, that there is no word of orthodoxy which was not proclaimed by these men with all boldness, with God as witness and ourselves as hearers.

But, if it seems good, let us leave past things aside, and give some peaceable beginning to what follows.

For we all need one another according to the fellowship of members, and especially now, when the Churches of the East look to you, and will take your concord as an occasion for support and confirmation.

But if they perceive you to be in some suspicion toward one another, they will grow faint and let their hands drop, so as not to resist the enemies of the faith.

Since, then, a heavy bodily weakness afflicts me, and an untold care for the Churches lies upon me, and I am not my own master to travel where I wish and meet with those I desire, I give rest to the longing I have for the enjoyment of the good things in you through this letter, and I entreat your unsurpassed reverence to pray for me and for the Church, that the Lord may grant us to pass through the remaining days or hours of our sojourn without stumbling.

And may he grant us also to see the peace of his Churches, and to hear concerning your fellow-ministers and fellow-contestants the things we pray for, and concerning yourself the things which, night and day, the people under you seek from the Lord of righteousness.

But know that, although we have often not written as often as was owed, we have nevertheless written to your piety.

And perhaps the brothers entrusted with the service of carrying the letters were unable to deliver our greetings safely.

But now, since we have found some of our own people journeying to your honor, we have eagerly entrusted letters to them and sent certain things, which may you deign to receive without disdain from our lowliness, and to bless us after the example of the patriarch Isaac.

But if in any way, being occupied and having our minds submerged beneath a multitude of cares, we have overlooked what was proper, do not hold it against us nor be grieved, but rather imitate your own perfection in all things, so that we too may enjoy your virtue, as do all the rest.

Being in good health, of good cheer in the Lord, praying earnestly for me — may you be granted to me and to the Church of God.

TO EUSEBIUS, WHO WAS IN EXILE. The Lord has shown, in our own case too, that he will not abandon his holy ones, having sheltered the life of your holiness with his great and mighty hand.

For we consider this almost comparable to the holy one remaining unharmed in the belly of the sea-monster, and to those who fear the Lord dwelling unhurt amid raging fire — since, as I hear, though war has been poured out all around you on every side, it has preserved your piety safe.

And may the mighty God preserve for us, if we still live, that much-longed-for sight in the time to come, or at least for the others who await your return as if it were their own salvation.

For I am persuaded that the merciful One, giving heed to the tears of the Churches and the groans with which all groan on your behalf, will preserve you alive, until he grants the favor to those who entreat him night and day.

We long to learn of that time.

For in the meantime we hear that greater and more grievous sufferings have occurred in those regions.

May we learn of these things, if possible even sooner, and if not, at least through the most reverend brother Paul, our fellow-presbyter, upon his return — learn, as we pray, that your life is being kept unharmed and unmolested.

And if the Lord grants a measure of calm, as we hear of the army's passing through, we shall make it our concern to send someone of our own, both to visit you and to report to us each detail of your affairs.

TO THE WIFE OF ARINTHAEUS, A LETTER OF CONSOLATION. It would have been fitting and owed to your disposition that we ourselves be present and share in what has taken place.

For in this way we would both have soothed our own grief, and fulfilled toward your honored self what is fitting in the way of consolation.

But since my body can no longer bear longer journeys, I have resorted to conversation by letter, lest we should seem altogether indifferent to what has happened.

Who, then, has not groaned for that man? Who is so stony of heart as not to have shed a warm tear over him? As for me, it has filled me with grief above others, when I consider both the honors that man showed to me personally and his common patronage of the Churches of God.

But nevertheless we have reasoned that, being a man, and having rendered his service to this life for the times allotted to him, he has again been taken up by the God who orders our affairs.

Considering these things, we exhort your prudence to bear what has happened calmly, and, as far as possible, to endure the calamity with moderation.

Time indeed is sufficient of itself to soften the heart and to give passage to right reasonings.

Yet still we are apprehensive on account of your excessive devotion to your husband and your kindness toward all, lest, because of the tenderness of your character, you should give yourself over wholly to grief, having received a deep wound of sorrow.

The teaching of the Scriptures is always useful, but especially at such times as these.

Remember, then, the sentence of him who created us, on account of which all of us, having sprung from the earth, return again to earth; and no one is so great as to appear superior to dissolution.

Noble indeed and great was that admirable man, whose virtue of soul rivaled the strength of his body — I too affirm this, granting him no exaggeration in either respect — but still, being a man, he has died, as Adam died, as Abel, as Noah, as Abraham, as Moses, as any other you might name who shares in the same nature.

Let us not, then, be indignant because he has been taken from us, but rather let us give thanks to the One who joined us together, because we dwelt together with him from the beginning.

For to be deprived of a husband is something you share in common with other women; but in such a marriage as this, I do not think any other woman can boast of having had the like.

For our Creator truly made that man as a single exemplar of human nature, so that all eyes were turned toward him, every tongue recounted his deeds, painters and sculptors fell short of his worth, and historians, in narrating his manly exploits in war, lapse into the incredibility of legend.