In the Creed which was used when Eusebius was baptised" In one Lord Jesus Christ-the word of God-God of God-Light of Light-Life of Life-His only-begotten Son.... begotten of the Father before all ages," &c.

'Eusebius was born about the year of our Lord 270, or as some think sooner. [Vide Vales. de Vit. et Script. Euseb. Cæs. sub init., and Lardner's Credibility, vol. iv. p. 70.] And was baptized in the year 285, or at the latest 290.

The Historian tells us, in the preface to his Creed, that the several articles which he has specified in the Creed are of a very ancient date that they had descended by regular tradition from Bishop to Bishop, and that they came originally from the pure word of God itself. His words are, "As we have received by tradition from our predecessors the Bishops, both, when we were instructed in the first principles of the Faith, and received baptism; and as we have learnt from the Divine Scriptures, and as during our continuance in the Presbytership, and also since we have been intrusted with a bishopric, we have believed and taught; so we also now believe, and do make a public declaration to you of our Faith, which is this," &c. "Kabwe rapeλáßоμεν ταρà тwν Καθὼς παρελάβομεν παρὰ τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν ἐπισκόπων, καὶ ἐν τῇ κατηχήσει, καὶ ὅτε τὸ λουτρὸν ἐλαμβάνομεν, καὶ καθὼς ἀπὸ τῶν θείων γραφῶν μεμαθήκαμεν, καὶ ὡς ἐν τῷ πρεσβυτερίῳ, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἐπισκοπῇ ἐπιστεύσαμέν τε καὶ ἐδιδάσκομεν, οὕτω καὶ νῦν πιστεύοντες τήν ἡμετέραν πίστιν ὑμῖν πроσava époμεv."-Socrat. Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. viii. p. 23. And then follows the Creed, as I have given it in the Appendix, p. 97.

The draft therefore which Eusebius has given of the Cæsarean Creed may fairly be considered as a correct epitome, not only of the faith of the Church at the time when he was baptized, but also of the faith which had been handed down by tradition through the several ages which preceded his baptism.

In the Creed as it occurs in the Apostolical Constitutions" In Jesus Christ-His only-Begotten Son-who before all ages was begotten," &c.

In these instances, by either of the phrases "God of God"-" Only-Begotten"-or “ Begotten before all ages"-it may be said that the Son is declared positively to be of one substance with the Father. First. The phrase "God of God" declares the Son to be of one substance with the Father.

If the Son had been simply called God, some question might possibly arise respecting the exact sense of the term God, since men and angels are stiled God in Scripture. But in these Creeds the Son is called " God of God:" a phrase which will admit of no ambiguous sense whatever. The phrase interprets itself. "God of God" can be understood in no other sense than "Bone of Bone" and "Flesh of Flesh." By the latter a participation or unity of substance is always understood, and so must it be understood by the former also.

Secondly. The Son is declared to be of one

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Whatever," says Cardinal Bona, "may be said of the author of these Constitutions, all agree that it is certain and evident they were more ancient than the Council of Nice, and that in them is contained the discipline of the Christian Church before Constantine the Great, as the learned Morinus (De Sacris Ordin. pars. ii. p. 20) tells us, to whom Joannes Fronto (In Prænotatis. ad Calendar. Rom. sect. v.) assents, in his observations before the Roman Calendar."-De Rerum. Liturg. i. cap. viii. sect. 4. For the complete form of the Creed, vide App. p. 99.

substance with the Father, by his title, "OnlyBegotten."

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The title " Only-Begotten" cannot, in the language of Scripture, be understood either of Christ's conception by the Holy Ghost; nor of His mediatorial office; nor of His becoming the first-begotten from the dead; nor of His being made Heir of all things. "None of these circumstances," says Waterland, " singly considered, nor all together, will be sufficient to account for the title of Only Son or Only-Begotten," but in Scripture the title" Only-Begotten" always refers to the preexistent and divine nature of the Word: to that state in which he was the only-Begotten from all eternity.

Nor can it, in the language of the Fathers by whom it was used, be understood in any other sense than that which implies the eternal generation of the Son from the substance of the Father. "The

title of the Only-Begotten,' or Only Son' of God," says Bishop Bull, "given to Christ, is plainly determined, by the constant and perpetual use of all Catholic Doctors, to mean his Divine generation from God the Father before all ages: all of them agree with that of Tertullian concerning the Son of God. 'He is the First-begotten, as being begotten before

Episcopius asserts that it is according to the four ways here mentioned that Christ is by way of eminence called God in Scripture.-Episcop. tom. i. p. 335.

all things and the only-Begotten, as being alone begotten of God, properly out of the womb of his heart. For all of them owned no other Son of God than He who was begotten of the very essence of God the Father."1

In the third place it is to be observed, that the Church took considerable pains to preserve the sense in which the term "only-Begotten" has been explained (i. e., to shew that it signified the divine generation of the Son from the eternal essence of the Father) from any misrepresentation: for when heretics gave out that Christ was begotten only in a metaphorical sense, and that he was created in time, and therefore not begotten of the substance of the Father; the Church, to shew, in opposition, that the Son was not created in time, but that He was a real Son, begotten of the eternal essence of a real Father, added to the term "only-Begotten" the explanatory phrase, "begotten of the Father before all ages."

When then the term "only-Begotten" signifies,

1 "Titulus Filii Dei unigeniti sive unici, Christo tributus, constanti ac perpetuo catholicorum omnium doctorum usu in hunc sensum plane determinatus fuit, ut divinam ejus ante omnia sæcula ex ipso Deo Patre generationem significaret. Illud Tertulliani (Adv. Prax. c. 7.) de Filio Dei est vox omnium consona. 'Primogenitus, ut ante omnia genitus, et Unigenitus, ut solus ex Deo genitus, proprie de vulva cordis ipsius,' nam illi omnes non alium Filium Dei unigenitum agnoverunt, quam qui ex ipsa Dei Patris essentia, genitus fuerit."-Bull, Jud. Eccl. Cathol. v. § 10.

both in Scripture and in the language of the Fathers, the divine generation of the Son from the eternal essence of the Father; and when it is well known that the Fathers added the phrase "Begotten before all ages" for the express purpose of insisting upon, and shewing that such was the true sense in which that term was to be received; can it be said that the Nicene Fathers have inserted any new idea when they added to the Creed the phrase "of one substance with the Father." For it is quite certain that the phrase "of one substance with the Father" was never intended to suggest any idea beyond that which was always implied by the phrases only-Begotten" and " Begotten before all ages;" for, in the form in which the Creed was first drawn up, the words of the second Article are "In one Lord Jesus Christ: the only-Begotten, THAT IS, of the substance of the Father." And in the form in which the Creed occurs in Epiphanius the second Article is, "In one Lord Jesus Christ: begotten of the Father before all ages, THAT IS, of the substance of his Father." Which shews clearly that the Nicene Fathers considered the terms "only-Begotten"-" Begotten of the Father before all ages"and" of one substance with the Father,"-as synonymous modes of expressing one idea, i. e., the

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For the complete form of this Creed, vide App. p. 101. "For the complete form of this Creed, vide App. p. 103.

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