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e gfem- j o ( wtailtiwj . ^ c fturlbus vulgi in consulte coromittere . The emper& £ > NVith all his -autkofity , foiled hi bis benevolent wishes to smite the discordant parties . The Nicene Creed was the consequence : and I now proceed
to the evidence which that Creed itself affords , that the whole controversy turned on the erased text , now supposed to be spurious . Eusebius , of Caesarea , being a man of learning and of authority with the
Emperor , had the honour of drawing up tlic ^ creed which the assembly were to subscribe . It was literally thus 44 We believe in one God , Father Almighty , the Creator of all things visible and invisible—in one Lord Jesus of
Christ , the Lo ^ os God , God of God , Light of Light , Life of Life , only begotten Son , first bom of every creature , born before ail ages of God the Father , by whom all things were made ; who for our salvation became flesh , and dwelt among men : who
suffered and rose the third day ; ascended to the Father , and is again about to return with gloryr * hat > he may judge the living and the dfc&d *—we believe also in aae Holy Spir it ,
believing each of these to be and to subsist , the Father truly a Father , the Son truly a Son * the Holy Spirit truly a Holy Spirit ; even as our Lord , when he commissioned his disciples to preach , said , ' Go and teach all
nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father , of the Sou and of the Holy Spirit / " This was the Creed which was first proposed : amendments were moved
to it , and , unfortunately , carried b y a great majority of the assembly . The adopted changes serve to shew , tlrot the Creed , as first proposed , was drawn up with great liberality and with consummate art . The first
observation to be made is , that the proposed Creed contains acontmtneration of the three heavenly witnesses , exactly as they are laid down by Johnthe Father , the Logos or Word , and the Holy Spirit ; and in this appear tke adroitness and liberality of tiie
framer . For by preserving the ff ^ ord , and not the Son , the person called upon to subscribe , was left at liberty to annex to the second person the sense which the Apostle himself gives to it , namely , the attributes of God personified , ami imparted to the man
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Jesus . # ft tttte « &tse / to s&y that *« % e w& § Gted bf God-, ** & t 6 % & im kl $ m
than what John , writes in the b&fftl ^ iiing of his Gospel . / I ^ feia |>^^ e ^> % ut more frequently PM 4 o , spe # k of £ be Logos as begotten or crated ih the Divine mind > 'and as the msttfttmfcnt ; cdf
creating all other things . In this light they considered the Son as synonymbhs \ vitfe the Logos , and &peak of Ghrist under that name without any regard to his nature as a man But when , in Iris Gospel , John speaks
of him as the Son xrf God , he means Jesus simply as a man , acting and suffering like other men * though endued with the Logos of God , and Consequently having a nature and existence infinitely remote from the nftttire and existence of God . From this
view we might infer that EuseMtts , the author of the Creed , was at Weart , at this time at least , a Sabetftan ? , that is > an Unitarian . At all events ^ he left % he creed opfcn for all SafoelE&fts Xm subscribe it ; atid we find , id feet , that Mareellus , who was present tn
the Synbd , and avowedly an Unitaa * i 4 ti , did subscribe it . The close , indeed , is Jevelted against the SabelBans , who maintained the Father , the Word and fche Holy Spirit to be but three different appellations of the same Bfring-< # Believing each of these to be and
to subsist , the Father truly a Father , the Son truly a Son , and the Holy Spirit truly a Holy Spirit . " But the Sabellittos might get over this by interpreting the Son as synonymous with the Logos , as stated above 5 or by following- the Creed itself , which points to the wards of our Lord at
the end of Matthew , where the Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit are connumerated without implying an unity of essence : and it is but justice to Eusebius to notice , that he has not insisted on their unity , but confined himself to the spirit of our Lord ' s own words .
This was an ingenious artifice ; but k was seen through and defeated . An amendment was proposed to substitute the Son for the Logos . This article was carried ; and its adoption paved the way for the double nature of Christ aa both God and man , and
for the notion that , though one with the Father , he existed in person independently of the Father . The Creed of Eusebius declined to
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Ben David on 1 Jvknv . 7 * 149
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1826, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2546/page/21/
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