Letter 265

265. To Eulogius, Alexander, and Harpocration, Bishops of Egypt in Exile

In all things we find great the management of the good God concerning His Churches, so that even the things that seem to be grievous, and that do not in every way fall out according to our wish, are themselves dispensed for the benefit of the many, in the wisdom of God that is hard to discern and in the unsearchable judgments of His righteousness. For behold, the Lord, having raised up your love from the places of Egypt, and brought it into the midst of Palestine, has there established it, in imitation of Israel of old, whom, leading through captivity into the land of the Assyrians, He used to quench the idolatry there through the coming of the saints. And now therefore we find ourselves reasoning thus: that the Lord, setting forth your contest on behalf of true religion, has through exile opened for you the arena of the blessed struggles, and to those who meet with your good purpose has bestowed plain examples leading to salvation. Since, then, by the grace of God we have learned the rightness of your faith, and have learned your diligence concerning the brotherhood — and that not carelessly nor negligently do you provide what is for the common good and necessary to salvation, but, if there is anything to be done for the building up of the Churches, you choose to do it — we judged it right to become partakers of your good portion and to join ourselves through this letter to your reverence. For which cause we have sent also our most beloved son and fellow-deacon Elpidius, both to carry the letter and to be able, of himself, to report to you whatever may escape the instruction of the writing.

And what especially strengthened us toward the desire of union with you was the report of your zeal for the rightness of true religion: that the firmness of your heart was not carried away either by the multitude of treatises or by the variety of sophistries; but you recognized those who innovate against the apostolic doctrines, and did not consent to keep silence over the harm wrought by them. For indeed we found great grief among all who hold fast to the peace of the Lord at the manifold innovations of Apollinaris of Laodicea, who has grieved us the more, in that he seemed at first to be from among us. For to suffer something from an open enemy, even if it exceed in painfulness, is in a way bearable to the one oppressed, as it is written, "If an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it"; but to experience some harm from one of the same soul and household, this is altogether hard to bear, and admits of no consolation. For the one whom we expected to have as a fellow-shield-bearer of the truth, this man we now find in many ways hindering those being saved, by dragging their mind about and tearing it away from the straightness of the doctrines. For what bold and hot deed was not done by him? What innovation, fraught with danger, was not devised by him in words? Has not every Church been divided against itself — and especially those governed by the orthodox, men being sent by him to split them and to set up some private conventicle of their own? Is not the great mystery of true religion made a laughing-stock, when bishops go about without people or clergy, bearing a bare name, achieving nothing toward the advancement of the Gospel of peace and salvation? Are not his words about God full of impious doctrines, the old impiety of the vain-minded Sabellius now renewed by him in his treatises? For if the things which the people of Sebasteia circulate are not forged by enemies, but are truly his own writings, he has left no excess of impiety untried, saying that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are the same, and other dark impieties, which we did not even consent to admit to our hearing, praying to have no portion with those who utter such phrases. Is not the doctrine of the incarnation confounded by him? Has not the saving dispensation of our Lord become doubtful to the many because of his turbid and dark inquiries about the incarnation? To gather all these and to bring them to refutation would need much time and discourse. And as for the place of the promises, who has so obscured and darkened it as this man's myth-making? For the blessed hope, laid up for those who have lived their lives according to the Gospel of Christ, he has dared to expound so basely and abjectly as to turn aside into old wives' fables and Judaic tales. He promises afresh the renewal of the temple, and 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 ashes of a heifer sprinkling the Church, which through faith in Christ has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and a cleansing of leprosy after the impassibility of the resurrection; and an offering of jealousy, when men neither marry nor are given in marriage; loaves of the presence after the Bread from heaven; lamps burning after the true Light; and in short, if now the law of the commandments has been abolished in doctrines, it is plain that then the doctrines of Christ will be annulled in the legal commandments.

At these things shame and confusion have covered our faces, and a heavy grief has filled our hearts. Therefore we beseech you, as skilled physicians taught to instruct in meekness those who oppose, to try to bring him back to the good order of the Church, and to persuade him to despise the loquacity of his treatises — for he has confirmed the saying of the proverb, that "out of much speaking it is impossible to escape sin" — and firmly to set before him the doctrines of orthodoxy, that his amendment may become manifest and his repentance be made known to his brethren.

It is reasonable also to remind your reverence concerning the affairs of Marcellus, that you may decree nothing about them inconsiderately or rashly. But since that man went out of the Church on account of impious doctrines, it is necessary that those who follow him, having anathematized that heresy, should thus be received into communion, so that those joined to us through you may be received by the whole brotherhood. For at present no slight grief has seized the many, on hearing that, when they came to your honour, you both received them and shared with them the communion of the Church. And yet you ought to have known that, by the grace of God, you are not alone even in the East, but have many of your own portion, who defend the orthodoxy of the fathers, who at Nicaea set forth the pious doctrine of the faith; and all those of the West are in agreement both with you and with us. The tome of whose faith we have received and have it among us, following their sound teaching. All, then, who are in the same union with you ought to have been fully assured, so that the things done might be the more confirmed in the consent of the more numerous, and the peace might not be torn apart in the reception of some while others stood off. So then it would have befitted you to deliberate firmly and gently about matters that concern all the Churches throughout the world. For not the one who quickly decrees something is praiseworthy, but the one who fixes each thing solidly and unshakeably, so that his judgment, examined even in the time afterward, may appear the more approved — such a one is acceptable both with God and with men, as managing his affairs with discernment.

These things, all that the converse through a letter allowed us, we have spoken to your reverence. And may the Lord grant that we too may one day come together with one another, so that, having ordered all things with you for the perfecting of the Churches of God, we may with you receive the reward prepared by the just Judge for the faithful and prudent stewards. But for the present, deign to send us the terms on which you received the followers of Marcellus, knowing this: that even if you altogether secure your own position, you ought not to entrust so great a matter to yourselves alone, but it is necessary that those in the West and those throughout the East who are in communion should be joint voters with you in their restoration.