Letters
To the Learned Eusebius, on Suffering for the Faith
Those who spread this great news thought it would be very unwelcome to me, and imagined they might annoy me with it. But by God’s grace I welcomed the news, and I await the outcome with pleasure. Indeed, any kind of trouble brought on me for the sake of the divine teachings is very welcome to me. For if we truly trust in the Lord’s promises, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.” And why do I speak of enjoying the good things we hope for? Even if no prize had been offered to those who struggle for true religion, Truth alone, by her own unaided force, would have been enough to persuade those who love her to welcome gladly every danger in her cause. The divine apostle is a witness to what I say, for he exclaims, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’” Then, to teach us that he looks for no reward but simply loves his Savior, he adds at once, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” And he goes on further, to show his own love more clearly: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” See, my friend, the flame of the apostle’s affection; see the torch of his love.
I do not covet what is his, he is saying; I long only for him. This love of mine cannot be quenched, and I would gladly give up all present and future happiness, yes, and suffer and endure every kind of pain over again, so long as I keep this flame burning in all its force. The divine writer showed this in deed as well as in word, and everywhere, on land and sea, he has left memorials of his sufferings. So when I turn my eyes to him and to the rest, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and priests, I cannot help counting as delightful what most people reckon miserable. I confess I feel ashamed when I remember how even those who never learned the lessons we have learned, but followed no guide except human nature alone, have won famous places in the race of virtue. The famous Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, when he faced the slanderous indictment, not only treated the lies of his accusers with contempt, but showed his cheerfulness in the middle of his troubles with these words: “Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot harm me.” And the orator from Paeania, who was as wise as he was eloquent, enriched both the people of his own day and those who would come after them with this saying: “For the whole race of men the end of life is death, even if one shuts himself up in a cell for safety. So good men must always set their hand to every honorable work, always defending themselves with good hope as with a shield, and bravely bear whatever lot God may give them.” A writer earlier than Demosthenes, I mean the son of Olorus, also wrote many noble sentiments, among them this: “We must bear what the gods send us out of necessity, and the fortune of war with courage.” But why do I need to quote philosophers, historians and orators? Even those who gave their myths higher honor than the truth have put many useful encouragements into their stories. So Homer, in his poems, shows the wisest of the Greeks preparing himself for deeds of courage, where he says:
Similar passages could easily be gathered from poets, orators and philosophers, but for us the divine writings are enough. I have quoted what I have to prove how disgraceful it would be for mere disciples of nature to do better than we do. We have had the teaching of the prophets and the apostles; we trust in the Savior’s sufferings; and we look for the resurrection of the body, freedom from corruption, the gift of immortality and the kingdom of heaven. So, my dear friend, comfort those who are discouraged by the stories being spread around. And if anyone is pleased by them, tell them that we are happy too, that we are rejoicing and dancing for joy, and that what they call punishment we look forward to as the kingdom of heaven itself.
To let those who do not know our mind learn it, be assured, my most excellent friend, that we believe, as we have been taught, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is no truth in the slander some spread, that we have been taught to believe, or have been baptized, or believe, or teach others to believe, in two Sons. As we know one Father and one Holy Spirit, so we know one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, God the Word who was made man. We do not, however, deny the properties of the natures. We hold that those who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two Sons are in error, and we also call those who try to confuse the natures enemies of the truth. We believe that a union has been made without confusion, and we count some qualities as proper to the manhood and others to the Godhead. Take man, I mean man in general, a being both rational and mortal. He has a soul and he has a body, and he is counted as one being. Just so, the distinction between the two natures does not divide the one man into two persons. In the one man we recognize both the immortality of the soul and the mortality of the body; we acknowledge the invisible soul and the visible body; but, as I said, he is one being, at once rational and mortal. In the same way we recognize our Lord and God, I mean the Son of God, our Lord Christ, even after his incarnation, as one Son. For the union is indivisible, just as we know it to be without confusion. We acknowledge too that the Godhead has no beginning, and that the manhood is of recent origin. For the one nature is from the seed of Abraham and David, from whom the holy Virgin was descended; but the divine nature was begotten of God the Father before the ages, outside of time, without passion, without severance. But suppose the distinction between the flesh and the Godhead were destroyed: what weapons would we use in our war with Arius and Eunomius? How would we undo their blasphemy against the only Son? As it is, we apply the words of humiliation to him as man, and the words of exaltation and divinity to him as God, and setting out the truth is very easy for us. But this discussion of the faith is going beyond the limits of a letter. Still, even these few words are enough to show the character of the apostolic faith.