The history of the church from our Lords incarnation, to the twelth year of the Emperour Maricius Tiberius, or the Year of Christ 594 / as it was written in Greek, by Eusebius Pamphilius ..., Socrates Scholasticus, and Evagrius Scholasticus ... ; made English from that edition of these historians, which Valesius published at Paris in the years 1659, 1668, and 1673 ; also, The life of Constantine in four books, written by Eusibius Pamphilus, with Constantine's Oration to the convention of the saints, and Eusebius's Speech in praise of Constantine, spoken at his tricennalia ; Valesius's annotations on these authors, are done into English, and set at their proper places in the margin, as likewise a translation of his account of their lives and writings ; with two index's, the one, of the principal matters that occur in the text, the other, of those contained in the notes.

CHAP. IV. Concerning the Edict of our Faith, which Justinus wrote to the Christians in all places.

MOreover, the same Justinus wrote an E∣dict to the Christians in all places, [the Contents] whereof [ran] in these express words. IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OUR GOD, EMPEROUR CAESAR FLAVIUS JUSTINUS, FAITH∣FULL IN CHRIST, MILD, THE GREATEST, BENEFICENT, ALEMANICUS, GOTTHICUS, GERMANICUS, ANTICUS, FRANCICUS, ERULICUS, GEPAEDICUS, PIOUS, HAPPY, GLORIOUS, VICTOR, TRI∣UMPHATOR, ALWAYS ADORABLE, AUGUSTUS. * 1.1 My peace I give unto you, says the Lord Christ, our true God. My peace I leave with you, declares the same [Christ] to all men. The purport of which [expressions] is nothing else, but that those who believe in him should † 1.2 unite in one and the same Church: being of the same mind in relation to the true ‖ 1.3 Faith of the Chri∣stians, and having an aversion for them who affirm or think the contrary▪ For, the * 1.4 Primary safe∣ty [which] has been appointed to all men, [is] the Confession of the true Faith. Where∣fore, We also following the Evangelick Admoni∣tions, and the Holy Symboll, or Creed of the Holy Fathers, do exhort all men to betake themselves to one and the same Church and Opinion: believing in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, in the Consubstantiall Trinity, in the One Deity, or Nature and † 1.5 Essence, both in word and deed, and ‖ 1.6 asserting One Might and Power and Ope∣ration, in the three Hypostasis's or Persons, into which we have been baptized, in which we have believed, and to which we have been conjoyned. For we adore the Unity in the Trinity, and the Trinity in the Unity, which hath an admirable both Division, and * 1.7 Unition: an Unity in re∣spect of the † 1.8 Essence or Deity: but a Trinity in respect of the proprieties or Hypostasis's or Per∣sons. For, that we may so speak, it is indivisibly divided, and divisibly conjoyned. For [there is] One in Three, [to wit,] the Deity, and Three [are] One, in whom [namely] is the Deity, or, to speak more accurately, which [are] the Deity it self: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, when as each Person is considered by himself; the mind [to wit] dividing those things which are inseperable: the Three [Per∣sons being one] God, understood together, on ac∣count of the same Motion and the same Nature. For we ought both to confess one God, and also to assert Three * 1.9 Hypostasis's or Proprieties. But we Confess him, the only Begotten Son of God, God the Word, who was begotten of the Father before Ages and without time, not made; in the last days to have descended from Heaven on our account and for our Salvation, and to have been incarnate by the Holy Ghost, and of our Lady the Holy Glorious Theotocos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and to have been born of her: a 1.10 who is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Holy Trinity, Glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For the holy Trinity hath not received an addi∣tion of a Fourth Person, although one of the holy Trinity God the Word hath been incarnate: but he is One and the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Consubstantiall to God and the Father according to the Deity, and the same [Person is] of the same substance with us in respect of the Hu∣manity: passible in the flesh, and the same [Per∣son] impassible in the Deity. For we acknow∣ledge not One God the Word who wrought Mi∣racles, and another who suffered: but we confess One and the same our Lord Jesus Christ God the Word, to have been incarnate and perfectly made man, and that the Miracles † 1.11 belong both to One and the same, as likewise the sufferings, which he Voluntarily underwent in the flesh on account of our Salvation. For * 1.12 a man gave not himself for us; but God the Word himself, made man with∣out [any] Conversion, ‖ 1.13 underwent both a Spon∣taneous Passion, and a death in the Flesh for us. Although therefore we confess him to be God, yet we deny not that the same person is also Man: and by our confessing him to be man, we deny not the same Person to be also God. Whence, whilst we profess one and the same [Per∣son] our Lord Jesus Christ to be * 1.14 compounded of both Natures, the Deity and the Humanity, b 1.15 we introduce not a Confusion into the Unition.

For he * 1.16 will not cease to be God, because † 1.17 a∣greeably to us he was made man: nor again, be∣cause by Nature he is God, and cannot receive a likeness to us, will he refuse to be man. For, as he hath continued God in the Humanity, so also [though] existing in the ‖ 1.18 Majesty of the Deity, he nevertheless [continues] Man: * 1.19 existing Both in the same, and [is] One God and also Man, The Emmanuel. [Further, whereas] we con∣fess him perfect in the Deity, and perfect in the Humanity, of which [two] he is also made up, [yet] † 1.20 we bring not in a particular Division or Section upon his one compounded Hypostasis: but we show the difference of the Natures, which is not destroyed [or, taken away] by the Unition. For, neither has the Divine Nature been changed into the Humane, nor hath the Humane Nature been converted into the Divine. But both [Na∣tures] c 1.21 being understood, or rather existing in the defini tion and ‖ 1.22 manner of the proper Na∣ture, we affirm that the Unition was made according to the person: now, the Unition according to the person imports, that God the Word, that is one Person of the Three persons of the Deity, was united not to a prae-existing Man, but in the Womb of our Lady the Holy-Glorious Theotocos and E∣ver-Virgin Mary; that from her he framed to himself in a proper Person Flesh of the same substance with us and subject to like passions in all things, sin only excepted, and that it was enlive∣ned with a rationall and intelligent Soul. d 1.23 For he had a Person in himself, and was made Man, and is One and the same our Lord Jesus Christ Glorified together with the Father and the Holy Ghost. [Moreover,] weighing in our minds his ineffable Unition, we rightly confess one Na∣ture incarnate of God the Word, which in the Flesh is enlivened with a rationall and intelligent Soul. And again, taking into consideration the difference of the Natures, we assert them to be two, introducing no manner of Division. For each Nature is in him. Wherefore, we confess One and the same Christ, One Son, One Person, One Hypostasis, [to be] God and also Man. But all those, who have thought or do think con∣trary hereto, we Anathematize, and judge them estranged from the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church of God. Whereas therefore the true * 1.24 Dog∣mata, which have been delivered to us by the Holy Fathers, are asserted; We exhort you all to Concur in one and the same Catholick and Apo∣stolick Church; yea rather, we beseech you. For we are not ashamed, though placed in the sublimity of Royalty, to make use of such expressions e 1.25 for the Consent and Union of all Christians, to the end one Glorification may be † 1.26 attributed to the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; and that in future▪ no per∣son might pretend to quarrell f 1.27 about the Persons or the Syllables. For the Syllables tend to one and the same right Faith and meaning: that Usage and ‖ 1.28 Form, which hitherto hath ob∣tained in God's Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church, [remaining] in all things firm and without Innovation, and con∣tinuing [so] to all Futurity.

To this Edict all persons gave their consent, and affirmed [that the Faith and Doctrine] was [therein] Orthodoxly promulged: but yet it reduced not so much as one [of the Churche's members,] which had been rent insunder, to an Unity, because [the Emperour] in express words had declared, that [the State of] the Churches had been preserved firm and without Innovation, and for the time yet to come [should so continue.]

Notes

• * 1.1

  John 14. 27.
• † 1.2

  Or, Run together into.
• ‖ 1.3

  Or, Opi∣nion.
• * 1.4

  Or, First Salvation.
• † 1.5

  Or, Sub∣stance.
• ‖ 1.6

  Or, Glo∣risying.
• * 1.7

  Or, Joy∣ning toge∣ther.
• † 1.8

  Or, Sub∣stance.
• * 1.9

  Or; Sub∣sistencies.
• a 1.10

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, who is to the Father and to the Holy Ghost. In Nicephorus, Book 17. Chap. 35, where this Edict of the Emperour Justinus concerning the Faith is recorded, this place is read thus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. who is equall to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. Which reading Christophorson hath followed. For he renders it thus; Qui est equalis Patri & Spiritui Sancto, who is equall to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. But in this place the equality of the Father and Son is not treated of: but, whether Christ be one of the Trinity. I have therefore supplyed this place righter from the excel∣lent Florentine Manuscript, in this manner; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 who is our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. The Tellerian M. S. has it written thus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 who is in the Father and in the Holy Spirit. Vales. In Robert Stephens the reading is the same with that set at the beginning of this note.
• † 1.11

  Or, Are of.
• * 1.12

  Or, a cer∣tain, or, some one man.
• ‖ 1.13

  Or, Re∣ceived.
• * 1.14

  Or, Made up.
• b 1.15

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Christophorson has rendred this place ill, in this manner: Non Confusionem in Unitatem introducimus, We introduce not a confusion into the Unity. Nor has Musculus done righter; who translates it thus: Unitatem non con••••ndimus, We confound not the Unity. I do not wonder at Musculus, who in this Edict of Justinus always renders 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Unitatem, Unity, very erroneously. That Learned man hath committed▪ the same mistake, who has done into Latine the Fragments of Ephraemius Bishop of Antioch, which are ex∣tant in Photius's Bibliotheca. But why Christophorson, who every where renders 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Copulationem, Copulation, should at this place translate it otherwise, I know not. Johannes Langus Nicephorus's Translatour renders it thus: In Unione confusionem non inducimus, We induce not a confusion in the Union. Exactly right, if you add a Syllable, in this manner, in Unitione, in the Unition. For the term Unio, though it be now a days frequently used in the Schools of Philosophers and Divines, is a barbarous word, when 'tis taken for Unition. For Unio in Latine signifies Unitatem, Unity; as may be proved from Ter∣tullian, Jerome, Prudentius, Pope Simplicius, and others. Let there∣fore those Zoili [Carpers, or, Censurers] cease reproving of us, be∣cause in the Letter of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria, which is re∣corded by Socrates book 1. chap. 6, we have translated 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Union. For we did that from the use and propriety of the Latine Tongue: which they being wholly ignorant of, thought that Unio, Union, was nothing else but Unitionem, Unition. But, betwixt Unio and Unitio, there is as much difference, as between 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. In Union or Unity, there is nothing but what is simple or single. But, in Uni∣tion something compounded of two is necessarily understood. 'Tis certain, the Old Translatour of the Chalcedon Synod always renders 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Unition, or adunation. Vales.
• * 1.16

  Or, Shall not.
• † 1.17

  Or, So as we are.
• ‖ 1.18

  Sublimi∣ty, or Emi∣nency.
• * 1.19

  Or, Be∣ing both at the same time.
• † 1.20

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• c 1.21

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. In Nicephorus 'tis truer written, thus; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. But, I had rather read thus; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, be∣ing understood, or rather existing, &c. Nor do I doubt but the Emperour Justinus wrote so as I have said: For he reproves him∣self, because he had said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, being understood; as if the difference of the two Natures in Christ were in the understanding only▪ and did not really exist. Vales.
• ‖ 1.22

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Form, fa∣shion, state.
• d 1.23

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. In Nice∣phorus the reading is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, understand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the ve∣ry Flesh. Which rea∣ding is not tollerable. For Christ had not a proper sub∣sistency in the Flesh, but before he assumed Flesh, he had a pro∣per subsistency▪ in regard he was the second person of the Sa∣cred Trinity. Nevertheless, if any one be minded to defend Nicephorus's reading, I shall not much gainsay it. For it more fitly coheres with the words preceding. The sense therefore is this, that the Son of God, who had a proper subsistency from all Eternity, having assumed Flesh, subsisted therein perso∣nally. Vales.
• * 1.24

  Points, or Opinions
• e 1.25

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. I am of the same mind with the Lear∣ned, who have long since men∣ded it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for the▪ &c. Al∣though Nicephorus has retain∣ed the vul∣gar rea∣ding. Vales.
• † 1.26

  Sent forth.
• f 1.27

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The first word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, persons, is used on ac∣count of Nestorius's Heresie, who asserted two persons in Christ, the one of man, the other of the Word. But the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Syllables was annext on account of the Futychians and Acephali, who affirmed that Christ consisted of two Natures before the Unition; but after the Unition, they asserted but one Nature in him. On the other hand, the Catholicks adored Christ in two Natures. Those Syllables therefore are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Which though they are different, yet if they be rightly understood, do both aim at one and the same Faith and Opinion, as Justinus adds. See Evagrius above, at book 1. chap. 1 note (c.) Further, this Edict was promulged by Justinus Junior on the first year of his Empire, to wit the year of Christ 566, as Baronius remarks: than which Edict Justinus conferred nothing more upon the Catholick Church: but, satisfying himself in having only expounded the Orthodox Faith, he in future prohibited disputes about the Nestorian and Eutychian Opinion▪ and permitted every one to think of these matters according to his own arbitrement. From this Edict therefore followed no advantage, as Evagrius observes truly. Wherefore Johannes Biclariensis [said] amiss in his Chronicon, whose words concerning Justinus Junior are these: Qui Justinus anno primo Regni fui, &c; Which Justinus in the first year of his Reign, destroyed those things which had been devised against the Chalcedon Synod. And suffered the Creed of the Holy Fa∣thers of the Church convened at Constantinople, (which Creed had been laudably received in the Chalcedon Synod,) to have entrance, and to be sung by the people in every Catholick Church, before the Lords Prayer was to be repeated. Biclariensis attributes those things to Justinus Junior, which rather befitted Justinus Senior. Vales.
• ‖ 1.28

  Scheme, or State.