Section CCI

And these things, which were indeed clearly but briefly comprehended by Aeneas and Methodius, Eusebius of Caesarea hands down much more luminously and explains at greater length. He acquired so great a name in letters and gave so many specimens of his genius in history, chronology, knowledge of antiquity, hermeneutics, and theology that he is deservedly ranked with the foremost writers of the Church. According to him, God willed to have a surname given to himself from saving men; he always imparted life to all who freely approached him; he constantly offered more than could even be sought by men; he offered the Only-begotten, whom he constituted the Savior of all nations; through him he called all men to himself, not even casting aside the worst; he prepared the eternal crown for no one except on account of merits acquired; and he consigned no one to punishments which will never cease except the man rebellious against grace and mercy. The testimonies which pertain to this are remarkable.

For at the words of the Psalm¹, ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ σώζειν, καὶ τοῦ Κυρίου Κυρίου αἱ διέξοδοι τοῦ θανάτου, “Our God, the God of saving, and to the Lord, the Lord, belong the exits from death”; or according to the interpretation of Symmachus², ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῖν Θεὸς εἰς σωτηρίαν, καὶ τοῦ Κυρίου τοῦ δεσπότου αἱ εἰς θάνατον ἔξοδοι, “God is for us a God unto salvation, and to the Lord, the ruler, belong the exits into death,” he writes³: “Since this one alone is God, he indeed discovered exits by which one might escape from death. For every man arrived at an entrance into death, but until then was unable to depart from it. But the Lord here commemorated, διεξόδους ποιησάμενος τοῦ θανάτου, γέγονε Θεὸς ἐπώνυμος σωτηρίας, having opened exits from death, was made God surnamed from salvation.”

Whence, explaining the words⁴, “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God,” he says: “Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ ἡμέτερος Θεός, καὶ μόνος ἰδιόκτητον καὶ φυσικὴν ἐν αὐτῷ κεκτημένος ζωήν, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸς ἡ πηγὴ πάσης ζωῆς, πᾶσι τοῖς πλησιάζουσι ταύτης μεταδίδωσι. For our God is living, and he alone possesses in himself his own proper and natural life; indeed, rather, he is the font of all life, and imparts it to all who approach him.” For he is so disposed in mind that he sets no measure to his gifts. “For since he is munificent,” says Eusebius⁵, “he furnishes man with far more than he himself attains even by prayer, and surpasses with his gifts the man who works good according to his powers. Therefore Paul, ascribing the cause of every good to God⁶, says: ‘It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.’”

To this divine merciful kindness it must be attributed⁷ that there is one calling of all nations; that the kingdoms of the earth are invited to salvation; and that⁸ through Christ all men, after fleeing the way of the impious, enter by faith in him upon the salvific way. “For σωτὴρ ἀνθρώποις ἐπιδεδήμηκεν ὁ Χριστὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, σωτὴρ καὶ φωστὴρ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἁπάντων, διδάσκαλος εὐσεβείας, σωφροσύνης καθηγεμών, δικαιοσύνης ἀρχηγός, ἀρετῆς ἁπάσης καὶ θεογνωσίας ἀληθοῦς αἴτιος, Christ of God came among men as Savior, the Savior and luminary of all nations, teacher of piety, guide of temperance, prince of justice, and cause of every virtue and of true divine knowledge.” And indeed a cause so universal that he comprehended Judas himself, the worst of men. For, after describing the words of the Psalm⁹, “For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my breads, has greatly supplanted me,” Eusebius adds¹⁰: “Now Judas was a man of the Savior’s peace, who with the other disciples had heard the Savior saying these things¹¹—

—‘My peace I give to you; my peace I leave to you.’ But, he says, ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἤλπισα, ‘in whom I hoped,’ or according to Aquila, ἐπεποίθησα, ‘I trusted,’ or, as Symmachus, ἐπεποίθειν, ‘I had trusted,’ since he had affected Judas with gifts equal to the other Apostles. But the Savior trusted him and had a good hope concerning him because free will¹² was in him. Οὐ γὰρ ἦν φύσεως ἀδυνάτου σώζεσθαι ὁ Ἰούδας· ἀλλ᾽ οἷός τε ἦν θελήσας, ὁμοίως τοῖς λοιποῖς ἀποστόλοις μαθητευθῆναι τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθὸς μαθητὴς ἀποτελεῖσθαι. For Judas was not of a nature which could not attain salvation; but, had he willed, he could, like the other Apostles, have been instructed by the Son of God and have been made a good and upright disciple.

Since this is the condition of absolutely all men, therefore¹³ ἐν τῷ τῆς κρίσεως καιρῷ ὀργῆς Θεοῦ πειραθήσονται, καὶ τῷ θυμῷ αὐτοῦ ταραχθήσονται πάντες οἱ τοῦ σωτηρίου λόγου πολέμιοι, in the time of judgment all the enemies of the salvific word will experience divine wrath and will be troubled by his fury. “For that very one who was crucified by them and delivered to death, who dwells in heaven and embraces all things, will deride them; and his Father, who is attacked together with Christ himself, will mock them and exact fitting punishments from them.” But just as he will exact punishments from them on account of the enmities which they practiced against the salvific word and on account of the contempt by which they rejected the gifts of divine merciful kindness, so he neither decreed eternal punishments for them nor predestined the pious and holy to the crown except with foreknowledge shining before him of those things which each one would choose even unto the end.

And concerning the impious and sinners Eusebius writes¹⁴: “God, προλαβὼν τῇ προγνώσει, anticipating them by his foreknowledge, knew before they came into the light that they would be such; nevertheless, he granted that they should be born and come into the light, τὴν παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ χάριν καὶ αὐτοῖς δωρησάμενος, bestowing his grace upon them also, so that their purpose might be made manifest.”

But concerning the just and pious he adds: “For God, προλαβὼν ἔγνω, knowing beforehand, knew also that the order of the just would enter by its own will upon the straight and wholly undeflected way. Then he left to each order the free movement of free will, granting them to complete the course in the stadium. And since he had constituted all similar in nature, he permitted each one to choose the better things by his own will. But they, as those who were their own masters, of their own right, and free as regards movement, were separated by their own judgment, some choosing the straight way, others the crooked: τούτου χάριν ὁ δίκαιος κριτὴς ἀγωνοθετῶν ἑκατέρῳ τάγματι, τῷ καταλλήλῳ καὶ προσήκοντι τέλει τοὺς ἀξίους παραδίδωσιν· οὐ καθάπερ ἄνθρωποι μαθὼν ἐκ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἀποβάσεως τὸν ἑκάστου τρόπον, οἷα δὲ Θεὸς καὶ πρὸ γενέσεως εἰδὼς ἅπαντα. For this reason that just judge, presiding as arbiter of the contest over each order, rewards the worthy with the fitting and due end—not learning each one’s character from the event of his deeds after the manner of men, but, as God, knowing all things before their origin. Wherefore some, before they were known to others, were alienated from him; but the saints were deemed worthy of election, as Jeremiah the prophet, to whom God said: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you’”¹⁵.

The Apostle declares the same thing in these words: “As he chose us in him before the constitution of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity; who predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ”¹⁶. And again¹⁷: “In whom we also were called by lot, predestined according to the foreknowledge of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we may be unto the praise of his glory.” Do you see how he says that before the constitution of the world they were elected and predestined unto the adoption of sons according to the purpose of him who works such things? And he sets forth the same proposition¹⁸ in these words: “But we know that all things work together unto good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose—”

—For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; but those whom he justified, those he also glorified.” He declares similar things concerning himself¹⁹, saying: “But when it pleased him who separated me from my mother’s womb to reveal his Son in me.”

Whence he concludes concerning each order, of the just and of the impious²⁰:

Therefore, just as, when he foreknew those who were to love him, he also predestined them, so also, when he foresaw that the impious would speak justice—as those who knew it but nevertheless were not to approach it in works—he therefore alienated them from the womb; and even before they existed, he reckoned them παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ, with himself, in the number of those who wander and speak lies. Nevertheless, although he knew that they would be such, he permitted them to come forth openly, so that the excellence of just and religious men might shine forth by comparison with the worse. For since all were constituted from one nature, employing free will, some indeed chose the good voluntarily, while others entered upon the contrary way. But that exalted and great judge of all, presiding over each order, renders to each according to his merit. Wherefore he affected those who loved him with glory, presenting them as conformable to the image of his Son, since they had proved their love toward him by works; τοὺς δὲ ἐναντίους, ὡς ἂν ἑαυτοὺς ἀπαλλοτριώσαντας τῆς αὐτοῦ χάριτος καταβάλλει, but he casts down the others opposed to them, as those who had alienated themselves from his grace … αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοῖς τὸ τοιοῦτον προξενήσαντες τέλος, since they themselves procured such an end and outcome for themselves.