this man, we know not whence he
is'?

[Sidenote: Revision of the Caesarean creed.]

Athanasius and his friends made a virtue of necessity, and disconcerted
the plans of Eusebius by promptly accepting his creed. They were now
able to propose a few amendments in it, and in this way they meant to
fight out the controversy. It was soon found impossible to avoid a
searching revision. Ill-compacted clauses invited rearrangement, and
older churches, like Jerusalem or Antioch, might claim to share with
Caesarea the honour of giving a creed to the whole of Christendom.
Moreover, several of the Caesarean phrases seemed to favour the opinions
which the bishops had agreed to condemn. 'First-born of all creation'
does not necessarily mean more than that he existed before other things
were made. 'Begotten before all worlds' is just as ambiguous, or rather
worse, for the Arians understood 'begotten' to mean 'created.' Again,
'was made flesh' left it unsettled whether the Lord took anything more
than a human body. These were serious defects, and the bishops could not
refuse to amend them. After much careful work, the following was the
form adopted:--

[Sidenote: The Nicene Creed.]

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of all things, both visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
begotten of the Father, an only-begotten--
that is, from the essence (_ousia_) of the Father
God from God,
light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
being of one essence (_homoousion_) with the Father,
by whom all things were made,
both things in heaven and things on earth:
who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh,
was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day,
ascended into heaven,
cometh to judge quick and dead;
And in the Holy Spirit.

But those who say that
'there was once when he was not,' and
'before he was begotten he was not,' and
'he was made of things that were not,'
or maintain that the Son of God is of a different essence
(_hypostasis or ousia_[6])
or created or subject to moral change or alteration--
these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematize.

[Footnote 6: The two words are used as synonyms.]

[Sidenote: Its doctrine.]

It will be seen that the genuine Nicene Creed here given differs i