Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series • VOLUME 5
Gregory of Nyssa — Dogmatic Treatises
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Chapter XL.--He alone has truly become a child of God who gives evidence of his regeneration by putting away from himself all vice.
Chapter XL.--He alone has truly become a child of God who gives evidence of his regeneration by putting away from himself all vice. [1934] It is not exactly clear why this Instruction for Catechizers is called the "Great": perhaps with reference to some lesser manual. For its apologetic intention, see Prolegomena, p. 12. Its ge…
1,585 wordsSECTION 202Chapter I.
Chapter I. But since our system of religion is wont to observe a distinction of persons in the unity of the Nature, to prevent our argument in our contention with Greeks sinking to the level of Judaism there is need again of a distinct technical statement in order to correct all error on this point. For not even by those who a…
2,538 wordsSECTION 203Chapter II.
[1946] will not fail to perform; me anenergeton einai. This is a favourite word with Gregory, and the Platonist Synesius. [1947] goodness. "God is love;" but how is this love above or equal to the Power? "Infinite Goodness, according to our apprehension, requires that it should exhaust omnipotence: that it should give capacitie…
973 wordsSECTION 204Chapter III.
Chapter III. And so one who severely studies the depths of the mystery, receives secretly in his spirit, indeed, a moderate amount of apprehension of the doctrine of God's nature, yet he is unable to explain clearly in words the ineffable depth of this mystery. As, for instance, how the same thing is capable of being numbered a…
811 wordsSECTION 205Chapter V.
Chapter V. That there is, then, a Word of God, and a Breath of God, the Greek, with his "innate ideas" [1953] , and the Jew, with his Scriptures, will perhaps not deny. But the dispensation as regards the Word of God, whereby He became man, both parties would perhaps equally reject, as being incredible and unfitting to be told …
1,754 wordsSECTION 206Chapter VI.
Chapter VI. But you will perhaps seek to know the cause of this error of judgment; for it is to this point that the train of our discussion tends. Again, then, we shall be justified in expecting to find some starting-point which will throw light on this inquiry also. An argument such as the following we have received by traditi…
1,858 wordsSECTION 207Chapter VII.
Chapter VII. Yet let no one ask, "How was it that, if God foresaw the misfortune that would happen to man from want of thought, He came to create him, since it was, perhaps, more to his advantage not to have been born than to be in the midst of such evils?" This is what they who have been carried away by the false teaching of t…
729 wordsSECTION 208Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. Nevertheless one who regards only the dissolution of the body is greatly disturbed, and makes it a hardship that this life of ours should be dissolved by death; it is, he says, the extremity of evil that our being should be quenched by this condition of mortality. Let him, then, observe through this gloomy prospec…
2,242 wordsSECTION 209Chapter IX.
[1962] historikoteron kai di' ainigmaton [1963] "Here," says Semler, "our Author reveals himself as a scholar of Origen, and other doctors, who had imbibed the heathen thoughts of Plato, and wished to rest their system upon a future (purely) moral improvement." There is certainly too little room left here for the application to…
703 wordsSECTION 210Chapter X.
Chapter X. "But the nature of man," it is said, "is narrow and circumscribed, whereas the Deity is infinite. How could the infinite be included in the atom [1971] ?" But who is it that says the infinitude of the Deity is comprehended in the envelopment of the flesh as if it were in a vessel? Not even in the case of our own life…
917 wordsSECTION 211Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. If a person requires proofs of God's having been manifested to us in the flesh, let him look at the Divine activities. For of the existence of the Deity at all one can discover no other demonstration than that which the testimony of those activities supplies. When, that is, we take a wide survey of the universe, an…
838 wordsSECTION 212Chapter XIV.
Chapter XIV. "Then why," it is asked, "did the Deity descend to such humiliation? Our faith is staggered to think that God, that incomprehensible, inconceivable, and ineffable reality, transcending all glory of greatness, wraps Himself up in the base covering of humanity, so that His sublime operations as well are debased by th…
1,106 wordsSECTION 213Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVI. "But," it is said, "this change in our body by birth is a weakness, and one born under such condition is born in weakness. Now the Deity is free from weakness. It is, therefore, a strange idea in connection with God," they say, "when people declare that one who is essentially free from weakness thus comes into fell…
1,395 wordsSECTION 214Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVII. But it will be said that the objection which has been brought against us has not yet been solved, and that what unbelievers have urged has been rather strengthened by all we have said. For if, as our argument has shown, there is such power in Him that both the destruction of death and the introduction of life resi…
1,531 wordsSECTION 215Chapter XIX.
Chapter XIX. Nevertheless, since neither those who take the Greek view, nor yet the leaders of Jewish opinions, are willing to make such things the proofs of that Divine manifestation, it may be as well, as regards these demurrers to our statement, to treat more particularly the reason by virtue of which the Divine nature is co…
837 wordsSECTION 216Chapter XXI.
Chapter XXI. What, then, is justice? We distinctly remember what in the course of our argument we said in the commencement of this treatise; namely, that man was fashioned in imitation of the Divine nature, preserving his resemblance to the Deity as well in other excellences as in possession of freedom of the will, yet being of…
743 wordsSECTION 217Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXII. What, then, under these circumstances is justice? It is the not exercising any arbitrary sway over him who has us in his power [1996] , nor, by tearing us away by a violent exercise of force from his hold, thus leaving some colour for a just complaint to him who enslaved man through sensual pleasure. For as they w…
1,351 wordsSECTION 218Chapter XXIV.
Chapter XXIV. But possibly one who has given his attention to the course of the preceding remarks may inquire: "wherein is the power of the Deity, wherein is the imperishableness of that Divine power, to be traced in the processes you have described?" In order, therefore, to make this also clear, let us take a survey of the seq…
945 wordsSECTION 219Chapter XXV.
Chapter XXV. That Deity should be born in our nature, ought not reasonably to present any strangeness to the minds of those who do not take too narrow a view of things. For who, when he takes a survey of the universe, is so simple as not to believe that there is Deity in everything, penetrating it, embracing it, and seated in i…
1,487 wordsSECTION 220Chapter XXVII.
Chapter XXVII. It is, then, completely in keeping with this, that He Who was thus pouring Himself into our nature should accept this commixture in all its accidents. For as they who wash clothes do not pass over some of the dirt and cleanse the rest, but clear the whole cloth from all its stains, from one end to the other, that…
943 wordsSECTION 221Chapter XXVIII.
Chapter XXVIII. But they deride our state of nature, and din into our ears the manner of our being born, supposing in this way to make the mystery ridiculous, as if it were unbecoming in God by such an entrance into the world as this to connect Himself with the fellowship of the human life. But we touched upon this point before…
904 wordsSECTION 222Chapter XXX.
Chapter XXX. If, however, any one thinks to refute our argument on this ground, that even after the application of the remedial process the life of man is still in discord through its errors, let us lead him to the truth by an example taken from familiar things. Take, for instance, the case of a serpent; if it receives a deadly…
1,002 wordsSECTION 223Chapter XXXII.
Chapter XXXII. What other objection is alleged by our adversaries? This; that (to take the preferable view [2014] ) it was altogether needless that that transcendent Being should submit to the experience of death, but He might independently of this, through the superabundance of His power, have wrought with ease His purpose; st…
1,662 wordsSECTION 224Chapter XXXIII.
Chapter XXXIII. For when they have heard from us something to this effect--that when the mortal passes into life it follows necessarily that, as that first birth leads only to the existence of mortality, another birth should be discovered, a birth which neither begins nor ends with corruption, but one which conducts the person …
1,223 wordsSECTION 225Chapter XXXV.
Chapter XXXV. But the descent into the water, and the trine immersion of the person in it, involves another mystery. For since the method of our salvation was made effectual not so much by His precepts in the way of teaching [2026] as by the deeds of Him Who has realized an actual fellowship with man, and has effected life as a…
2,359 wordsSECTION 226Chapter XXXVI.
[2028] Heb. ii. 10; xii. 2. [2029] adiexodon...phrouran. Krabinger's excellent reading. Cf. Plato, Phæd. p. 62 B, "We men are in a sort of prison." [2030] S. John iii. 31: 1 Cor. xv. 47 (anothen = ex ouranou). [2031] epicheomenos. This may be pressed to imply that immersion was not absolutely necessary. So below to hudor tris…
2,273 wordsSECTION 227Chapter XXXVIII.
[2042] metastoicheiosas. Suicer labours, without success, to show that the word is not equivalent to transelementare or metousioun, but only to substantiam convertere, i.e. to change by an addition of grace into another mode or use. In the passages from Epiphanius which Suicer adduces for "figure," "mode," as a meaning of stoich…
1,564 wordsSECTION 228Chapter XL.
Chapter XL. But, as far as what has been already said, the instruction of this Catechism does not seem to me to be yet complete. For we ought, in my opinion, to take into consideration the sequel of this matter; which many of those who come to the grace of baptism [2052] overlook, being led astray, and self-deceived, and indeed…
1,602 wordsSECTION 229Chapter XL.
The number of the Apostles has been enlarged for us by this our late Apostle being reckoned among their company. These Holy ones have drawn to themselves one of like conversation; those athletes a fellow athlete; those crowned ones another crowned like them; the pure in heart one chaste in soul: those ministers of the Word anoth…
2,358 wordsSECTION 230We, too, were glad, and made our own the glory of your nation [2089] . Up to this point how bright and happy is our narrative. What a blesse
We, too, were glad, and made our own the glory of your nation [2089] . Up to this point how bright and happy is our narrative. What a blessed thing it were with this to bring our sermon to an end. But after these things what follows? "Call for the mourning women [2090] ," as says the prophet Jeremiah. In no other way can the bur…
2,244 wordsSECTION 231[2090] Jer. ix. 17.
[2090] Jer. ix. 17. [2091] 2 Kings ii. [2092] Lam. i. 4. "The ways of Zion do mourn." The best of the three readings here is ekousate, adopted by Krabinger. [2093] Jonah iii. 5. [2094] Ps. cxxxvii. The title of this Psalm in LXX., To Dauid (dia) Ieremiou (which the Vulgate follows), implies that it is "a Davidic song springi…
1,335 wordsSECTION 232Christ, then, was born as it were a few days ago--He Whose generation was before all things, sensible and intellectual. To-day He is baptize
Christ, then, was born as it were a few days ago--He Whose generation was before all things, sensible and intellectual. To-day He is baptized by John that He might cleanse him who was defiled, that He might bring the Spirit from above, and exalt man to heaven, that he who had fallen might be raised up and he who had cast him dow…
2,250 wordsSECTION 233Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians [2128] ), being sent forth from her master's
Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians [2128] ), being sent forth from her master's house by the anger of Sarah--for a servant suspected in regard to her master is a hard thing for lawful wives to bear--was wandering in desolation to a desolate land with her babe Ishmael at…
2,660 wordsSECTION 234Therefore, also, it is that after the dignity of adoption the devil plots more vehemently against us, pining away with envious glance, when
Therefore, also, it is that after the dignity of adoption the devil plots more vehemently against us, pining away with envious glance, when he beholds the beauty of the new-born man, earnestly tending towards that heavenly city, from which he fell: and he raises up against us fiery temptations, seeking earnestly to despoil us of…
1,234 wordsSECTION 235Letters [2161] .
Letters [2161] . ------------------------ Letter I.--To Eusebius [2162] . When the length of the day begins to expand in winter-time, as the sun mounts to the upper part of his course, we keep the feast of the appearing of the true Light divine, that through the veil of flesh has cast its bright beams upon the life of men: bu…
1,333 wordsSECTION 236Letter II.--To the City of Sebasteia [2168] .
Letter II.--To the City of Sebasteia [2168] . Some of the brethren whose heart is as our heart told us of the slanders that were being propagated to our detriment by those who hate peace, and privily backbite their neighbour; and have no fear of the great and terrible judgment-seat of Him Who has declared that account will be r…
1,242 wordsSECTION 237Letter III.--To Ablabius [2175] .
Letter III.--To Ablabius [2175] . The Lord, as was meet and right, brought us safe through, accompanied as we had been by your prayers, and I will tell you a manifest token of His loving kindness. For when the sun was just over the spot which we left behind Earsus [2176] , suddenly the clouds gathered thick, and there was a cha…
777 wordsSECTION 238Letter IV.--To Cynegius [2178] .
Letter IV.--To Cynegius [2178] . We have a law that bids us "rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep": but of these commandments it often seems that it is in our power to put only one into practice. For there is a great scarcity in the world of "them that rejoice," so that it is not easy to find with whom w…
871 wordsSECTION 239Letter VI.--To Stagirius.
Letter VI.--To Stagirius. They say that conjurors [2180] in theatres contrive some such marvel as this which I am going to describe. Having taken some historical narrative, or some old story as the ground-plot of their sleight of hand, they relate the story to the spectators in action. And it is in this way that they make their…
1,389 wordsSECTION 240Letter IX.--An Invitation.
Letter IX.--An Invitation. It is not the natural wont of spring to shine forth in its radiant beauty all at once, but there come as preludes of spring the sunbeam gently warming earth's frozen surface, and the bud half hidden beneath the clod, and breezes blowing over the earth, so that the fertilizing and generative power of t…
1,457 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.