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   Title: ANF06. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus,
   Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius, and Minor Writers,
   Methodius, Arnobius
   Creator(s): Schaff, Philip
   Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All; Early Church
   LC Call no: BR65
   LC Subjects:

   Christianity

   Early Christian Literature. Fathers of the Church, etc.
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   The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325

   ANTE-NICENE FATHERS

   VOLUME 6.

   Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius
   and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius.

   Edited by


   Alexander Roberts, D.D.

   &

   James Donaldson, LL.D.

   Revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and
   occasional notes, by

   A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.

   T&T CLARK

   EDINBURGH

   __________________________________________________

   WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY

   GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

   Fathers of the Third Century:

   Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius
   and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius.

   --------------------

   AMERICAN EDITION.


   Chronologically arranged, with brief notes and prefaces, by

   A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.

   Ta archaia ethe krateito.

   The Nicene Council
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   Introductory Notice.

   ------------------------

   In this volume a mass of fragmentary material [1] has been reduced to
   method, and so harmonized as to present an integral result. The student
   has before him, therefore, (1) a view of the Christian Church emerging
   from the ten persecutions; (2) a survey of its condition on the eve of
   that great event, the (nominal) conversion of the empire; (3) an
   introduction to the era of Athanasius; and (4) a history of events that
   led to the calling of the first Catholic council at Nicaea.

   The moral grandeur and predominance of the See of Alexandria are also
   here conspicuously illustrated. The mastery which its great school
   continued to exercise over Christian thought, hegemony in the formation
   of Christian literature, its guardian influence in the development of
   doctrinal technology, and not less the Divine Providence that created
   it and built it up for the noble ends which it subserved in a Clement,
   an Origen, and an Athanasius, will all present themselves forcibly to
   every reflecting reader of this book. One half of this volume presents
   the Alexandrian school itself in its glorious succession of doctors and
   pupils, and the other half in the reflected light of its universal
   influence. Thus Methodius has no other distinction than that which he
   derives from his wholesome corrections of Origen, and yet the influence
   of Origen upon his own mind is betrayed even in his antagonisms. He
   objects to the excessive allegorizing of that great doctor, yet he
   himself allegorizes too much in the same spirit. Finally we come to
   Arnobius, who carries on the line of Latin Christianity in Northern
   Africa; but even here we find that Clement, and not Tertullian, is his
   model. He gives us, in a Latin dress, not a little directly borrowed
   from the great Alexandrian.

   This volume further demonstrates--what I have so often touched
   upon--the historic fact that primitive Christianity was Greek in form
   and character, Greek from first to last, Greek in all its forms of
   dogma, worship, and polity. One idea only did it borrow from the West,
   and that not from the ecclesiastical, but the civil, Occident. It
   conformed itself to the imperial plan of exarchates, metropoles, and
   dioceses. Into this civil scheme it shaped itself, not by design, but
   by force of circumstances, just as the Anglo-American communion fell in
   with the national polity, and took shape in dioceses each originally
   conterminous with a State. Because it was the capital of the empire,
   therefore Rome was reckoned the first, but not the chief, of Sees, as
   the Council of Nicaea declared; and because Byzantium had become "New
   Rome," therefore it is made second on the list, but equal in dignity.
   Rome was the sole Apostolic See of the West, and, as such, reflected
   the honours of St. Paul, its founder, and of St. Peter, who also
   glorified it by martyrdom; but not a word of this is recognised at
   Nicaea as investing it even with a moral primacy. That was informally
   the endowment of Alexandria; unasserted because unquestioned, and
   unchallenged because as yet unholy ambition had not infected the
   Apostolic churches.

   It is time, then, to disabuse the West of its narrow ideas concerning
   ecclesiastical history. Dean Stanley rebuked this spirit in his
   Lectures on the Eastern Church. [2] He complained that "Eastern
   Christendom is comparatively an untrodden field;" he quoted the German
   proverb, [3] "Behind the mountains there is yet a population;" he
   called on us to enlarge our petty Occidental horizon; and he added
   words of reproach which invite us to reform the entire scheme of our
   ecclesiastical history by presenting the Eastern Apostolic churches as
   the main stem of Christendom, of which the church of Rome itself was
   for three hundred years a mere colony, unfelt in theology except by
   contributions to the Greek literature of Christians, and wholly
   unconscious of those pretensions with which, in a spirit akin to that
   of the romances about Arthur and the Round Table, the fabulous
   Decretals afterwards invested a succession of primitive bishops in
   Rome, wholly innocent of anything of the kind.

   "The Greek Church," says Dean Stanley, "reminds us of the time when the
   tongue, not of Rome, but of Greece, was the sacred language of
   Christendom. It was a striking remark of the Emperor Napoleon, that the
   introduction of Christianity itself was, in a certain sense, the
   triumph of Greece over Rome; the last and most signal instance of the
   maxim of Horace, Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit. The early Roman
   church was but a colony of Greek Christians or Grecized Jews. The
   earliest Fathers of the Western Church wrote in Greek. The early popes
   were not Italians, but Greeks. The name of pope is not Latin, but
   Greek, the common and now despised name of every pastor in the Eastern
   Church....She is the mother, and Rome the daughter. It is her privilege
   to claim a direct continuity of speech with the earliest times; to
   boast of reading the whole code of Scripture, Old as well as New, in
   the language in which it was read and spoken by the Apostles. The
   humblest peasant who reads his Septuagint or Greek Testament in his own
   mother-tongue on the hills of Boeotia may proudly feel that he has
   access to the original oracles of divine truth which pope and cardinal
   reach by a barbarous and imperfect translation; that he has a key of
   knowledge which in the West is only to be found in the hands of the
   learned classes."

   Before entering on the study of this volume, the student will do well
   to read the interesting work which I have quoted; [4] but the following
   extract merits a place just here, and I cannot deprive even the casual
   reader of the benefit of such a preface from the non-ecclesiastical and
   purely literary pen of the Dean. He says: [5] "The See of Alexandria
   was then the most important in the world. [6] ...The Alexandrian church
   was the only great seat of Christian learning. Its episcopate was the
   Evangelical See, as founded by the chair of St. Mark....Its occupant,
   as we have seen, was the only potentate of the time who bore the name
   of pope. [7] After the Council of Nicaea he became the judge of the
   world, from his decisions respecting the celebration of Easter; and the
   obedience paid to his judgment in all matters of learning, secular and
   sacred, almost equalled that paid in later days to the ecclesiastical
   authority of the popes of the West. `The head of the Alexandrian
   church,' says Gregory Nazianzen, `is the head of the world.'"

   In the light of these all-important historic truths, these volumes of
   the Ante-Nicene Fathers have been elucidated by their American editor.
   [8] He begs to remind his countrymen that ecclesiastical history is yet
   to be written on these irrefragable positions, and the future student
   of history will be delivered from the most puzzling entanglement when
   once these idols of the market are removed from books designed for his
   instruction. Let American scholarship give us, at last, a Church
   history not written from a merely Western point of view, nor clogged
   with traditional phraseology perseveringly adhered to on the very pages
   which supply its refutation. It is the scandal of literature that the
   frauds of the pseudo-Decretals should be perpetuated by modern lists of
   "popes," beginning with St. Peter, in the very books which elaborately
   expose the empiricism of such a scheme, and quote the reluctant words
   by which this gigantic imposition has been consigned to infamy in the
   confessions of Jesuits and Ultramontanes themselves.
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   [1] See the Edinburgh series.

   [2] See p. 3, ed. of 1861.

   [3] "Hinter dem Berge sind auch Leute."

   [4] Late editions are cheap in the market. It is filled with the
   author's idiosyncrasies, but it is brilliant and suggestive.

   [5] Lect. vii. p. 268. On the verse of Horace (Ep., i. book ii. 155),
   see Dacier's note, vol. ix. 389.

   [6] He adds: "Alexandria, till the rise of Constantinople, was the most
   powerful city in the East. The prestige of its founder still clung to
   it."

   [7] That is, of "the pope," as Wellington was called "the duke." But
   Cyprian was called papa, even by the Roman clergy.

   [8] He owes his own introduction to a just view of these facts to a
   friend of his boyhood and youth, the late Rev. Dr. Hill of the American
   Mission in Athens. He was penetrated with love for Greek Christians.
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   Gregory Thaumaturgus.

   [Translated by the Rev. S. D. F. Salmond, M.A.]
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   Introductory Note

   to

   Gregory Thaumaturgus.

   ------------------------

   [a.d. 205-240-265.] Alexandria continues to be the head of Christian
   learning. [9] It is delightful to trace the hand of God from generation
   to generation, as from father to son, interposing for the perpetuity of
   the faith. We have already observed the continuity of the great
   Alexandrian school: how it arose, and how Pantaenus begat Clement, and
   Clement begat Origen. So Origen begat Gregory, and so the Lord has
   provided for the spiritual generation of the Church's teachers, age
   after age, from the beginning. Truly, the Lord gave to Origen a holy
   seed, better than natural sons and daughters; as if, for his comfort,
   Isaiah had written, [10] forbidding him to say, "I am a dry tree."

   Our Gregory has given us not a little of his personal adventures in his
   panegyric upon his master, and for his further history the reader need
   only be referred to what follows. But I am anxious to supply the dates,
   which are too loosely left to conjecture. As he was ordained a bishop
   "very young," according to Eusebius, I suppose he must have been far
   enough under fifty, the age prescribed by the "Apostolic Canons" (so
   called), though probably not younger than thirty, the earliest
   canonical limit for the ordination of a presbyter. If we decide upon
   five and thirty, as a mean reckoning, we may with some confidence set
   his birth at a.d. 205, dating back from his episcopate, which began
   a.d. 240. He was a native of Neo-Caesarea, the chief city of Pontus,--a
   fact that should modify what we have learned about Pontus from
   Tertullian. [11] He was born of heathen parentage, and lived like other
   Gentile boys until his fourteenth year (circa a.d. 218), with the
   disadvantage of being more than ordinarily imbued by a mistaken father
   in the polytheism of Greece. At this period his father died; but his
   mother, carrying out the wishes of her husband, seems to have been not
   less zealous in furthering his education according to her pagan ideas.
   He was, evidently, the inheritor of moderate wealth; and, with his
   brother Athenodorus, he was placed under an accomplished teacher of
   grammar and rhetoric, from whom also he acquired a considerable
   knowledge of the Latin tongue. He was persuaded by the same master to
   use this accomplishment in acquiring some knowledge of the Roman laws.
   This is a very important point in his biography, and it brings us to an
   epoch in Christian history too little noted by any writer. I shall
   return to it very soon. We find him next going to Alexandria to study
   the New Platonism. He speaks of himself as already prepossessed with
   Christian ideas, which came to him even in his boyhood, about the time
   when his father died. But it was not at Alexandria that he began his
   acquaintance with Christian learning. Next he seems to have travelled
   into Greece, and to have studied at Athens. But the great interest of
   his autobiography begins with the providential incidents, devoutly
   narrated by himself, which engaged him in a journey to Berytus just as
   Origen reached Caesarea, a.d. 233, making it for a time his home and
   the seat of his school. His own good angel, as Gregory supposes, led
   him away from Berytus, where he purposed to prosecute his legal
   studies, and brought him to the feet of Origen, his Gamaliel; and "from
   the very first day of his receiving us," he says, "the true Sun began
   to rise upon me." This he accounts the beginning of his true life; and,
   if we are right as to our dates, he was now about twenty-seven years of
   age.

   If he tarried even a little while in Berytus, as seems probable, his
   knowledge of law was, doubtless, somewhat advanced. It was the seat of
   that school in which Roman law began its existence in the forms long
   afterward digested into the Pandects of Justinian. That emperor speaks
   of Berytus as "the mother and nurse" of the civil law. Caius, whose
   Institutes were discovered in 1820 by the sagacity of Niebuhr, seems to
   have been a Syrian. So were Papinian and Ulpian: and, heathen as they
   were, they lived under the illumination reflected from Antioch; and,
   not less than the Antonines, they were examples of a philosophic
   regeneration which never could have existed until the Christian era had
   begun its triumphs. Of this sort of pagan philosophy Julian became
   afterwards the grand embodiment; and in Julian's grudging confessions
   of what he had learned from Christianity we have a key to the secret
   convictions of others, such as I have named; characters in whom, as in
   Plutarch and in many retrograde unbelievers of our day, we detect the
   operation of influences they are unwilling to acknowledge; of which,
   possibly, they are blindly unconscious themselves. Roman law, I
   maintain, therefore, indirectly owes its origin, as it is directly
   indebted for its completion in the Pandects, to the new powers and
   processes of thought which came from "the Light of the World." It was
   light from Galilee and Golgotha, answering Pilate's question in the
   inward convictions of many a heathen sage.

   It is most interesting, therefore, to find in our Gregory one who had
   come into contact with Berytus at this period. He describes it as
   already dignified by this school of law, and therefore Latinized in
   some degree by its influence. Most suggestive is what he says of this
   school: "I refer to those admirable laws of our sages, by which the
   affairs of all the subjects of the Roman Empire are now directed, and
   which are neither digested nor learnt without difficulty. They are wise
   and strict (if not pious) in themselves, they are manifold and
   admirable, and, in a word, most thoroughly Grecian, although expressed
   and delivered to us in the Roman tongue, which is a wonderful and
   magnificent sort of language, and one very aptly conformable to
   imperial authority, but still difficult to me." Nor is this the only
   noteworthy tribute of our author to Roman law while yet that sublime
   system was in its cradle. The rhetorician who introduced him to it and
   to the Latin tongue was its enthusiastic eulogist; and Gregory says he
   learned the laws "in a thorough way, by his help....And he said one
   thing to me which has proved to me the truest of all his sayings; to
   wit, that my education in the laws would be my greatest viaticum,--my
   ephodion (for thus he phrased it);" i.e., for the journey of life. This
   man, one can hardly doubt, was a disciple of Caius (or Gaius); and
   there is little question that the digested system which Gregory
   eulogizes was "the Institutes" of that great father of the civil law,
   now recovered from a palimpsest, and made known to our own age, with no
   less benefit to jurisprudence than the discovery of the Philosophumena
   has conferred on theology.

   Thus Gregory's Panegyric throws light on the origin of Roman law. He
   claims it for "our sages," meaning men of the East, whose vernacular
   was the Greek tongue. Caius was probably, like the Gaius of Scripture,
   an Oriental who had borrowed a Latin name, as did the Apostle of the
   Gentiles and many others. If he was a native of Berytus, as seems
   probable, that accounts for the rise of the school of laws at a place
   comparatively inconsiderable. Hadrian, in his journey to Palestine,
   would naturally discover and patronize such a jurist; and that accounts
   for the appearance of Caius at Rome in his day. Papinian and Ulpian,
   both Orientals, were his pupils in all probability; and these were the
   "sages" with whose works the youthful Gregory became acquainted, and by
   which his mind was prepared for the great influence he exerted in the
   East, where his name is a power to this day.

   His credit with our times is rather impaired than heightened by the
   epithet Thaumaturgus, which clings to his name as a convenient
   specification, to distinguish him from the other [12] Gregories whose
   period was so nearly his own. But why make it his opprobrium? He is not
   responsible for the romances that sprung up after his death; which he
   never heard of nor imagined. Like the great Friar Bacon, who was
   considered a magician, or Faust, whose invention nearly cost him his
   life, the reputation of Gregory made him the subject of legendary lore
   long after he was gone. It is not impossible that God wrought marvels
   by his hand, but a single instance would give rise to many fables; and
   this very surname is of itself a monument of the fact that miracles
   were now of rare occurrence, and that one possessing the gift was a
   wonder to his contemporaries.

   To like popular love of the marvellous I attribute the stupid story of
   a mock consecration by Phaedimus. If a slight irregularity in Origen's
   ordination gave him such lifelong troubles, what would not have been
   the tumult such a sacrilege as this would have occasioned? Nothing is
   more probable than that Phaedimus related such things as having
   occurred in a vision; [13] and this might have weighed with a mind like
   Gregory's to overcome his scruples, and to justify his acceptance of
   such a position at an early age.

   We are already acquainted with the eloquent letter of Origen that
   decided him to choose the sacred calling after he left the school at
   Caesarea. The Panegyric, which was his valedictory, doubtless called
   forth that letter. Origen had seen in him the makings of a kerux, and
   coveted such another Timothy for the Master's work. But the Panegyric
   itself abounds with faults, and greatly resembles similar college
   performances of our day. The custom of schools alone can excuse the
   expression of such enthusiastic praise in the presence of its subject;
   but Origen doubtless bore it as philosophically as others have done
   since, and its evident sincerity and heartfelt gratitude redeem it from
   the charge of fulsome adulation.

   For the residue of the story I may refer my readers to the statements
   of the translator, as follows:--

   Translator's Notice.

   We are in possession of a considerable body of testimonies from ancient
   literature bearing on the life and work of Gregory. From these, though
   they are largely mixed up with the marvellous, we gain a tolerably
   clear and satisfactory view of the main facts in his history, and the
   most patent features of his character. [14] From various witnesses we
   learn that he was also known by the name Theodorus, which may have been
   his original designation; that he was a native of Neo-Caesareia, a
   considerable place of trade, and one of the most important towns of
   Pontus; that he belonged to a family of some wealth and standing; that
   he was born of heathen parents; that at the age of fourteen he lost his
   father; that he had a brother named Athenodorus; and that along with
   him he travelled about from city to city in the prosecution of studies
   that were to fit him for the profession of law, to which he had been
   destined. Among the various seats of learning which he thus visited we
   find Alexandria, Athens, Berytus, and the Palestinian Caesareia
   mentioned. At this last place--to which, as he tells us, he was led by
   a happy accident in the providence of God--he was brought into
   connection with Origen. Under this great teacher he received lessons in
   logic, geometry, physics, ethics, philosophy, and ancient literature,
   and in due time also in biblical science and the verities of the
   Christian faith. Thus, having become Origen's pupil, he became also by
   the hand of God his convert. After a residence of some five years with
   the great Alexandrian, he returned to his native city. Soon, however, a
   letter followed him to Neo-Caesareia, in which Origen urged him to
   dedicate himself to the ministry of the Church of Christ, and pressed
   strongly upon him his obligation to consecrate his gifts to the service
   of God, and in especial to devote his acquirements in heathen science
   and learning to the elucidation of the Scriptures. On receipt of this
   letter, so full of wise and faithful counsel and strong exhortation,
   from the teacher whom he venerated and loved above all others, he
   withdrew into the wilderness, seeking opportunity for solemn thought
   and private prayer over its contents. At this time the bishop of
   Amasea, a city which held apparently a first place in the province, was
   one named Phaedimus, who, discerning the promise of great things in the
   convert, sought to make him bishop of Neo-Caesareia. For a considerable
   period, however, Gregory, who shrank from the responsibility of the
   episcopal office, kept himself beyond the bishop's reach, until
   Phaedimus, unsuccessful in his search, had recourse to the stratagem of
   ordaining him in his absence, and declaring him, with all the
   solemnities of the usual ceremonial, bishop of his native city. [15] On
   receiving the report of this extraordinary step, Gregory yielded, and,
   coming forth from the place of his concealment, was consecrated to the
   bishopric with all the customary formalities; [16] and so well did he
   discharge the duties of his office, that while there were said to be
   only seventeen Christians in the whole city when he first entered it as
   bishop, there were said to be only seventeen pagans in it at the time
   of his death. The date of his studies under Origen is fixed at about
   234 a.d., and that of his ordination as bishop at about 240. About the
   year 250 his church was involved in the sufferings of the Decian
   persecution, on which occasion he fled into the wilderness, with the
   hope of preserving his life for his people, whom he also counselled to
   follow in that matter his example. His flock had much to endure, again,
   through the incursion of the northern barbarians about 260. He took
   part in the council that met at Antioch in 265 for the purpose of
   trying Paul of Samosata; and soon after that he died, perhaps about
   270, if we can adopt the conjectural reading which gives the name
   Aurelian instead of Julian in the account left us by Suidas.

   The surname Thaumaturgus, or Wonder-worker, at once admonishes us of
   the marvellous that so largely connected itself with the historical in
   the ancient records of this man's life. [17] He was believed to have
   been gifted with a power of working miracles, which he was constantly
   exercising. But into these it is profitless to enter. When all the
   marvellous is dissociated from the historical in the records of this
   bishop's career, we have still the figure of a great, good, and gifted
   man, deeply versed in the heathen lore and science of his time, yet
   more deeply imbued with the genuine spirit of another wisdom, which,
   under God, he learned from the illustrious thinker of Alexandria,
   honouring with all love, gratitude, and veneration that teacher to whom
   he was indebted for his knowledge of the Gospel, and exercising an
   earnest, enlightened, and faithful ministry of many years in an office
   which he had not sought, but for which he had been sought. Such is, in
   brief, the picture that rises up before us from a perusal of his own
   writings, as well as from the comparison of ancient accounts of the man
   and his vocation. Of his well-accredited works we have the following: A
   Declaration of Faith, being a creed on the doctrine of the Trinity; a
   Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, a Panegyric to Origen, being an
   oration delivered on leaving the school of Origen, expressing
   eloquently, and with great tenderness of feeling, as well as polish of
   style, the sense of his obligations to that master; and a Canonical
   Epistle, in which he gives a variety of directions with respect to the
   penances and discipline to be exacted by the Church from Christians who
   had fallen back into heathenism in times of suffering, and wished to be
   restored. Other works have been attributed to him, which are doubtful
   or spurious. His writings have been often edited,--by Gerard Voss in
   1604, by the Paris editors in 1662, by Gallandi in 1788, and others,
   who need not be enumerated here.
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   [9] Vol. ii. pp. 165, 342.

   [10] Isa. lvi. 3.

   [11] Vol. iii. p. 271.

   [12] See Dean Stanley's Eastern Church and Neale's Introduction.

   [13] Recall Cyprian's narratives, vol. v., and this volume infra, Life
   of Dionysius of Alexandria.

   [14] Thus we have accounts of him, more or less complete, in Eusebius
   (Historia Eccles., vi. 30, vii. 14), Basil (De Spiritu Sancto, xxix.
   74; Epist. 28, Num. 1 and 2; 204, Num. 2; 207, Num. 4; 210, Num. 3,
   5,--Works, vol. iii. pp. 62, 107, 303, 311, etc., edit. Paris. BB.
   1730), Jerome (De viris illustr., ch. 65; in the Comment. in
   Ecclesiasten, ch. 4; and Epist. 70, Num. 4,--Works, vol. i. pp. 424 and
   427, edit. Veron.), Rufinus (Hist. Eccles., vii. 25), Socrates (Hist.
   Eccles., iv. 27), Sozomen (Hist. Eccles., vii. 27, Evagrius
   Scholasticus (Hist. Eccles., iii. 31), Suidas in his Lexicon, and
   others of less moment.

   [15] [See p. 5, supra. Cave pronounces it "without precedent," but
   seems to credit the story.]

   [16] [So Gregory Nyssen says. It would have been impossible, otherwise,
   for him to rule his flock.]

   [17] He could move the largest stones by a word; he could heal the
   sick; the demons were subject to him, and were exorcised by his fiat;
   he could give bounds to overflowing rivers; he could dry up mighty
   lakes; he could cast his cloak over a man, and cause his death; once,
   spending a night in a heathen temple, he banished its divinities by his
   simple presence, and by merely placing on the altar a piece of paper
   bearing the words, Gregory to Satan--enter, he could bring the
   presiding demons back to their shrine. One strange story told of him by
   Gregory of Nyssa is to the effect that, as Gregory was meditating on
   the great matter of the right way to worship the true God, suddenly two
   glorious personages made themselves manifest in his room, in the one of
   whom he recognised the Apostle John, in the other the Virgin. They had
   come, as the story goes, to solve the difficulties which were making
   him hesitate in accepting the bishopric. At Mary's request, the
   evangelist gave him then all the instruction in doctrine which he was
   seeking for; and the sum of these supernatural communications being
   written down by him after the vision vanished, formed the creed which
   is still preserved among his writings. Such were the wonders believed
   to signalize the life of Gregory.
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   Part I.--Acknowledged Writings.

   ------------------------

   A Declaration of Faith. [18]

   ------------------------

   There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent
   Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: [19] perfect Begetter of the
   perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord,
   Only of the Only, [20] God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity,
   Efficient Word, [21] Wisdom comprehensive [22] of the constitution of
   all things, and Power formative [23] of the whole creation, true Son of
   true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of
   Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal. [24]
   And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence [25] from God, and
   being made manifest [26] by the Son, to wit to men: [27] Image [28] of
   the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; [29] Life, the Cause of the
   living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, [30] of
   Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all
   and in all, and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect
   Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor
   estranged. [31] Wherefore there is nothing either created or in
   servitude [32] in the Trinity; [33] nor anything superinduced, [34] as
   if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period
   it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the
   Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; [35] but without variation and
   without change, the same Trinity abideth ever. [36]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [18] The title as it stands has this addition: "which he had by
   revelation from the blessed John the evangelist, by the mediation of
   the Virgin Mary, Parent of God." Gallandi, Veterum Patrum Biblioth.,
   Venice, 1766, p. 385. [Elucidation, p. 8, infra.]

   [19] charakteros aidiou.

   [20] monos ek monou .

   [21] logos energos.

   [22] periektike.

   [23] poietike.

   [24] aidios aidiou.

   [25] huparxin.

   [26] pephenos.

   [27] The words delade tois anthropois are suspected by some to be a
   gloss that has found its way into the text.

   [28] eikon.

   [29] So John of Damascus uses the phrase, eikon tou Patros ho Huios,
   kai tou Huiou, to Pneuma, the Son is the Image of the Father, and the
   Spirit is that of the Son, lib. 1, De fide orthod., ch. 13, vol. i. p.
   151. See also Athanasius, Epist. 1 ad Serap.; Basil, lib. v. contra
   Eunom.; Cyril, Dial., 7, etc.

   [30] choregos.

   [31] apallotrioumene. See also Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 37, p. 609.

   [32] doulon.

   [33] Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 40, p. 668, with reference apparently to
   our author, says: Ouden tes Triados doulon, oude ktiston, oude
   epeisakton, ekousa ton sophon tinos legontos-- In the Trinity there is
   nothing either in servitude or created, or superinduced, as I heard one
   of the learned say.

   [34] epeisakton.

   [35] In one codex we find the following addition here: oute auxetai
   monas eis duada, oude duas eis triada--Neither again does the unity
   grow into duality, nor the duality into trinity; or = Neither does the
   condition of the one grow into the condition of the two, nor that of
   the two into the condition of the three.

   [36] [See valuable note and Greek text in Dr. Schaff's History, vol.
   ii. p. 799.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   Elucidation.

   ------------------------

   The story of the "Revelation" is of little consequence, though, if this
   were Gregory's genuine work, it would be easy to account for it as
   originating in a beautiful dream. But it is very doubtful whether it be
   a genuine work; and, to my mind, it is most fairly treated by Lardner,
   to whose elaborate chapter concerning Gregory every scholar must refer.
   [37] Dr. Burton, in his edition of Bishop Bull's works, [38] almost
   overrules that learned prelate's inclination to think it genuine, in
   the following words: "Hanc formulam minime esse Gregorii
   authenticam...multis haud spernendis argumentis demonstrat Lardner."
   Lardner thinks it a fabrication of the fourth century.

   Cave's learned judgment is more favourable; and he gives the text [39]
   from Gregory of Nyssa, which he translates as follows: "There is one
   God, the Father of the living Word and of the subsisting Wisdom and
   Power, and of Him who is His Eternal Image, the perfect begetter of Him
   that is perfect, the Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one
   Lord, the only Son of the only Father, God of God, the character and
   image of the Godhead, the powerful Word, the comprehensive Wisdom, by
   which all things were made, and the Power that gave being to the whole
   creation, the true Son of the true Father, the Invisible of the
   Invisible, the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible, the Immortal of the
   Immortal, and the Eternal of Him that is Eternal. There is one Holy
   Ghost, having its subsistence of God, which appeared through the Son to
   mankind, the perfect Image of the perfect Son, the Life-giving Life,
   the holy Fountain, the Sanctity, and the Author of sanctification, by
   whom God the Father is made manifest, who is over all, and in all; and
   God the Son, who is through all. A perfect Trinity, which neither in
   glory, eternity, or dominion is divided, or departed from itself."
     __________________________________________________________________

   [37] Credibility, vol. ii. p. 635.

   [38] Vol. v. p. 423.

   [39] Cave, Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. p. 402, ed. Oxford, 1840.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes. [40]

   ------------------------

   Chapter I. [41]

   These words speaketh Solomon, the son of David the king and prophet, to
   the whole Church of God, a prince most honoured, and a prophet most
   wise above all men. How vain and fruitless are the affairs of men, and
   all pursuits that occupy man! For there is not one who can tell of any
   profit attaching to those things which men who creep on earth strive by
   body and soul to attain to, in servitude all the while to what is
   transient, and undesirous of considering aught heavenly with the noble
   eye of the soul. And the life of men weareth away, as day by day, and
   in the periods of hours and years, and the determinate courses of the
   sun, some are ever coming, and others passing away. And the matter is
   like the transit of torrents as they fall into the measureless deep of
   the sea with a mighty noise. And all things that have been constituted
   by God for the sake of men abide the same: as, for instance, that man
   is born of earth, and departs to earth again; that the earth itself
   continues stable; that the sun accomplishes its circuit about it
   perfectly, and rolls round to the same mark again; and that the winds
   [42] in like manner, and the mighty rivers which flow into the sea, and
   the breezes that beat upon it, all act without forcing it to pass
   beyond its limits, and without themselves also violating their
   appointed laws. And these things, indeed, as bearing upon the good of
   this life of ours, are established thus fittingly. But those things
   which are of men's devising, whether words or deeds, have no measure.
   And there is a plenteous multitude of words, but there is no profit
   from random and foolish talking. But the race of men is naturally
   insatiate in its thirst both for speaking and for hearing what is
   spoken; and it is man's habit, too, to desire to look with idle eyes on
   all that happens. What can occur afterwards, or what can be wrought by
   men which has not been done already? What new thing is there worthy of
   mention, of which there has never yet been experience? For I think
   there is nothing which one may call new, or which, on considering it,
   one shall discover to be strange or unknown to those of old. But as
   former things are buried in oblivion, so also things that are now
   subsistent will in the course of time vanish utterly from the knowledge
   of those who shall come after us. And I speak not these things
   unadvisedly, as acting now the preacher. [43] But all these things were
   carefully pondered by me when entrusted with the kingdom of the Hebrews
   in Jerusalem. And I examined diligently, and considered discreetly, the
   nature of all that is on earth, and I perceived it to be most various;
   [44] and I saw that to man it is given to labour upon earth, ever
   carried about by all different occasions of toil, and with no result of
   his work. And all things here below are full of the spirit of
   strangeness and abomination, so that it is not possible for one to
   retrieve them now; nay, rather it is not possible for one at all to
   conceive what utter vanity [45] has taken possession of all human
   affairs. For once on a time I communed with myself, and thought that
   then I was wiser in this than all that were before me, and I was expert
   in understanding parables and the natures of things. But I learned that
   I gave myself to such pursuits to no purpose, and that if wisdom
   follows knowledge, so troubles attend on wisdom.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [40] Gallandi, Biblioth. Vet. Patr., iii. 387.

   [41] [The wise benevolence of our author is more apparent than his
   critical skill. No book more likely to puzzle a pagan inquirer than
   this: so the metaphrase gives it meaning and consistency; but, over and
   over again, not Solomon's meaning, I am persuaded.]

   [42] ta pneumata, for which some propose rheumata, streams, as the
   anemoi are mentioned in their own place immediately.

   [43] nun ekklesiason.

   [44] poikilotaten.

   [45] atopia
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter II.

   Judging, therefore, that it stood thus with this matter, I decided to
   turn to another manner of life, and to give myself to pleasure, and to
   take experience of various delights. And now I learned that all such
   things are vain; and I put a check on laughter, when it ran on
   carelessly; and restrained pleasure, according to the rule of
   moderation, and was bitterly wroth against it. And when I perceived
   that the soul is able to arrest the body in its disposition to
   intoxication and wine-bibbing, and that temperance makes lust its
   subject, I sought earnestly to observe what object of true worth and of
   real excellence is set before men, which they shall attain to in this
   present life. For I passed through all those other objects which are
   deemed worthiest, such as the erecting of lofty houses and the planting
   of vines, and in addition, the laying out of pleasure-grounds, and the
   acquisition and culture of all manner of fruit-bearing trees; and among
   them also large reservoirs for the reception of water were constructed,
   and distributed so as to secure the plentiful irrigation of the trees.
   And I surrounded myself also with many domestics, both man-servants and
   maid-servants; and some of them I procured from abroad, and others I
   possessed and employed as born in my own house. And herds of
   four-footed creatures, as well of cattle as of sheep, more numerous
   than any of those of old acquired, were made my property. And treasures
   of gold and silver flowed in upon me; and I made the kings of all
   nations my dependants and tributaries. And very many choirs of male and
   female singers were trained to yield me pleasure by the practice of
   all-harmonious song. And I had banquetings; and for the service of this
   part of my pleasure, I got me select cup-bearers of both sexes beyond
   my reckoning,--so far did I surpass in these things those who reigned
   before me in Jerusalem. And thus it happened that the interests of
   wisdom declined with me, while the claims of evil appetency increased.
   For when I yielded myself to every allurement of the eyes, and to the
   violent passions of the heart, that make their attack from all
   quarters, and surrendered myself to the hopes held out by pleasures, I
   also made my will the bond-slave of all miserable delights. For thus my
   judgment was brought to such a wretched pass, that I thought these
   things good, and that it was proper for me to engage in them. At
   length, awaking and recovering my sight, I perceived that the things I
   had in hand were altogether sinful and very evil, and the deeds of a
   spirit not good. For now none of all the objects of men's choice seems
   to me worthy of approval, or greatly to be desired by a just mind.
   Wherefore, having pondered at once the advantages of wisdom and the
   ills of folly, I should with reason admire that man greatly, who, being
   borne on in a thoughtless course, and afterwards arresting himself,
   should return to right and duty. For wisdom and folly are widely
   separated, and they are as different from each other as day is from
   night. He, therefore, who makes choice of virtue, is like one who sees
   all things plainly, and looks upward, and who holdeth his ways in the
   time of clearest light. But he, on the other hand, who has involved
   himself in wickedness, is like a man who wanders helplessly about in a
   moonless night, as one who is blind, and deprived of the sight of
   things by his darkness. [46] And when I considered the end of each of
   these modes of life, I found there was no profit in the latter; [47]
   and by setting myself to be the companion of the foolish, I saw that I
   should receive the wages of folly. For what advantage is there in those
   thoughts, or what profit is there in the multitude of words, where the
   streams of foolish speaking are flowing, as it were, from the fountain
   of folly? Moreover, there is nothing common to the wise man and to the
   fool, neither as regards the memory of men, nor as regards the
   recompense of God. And as to all the affairs of men, when they are yet
   apparently but beginning to be, the end at once surprises them. Yet the
   wise man is never partaker of the same end with the foolish. Then also
   did I hate all my life, that had been consumed in vanities, and which I
   had spent with a mind engrossed in earthly anxieties. For, to speak in
   brief, all my affairs have been wrought by me with labour and pain, as
   the efforts of thoughtless impulse; and some other person, it may be a
   wise man or a fool, will succeed to them, I mean, the chill fruits of
   my toils. But when I cut myself off from these things, and cast them
   away, then did that real good which is set before man show itself to
   me,--namely, the knowledge of wisdom and the possession of manly
   virtue. [48] And if a man neglects these things, and is inflamed with
   the passion for other things, such a man makes choice of evil instead
   of good, and goes after what is bad instead of what is excellent, and
   after trouble instead of peace; for he is distracted by every manner of
   disturbance, and is burdened with continual anxieties night and day,
   with oppressive labours of body as well as with ceaseless cares of
   mind,--his heart moving in constant agitation, by reason of the strange
   and senseless affairs that occupy him. For the perfect good does not
   consist in eating and drinking, although it is true that it is from God
   that their sustenance cometh to men; for none of those things which are
   given for our maintenance subsist without His providence. But the good
   man who gets wisdom from God, gets also heavenly enjoyment; while, on
   the other hand, the evil man, smitten with ills divinely inflicted, and
   afflicted with the disease of lust, toils to amass much, and is quick
   to put him to shame who is honoured by God in presence of the Lord of
   all, proffering useless gifts, and making things deceitful and vain the
   pursuits of his own miserable soul.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [46] The text is, tuphlos te on ten prosopsin kai hupo tou skotous ton
   pragmaton apheremenos, for which it is proposed to read, tuphlos te on
   kai ten prosopsin hupo tou skotous, etc.

   [47] Or, as the Latin version puts it: And, in fine, when I considered
   the difference between these modes of life, I found nothing but that,
   by setting myself, etc.

   [48] andreias.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter III.

   For this present time is filled with all things that are most contrary
   [49] to each other--births and deaths, the growth of plants and their
   uprooting, cures and killings, the building up and the pulling down of
   houses, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing. At this moment a
   man gathers of earth's products, and at another casts them away; and at
   one time he ardently desireth the beauty of woman, and at another he
   hateth it. Now he seeketh something, and again he loseth it; and now he
   keepeth, and again he casteth away; at one time he slayeth, and at
   another he is slain; he speaketh, and again he is silent; he loveth,
   and again he hateth. For the affairs of men are at one time in a
   condition of war, and at another in a condition of peace; while their
   fortunes are so inconstant, that from bearing the semblance of good,
   they change quickly into acknowledged ills. Let us have done,
   therefore, with vain labours. For all these things, as appears to me,
   are set to madden men, as it were, with their poisoned stings. And the
   ungodly observer of the times and seasons is agape for this world, [50]
   exerting himself above measure to destroy the image [51] of God, as one
   who has chosen to contend against it [52] from the beginning onward to
   the end. [53] I am persuaded, therefore, that the greatest good for man
   is cheerfulness and well-doing, and that this shortlived enjoyment,
   which alone is possible to us, comes from God only, if righteousness
   direct our doings. But as to those everlasting and incorruptible things
   which God hath firmly established, it is not possible either to take
   aught from them or to add aught to them. And to men in general, those
   things, in sooth, are fearful and wonderful; [54] and those things
   indeed which have been, abide so; and those which are to be, have
   already been, as regards His foreknowledge. Moreover, the man who is
   injured has God as his helper. I saw in the lower parts the pit of
   punishment which receives the impious, but a different place allotted
   for the pious. And I thought with myself, that with God all things are
   judged and determined to be equal; that the righteous and the
   unrighteous, and objects with reason and without reason, are alike in
   His judgment. For that their time is measured out equally to all, and
   death impends over them, and in this the races of beasts and men are
   alike in the judgment of God, and differ from each other only in the
   matter of articulate speech; and all things else happen alike to them,
   and death receives all equally, not more so in the case of the other
   kinds of creatures than in that of men. For they have all the same
   breath of life, and men have nothing more; but all are, in one word,
   vain, deriving their present condition [55] from the same earth, and
   destined to perish, and return to the same earth again. For it is
   uncertain regarding the souls of men, whether they shall fly upwards;
   and regarding the others which the unreasoning creatures possess,
   whether they shall fall downward. And it seemed to me, that there is no
   other good save pleasure, and the enjoyment of things present. For I
   did not think it possible for a man, when once he has tasted death, to
   return again to the enjoyment of these things. [56]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [49] The text reads enantioteton, for which Codex Anglicus has
   henantiotaton.

   [50] Or, age.

   [51] plasma.

   [52] Or, Him.

   [53] The Greek text is, kairoskopos de tis poneros ton aiona touton
   perikechenen, aphanisai huperdiateinomenos to tou Theou plasma, ex
   arches auto mechri telous polemein heremenos. It is well to notice how
   widely this differs from our version of iii. 11: "He hath made
   everything beautiful in his time," etc.

   [54] The text is, ho tini oun, all' estin, ekeina phobera te homou kai
   thaumasta.

   [55] sustasin.

   [56] [The key to the interpretation of this book, as to much of the
   book of Job, is found in the brief expostulation of Jeremiah (chap.
   xii. 1), where he confesses his inability to comprehend the world and
   God's ways therein, yet utters a profession of unshaken confidence in
   His goodness. Here Solomon, in monologue, gives vent to similar
   misgivings; overruling all in the wonderful ode with which the book
   concludes. I say Solomon, not unadvisedly.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter IV.

   And leaving all these reflections, I considered and turned in aversion
   from all the forms of oppression [57] which are done among men; whence
   some receiving injury weep and lament, who are struck down by violence
   in utter default of those who protect them, or who should by all means
   comfort them in their trouble. [58] And the men who make might their
   right [59] are exalted to an eminence, from which, however, they shall
   also fall. Yea, of the unrighteous and audacious, those who are dead
   fare better than those who are still alive. And better than both these
   is he who, being destined to be like them, has not yet come into being,
   since he has not yet touched the wickedness which prevails among men.
   And it became clear to me also how great is the envy which follows a
   man from his neighbours, like the sting of a wicked spirit; and I saw
   that he who receives it, and takes it as it were into his breast, has
   nothing else but to eat his own heart, and tear it, and consume both
   soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune of
   others. [60] And a wise man would choose to have one of his hands full,
   if it were with ease and quietness, rather than both of them with
   travail and with the villany of a treacherous spirit. Moreover, there
   is yet another thing which I know to happen contrary to what is
   fitting, by reason of the evil will of man. He who is left entirely
   alone, having neither brother nor son, but prospered with large
   possessions, lives on in the spirit of insatiable avarice, and refuses
   to give himself in any way whatever to goodness. Gladly, therefore,
   would I ask such an one for what reason he labours thus, fleeing with
   headlong speed [61] from the doing of anything good, and distracted by
   the many various passions for making gain. [62] Far better than such
   are those who have taken up an order of life in common, [63] from which
   they may reap the best blessings. For when two men devote themselves in
   the right spirit to the same objects, though some mischance befalls the
   one, he has still at least no slight alleviation in having his
   companion by him. And the greatest of all calamities to a man in evil
   fortune is the want of a friend to help and cheer him. [64] And those
   who live together both double the good fortune that befalls them, and
   lessen the pressure of the storm of disagreeable events; so that in the
   day they are distinguished for their frank confidence in each other,
   and in the night they appear notable for their cheerfulness. [65] But
   he who leads a solitary life passes a species of existence full of
   terror to himself; not perceiving that if one should fall upon men
   welded closely together, he adopts a rash and perilous course, and that
   it is not easy to snap the threefold cord. [66] Moreover, I put a poor
   youth, if he be wise, before an aged prince devoid of wisdom, to whose
   thoughts it has never occured that it is possible that a man may be
   raised from the prison to the throne, and that the very man who has
   exercised his power unrighteously shall at a later period be
   righteously cast out. For it may happen that those who are subject to a
   youth, who is at the same time sensible, shall be free from
   trouble,--those, I mean, who are his elders. [67] Moreover, they who
   are born later cannot praise another, of whom they have had no
   experience, [68] and are led by an unreasoning judgment, and by the
   impulse of a contrary spirit. But in exercising the preacher's office,
   keep thou this before thine eyes, that thine own life be rightly
   directed, and that thou prayest in behalf of the foolish, that they may
   get understanding, and know how to shun the doings of the wicked.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [57] sukophantion.

   [58] The text is, bia katablemenoi ton epamunonton e holos
   paramuthesomenon autous pases pantachothen katechouses aporias. The
   sense is not clear. It may be: who are struck down in spite of those
   who protect them, and who should by all means comfort them when all
   manner of trouble presses them on all sides.

   [59] cheirodikai.

   [60] Following the reading of Cod. Medic., which puts tithemenos for
   tithemenon. [See Cyprian, vol. v. p. 493, note 7, this series.]

   [61] protropaden.

   [62] chrematisasthai.

   [63] koinonian hama biou esteilanto.

   [64] anaktesomenou.

   [65] The text is, kai nuktor semnoteti semnunesthai, for which certain
   codices read semnoteti phaidrunesthai, and others phaidroteti
   semnunesthai.

   [66] Jerome cites the passage in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes [iv.
   12].

   [67] Tous hosoi progenesteroi. The sense is incomplete, and some words
   seem missing in the text. Jerome, in rendering this passage in his
   Commentary on Ecclesiastes, turns it thus: ita autem ut sub sene rege
   versati sint; either having lighted on a better manuscript, or adding
   something of his own authority to make out the meaning.

   [68] dia to heterou apeiratos echein.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter V.

   Moreover, it is a good thing to use the tongue sparingly, and to keep a
   calm and rightly balanced [69] heart in the exercise of speech. [70]
   For it is not right to give utterance in words to things that are
   foolish and absurd, or to all that occur to the mind; but we ought to
   know and reflect, that though we are far separated from heaven, we
   speak in the hearing of God, and that it is good for us to speak
   without offence. For as dreams and visions of many kinds attend
   manifold cares of mind, so also silly talking is conjoined with folly.
   Moreover, see to it, that a promise made with a vow be made good in
   fact. This, too, is proper to fools, that they are unreliable. But be
   thou true to thy word, knowing that it is much better for thee not to
   vow or promise to do anything, than to vow and then fail of
   performance. And thou oughtest by all means to avoid the flood of base
   words, seeing that God will hear them. For the man who makes such
   things his study gets no more benefit by them than to see his doings
   brought to nought by God. For as the multitude of dreams is vain, so
   also the multitude of words. But the fear of God is man's salvation,
   though it is rarely found. Wherefore thou oughtest not to wonder though
   thou seest the poor oppressed, and the judges misinterpreting the law.
   But thou oughtest to avoid the appearance of surpassing those who are
   in power. For even should this prove to be the case, yet, from the
   terrible ills that shall befall thee, wickedness of itself will not
   deliver thee. But even as property acquired by violence is a most
   hurtful as well as impious possession, so the man who lusteth after
   money never finds satisfaction for his passion, nor good-will from his
   neighbours, even though he may have amassed the greatest possible
   wealth. For this also is vanity. But goodness greatly rejoiceth those
   who hold by it, and makes them strong, [71] imparting to them the
   capacity of seeing through [72] all things. And it is a great matter
   also not to be engrossed by such anxieties: for the poor man, even
   should he be a slave, and unable to fill his belly plentifully, enjoys
   at least the kind refreshment of sleep; but the lust of riches is
   attended by sleepless nights and anxieties of mind. And what could
   there be then more absurd, than with much anxiety and trouble to amass
   wealth, and keep it with jealous care, if all the while one is but
   maintaining the occasion of countless evils to himself? And this
   wealth, besides, must needs perish some time or other, and be lost,
   whether he who has acquired it has children or not; [73] and the man
   himself, however unwillingly, is doomed to die, and return to earth in
   the selfsame condition in which it was his lot once to come into being.
   [74] And the fact that he is destined thus to leave earth with empty
   hands, will make the evil all the sorer to him, as he fails to consider
   that an end is appointed for his life similar to its beginning, and
   that he toils to no profit, and labours rather for the wind, as it
   were, than for the advancement of his own real interest, wasting his
   whole life in most unholy lusts and irrational passions, and withal in
   troubles and pains. And, to speak shortly, his days are darkness to
   such a man, and his life is sorrow. Yet this is in itself good, and by
   no means to be despised. For it is the gift of God, that a man should
   be able to reap with gladness of mind the fruits of his labours,
   receiving thus possessions bestowed by God, and not acquired by force.
   [75] For neither is such a man afflicted with troubles, nor is he for
   the most part the slave of evil thoughts; but he measures out his life
   by good deeds, being of good heart [76] in all things, and rejoicing in
   the gift of God.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [69] eustathouse.

   [70] en te peri logous spoude.

   [71] andreious.

   [72] kathoran.

   [73] Job xx. 20.

   [74] Job i. 21; 1 Tim. vi. 7.

   [75] harpaktika in the text, for which the Cod. Medic. has harpakta.

   [76] enthumoumenos.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter VI.

   Moreover, I shall exhibit in discourse the ill-fortune that most of all
   prevails among men. While God may supply a man with all that is
   according to his mind, and deprive him of no object which may in any
   manner appeal to his desires, whether it be wealth, or honour, or any
   other of those things for which men distract themselves; yet the man,
   while thus prospered in all things, as though the only ill inflicted on
   him from heaven were just the inability to enjoy them, may but husband
   them for his fellow, and fall without profit either to himself or to
   his neighbours. This I reckon to be a strong proof and clear sign of
   surpassing evil. The man who has borne without blame the name of father
   of very many children, and spent a long life, and has not had his soul
   filled with good for so long time, and has had no experience of death
   meanwhile, [77] --this man I should not envy either his numerous
   offspring or his length of days; nay, I should say that the untimely
   birth that falls from a woman's womb is better than he. For as that
   came in with vanity, so it also departeth secretly in oblivion, without
   having tasted the ills of life or looked on the sun. And this is a
   lighter evil than for the wicked man not to know what is good, even
   though he measure his life by thousands of years. [78] And the end of
   both is death. The fool is proved above all things by his finding no
   satisfaction in any lust. But the discreet man is not held captive by
   these passions. Yet, for the most part, righteousness of life leads a
   man to poverty. And the sight of curious eyes deranges [79] many,
   inflaming their mind, and drawing them on to vain pursuits by the empty
   desire of show. [80] Moreover, the things which are now are known
   already; and it becomes apparent that man is unable to contend with
   those that are above him. And, verily, inanities have their course
   among men, which only increase the folly of those who occupy themselves
   with them.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [77] thanaton peiran ou labon, for which we must read probably
   thanatou, etc.

   [78] The text gives, eper to ponero...anametresameno agathoteta me
   epigno, for which we may read either eper to
   ponero...anametresamenos...epigno, or
   better,...anametresameno...epignonai.

   [79] existeai.

   [80] tou ophthenai.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter VII.

   For though a man should be by no means greatly advantaged by knowing
   all in this life that is destined to befall him according to his mind
   (let us suppose such a case), nevertheless with the officious activity
   of men he devises means for prying into and gaining an apparent
   acquaintance with the things that are to happen after a person's death.
   Moreover, a good name is more pleasant to the mind [81] than oil to the
   body; and the end of life is better than the birth, and to mourn is
   more desirable than to revel, and to be with the sorrowing is better
   than to be with the drunken. For this is the fact, that he who comes to
   the end of life has no further care about aught around him. And
   discreet anger is to be preferred to laughter; for by the severe
   disposition of countenance the soul is kept upright. [82] The souls of
   the wise, indeed, are sad and downcast, but those of fools are elated,
   and given loose to merriment. And yet it is far more desirable to
   receive blame from one wise man, than to become a hearer of a whole
   chorus of worthless and miserable men in their songs. For the laughter
   of fools is like the crackling of many thorns burning in a fierce fire.
   This, too, is misery, yea the greatest of evils, namely oppression;
   [83] for it intrigues against the souls of the wise, and attempts to
   ruin the noble way of life [84] which the good pursue. Moreover, it is
   right to commend not the man who begins, but the man who finishes a
   speech; [85] and what is moderate ought to approve itself to the mind,
   and not what is swollen and inflated. Again, one ought certainly to
   keep wrath in check, and not suffer himself to be carried rashly into
   anger, the slaves of which are fools. Moreover, they are in error who
   assert that a better manner of life was given to those before us, and
   they fail to see that wisdom is widely different from mere abundance of
   possessions, and that it is as much more lustrous [86] than these, as
   silver shines more brightly than its shadow. For the life of man hath
   its excellence [87] not in the acquisition of perishable riches, but in
   wisdom. And who shall be able, tell me, to declare the providence of
   God, which is so great and so beneficent? or who shall be able to
   recall the things which seem to have been passed by of God? And in the
   former days of my vanity I considered all things, and saw a righteous
   man continuing in his righteousness, and ceasing not from it until
   death, but even suffering injury by reason thereof, and a wicked man
   perishing with his wickedness. Moreover, it is proper that the
   righteous man should not seem to be so overmuch, nor exceedingly and
   above measure wise, that he may not, as in making some slip, seem to
   sin many times over. And be not thou audacious and precipitate, lest an
   untimely death surprise thee. It is the greatest of all good to take
   hold of God, and by abiding in Him to sin in nothing. For to touch
   things undefiled with an impure hand is abomination. But he who in the
   fear of God submits himself, [88] escapes all that is contrary. Wisdom
   availeth more in the way of help than a band of the most powerful men
   in a city, and it often also pardons righteously those who fail in
   duty. For there is not one that stumbleth not. [89] Also it becomes
   thee in no way to attend upon the words of the impious, that thou
   mayest not become an ear-witness [90] of words spoken against thyself,
   such as the foolish talk of a wicked servant, and being thus stung in
   heart, have recourse afterwards thyself to cursing in turn in many
   actions. And all these things have I known, having received wisdom from
   God, which afterwards I lost, and was no longer able to be the same.
   [91] For wisdom fled from me to an infinite distance, and into a
   measureless deep, so that I could no longer get hold of it. Wherefore
   afterwards I abstained altogether from seeking it; and I no longer
   thought of considering the follies and the vain counsels of the
   impious, and their weary, distracted life. And being thus disposed, I
   was borne on to the things themselves; and being seized with a fatal
   passion, I knew woman--that she is like a snare or some such other
   object. [92] For her heart ensnares those who pass her; and if she but
   join hand to hand, she holds one as securely as though she dragged him
   on bound with chains. [93] And from her you can secure your deliverance
   only by finding a propitious and watchful superintendent in God; [94]
   for he who is enslaved by sin cannot (otherwise) escape its grasp.
   Moreover, among all women I sought for the chastity [95] proper to
   them, and I found it in none. And verily a person may find one man
   chaste among a thousand, but a woman never. [96] And this above all
   things I observed, that men being made by God simple [97] in mind,
   contract [98] for themselves manifold reasonings and infinite
   questionings, and while professing to seek wisdom, waste their life in
   vain words.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [81] Prov. xxii. 1.

   [82] katorthoutai.

   [83] Calumny, sukophantia.

   [84] enstasin.

   [85] logon de, etc. But Cod. Medic. reads, logon de, etc., = it is
   right to commend a speech not in its beginning, but in its end.

   [86] phanerotera, for which phanotera is proposed.

   [87] perigignetai.

   [88] hupeikon.

   [89] 1 Kings viii. 46; 2 Chron. vi. 36; Prov. xx. 9; 1 John i. 8.

   [90] autekoos .

   [91] homoios.

   [92] The text is evidently corrupt: for ten gunaika, gen tina, etc.,
   Cotelerius proposes, ten gunaika, sagenen tina, etc.; and Bengel, pagen
   tina, etc.

   [93] katechei e ei. This use of e ei is characteristic of Gregory
   Thaumaturgus. We find it again in his Panegyr. ad Orig., ch. 6, e ei
   kai para pantas, etc. It may be added, therefore, to the proofs in
   support of a common authorship for these two writings.

   [94] epopten.

   [95] sophrosunen.

   [96] [Our English version gives no such idea, nor does that of the LXX.
   The sophrosune of our author is discretion, or perhaps entire balance
   of mind. Wordsworth gives us the thought better in his verse: "A
   perfect woman, nobly planned." It was not in Judaism to give woman her
   place: the Magnificat of the Virgin celebrated the restoration of her
   sex.]

   [97] Upright, haploi.

   [98] epispontai.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter VIII.

   Moreover, wisdom, when it is found in a man, shows itself also in its
   possessor's face, and makes his countenance to shine; as, on the other
   hand, effrontery convicts the man in whom it has taken up its abode, so
   soon as he is seen, as one worthy of hatred. And it is on every account
   right to give careful heed to the words of the king, and by all manner
   of means to avoid an oath, especially one taken in the name of God. It
   may be fit at the same time to notice an evil word, but then it is
   necessary to guard against any blasphemy against God. For it will not
   be possible to find fault with Him when He inflicts any penalty, nor to
   gainsay the decrees of the Only Lord and King. But it will be better
   and more profitable for a man to abide by the holy commandments, and to
   keep himself apart from the words of the wicked. For the wise man knows
   and discerneth beforehand the judgment, which shall come at the right
   time, and sees that it shall be just. For all things in the life of men
   await the retribution from above; but the wicked man does not seem to
   know verily [99] that as there is a mighty providence over him, nothing
   in the future shall be hid. He knoweth not indeed the things which
   shall be; for no man shall be able to announce any one of them to him
   duly: for no one shall be found so strong as to be able to prevent the
   angel who spoils him of his life; [100] neither shall any means be
   devised for cancelling in any way the appointed time of death. But even
   as the man who is captured in the midst of the battle can only see
   flight cut off on every side, so all the impiety of man perisheth
   utterly together. And I am astonished, as often as I contemplate what
   and how great things men have studied to do for the hurt of their
   neighbours. But this I know, that the impious are snatched prematurely
   from this life, and put out of the way because they have given
   themselves to vanity. For whereas the providential judgment [101] of
   God does not overtake all speedily, by reason of His great
   long-suffering, and the wicked is not punished immediately on the
   commission of his offences,--for this reason he thinks that he may sin
   the more, as though he were to get off with impunity, not understanding
   that the transgressor shall not escape the knowledge of God even after
   a long interval. This, moreover, is the chief good, to reverence God;
   for if once the impious man fall away from Him, he shall not be
   suffered long to misuse his own folly. But a most vicious and false
   opinion often prevails among men concerning both the righteous and the
   unrighteous. For they form a judgment contrary to truth regarding each
   of them; and the man who is really righteous does not get the credit of
   being so, while, on the other hand, the impious man is deemed prudent
   and upright. And this I judge to be among the most grievous of errors.
   Once, indeed, I thought that the chief good consisted in eating and
   drinking, and that he was most highly favoured of God who should enjoy
   these things to the utmost in his life; and I fancied that this kind of
   enjoyment was the only comfort in life. And, accordingly, I gave heed
   to nothing but to this conceit, so that neither by night nor by day did
   I withdraw myself from all those things which have ever been discovered
   to minister luxurious delights to men. And this much I learned thereby,
   that the man who mingles in these things shall by no means be able,
   however sorely he may labour with them, to find the real good.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [99] lian.

   [100] psuchen.

   [101] pronoia.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter IX.

   Now I thought at that time that all men were judged worthy of the same
   things. And if any wise man practised righteousness, and withdrew
   himself from unrighteousness, and as being sagacious avoided hatred
   with all (which, indeed, is a thing well pleasing to God), this man
   seemed to me to labour in vain. For there seemed to be one end for the
   righteous and for the impious, for the good and for the evil, for the
   pure and for the impure, for him that worshipped [102] God, and for him
   that worshipped not. For as the unrighteous man and the good, the man
   who sweareth a false oath, and the man who avoids swearing altogether,
   were suspected by me to be driving toward the same end, a certain
   sinister opinion stole secretly into my mind, that all men come to
   their end in a similar way. But now I know that these are the
   reflections of fools, and errors and deceits. And they assert largely,
   that he who is dead has perished utterly, and that the living is to be
   preferred to the dead, even though he may lie in darkness, and pass his
   life-journey after the fashion of a dog, which is better at least than
   a dead lion. For the living know this at any rate, that they are to
   die; but the dead know not anything, and there is no reward proposed to
   them after they have completed their necessary course. Also hatred and
   love with the dead have their end; for their envy has perished, and
   their life also is extinguished. And he has a portion in nothing who
   has once gone hence. Error harping still on such a string, gives also
   such counsel as this: What meanest thou, O man, that thou dost not
   enjoy thyself delicately, and gorge thyself with all manner of pleasant
   food, and fill thyself to the full with wine? Dost thou not perceive
   that these things are given us from God for our unrestrained enjoyment?
   Put on newly washed attire, and anoint thy head with myrrh, and see
   this woman and that, and pass thy vain life vainly. [103] For nothing
   else remaineth for thee but this, neither here nor after death. But
   avail thou thyself of all that chanceth; for neither shall any one take
   account of thee for these things, nor are the things that are done by
   men known at all outside the circle of men. And Hades, whatever that
   may be, whereunto we are said to depart, has neither wisdom nor
   understanding. These are the things which men of vanity speak. But I
   know assuredly, that neither shall they who seem the swiftest
   accomplish that great race; nor shall those who are esteemed mighty and
   terrible in the judgment of men, overcome in that terrible battle.
   Neither, again, is prudence proved by abundance of bread, nor is
   understanding wont to consort with riches. Nor do I congratulate those
   who think that all shall find the same things befall them. But
   certainly those who indulge such thoughts seem to me to be asleep, and
   to fail to consider that, caught suddenly like fishes and birds, they
   will be consumed with woes, and meet speedily their proper retribution.
   Also I estimate wisdom at so high a price, that I should deem a small
   and poorly-peopled city, even though besieged also by a mighty king
   with his forces, to be indeed great and powerful, if it had but one
   wise man, however poor, among its citizens. For such a man would be
   able to deliver his city both from enemies and from entrenchments. And
   other men, it may be, do not recognise that wise man, poor as he is;
   but for my part I greatly prefer the power that resides in wisdom, to
   this might of the mere multitude of the people. Here, however, wisdom,
   as it dwells with poverty, is held in dishonour. But hereafter it shall
   be heard speaking with more authoritative voice than princes and
   despots who seek after things evil. For wisdom is also stronger than
   iron; while the folly of one individual works danger for many, even
   though he be an object of contempt to many. [104]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [102] ilaskomenou.

   [103] The text gives, kakeinen de mataios, etc.

   [104] kan pollois kataphronetos e; so the Cod. Bodleian. and the Cod.
   Medic. read. But others read polu = an object of great contempt. For
   kataphronetos the Cod. Medic. reads eukataphronetos.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter X.

   Moreover, flies falling into myrrh, and suffocated therein, make both
   the appearance of that pleasant ointment and the anointing therewith an
   unseemly thing; [105] and to be mindful of wisdom and of folly together
   is in no way proper. The wise man, indeed, is his own leader to right
   actions; but the fool inclines to erring courses, and will never make
   his folly available as a guide to what is noble. Yea, his thoughts also
   are vain and full of folly. But if ever a hostile spirit fall upon
   thee, my friend, withstand it courageously, knowing that God is able to
   propitiate [106] even a mighty multitude of offences. These also are
   the deeds of the prince and father of all wickedness: that the fool is
   set on high, while the man richly gifted with wisdom is humbled; and
   that the slaves of sin are seen riding on horseback, while men
   dedicated to God walk on foot in dishonour, the wicked exulting the
   while. But if any one devises another's hurt, he forgets that he is
   preparing a snare for himself first and alone. And he who wrecks
   another's safety, shall fall by the bite of a serpent. But he who
   removeth stones, indeed shall undergo no light labour; [107] and he who
   cleaveth wood shall bear danger with him in his own weapon. And if it
   chance that the axe spring out of the handle, [108] he who engages in
   such work shall be put to trouble, gathering for no good [109] and
   having to put to more of his iniquitous and shortlived strength. [110]
   The bite of a serpent, again, is stealthy; and the charmers will not
   soothe the pain, for they are vain. But the good man doeth good works
   for himself and for his neighbours alike; while the fool shall sink
   into destruction through his folly. And when he has once opened his
   mouth, he begins foolishly and soon comes to an end, exhibiting his
   senselessness in all. Moreover, it is impossible for man to know
   anything, or to learn from man either what has been from the beginning,
   or what shall be in the future. For who shall be the declarer thereof?
   Besides, the man who knows not to go to the good city, sustains evil in
   the eyes and in the whole countenance. And I prophesy woes to that city
   the king of which is a youth, and its rulers gluttons. But I call the
   good land blessed, the king of which is the son of the free: there
   those who are entrusted with the power of ruling shall reap what is
   good in due season. But the sluggard and the idler become scoffers, and
   make the house decay; and misusing all things for the purposes of their
   own gluttony, like the ready slaves of money, [111] for a small price
   they are content to do all that is base and abject. It is also right to
   obey kings and rulers or potentates, and not to be bitter against them,
   nor to utter any offensive word against them. For there is ever the
   risk that what has been spoken in secret may somehow become public. For
   swift and winged messengers convey all things to Him who alone is King
   both rich and mighty, discharging therein a service which is at once
   spiritual and reasonable.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [105] The text gives chrisin, for which Cod. Medic. reads, chresin,
   use.

   [106] ilasasthai.

   [107] Reading alla men for alla me.

   [108] steleou, for which others read stelechous.

   [109] ouk hep' agatho sunkomizon.

   [110] hepauxon autos ten heautou adikon kai okumoron dunamin.

   [111] argurio agogimoi.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter XI.

   Moreover, it is a righteous thing to give (to the needy) of thy bread,
   and of those things which are necessary for the support of man's life.
   For though thou seemest forthwith to waste it upon some persons, as if
   thou didst cast thy bread upon the water, yet in the progress of time
   thy kindness shall be seen to be not unprofitable for thee. Also give
   liberally, and give a portion of thy means to many; for thou knowest
   not what the coming day doeth. The clouds, again, do not keep back
   their plenteous rains, but discharge their showers upon the earth. Nor
   does a tree stand for ever; but even though men may spare it, it shall
   be overturned by the wind at any rate. But many desire also to know
   beforehand what is to come from the heavens; and there have been those
   who, scrutinizing the clouds and waiting for the wind, have had nought
   to do with reaping and winnowing, putting their trust in vanity, and
   being all incapable of knowing aught of what may come from God in the
   future; just as men cannot tell what the woman with child shall bring
   forth. But sow thou in season, and thus reap thy fruits whenever the
   time for that comes on. For it is not manifest what shall be better
   than those among all natural things. [112] Would, indeed, that all
   things turned out well! Truly, when a man considers with himself that
   the sun is good, and that this life is sweet, and that it is a pleasant
   thing to have many years wherein one can delight himself continually,
   and that death is a terror and an endless evil, and a thing that brings
   us to nought, he thinks that he ought to enjoy himself in all the
   present and apparent pleasures of life. And he gives this counsel also
   to the young, that they should use to the uttermost [113] the season of
   their youth, by giving up their minds to all manner of pleasure, and
   indulge their passions, and do all that seemeth good in their own eyes,
   and look upon that which delighteth, and avert themselves from that
   which is not so. But to such a man I shall say this much: Senseless art
   thou, my friend, in that thou dost not look for the judgment that shall
   come from God upon all these things. And profligacy and licentiousness
   are evil, and the filthy wantonness of our bodies carries death in it.
   For folly attends on youth, and folly leads to destruction.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [112] hopoia auton estai ameino ton phuenton, perhaps = "which" of
   those natural productions shall be the better.

   [113] katachresthai.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chapter XII.

   Moreover, it is right that thou shouldest fear God while thou art yet
   young, before thou givest thyself over to evil things, and before the
   great and terrible day of God cometh, when the sun shall no longer
   shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that
   storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved,
   that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall
   fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the
   dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors shut. And
   a woman shall be restrained from grinding by fear, and shall speak with
   the weakest voice, like the tiniest bird; and all the impure women
   shall sink into the earth; and cities and their blood-stained
   governments shall wait for the vengeance that comes from above, while
   the most bitter and bloody of all times hangs over them like a
   blossoming almond, and continuous punishments impend like a multitude
   of flying locusts, and the transgressors are cast out of the way like a
   black and despicable caper-plant. And the good man shall depart with
   rejoicing to his own everlasting habitation; but the vile shall fill
   all their places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in store, nor
   proved gold, shall be of use any more. For a mighty stroke [114] shall
   fall upon all things, even to the pitcher that standeth by the well,
   and the wheel of the vessel which may chance to have been left in the
   hollow, when the course of time comes to its end [115] and the
   ablution-bearing period of a life that is like water has passed away.
   [116] And for men who lie on earth there is but one salvation, that
   their souls acknowledge and wing their way to Him by whom they have
   been made. I say, then, again what I have said already, that man's
   estate is altogether vain, and that nothing can exceed the utter vanity
   which attaches to the objects of man's inventions. And superfluous is
   my labour in preaching discreetly, inasmuch as I am attempting to
   instruct a people here, so indisposed to receive either teaching or
   healing. And truly the noble man is needed for the understanding of the
   words of wisdom. Moreover, I, though already aged, and having passed a
   long life, laboured to find out those things which are well-pleasing to
   God, by means of the mysteries of the truth. And I know that the mind
   is no less quickened and stimulated by the precepts of the wise, than
   the body is wont to be when the goad is applied, or a nail is fastened
   in it. [117] And some will render again those wise lessons which they
   have received from one good pastor and teacher, as if all with one
   mouth and in mutual concord set forth in larger detail the truths
   committed to them. But in many words there is no profit. Neither do I
   counsel thee, my friend, to write down vain things about what is
   fitting, [118] from which there in nothing to be gained but weary
   labour. But, in fine, I shall require to use some such conclusion as
   this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that ye
   fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer [119] of all, and
   that ye keep also His commandments; and that ye believe that all shall
   be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the
   just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be
   evil. [120]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [114] kathexei plege. OEcolampadius renders it, magnus enim fons,
   evidently reading pege.

   [115] The text is, en to koilomati pausamenes chronon te peridromes,
   for which we may read, en to koilomati, pausamenes chronon te
   peridromes. Others apparently propose for pausamenes , dexamenes = at
   the hollow of the cistern.

   [116] The text is, kai tes di' udatos zoes parodeusantos tou
   loutrophorou aionos. Billius understands the age to be called
   loutrophorou, because, as long as we are in life, it is possible to
   obtain remission for any sin, or as referring to the rite of baptism.

   [117] elo emperonethenta. The Septuagint reads, logoi sophon hos ta
   boukentra kai hos heloi pephuteumenoi, like nails planted, etc. Others
   read pepuromenoi, igniti. The Vulg. has, quasi clavi in altum defixi.

   [118] peri to prosekon, for which some read, para to prosekon, beyond
   or contrary to what is fitting.

   [119] epoptes.

   [120] [The incomparable beauty of our English version of this twelfth
   chapter of Koheleth is heightened not a little by comparison with this
   turgid metaphrase. It fails, in almost every instance, to extract the
   kernel of the successive stichoi of this superlatively poetic and
   didactic threnode. It must have been a youthful work.]
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     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canonical Epistle. [121]

   ------------------------

   Canon I.

   The meats are no burden to us, most holy father, [122] if the captives
   ate things which their conquerors set before them, especially since
   there is one report from all, viz., that the barbarians who have made
   inroads into our parts have not sacrificed to idols. For the apostle
   says, "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall
   destroy both it and them." [123] But the Saviour also, who cleanseth
   all meats, says, "Not that which goeth into a man defileth the man, but
   that which cometh out." [124] And this meets the case of the captive
   women defiled by the barbarians, who outraged their bodies. But if the
   previous life of any such person convicted him of going, as it is
   written, after the eyes of fornicators, the habit of fornication
   evidently becomes an object of suspicion also in the time of captivity.
   And one ought not readily to have communion with such women in prayers.
   If any one, however, has lived in the utmost chastity, and has shown in
   time past a manner of life pure and free from all suspicion, and now
   falls into wantonness through force of necessity, we have an example
   for our guidance,--namely, the instance of the damsel in Deuteronomy,
   whom a man finds in the field, and forces her and lies with her. "Unto
   the damsel," he says, "ye shall do nothing; there is in the damsel no
   sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour,
   and slayeth him, even so is this matter: the damsel cried, and there
   was none to help her." [125]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [121] Of the holy Gregory, archbishop of Neo-Caesareia, surnamed
   Thaumaturgus, concerning those who, in the inroad of the barbarians,
   ate things sacrificed to idols, or offended in certain other matters.
   Gallandi, iii. p. 400. [Written a.d. 258 or 262.] There are scholia in
   Latin by Theodorus Balsamon and Joannes Zonaras on these canons. The
   note of the former on the last canon may be cited:--The present saint
   has defined shortly five several positions for the penitent; but he has
   not indicated either the times appointed for their exercise, or the
   sins for which discipline is determined. Basil the Great, again, has
   handed down to us an accurate account of these things in his canonical
   epistles. [Elucidation II.] Yet he, too, has referred to episcopal
   decision the matter of recovery through penalties [i.e., to the
   decision of his comprovincial bishops, as in Cyprian's example. See
   vol. v. p. 415, Elucidation XIII.; also Elucidation I. p. 20, infra.

   [122] [Elucidation III. p. 20.]

   [123] 1 Cor. vi. 13.

   [124] Matt. xv. 11.

   [125] Deut. xxii. 26, 27.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon II.

   Covetousness is a great evil; and it is not possible in a single letter
   to set forth those scriptures in which not robbery alone is declared to
   be a thing horrible and to be abhorred, but in general the grasping
   mind, and the disposition to meddle with what belongs to others, in
   order to satisfy the sordid love of gain. And all persons of that
   spirit are excommunicated from the Church of God. But that at the time
   of the irruption, in the midst of such woful sorrows and bitter
   lamentations, some should have been audacious enough to consider the
   crisis which brought destruction to all the very period for their own
   private aggrandizement, that is a thing which can be averred only of
   men who are impious and hated of God, and of unsurpassable iniquity.
   Wherefore it seemed good to excommunicate such persons, lest the wrath
   (of God) should come upon the whole people, and upon those first of all
   who are set over them in office, and yet fail to make inquiry. For I am
   afraid, as the Scripture says, lest the impious work the destruction of
   the righteous along with his own. [126] "For fornication," it says,
   [127] "and covetousness are things on account of which the wrath of God
   cometh upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
   with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the
   Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light [128] is in
   all goodness, and righteousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable
   unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
   darkness, but rather reprove them; for it is a shame even to speak of
   those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are
   reproved are made manifest by the light." In this wise speaks the
   apostle. But if certain parties who pay the proper penalty for that
   former covetousness of theirs, which exhibited itself in the time of
   peace, now turn aside again to the indulgence of covetousness in the
   very time of trouble (i.e., in the troubles of the inroads by the
   barbarians), and make gain out of the blood and ruin of men who have
   been utterly despoiled, or taken captive, (or) put to death, what else
   ought to be expected, than that those who struggle so hotly for
   covetousness should heap up wrath both for themselves and for the whole
   people?
     __________________________________________________________________

   [126] Gen. xviii. 23, 25.

   [127] Eph. v. 5-13.

   [128] tou photos for the received pneumatos.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon III.

   Behold, did not Achar [129] the son of Zara transgress in the accursed
   thing, and trouble then lighted on all the congregation of Israel? And
   this one man was alone in his sin; but he was not alone in the death
   that came by his sin. And by us, too, everything of a gainful kind at
   this time, which is ours not in our own rightful possession, but as
   property strictly belonging to others, ought to be reckoned a thing
   devoted. For that Achar indeed took of the spoil; and those men of the
   present time take also of the spoil. But he took what belonged to
   enemies; while these now take what belongs to brethren, and aggrandize
   themselves with fatal gains.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [129] Josh. vii.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon IV.

   Let no one deceive himself, nor put forward the pretext of having found
   such property. For it is not lawful, even for a man who has found
   anything, to aggrandize himself by it. For Deuteronomy says: "Thou
   shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray in the way, and
   pay no heed to them; but thou shalt in any wise bring them again unto
   thy brother. And if thy brother come not nigh thee, or if thou know him
   not, then thou shalt bring them together, and they shall be with thee
   until thy brother seek after them, and thou shalt restore them to him
   again. And in like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou
   do with his raiment, and so shalt thou do with all lost things of thy
   brother's, which he hath lost, and thou mayest find." [130] Thus much
   in Deuteronomy. And in the book of Exodus it is said, with reference
   not only to the case of finding what is a friend's, but also of finding
   what is an enemy's: "Thou shalt surely bring them back to the house of
   their master again." [131] And if it is not lawful to aggrandize
   oneself at the expense of another, whether he be brother or enemy, even
   in the time of peace, when he is living at his ease and delicately, and
   without concern as to his property, how much more must it be the case
   when one is met by adversity, and is fleeing from his enemies, and has
   had to abandon his possessions by force of circumstances!
     __________________________________________________________________

   [130] Deut. xxii. 1-3.

   [131] Ex. xxiii. 4.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon V.

   But others deceive themselves by fancying that they can retain the
   property of others which they may have found as an equivalent for their
   own property which they have lost. In this way verily, just as the
   Boradi and Goths brought the havoc of war on them, they make themselves
   Boradi and Goths to others. Accordingly we have sent to you our brother
   and comrade in old age, Euphrosynus, with this view, that he may deal
   with you in accordance with our model here, and teach you against whom
   you ought to admit accusations, [132] and whom you ought to exclude
   from your prayers.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [132] hon dei tas kategorias prosiesthai.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon VI. [133]

   Moreover, it has been reported to us that a thing has happened in your
   country which is surely incredible, and which, if done at all, is
   altogether the work of unbelievers, and impious men, and men who know
   not the very name of the Lord; to wit, that some have gone to such a
   pitch of cruelty and inhumanity, as to be detaining by force certain
   captives who have made their escape. Dispatch ye commissioners into the
   country, lest the thunderbolts of heaven fall all too surely upon those
   who perpetrate such deeds.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [133] Concerning those who forcibly detain captives escaped from the
   barbarians.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon VII. [134]

   Now, as regards those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, and
   have accompanied them in their irruption in a state of captivity, and
   who, forgetting that they were from Pontus, and Christians, have become
   such thorough barbarians, as even to put those of their own race to
   death by the gibbet [135] or strangulation, and to show their roads or
   houses to the barbarians, who else would have been ignorant of them, it
   is necessary for you to debar such persons even from being auditors in
   the public congregations, [136] until some common decision about them
   is come to by the saints assembled in council, and by the Holy Spirit
   antecedently to them.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [134] Concerning those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, and
   who have dared to do certain monstrous things against those of the same
   race with themselves.

   [135] xulo.

   [136] akroaseos.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon VIII. [137]

   Now those who have been so audacious as to invade the houses of others,
   if they have once been put on their trial and convicted, ought not to
   be deemed fit even to be hearers in the public congregation. But if
   they have declared themselves and made restitution, they should be
   placed in the rank of the repentant. [138]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [137] Concerning those who have been so audacious as to invade the
   houses of others in the inroad of the barbarians.

   [138] ton hupostrephonton.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon IX. [139]

   Now, those who have found in the open field or in their own houses
   anything left behind them by the barbarians, if they have once been put
   on their trial and convicted, ought to fall under the same class of the
   repentant. But if they have declared themselves and made restitution,
   they ought to be deemed fit for the privilege of prayer. [140]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [139] Concerning those who have found in the open field or in private
   houses property left behind them by the barbarians.

   [140] [Partially elucidated below in (the spurious) Canon XI. See
   Marshall's Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon X.

   And they who keep the commandment ought to keep it without any sordid
   covetousness, demanding neither recompense, [141] nor reward, [142] nor
   fee, [143] nor anything else that bears the name of acknowledgment.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [141] menutra, the price of information.

   [142] sostra, the reward for bringing back a runaway slave.

   [143] heuretra, the reward of discovery.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Canon XI. [144]

   Weeping [145] takes place without the gate of the oratory; and the
   offender standing there ought to implore the faithful as they enter to
   offer up prayer on his behalf. Waiting on the word, [146] again, takes
   place within the gate in the porch, [147] where the offender ought to
   stand until the catechumens depart, and thereafter he should go forth.
   For let him hear the Scriptures and doctrine, it is said, and then be
   put forth, and reckoned unfit for the privilege of prayer. Submission,
   [148] again, is that one stand within the gate of the temple, and go
   forth along with the catechumens. Restoration [149] is that one be
   associated with the faithful, and go not forth with the catechumens;
   and last of all comes the participation in the holy ordinances. [150]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [144] [This canon is rejected as spurious. Lardner, Credib., ii. p.
   633.]

   [145] prosklausis, discipline.

   [146] akroasis.

   [147] en to nartheki.

   [148] hupoptosis.

   [149] sustasis.

   [150] hagiasmaton.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Elucidations.

   ------------------------

   I.

   (The title, p. 18.)

   This is a genuine epistle, all but the eleventh canon. It is addressed
   to an anonymous bishop; one of his suffragans, some think. I suppose,
   rather, he consults, as Cyprian did, the bishop of the nearest
   Apostolic See, and awaits his concurrence. It refers to the ravages of
   the Goths in the days of Gallienus (a.d. 259-267), and proves the care
   of the Church to maintain discipline, even in times most unfavourable
   to order and piety. The last canon is an explanatory addition made to
   elucidate the four degrees or classes of penitents. It is a very
   interesting document in this respect, and sheds light on the famous
   canonical epistles of St. Basil.

   II.

   (Basil the Great, p. 18, note.)

   The "Canonical Epistles" of St. Basil are not private letters, but
   canons of the churches with which he was nearest related. When there
   was no art of printing, the chief bishops were obliged to communicate
   with suffragans, and with their brethren in the Apostolic See nearest
   to them. See them expounded at large in Dupin, Ecclesiastical Writers
   of the Fourth Century, Works, vol. i., London, 1693 (translated), p.
   139, etc.

   III.

   (Most holy father, p. 18.)

   This expression leads me to think that this epistle is addressed to the
   Bishop of Antioch or of some other Apostolic See. It must not be taken
   as a prescribed formula, however, as when we say "Most Reverend" in our
   days; e.g., addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, it is an
   expression of personal reverence. As yet, titular distinctions, such as
   these, were not known. In the West existing usages seem to have been
   introduced with the Carlovingian system of dignities, expounded by
   Gibbon.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen. [151]

   ------------------------

   Argument I.--For Eight Years Gregory Has Given Up the Practice of
   Oratory, Being Busied with the Study Chiefly of Roman Law and the Latin
   Language.

   An excellent [152] thing has silence proved itself in many another
   person on many an occasion, and at present it befits myself, too, most
   especially, who with or without purpose may keep the door of my lips,
   and feel constrained to be silent. For I am unpractised and unskilled
   [153] in those beautiful and elegant addresses which are spoken or
   composed in a regular and unbroken [154] train, in select and
   well-chosen phrases and words; and it may be that I am less apt by
   nature to cultivate successfully this graceful and truly Grecian art.
   Besides, it is now eight years since I chanced myself to utter or
   compose any speech, whether long or short; neither in that period have
   I heard any other compose or utter anything in private, or deliver in
   public any laudatory or controversial orations, with the exception of
   those admirable men who have embraced the noble study of philosophy,
   and who care less for beauty of language and elegance of expression.
   For, attaching only a secondary importance to the words, they aim, with
   all exactness, at investigating and making known the things themselves,
   precisely as they are severally constituted. Not indeed, in my opinion,
   that they do not desire, but rather that they do greatly desire, to
   clothe the noble and accurate results of their thinking in noble and
   comely [155] language. Yet it may be that they are not able so lightly
   to put forth this sacred and godlike power (faculty) in the exercise of
   its own proper conceptions, and at the same time to practise a mode of
   discourse eloquent in its terms, and thus to comprehend in one and the
   same mind--and that, too, this little mind of man--two accomplishments,
   which are the gifts of two distinct persons, and which are, in truth,
   most contrary to each other. For silence is indeed the friend and
   helpmeet of thought and invention. But if one aims at readiness of
   speech and beauty of discourse, he will get at them by no other
   discipline than the study of words, and their constant practice.
   Moreover, another branch of learning occupies my mind completely, and
   the mouth binds the tongue if I should desire to make any speech,
   however brief, with the voice of the Greeks; I refer to those admirable
   laws of our sages [156] by which the affairs of all the subjects of the
   Roman Empire are now directed, and which are neither composed [157] nor
   learnt without difficulty. And these are wise and exact [158] in
   themselves, and manifold and admirable, and, in a word, most thoroughly
   Grecian; and they are expressed and committed to us in the Roman
   tongue, which is a wonderful and magnificent sort of language, and one
   very aptly conformable to royal authority, [159] but still difficult to
   me. Nor could it be otherwise with me, even though I might say that it
   was my desire that it should be. [160] And as our words are nothing
   else than a kind of imagery of the dispositions of our mind, we should
   allow those who have the gift of speech, like some good artists alike
   skilled to the utmost in their art and liberally furnished in the
   matter of colours, to possess the liberty of painting their
   word-pictures, not simply of a uniform complexion, but also of various
   descriptions and of richest beauty in the abundant mixture of flowers,
   without let or hindrance.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [151] Delivered by Gregory Thaumaturgus in the Palestinian Caesareia,
   when about to leave for his own country, after many years' instruction
   under that teacher. [Circa a.d. 238.] Gallandi, Opera, p. 413.

   [152] kalon, for which Hoeschelius has agathon.

   [153] apeiros, for which Hoeschelius has anasketos.

   [154] akoluto, for which Bengel suggests akoloutho.

   [155] eueidei, for which Ger. Vossius gives apseudei.

   [156] [See my introductory note, supra. He refers to Caius, Papinian,
   Ulpian; all, probably, of Syrian origin, and using the Greek as their
   vernacular.]

   [157] sunkeimenoi, which is rendered by some conduntur, by others
   confectae sunt, and by others still componantur, harmonized,--the
   reference then being to the difficulty experienced in learning the
   laws, in the way of harmonizing those which apparently oppose each
   other.

   [158] akribeis, for which Ger. Vossius gives eusebeis, pious.

   [159] [A noteworthy estimate of Latin by a Greek.]

   [160] ei kai bouleton, etc., for which Hoeschelius gives oute bouleton,
   etc. The Latin version gives, non enim aliter sentire aut posse aut
   velle me unquam dixerim.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Argument II.--He Essays to Speak of the Well-Nigh Divine Endowments of
   Origen in His Presence, into Whose Hands He Avows Himself to Have Been
   Led in a Way Beyond All His Expectation.

   But we, like any of the poor, unfurnished with these varied specifics
   [161] --whether as never having been possessed of them, or, it may be,
   as having lost them--are under the necessity of using, as it were, only
   charcoal and tiles, that is to say, those rude and common words and
   phrases; and by means of these, to the best of our ability, we
   represent the native dispositions of our mind, expressing them in such
   language as is at our service, and endeavouring to exhibit the
   impressions of the figures [162] of our mind, if not clearly or
   ornately, yet at least with the faithfulness of a charcoal picture,
   welcoming gladly any graceful and eloquent expression which may present
   itself from any quarter, although we make little of such. [163] But,
   furthermore, [164] there is a third circumstance which hinders and
   dissuades me from this attempt, and which holds me back much more even
   than the others, and recommends me to keep silence by all means,--I
   allude to the subject itself, which made me indeed ambitious to speak
   of it, but which now makes me draw back and delay. For it is my purpose
   to speak of one who has indeed the semblance and repute of being a man,
   but who seems, to those who are able to contemplate the greatness of
   his intellectual calibre, [165] to be endowed with powers nobler and
   well-nigh divine. [166] And it is not his birth or bodily training that
   I am about to praise, and that makes me now delay and procrastinate
   with an excess of caution. Nor, again, is it his strength or beauty;
   for these form the eulogies of youths, of which it matters little
   whether the utterance be worthy or not. [167] For, to make an oration
   on matters of a temporary and fugitive nature, which perish in many
   various ways and quickly, and to discourse of these with all the
   grandeur and dignity of great affairs, and with such timorous delays,
   would seem a vain and futile procedure. [168] And certainly, if it had
   been proposed to me to speak of any of those things which are useless
   and unsubstantial, and such as I should never voluntarily have thought
   of speaking of,--if, I say, it had been proposed to me to speak of
   anything of that character, my speech would have had none of this
   caution or fear, lest in any statement I might seem to come beneath the
   merit of the subject. But now, my subject dealing with that which is
   most godlike in the man, and that in him which has most affinity with
   God, that which is indeed confined within the limits of this visible
   and mortal form, but which strains nevertheless most ardently after the
   likeness of God; and my object being to make mention of this, and to
   put my hand to weightier matters, and therein also to express my
   thanksgivings to the Godhead, in that it has been granted to me to meet
   with such a man beyond the expectation of men,--the expectation,
   verily, not only of others, but also of my own heart, for I neither set
   such a privilege before me at any time, nor hoped for it; it being, I
   say, my object, insignificant and altogether without understanding as I
   am, to put my hand to such subjects, it is not without reason [169]
   that I shrink from the task, and hesitate, and desire to keep silence.
   And, in truth, to keep silence seems to me to be also the safe course,
   lest, with the show of an expression of thanksgiving, I may chance, in
   my rashness, to discourse of noble and sacred subjects in terms ignoble
   and paltry and utterly trite, and thus not only miss attaining the
   truth, but even, so far as it depends on me, do it some injury with
   those who may believe that it stands in such a category, when a
   discourse which is weak is composed thereon, and is rather calculated
   to excite ridicule than to prove itself commensurate in its vigour with
   the dignity of its themes. But all that pertains to thee is beyond the
   touch of injury and ridicule, O dear soul; or, much rather let me say,
   that the divine herein remains ever as it is, unmoved and harmed in
   nothing by our paltry and unworthy words. Yet I know not how we shall
   escape the imputation of boldness and rashness in thus attempting in
   our folly, and with little either of intelligence or of preparation, to
   handle matters which are weighty, and probably beyond our capacity. And
   if, indeed, elsewhere and with others, we had aspired to make such
   youthful endeavours in matters like these, we would surely have been
   bold and daring; nevertheless in such a case our rashness might not
   have been ascribed to shamelessness, in so far as we should not have
   been making the bold effort with thee. But now we shall be filling out
   the whole measure of senselessness, or rather indeed we have already
   filled it out, in venturing with unwashed feet (as the saying goes) to
   introduce ourselves to ears into which the Divine Word Himself--not
   indeed with covered feet, as is the case with the general mass of men,
   and, as it were, under the thick coverings of enigmatical and obscure
   [170] sayings, but with unsandalled feet (if one may so speak)--has
   made His way clearly and perspicuously, and in which He now sojourns;
   while we, who have but refuse and mud to offer in these human words of
   ours, have been bold enough to pour them into ears which are practised
   in hearing only words that are divine and pure. It might indeed suffice
   us, therefore, to have transgressed thus far; and now, at least, it
   might be but right to restrain ourselves, and to advance no further
   with our discourse. And verily I would stop here most gladly.
   Nevertheless, as I have once made the rash venture, it may be allowed
   me first of all to explain the reason under the force of which I have
   been led into this arduous enterprise, if indeed any pardon can be
   extended to me for my forwardness in this matter.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [161] pharmakon.

   [162] charakteras ton tes psuches tupon.

   [163] aspasamenoi hedeos, epei kai periphronesantes. The passage is
   considered by some to be mutilated.

   [164] The text is, alla gar ek triton authis allos koluei,, etc. For
   allos Hoeschelius gives alla de, Bengel follows him, and renders it,
   sed rursum, tertio loco, aliud est quod prohibet. Delarue proposes,
   alla gar hen triton authis allos koluei.

   [165] to de polu tes hexeos.

   [166] This is the rendering according to the Latin version. The text
   is, apeskeuasmenou ede meizoni paraskeue metanastaseos tes pros to
   theion. Vossius reads, met' anastaseos.

   [167] hon hetton phrontis kat' axian te kai me, legomenon.

   [168] The text is, me kai psuchron e perperon e, where, according to
   Bengel, me has the force of ut non dicam.

   [169] But the text reads, ouk eulogos.

   [170] asaphon. But Ger. Voss has asphalon, safe.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Argument III.--He is Stimulated to Speak of Him by the Longing of a
   Grateful Mind. To the Utmost of His Ability He Thinks He Ought to Thank
   Him. From God are the Beginnings of All Blessings; And to Him Adequate
   Thanks Cannot Be Returned.

   Ingratitude appears to me to be a dire evil; a dire evil indeed, yea,
   the direst of evils. For when one has received some benefit, his
   failing to attempt to make any return by at least the oral expression
   of thanks, where aught else is beyond his power, marks him out either
   as an utterly irrational person, or as one devoid of the sense of
   obligations conferred, or as a man without any memory. And, again,
   though [171] one is possessed naturally and at once by the sense and
   the knowledge of benefits received, yet, unless he also carries the
   memory of these obligations to future days, and offers some evidence of
   gratitude to the author of the boons, such a person is a dull, and
   ungrateful, and impious fellow; and he commits an offence which can be
   excused neither in the case of the great nor in that of the small:--if
   we suppose the case of a great and high-minded man not bearing
   constantly on his lips his great benefits with all gratitude and
   honour, or that of a small and contemptible man not praising and
   lauding with all his might one who has been his benefactor, not simply
   in great services, but also in smaller. Upon the great, therefore, and
   those who excel in powers of mind, it is incumbent, as out of their
   greater abundance and larger wealth, to render greater and worthier
   praise, according to their capacity, to their benefactors. But the
   humble also, and those in narrow circumstances, it beseems neither to
   neglect those who do them service, nor to take their services
   carelessly, nor to flag in heart as if they could offer nothing worthy
   or perfect; but as poor indeed, and yet as of good feeling, and as
   measuring not the capacity of him whom they honour, but only their own,
   they ought to pay him honour according to the present measure of their
   power,--a tribute which will probably be grateful and pleasant to him
   who is honoured, and in no less consideration with him than it would
   have been had it been some great and splendid offering, if it is only
   presented with decided earnestness, and with a sincere mind. Thus is it
   laid down in the sacred writings, [172] that a certain poor and lowly
   woman, who was with the rich and powerful that were contributing
   largely and richly out of their wealth, alone and by herself cast in a
   small, yea, the very smallest offering, which was, however, all the
   while her whole substance, and received the testimony of having
   presented the largest oblation. For, as I judge, the sacred word has
   not set up the large outward quantity of the substance given, but
   rather the mind and disposition of the giver, as the standard by which
   the worth and the magnificence of the offering are to be measured.
   Wherefore it is not meet even for us by any means to shrink from this
   duty, through the fear that our thanksgivings be not adequate to our
   obligations; but, on the contrary, we ought to venture and attempt
   everything, so as to offer thanksgivings, if not adequate, at least
   such as we have it in our power to exhibit, as in due return. And would
   that our discourse, even though it comes short of the perfect measure,
   might at least reach the mark in some degree, and be saved from all
   appearance of ingratitude! For a persistent silence, maintained under
   the plausible cover of an inability to say anything worthy of the
   subject, is a vain and evil thing; but it is the mark of a good
   disposition always to make the attempt at a suitable return, even
   although the power of the person who offers the grateful acknowledgment
   be inferior to the desert of the subject. For my part, even although I
   am unable to speak as the matter merits, I shall not keep silence; but
   when I have done all that I possibly can, then I may congratulate
   myself. Be this, then, the method of my eucharistic discourse. To God,
   indeed, the God of the universe, I shall not think of speaking in such
   terms: yet is it from Him that all the beginnings of our blessings
   come; and with Him consequently is it that the beginning of our
   thanksgivings, or praises, or laudations, ought to be made. But, in
   truth, not even though I were to devote myself wholly to that duty, and
   that, too, not as I now am--to wit, profane and impure, and mixed up
   with and stained by every unhallowed [173] and polluting evil--but
   sincere and as pure as pure may be, and most genuine, and most
   unsophisticated, and uncontaminated by anything vile;--not even, I say,
   though I were thus to devote myself wholly, and with all the purity of
   the newly born, to this task, should I produce of myself any suitable
   gift in the way of honour and acknowledgment to the Ruler and
   Originator of all things, whom neither men separately and individually,
   nor yet all men in concert, acting with one spirit and one concordant
   impulse, as though all that is pure were made to meet in one, and all
   that is diverse from that were turned also to that service, could ever
   celebrate in a manner worthy of Him. For, in whatsoever measure any man
   is able to form right and adequate conceptions of His works, and (if
   such a thing were possible) to speak worthily regarding Him, then, so
   far as that very capacity is concerned,--a capacity with which he has
   not been gifted by any other one, but which he has received from Him
   alone, he cannot possibly find any greater matter of thanksgiving than
   what is implied in its possession.
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   [171] Reading hoto, with Hoeschelius, Bengel, and the Paris editor,
   while Voss. reads oti.

   [172] Luke xxi. 2.

   [173] panagei, which in the lexicons is given as bearing only the good
   sense, all-hallowed, but which here evidently is taken in the opposite.
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   Argument IV.--The Son Alone Knows How to Praise the Father Worthily. In
   Christ and by Christ Our Thanksgivings Ought to Be Rendered to the
   Father. Gregory Also Gives Thanks to His Guardian Angel, Because He Was
   Conducted by Him to Origen.

   But let us commit the praises and hymns in honour of the King and
   Superintendent of all things, the perennial Fount of all blessings, to
   the hand of Him who, in this matter as in all others, is the Healer of
   our infirmity, and who alone is able to supply that which is lacking;
   to the Champion and Saviour of our souls, His first-born Word, the
   Maker and Ruler of all things, with whom also alone it is possible,
   both for Himself and for all, whether privately and individually, or
   publicly and collectively, to send up to the Father uninterrupted and
   ceaseless thanksgivings. For as He is Himself the Truth, and the
   Wisdom, and the Power of the Father of the universe, and He is besides
   in Him, and is truly and entirely made one with Him, it cannot be that,
   either through forgetfulness or unwisdom, or any manner of infirmity,
   such as marks one dissociated from Him, He shall either fail in the
   power to praise Him, or, while having the power, shall willingly
   neglect (a supposition which it is not lawful, surely, to indulge) to
   praise the Father. For He alone is able most perfectly to fulfil the
   whole meed of honour which is proper to Him, inasmuch as the Father of
   all things has made Him one with Himself, and through Him all but
   completes the circle of His own being objectively, [174] and honours
   Him with a power in all respects equal to His own, even as also He is
   honoured; which position He first and alone of all creatures that exist
   has had assigned Him, this Only-begotten of the Father, who is in Him,
   and who is God the Word; while all others of us are able to express our
   thanksgiving and our piety only if, in return for all the blessings
   which proceed to us from the Father, we bring our offerings in simple
   dependence on Him alone, and thus present the meet oblation of
   thanksgiving to Him who is the Author of all things, acknowledging also
   that the only way of piety is in this manner to offer our memorials
   through Him. Wherefore, in acknowledgment of that ceaseless providence
   which watches over all of us, alike in the greatest and in the smallest
   concerns, and which has been sustained even thus far, let this Word
   [175] be accepted as the worthy and perpetual expression for all
   thanksgivings and praises,--I mean the altogether perfect and living
   and verily animate Word of the First Mind Himself. But let this word of
   ours be taken primarily as an eucharistic address in honour of this
   sacred personage, who stands alone among all men; [176] and if I may
   seek to discourse [177] of aught beyond this, and, in particular, of
   any of those beings who are not seen, but yet are more godlike, and who
   have a special care for men, it shall be addressed to that being who,
   by some momentous decision, had me allotted to him from my boyhood to
   rule, and rear, and train,--I mean that holy angel of God who fed me
   from my youth, [178] as says the saint dear to God, meaning thereby his
   own peculiar one. Though he, indeed, as being himself illustrious, did
   in these terms designate some angel exalted enough to befit his own
   dignity (and whether it was some other one, or whether it was perchance
   the Angel of the Mighty Counsel Himself, the Common Saviour of all,
   that he received as his own peculiar guardian through his perfection, I
   do not clearly know),--he, I say, did recognise and praise some
   superior angel as his own, whosoever that was. But we, in addition to
   the homage we offer to the Common Ruler of all men, acknowledge and
   praise that being, whosoever he is, who has been the wonderful guide of
   our childhood, who in all other matters has been in time past my
   beneficent tutor and guardian. For this office of tutor and guardian is
   one which evidently can suit [179] neither me nor any of my friends and
   kindred; for we are all blind, and see nothing of what is before us, so
   as to be able to judge of what is right and fitting; but it can suit
   only him who sees beforehand all that is for the good of our soul: that
   angel, I say, who still at this present time sustains, and instructs,
   and conducts me; and who, in addition to all these other benefits, has
   brought me into connection with this man, which, in truth, is the most
   important of all the services done me. And this, too, he has effected
   for me, although between myself and that man of whom I discourse there
   was no kinship of race or blood, nor any other tie, nor any
   relationship in neighbourhood or country whatsoever; things which are
   made the ground of friendship and union among the majority of men. But
   to speak in brief, in the exercise of a truly divine and wise
   forethought he brought us together, who were unknown to each other, and
   strangers, and foreigners, separated as thoroughly from each other as
   intervening nations, and mountains, and rivers can divide man from man,
   and thus he made good this meeting which has been full of profit to me,
   having, as I judge, provided beforehand this blessing for me from above
   from my very birth and earliest upbringing. And in what manner this has
   been realized it would take long to recount fully, not merely if I were
   to enter minutely into the whole subject, and were to attempt to omit
   nothing, but even if, passing many things by, I should purpose simply
   to mention in a summary way a few of the most important points.
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   [174] ekperion in the text, for which Bengel gives ekperiion, a word
   used frequently by this author. In Dorner it is explained as = going
   out of Himself in order to embrace and encompass Himself. See the
   Doctrine of the Person of Christ, A. II. p. 173 (Clark).

   [175] logos.

   [176] [The unformed theological mind of a youth is here betrayed.]

   [177] The text gives melegorein, for which others read megalegorein.

   [178] Gen. xlviii. 15. [Jacob refers to the Jehovah-Angel.]

   [179] The text gives emoi, etc.,...sumpheron einai kataphainetai.
   Bengel's idea of the sense is followed in the translation.
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