O stupidity, that a Deity should possess nothing more than we do. Know you the differences of the glory 1 Corinthians 15:41 of each, and the order of their movement, that I should trust you, when by them you weave the web of human concerns, and arm the creature against the Creator? What are the mutual aggressions and concessions of day and night, and their regular irregularities — to use a somewhat strange expression? Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Since then these things are so, and we have broken up for ourselves the fallows of Divinity Jeremiah 4:3, so as not to sow upon thorns, Matthew 13:7 and have made plain the face of the ground, Isaiah 28:25 being moulded and moulding others by Holy Scripture...let us now enter upon Theological questions, setting at the head thereof the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of Whom we are to treat; that the Father may be well pleased, and the Son may help us, and the Holy Ghost may inspire us; or rather that one illumination may come upon us from the One God, One in diversity, diverse in Unity, wherein is a marvel. Whence do bees and spiders get their love of work and art, by which the former plan their honeycombs, and join them together by hexagonal and co-ordinate tubes, and construct the foundation by means of a partition and an alternation of the angles with straight lines; and this, as is the case, in such dusky hives and dark combs; and the latter weave their intricate webs by such light and almost airy threads stretched in divers ways, and this from almost invisible beginnings, to be at once a precious dwelling, and a trap for weaker creatures with a view to enjoyment of food? And this I think is the solution of that vexed problem as to We shall know even as we are known. Gregory of Nazianzus (Greek: Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός Grēgorios ho Nazianzēnos; c. 329–25 January 390), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople, and theologian. Nor yet is this incomprehensibility for the sake of His own glory and honor, Who is full, as if His possession of His glory and majesty depended upon the impossibility of approaching Him. What harmonious Gnossian chorus of Dædalus, wrought for a girl to the highest pitch of beauty? Who spread the sky around us, and set the stars in order? And if you like we will grant you this: to what then will you ascribe its preservation and protection in accordance with the terms of its first creation. Thus Enos hoped to call upon the Name of the Lord. And I think that some who were courtiers of arbitrary power and extolled bodily strength and admired beauty, made a God in time out of him whom they honored, perhaps getting hold of some fable to help on their imposture. Is it not necessary that there shall be some mean to mark off the Universe from that which is above the Universe? St Basil, much to Gregory’s disdain, consecrated him Bishop of Sasima in the Archdiocese of Caesarea. For even of this I would have you know that you have only a shadow when you hear the words, “I will consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars,” and the settled order therein; not as if he were considering them now, but as destined to do so hereafter. And before now men have insulted themselves by worshipping monsters, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things? Thus Solomon, who was the wisest of all men, 1 Kings 3:12 whether before him or in his own time, to whom God gave breadth of heart, and a flood of contemplation, more abundant than the sand, even he, the more he entered into the depth, the more dizzy he became, and declared the furthest point of wisdom to be the discovery of how very far off she was from him. "HEAR me all ye ... 28. Nay, the whole question of His Being is still left for the further consideration and exposition of him who truly has the mind of God and is advanced in contemplation. For I commend the man, though he was a heathen, who said, What gave movement to these, and drives their ceaseless and unhindered motion? Gregory Nazianzen, "Julian the Emperor" (1888). For if He is Nowhere, then some person of a very inquiring turn of mind might ask, How is it then that He can even exist? It is difficult to conceive God but to define Him in words is an impossibility, as one of the Greek teachers of Divinity taught, not unskillfully, as it appears to me; with the intention that he might be thought to have apprehended Him; in that he says it is a hard thing to do; and yet may escape being convicted of ignorance because of the impossibility of giving expression to the apprehension, But in my opinion it is impossible to express Him, and yet more impossible to conceive Him. When Gregory begins to discuss the Trinitarian understanding of God, ... – Third Theological Oration, ch 20. What arrogance for such is not the nature of a body! But in our present life all that comes to us is but a little effluence, and as it were a small effulgence from a great Light. Others again of the Elements, earth, air, water, fire, because of their useful nature, since without them human life cannot possibly exist. XXIV. Or perhaps it may be to give a greater reward hereafter for their labor and glorious life to those who have here been purified, and have exercised long patience in respect of that which they desired. And thus to us also is manifested That which made and moves and preserves all created things, even though He be not comprehended by the mind. Have your natural philosophers with their knowledge of useless details anything to tell us, those men I mean who are really endeavouring to measure the sea with a wineglass, and such mighty works by their own conceptions? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the Mount, and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within myself. Thus also there must be no body, that there may be no composition, and so the argument is established by going back from last to first. For it was not the part of Wisdom to grant the sovereignty to things which are, as observation tells us, of equal rank. How, moreover, does it receive all the rivers, and yet remain the same, through the very superabundance of its immensity, if that term be permissible? And much concerning our rest in sleep, and the figments of dreams, and of memory and remembrance; of calculation, and anger, and desire; and in a word, all by which this little world called Man is swayed. How is it that the voice is carried by the vocal organs, and received by the ears, and both are joined by the smiting and resounding of the medium of the air? But this term Incorporeal, though granted, does not yet set before us — or contain within itself His Essence, any more than Unbegotten, or Unoriginate, or Unchanging, or Incorruptible, or any other predicate which is used concerning God or in reference to Him. He pays tribute, but it is out of a fish; yea, He is the King of those who demanded it. How is it that birds have for nests rocks and trees and roofs, and adapt them both for safety and beauty, and suitably for the comfort of their nurslings? Who was ever deemed worthy of so great a gift? But if He is Somewhere, He must be either in the Universe, or above the Universe. And how doth He bring upon it the Nautilus that inhabits the dry land (i.e., man) in a little vessel, and with a little breeze (dost thou not marvel at the sight of this, — is not thy mind astonished? For, granted that you understand orbits and periods, and waxings and wanings, and settings and risings, and some degrees and minutes, and all the other things which make you so proud of your wonderful knowledge; you have not arrived at comprehension of the realities themselves, but only at an observation of some movement, which, when confirmed by longer practice, and drawing the observations of many individuals into one generalization, and thence deducing a law, has acquired the name of Science (just as the lunar phenomena have become generally known to our sight), being the basis of this knowledge. If in some part, then He will be circumscribed by that part which is less than Himself; but if everywhere, then by one which is further and greater — I mean the Universal, which contains the Particular; if the Universe is to be contained by the Universe, and no place is to be free from circumscription. Thus much we will hear Paul say about it, that we know in part and we prophesy in part. IV. And what is the nourishing power of water, and what the difference therein; for some things are irrigated from above, and others drink from their roots, if I may luxuriate a little in my language when speaking of the luxuriant gifts of God. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series. The proof of this is that they shine against him, but he outshines them and does not even allow it to be perceived that they rose simultaneously with him, fair as a bridegroom, swift and great as a giant for I will not let his praises be sung from any other source than my own Scriptures — so mighty in strength that from one end to the other of the world he embraces all things in his heat, and there is nothing hid from the feeling thereof, but it fills both every eye with light, and every embodied creature with heat; warming, yet not burning, by the gentleness of its temper, and the order of its movement, present to all, and equally embracing all. But, relatively to us at least, we must reckon the Angelic Nature incorporeal, or at any rate as nearly so as possible. gregory nazianzen's second invective against julian the emperor. Most are appearing here in English for the first time. That the Divine Nature cannot be apprehended by human reason, and that we cannot even represent to ourselves all its greatness. Do these belong to the Accidental, or to something else? Shall we pause here, after discussing nothing further than matter and visible things, or, since the Word knows the Tabernacle of Moses to be a figure of the whole creation — I mean the entire system of things visible and invisible — shall we pass the first veil, and stepping beyond the realm of sense, shall we look into the Holy Place, the Intellectual and Celestial creation?