If, then, the lower creation which comes under our organs of sense transcends human knowledge, how can He, Who by His mere will made the worlds, be within the range of our apprehension? Surely this is vanity, and lying madness, as saith the Prophet15    The thought is found in Psalm xxxix. 6., to think it possible to comprehend the things which are incomprehensible. So may we see tiny children busying themselves in their play. For oft-times, when a sunbeam streams down upon them through a window, delighted with its beauty they throw themselves on what they see, and are eager to catch the sunbeam in their hands, and struggle with one another, and grasp the light in the clutch of their fingers, and fancy they have imprisoned the ray in them, but presently when they unclasp their hands and find that the sunbeam which they held has slipped through their fingers, they laugh and clap their hands. In like manner the children of our generation, as saith the parable, sit playing in the market-places; for, seeing the power of God shining in upon their souls through the dispensations of His providence, and the wonders of His creation like a warm ray emanating from the natural sun, they marvel not at the Divine gift, nor adore Him Whom such things reveal, but passing beyond the limits of the soul’s capabilities, they seek with their sophistical understanding to grasp that which is intangible, and think by their reasonings to lay hold of what they are persuaded of; but when their argument unfolds itself and discloses the tangled web of their sophistries, men of discernment see at once that what they have apprehended is nothing at all; so pettily and so childishly labouring in vain at impossibilities do they set themselves to include the inconceivable nature of God in the few syllables of the term “ungenerate,” and applaud their own folly, and imagine God to be such that human reasoning can include Him under one single term: and while they pretend to follow the teaching of the sacred writers, they are not afraid of raising themselves above them. For what cannot be shown to have been said by any of those blessed ones, any words of whose are recorded in the sacred books, these things, as saith the Apostle, “understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm16    1 Tim. i. 7. S. Gregory quotes from memory, viz., περὶ ὧν διατείνονται for περὶ τίνων διαβεβαιοῦνται,” they nevertheless say they know, and boast of guiding others to such knowledge. And on this account they declare that they have apprehended that God the Only-begotten is not what He is called. For to this conclusion they are compelled by their premises.

Εἰ οὖν ἡ κάτω κτίσις ἡ μέχρι τῶν αἰσθητηρίων τῶν ἡμετέρων φθάνουσα ὑπὲρ τὰ μέτρα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐστὶ γνώσεως, πῶς ὁ μόνῳ θελήματι τὸ πᾶν συστησάμενος ἐντὸς τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐστὶ καταλήψεως; ματαιότης ταῦτα καὶ μανία ψευδής, καθώς φησιν ὁ προφήτης, τὸ οἴεσθαι δυνατὴν εἶναί τινι τὴν τῶν ἀλήπτων περίνοιαν. οὕτως ἔστιν ἰδεῖν μικρὰ νήπια διὰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἡλικίας ἄγνοιαν παίζοντά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ σπουδάζοντα. πολλάκις γὰρ ἀκτῖνος ἡλιακῆς διὰ θυρίδος αὐτοῖς εἰσρυείσης περιχαρέντα τῷ κάλλει πρὸς τὸ φαινόμενον ἵεται καὶ φέρειν φιλονεικεῖ διὰ χειρὸς τὴν ἀκτῖνα καὶ διαμάχεται πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ περιδράσσεται τοῦ φωτός, τῇ περιβολῇ τῶν δακτύλων, ὡς οἴεται, τὴν αὐγὴν ἐνδησάμενα: ἀλλὰ διαλυθείσης τῶν δακτύλων τῆς ἐμπλοκῆς γέλωτα ποιεῖ τοῖς νηπίοις καὶ κρότον διαρρυεῖσα τῶν χειρῶν ἡ τῆς ἀκτῖνος λαβή. οὕτω καὶ τὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας γενεᾶς παιδία, καθώς φησιν ἡ παραβολή, ταῖς ἀγοραῖς ἐγκαθήμενα παίζει: οἱ τὴν θείαν δύναμιν διὰ τῶν τῆς προνοίας λόγων καὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει θαυμάτων ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐλλάμπουσαν βλέποντες οἷον ἀκτῖνά τινα καὶ θερμότητα τῆς ἡλιακῆς ἀπορρέουσαν φύσεως οὐχὶ θαυμάζουσι τὴν χάριν καὶ προσκυνοῦσι τὸν διὰ τούτων νοούμενον, ἀλλ' ὑπερβάντες τὸ χωρητὸν τῇ ψυχῇ ταῖς τῶν σοφισμάτων λαβαῖς τοῦ ἀναφοῦς περιδράσσονται καὶ κρατεῖν οἴονται διὰ τῶν συλλογισμῶν, εἴπερ οἴονται: διασχόντος δὲ τοῦ λόγου καὶ διαπτύξαντος τὴν τῶν σοφισμάτων πλοκὴν εὑρίσκεται τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσι τὸ ἀπειλημμένον οὐδέν. οὕτω μικροπρεπῶς τε καὶ βρεφικῶς τοῖς ἀμηχάνοις ἐμματαιάζοντες οἷόν τινι παλάμῃ παιδικῇ τὴν ἀπερινόητον τοῦ θεοῦ φύσιν ταῖς ὀλίγαις συλλαβαῖς τῆς « ἀγεννησίας » ἐναποκλείουσι καὶ συναγορεύουσι τῇ παρανοίᾳ καὶ οἴονται τοσοῦτον καὶ τοιοῦτον εἶναι τὸ θεῖον, ὡς ἀνθρωπίνῳ λογισμῷ δύνασθαι διὰ μιᾶς προσηγορίας ἐμπεριείργεσθαι, καὶ ταῖς μὲν τῶν ἁγίων φωναῖς ἀκολουθεῖν σχηματίζονται, αὐτῶν δὲ ἐκείνων ὑπεραίροντες ἑαυτοὺς οὐ δεδοίκασιν. ἃ γὰρ οὐδεὶς τῶν μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν εἰρηκὼς ἐπιδείκνυται, ὧν τις καὶ λόγος ἐν ταῖς θείαις βίβλοις ἀνάγραπτος φέρεται, ταῦτα οὗτοι, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, μὴ εἰδότες μήτε ἃ λέγουσι καὶ περὶ ὧν διατείνονται, ὅμως αὐτοί τε εἰδέναι φασὶ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις καθηγεῖσθαι τῆς εἰδήσεως μεγαλαυχοῦσι. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν μὴ ἀληθῶς εἶναι ὃ λέγεται κατειληφέναι διϊσχυρίζονται. ἡ γὰρ τῶν συλλογισμῶν ἀνάγκη τοῦτο κελεύει.