15

my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will give him to sit on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 64 Thus he says, says the Amen. This is equivalent to thus says the true one, which is interpreted in the preceding parts; for amen is yes. For yes is in him and nothing no, of the things said about him. And the faithful witness was mentioned in the preceding parts. It is therefore redundant to go through the same things twice. He says, the beginning of the creation of God. Perhaps the Christ-fighting workshop of the Arians would seize upon what has been said, as if the Son were written of through these things as a creature. But let us not pay attention to their unholy words. But it must be examined if something of this sort also lies in another scripture, so that one might have a rule to judge like things from like things. The wise apostle says concerning the Son, writing to the Colossians, who is the firstfruits... firstborn of all creation, not indeed first-created. And the prophet says: From the womb before the morning star I have begotten you, not indeed I have created you. But also Solomon: and before all hills he begets me. For The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, Gregory has taken in his discourse On the Son, regarding the intellectually ensouled body of the Lord, which is in the saints. But begets, regarding his divinity. Since all have dogmatically taught a begetting and not a creation in the case of the only-begotten Word and Son, what is meant by what is said in the present instance, the beginning of the creation of God? Nothing other than ruler of the creation of God, and the one who has rule over all things. For since the Father has made all things through the Son, it is fitting that the maker of all things and creator, the one who brought all things from non-being into being, rules over those things that have come into being by him. I know your works, he says, that you are neither cold nor hot. Hot is the one who is fervent in the Spirit; for fervent in the Spirit, says the divine apostle; but cold, the one deprived of the Holy Spirit, of energy and visitation. But you, 65 he says, are lukewarm. And he calls lukewarm the one who has received a share of the holy spirit through baptism, but has quenched the gift through laziness and care for temporal things. And this too is a divine command, Do not quench the Spirit. Would that you were cold or hot, thus, because you are lukewarm. If only, he says, you were either hot, set on fire by the energy of the Spirit, or entirely cold and completely without a share of spiritual grace and unbaptized and not lukewarm. For the one who has the intelligible fire of the Spirit is numbered among men, having his senses trained for the discernment of good and evil, and is spiritual; but the one who has not yet received the grace of the Spirit, being in hope of receiving it at some time, has not been counted among the desperate. But the lukewarm one, in addition to not being alive, has also had taken away from him the possibility of ever being baptized and being fervent. I am about to, he says, vomit you out of my mouth. He used the metaphor of the lukewarm fittingly; for everything that is lukewarm, as the students of physicians say, causing moisture, provokes to vomiting the one who has partaken of it; whence also to those who have difficulty vomiting they give lukewarm water to sip, in this way inducing them to vomit. But he says, that I am about to make you an outcast from my fellowship. And what is the cause of such a state? You hope, he says, in the uncertainty of wealth, and you have choked the gift as if among thorns, not hearing the one who says, if riches flow, do not set your heart on them? And he means earthly and temporary wealth. Do you not know that you are poor and naked, in spiritual and enduring things. I advise you therefore to buy gold refined by fire, that you may be rich. What 66 is gold refined by spiritual fire, the prophet teaches, saying the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried and refined, purified for the earth sevenfold, through these things declaring the evangelical proclamation. This, therefore, ask from me, which is able to make you wise and bring you into fellowship with God. For the one who has acquired this both shines in virtue and

15

τῆς φωνῆς μου καὶ ἀνοίξῃ τὴν θύραν, εἰσελεύσομαι πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ δειπνήσω μετ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτὸς μετ' ἐμοῦ. ὁ νικῶν, δώσω αὐτῷ καθίσαι ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ μου, ὡς κἀγὼ ἐνίκησα, καὶ ἐκάθισα μετὰ τοῦ Πατρός μου ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ αὐτοῦ. ὁ ἔχων οὖς, ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ Πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. 64 τάδε φησὶν λέγει ὁ ἀμήν. ἰσοδυναμεῖ τοῦτο τῷ τάδε λέγει ὁ ἀληθινός, ὅπερ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἑρμηνεύεται· ἀμὴν γάρ ἐστιν τὸ ναί. ναὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ οὐδὲν οὔ, τῶν περὶ αὐτοῦ λεγομένων. καὶ τὸ ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται. περισσολογία οὖν τὸ δὶς περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν διεξιέναι. ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ φησιν. ἐπιφοιτήσειεν ἂν ἴσως τὸ χριστομάχον τῶν Ἀρειανῶν ἐργαστήριον τῷ εἰρημένῳ ὡς τοῦ Υἱοῦ κτίσματος διὰ τούτων γραφομένου. ἀλλὰ μὴ τοῖς ἀνοσίοις αὐτῶν λόγοις προσέχωμεν. σκοπητέον δὲ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον καὶ ἐν ἑτέρᾳ κεῖται γραφῇ, ἵν' ἔχοι τις ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων τὰ ὅμοια κανονίζειν. φησὶν ὁ σοφὸς ἀπόστολος περὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, Κολασσαεῦσιν ἐπιστέλλων, ὅς ἐστιν ἀπαρχή ... πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, οὐ μὴν πρωτόκτιστος. καὶ ὁ προφήτης λέγει· ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐγέννησά σε, οὐ μὴν ἔκτισά σε. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ Σολομῶν· πρὸ δὲ πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾷ με. τὸ γὰρ Κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ, ἐπὶ τοῦ νοερῶς ἐμψυχωμένου σώματος τοῦ Κυρίου, ὃ ἐν ἁγίοις ἐξείληφε Γρηγόριος ἐν τῷ Περὶ Υἱοῦ λόγῳ. τὸ δὲ γεννᾷ, ἐπὶ τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ. πάντων οὖν γέννησιν καὶ οὐ κτίσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς Λόγου καὶ Υἱοῦ δογματισάντων, τί βούλεται τὸ ἐν τῷ παρόντι λέγεσθαι ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ; οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἢ ἄρχων τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ὁ τὴν κατὰ πάντων ἀρχὴν ἔχων. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πάντα διὰ Υἱοῦ πεποίηκεν ὁ Πατήρ, εἰκότως ὁ ποιητὴς τῶν ἁπάντων καὶ δημιουργός, ὁ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα παραγαγὼν ἄρχει τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένων. οἶδά σού φησιν τὰ ἔργα, ὅτι οὔτε ψυχρὸς εἶ οὔτε ζεστός. ζεστὸς μέν ἐστιν ὁ ζέων τῷ Πνεύματι· τῷ γὰρ Πνεύματι ζέοντές φησιν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος· ψυχρὸς δέ, ὁ ἐστερημένος Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, ἐνεργείας καὶ ἐπιφοιτήσεως. ἀλλὰ σύ 65 φησιν χλιαρὸς εἶ. χλιαρὸν δὲ καλεῖ τὸν μετουσίαν μὲν λαβόντα πνεύματος ἁγίου διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος, σβέσαντα δὲ τὸ χάρισμα διὰ ῥαθυμίας, καὶ τῆς τῶν προσκαίρων φροντίδος. ἐπιταγὴ δὲ θεία καὶ αὕτη, τὸ Πνεῦμα μὴ σβεννύετε. ὄφελον ψυχρὸς ἦς ἢ ζεστὸς οὕτως, ὅτι χλιαρὸς εἶ. εἴθε φησὶν ἢ ζεστὸς ἦσθα τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐνεργείᾳ πεπυρωμένος, ἢ καθόλου ψυχρὸς καὶ ἀμέτοχος τέλεον πνεύματος χάριτος καὶ ἀβάπτιστος καὶ μὴ χλιαρός. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔχων τὸ νοητὸν τοῦ Πνεύματος πῦρ ἐν ἀνδράσιν τελεῖ, τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἔχων πρὸς διάκρισιν καλοῦ καὶ κακοῦ, καί ἐστι πνευματικός· ὁ δέ γε μήπω δεξάμενος τὴν τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριν, ἐν ἐλπίδι τοῦ ποτε δέξασθαι τυγχάνων, οὐκ ἐν τοῖς ἀπεγνωσμένοις ἠρίθμηται. ὁ δέ γε χλιαρὸς πρὸς τῷ μὴ ξῆν καὶ τό ποτε βαπτισθῆναι καὶ ζέσαι συναφήρηται. μέλλω σέ φησιν ἐμέσαι ἐκ τοῦ στόματός μου. τῇ μεταφορᾷ τοῦ χλιαροῦ δεόντως ἐχρήσατο· πᾶν γὰρ χλιαρὸν ὄν, ὥς φασιν ἰατρῶν παῖδες, πλάδον ἐργαζόμενον εἰς ἔμετον ἐρεθίζει τὸν μεταλαβόντα· ὅθεν καὶ τοῖς δυσεμετοῦσιν ὕδατος χλιαροῦ διδόασιν ἀπορροφεῖν, ταύτῃ πρὸς ἔμετον ἐκκαλούμενοι. φησὶ δέ, ὅτι μέλλω σε ἀπόβλητον ποιεῖσθαι τῆς ἐμῆς οἰκειότητος. τίς δὲ τῆς τοιαύτης καταστάσεως ἡ αἰτία; ἐλπίζεις φησίν, ἐπὶ πλούτου ἀδηλίᾳ, καὶ συνέπνιξας ὡς ἐν ἀκάνθαις τὸ χάρισμα, οὐκ ἀκούων τοῦ λέγοντος, πλοῦτος ἐὰν ῥέῃ, μὴ προστίθεσθε καρδίαν; πλοῦτον δέ φησι γήϊνον καὶ πρόσκαιρον. ἀγνοεῖς ὅτι πτωχὸς εἶ καὶ γυμνός, τὰ πνευματικὰ καὶ μένοντα. συμβουλεύω σοι οὖν ἀγοράσαι χρυσίον πεπυρωμένον ἐκ πυρός, ἵνα πλουτήσῃς. τί 66 δὲ πεπυρωμένον χρυσίον τῷ πνευματικῷ πυρί, ὁ προφήτης διδάσκει λέγων τὰ λόγια Κυρίου λόγια ἁγνά, ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον δοκίμιον, τῇ γῇ κεκαθαρισμένον ἑπταπλασίως, τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν διὰ τούτων δηλῶν κήρυγμα. τοῦτο τοιγαροῦν αἰτεῖ παρ' ἐμοῦ τὸ δυνάμενόν σε σοφίσαι καὶ προσοικειῶσαι Θεῷ. ὁ γὰρ τοῦτο κτησάμενος ἐν ἀρετῇ τε διαλάμπει καὶ