Gregory Thaumaturgus, Acknowledged Writings

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Gregory Thaumaturgus, Acknowledged Writings

Acknowledged Writings.

A Declaration of Faith.

Part I.—Acknowledged Writings.

A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

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

Canonical Epistle.

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 th

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, forg

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 deeme

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 tr

Weeping 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

The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen.

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.

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

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 G

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. Greg

Argument V.—Here Gregory Interweaves the Narrative of His Former Life. His Birth of Heathen Parents is Stated. In the Fourteenth Year of His Age He Lo

Argument VI.—The Arts by Which Origen Studies to Keep Gregory and His Brother Athenodorus with Him, Although It Was Almost Against Their Will And the

Argument VII.—The Wonderful Skill with Which Origen Prepares Gregory and Athenodorus for Philosophy. The Intellect of Each is Exercised First in Logic

Argument VIII.—Then in Due Succession He Instructs Them in Physics, Geometry, and Astronomy.

Argument IX.—But He Imbues Their Minds, Above All, with Ethical Science And He Does Not Confine Himself to Discoursing on the Virtues in Word, But He

Argument X.—Hence the Mere Word-Sages are Confuted, Who Say and Yet Act Not.

Argument XI.—Origen is the First and the Only One that Exhorts Gregory to Add to His Acquirements the Study of Philosophy, and Offers Him in a Certain

Argument XII.—Gregory Disallows Any Attainment of the Virtues on His Part. Piety is Both the Beginning and the End, and Thus It is the Parent of All t

Argument XIII.—The Method Which Origen Used in His Theological and Metaphysical Instructions. He Commends the Study of All Writers, the Atheistic Alon

Argument XIV.—Whence the Contentions of Philosophers Have Sprung. Against Those Who Catch at Everything that Meets Them, and Give It Credence, and Cli

Argument XV.—The Case of Divine Matters. Only God and His Prophets are to Be Heard in These. The Prophets and Their Auditors are Acted on by the Same

Argument XVI.—Gregory Laments His Departure Under a Threefold Comparison Likening It to Adam’s Departure Out of Paradise. To the Prodigal Son’s Aband

Argument XVII.—Gregory Consoles Himself.

Argument XVIII.— Peroration, and Apology for the Oration.

Argument XIX.—Apostrophe to Origen, and Therewith the Leave-Taking, and the Urgent Utterance of Prayer.

Argument VIII.—Then in Due Succession He Instructs Them in Physics, Geometry, and Astronomy.

Nor did he confine his efforts merely to that form of the mind which it is the lot of the dialectics to regulate;196 The text is, καὶ μὴ τοῦθ᾽ ὅπερ εἶδος διαλεκτικὴ κατορθοῦν μόνη εἴληχε. but he also took in hand that humble capacity of mind, (which shows itself) in our amazement at the magnitude, and the wondrousness, and the magnificent and absolutely wise construction of the world, and in our marvelling in a reasonless way, and in our being overpowered with fear, and in our knowing not, like the irrational creatures, what conclusion to come to. That, too, he aroused and corrected by other studies in natural science, illustrating and distinguishing the various divisions of created objects, and with admirable clearness reducing them to their pristine elements, taking them all up perspicuously in his discourse, and going over the nature of the whole, and of each several section, and discussing the multiform revolution and mutation of things in the world, until he carried us fully along with him under his clear teaching; and by those reasonings which he had partly learned from others, and partly found out for himself, he filled our minds with a rational instead of an irrational wonder at the sacred economy of the universe, and irreproveable constitution of all things. This is that sublime and heavenly study which is taught by natural philosophy—a science most attractive to all. And what need is there now to speak of the sacred mathematics, viz., geometry, so precious to all and above all controversy, and astronomy, whose course is on high? These different studies he imprinted on our understandings, training us in them, or calling them into our mind, or doing with us something else which I know not how to designate rightly. And the one he presented lucidly as the immutable groundwork and secure foundation of all, namely geometry; and by the other, namely astronomy, he lifted us up to the things that are highest above us, while he made heaven passable to us by the help of each of these sciences, as though they were ladders reaching the skies.