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| First Letter to Monks. (Written 358-360).
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Letter
LII.—First Letter to Monks4641
| 4641 This
beautiful and striking Letter (Migne xxv. 691) formed the introduction
to a work, which the Author, as he says in the course of it, thought
unworthy of being preserved for posterity. Some critics have supposed
it to be the Orations against the Arians; but this opinion can hardly
be maintained (supr. p. 267). The Epistle was written in 358, or
later, before the Epistle to Serapion. On its relation to the
‘Arian History,’ see above, pp. 267, 268. | . (Written
358–360).
1. To those in every place4642
| 4642 This
appears inconsistent with the directions below, §3 (note 3). The
heading is, therefore, of doubtful genuineness. | who are living a monastic life, who are
established in the faith of God, and sanctified in Christ, and who say,
‘Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee4643
,’ brethren dearly beloved and longed
for, heartiest greeting in the Lord.
1. In compliance with your affectionate request,
which you have frequently urged upon me, I have written a short account
of the sufferings which ourselves and the Church have undergone,
refuting, according to my ability, the accursed heresy of the Arian
madmen, and proving how entirely it is alien from the Truth. And I
thought it needful to represent to your Piety what pains the writing of
these things has cost me, in order that you may understand thereby how
truly the blessed Apostle has said, ‘O the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God4644
;’ and may kindly bear with a weak man
such as I am by nature. For the more I desired to write, and
endeavoured to force myself to understand the Divinity of the Word, so
much the more did the knowledge thereof withdraw itself from me; and in
proportion as I thought that I apprehended it, in so much I perceived
myself to fail of doing so. Moreover also I was unable to express in
writing even what I seemed to myself to understand; and that which I
wrote was unequal to the imperfect shadow of the truth which existed in
my conception.
2. Considering therefore how it is written in the
Book of Ecclesiastes, ‘I said, I will be wise, but it was far
from me; That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who shall find it
out4645
?’ and what is said in the Psalms,
‘The knowledge of Thee is too wonderful for me; it is high, I
cannot attain unto it4646
;’ and that
Solomon says, ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing4647
;’ I frequently designed to stop and to
cease writing; believe me, I did. But lest I should be found to
disappoint you, or by my silence to lead into impiety those who have
made enquiry of you, and are given to disputation, I constrained myself
to write briefly, what I have now sent4648
| 4648 Probably a lost writing. | to
your piety. For although a perfect apprehension of the truth is at
present far removed from us by reason of the infirmity of the flesh,
yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself has said, to perceive the
madness of the impious, and having found it, to say that it is
‘more bitter than death4649
.’ Wherefore
for this reason, as perceiving this and able to find it out, I have
written, knowing that to the faithful the detection of impiety is a
sufficient information wherein piety consists. For although it be
impossible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what He
is not4650
| 4650 Newman observes in loc. “This negative character of
our knowledge, whether of the Father or of the Son, is insisted on by
other writers..…‘All we can know about the Divine Nature
is, that it is not to be known; and whatever positive statements
we make concerning God, relate not to His Nature, but to the
accompaniments of His Nature.’ Damasc. F.O. i. 4; S. Basil
c. Eunom. i. 10, ‘Totum ab animo rejicite; quidquid
occurrerit, negate.…dicite non est illud.’
August. Enarrat. 2. in Psalm xxvi. 8. Cyril,
Catech. xi. 11. Anonym. in Append. Aug. Oper. t. 5. p.
383.” [Patr. Lat. xxxix. 2175.] | . And we know that He is not as man;
and that it is not lawful to conceive of any originated nature as
existing in Him. So also respecting the Son of God, although we are by
nature very far from being able to comprehend Him; yet is it possible
and easy to condemn the assertions of the heretics concerning Him, and
to say, that the Son of God is not such; nor is it lawful even to
conceive in our minds such things as they speak, concerning His
Godhead; much less to utter them with the lips.
3. Accordingly I have written as well as I was
able; and you, dearly beloved, receive these communications not as
containing a perfect exposition of the Godhead of the Word, but as
being merely a refutation of the impiety of the enemies of Christ, and
as containing and affording to those who desire it, suggestions for
arriving at a pious and sound faith in Christ. And if in anything they
are defective (and I think they are defective in all respects), pardon
it with a pure conscience, and only receive favourably the boldness of
my good intentions in support of godliness. For an utter condemnation
of the heresy of the Arians, it is sufficient for you to know the
judgment given by the Lord in the death of Arius, of which you have
already been informed by others. ‘For what the Holy God hath
purposed, who shall scatter4651
?’ and whom
the Lord condemned who shall justify4652
? After such a
sign given, who do not now acknowledge, that the heresy is hated of
God, however it may have men for its patrons? Now when you have read
this account, pray for me, and exhort one another so to do. And
immediately send it back to me, and suffer no one whatever to take a
copy of it, nor transcribe it for yourselves4653
.
But like good money-changers4654
| 4654 “On this celebrated text, as it may be called, which is
cited so frequently by the Fathers, vid. Coteler. in Const.
Apol. ii. 36. in Clement Hom. ii. 51. Potter in Clem.
Strom. i. p. 425. Vales. in Euseb. Hist. vii. 7.”
[Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, Appendix C.] | be satisfied with the reading; but read it
repeatedly if you desire to do so. For it is not safe that the writings
of us babblers and private persons should fall into the hands of them
that shall come after. Salute one another in love, and also all that
come unto you in piety and faith. For ‘if any man’ as the
Apostle has said, ‘love not the Lord, let him be anathema. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you4655
.
Amen.’E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
