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| Gregory proceeds to discuss the relative force of the unnameable name of the Holy Trinity and the mutual relation of the Persons, and moreover the unknowable character of the essence, and the condescension on His part towards us, His generation of the Virgin, and His second coming, the resurrection from the dead and future retribution.
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§3. Gregory proceeds to discuss the relative force of the
unnameable name of the Holy Trinity and the mutual relation of the
Persons, and moreover the unknowable character of the essence, and the
condescension on His part towards us, His generation of the Virgin, and
His second coming, the resurrection from the dead and future
retribution.
What then means that unnameable
name concerning which the Lord said, “Baptizing them into the
name,” and did not add the actual significant term which
“the name” indicates? We have concerning it this notion,
that all things that exist in the creation are defined by means of
their several names. Thus whenever a man speaks of “heaven”
he directs the notion of the hearer to the created object indicated by
this name, and he who mentions “man” or some animal, at
once by the mention of the name impresses upon the hearer the form of
the creature, and in the same way all other things, by means of the
names imposed upon them, are depicted in the heart of him who by
hearing receives the appellation imposed upon the thing. The uncreated
Nature alone, which we acknowledge in the Father, and in the Son, and
in the Holy Spirit, surpasses all significance of names. For this cause
the Word, when He spoke of “the name” in delivering the
Faith, did not add what it is,—for how could a name be found for
that which is above every name?—but gave authority that whatever
name our intelligence by pious effort be enabled to discover to
indicate the transcendent Nature, that name should be applied alike to
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whether it be “the Good” or
“the Incorruptible,” whatever name each may think proper to
be employed to indicate the undefiled Nature of Godhead. And by this
deliverance the Word seems to me to lay down for us this law, that we
are to be persuaded that the Divine Essence is ineffable and
incomprehensible: for it is plain that the title of Father does not
present to us the Essence, but only indicates the relation to the Son.
It follows, then, that if it were possible for human nature to be
taught the essence of God, He “Who will have all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth260
” would not have suppressed the
knowledge upon this matter. But as it is, by saying nothing concerning
the Divine Essence, He showed that the knowledge thereof is beyond our
power, while when we have learnt that of which we are capable, we stand
in no need of the knowledge beyond our capacity, as we have in the
profession of faith in the doctrine delivered to us what suffices for
our salvation. For to learn that He is the absolutely existent,
together with Whom, by the relative force of the term, there is also
declared the majesty of the Son, is the fullest teaching of godliness;
the Son, as has been said, implying in close union with Himself the
Spirit of Life and Truth, inasmuch as He is Himself Life and
Truth.
These distinctions being thus
established, while we anathematize all heretical fancies in the sphere
of divine doctrines, we believe, even as we were taught by the voice of
the Lord, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, acknowledging together with this faith also the dispensation
that has been set on foot on behalf of men by the Lord of the creation.
For He “being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him
the form of a servant261
,” and being
incarnate in the Holy Virgin redeemed us from death “in which we
were held,” “sold under sin262
| 262 Or,
“in which we were held by sin, being sold.” The reference
is to Rom. vii. 7 and 14, but with the
variation of ὑπὸ τῆς
ἁμαρτίας, for ὑπὸ τὴν
ἁμαρτίαν, and a change in the order of the words. | ,” giving as the ransom for the
deliverance of our souls His precious blood which He poured out by His
Cross, and having through Himself made clear for us the path of the
resurrection263
| 263 A
similar phrase is to be found in Book V. With both may be compared the
language of the Eucharistic Prayer in the Liturgy of S. Basil (where
the context corresponds to some extent with that of either passage in
S. Gregory):—καὶ ἀναστὰς
τῇ τρίτῃ
ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ
ὁδοποιήσας
πάσῃ σαρκὶ
τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν
ἀνάστασιν,
κ.τ.λ. | from the dead, shall come in His own
time in the glory of the Father to judge every soul in righteousness,
when “all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation264
.” But that the pernicious heresy that
is now being sown broadcast by Eunomius may not, by falling upon the
mind of some of the simpler sort and being left without investigation,
do harm to guileless faith, we are constrained to set forth the
profession which they circulate and to strive to expose the mischief of
their teaching.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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