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| On the Arrival of the Egyptians.
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Oration
XXXIV.
On the Arrival of the
Egyptians.
This Oration was
preached at Constantinople in 380, under the following
circumstances: Peter, Patriarch of Alexandria, had sent a mission
of five of his Suffragans to consecrate the impostor Maximus to the
Throne occupied by Gregory. This had led to much trouble, but in
the end the intruder had been expelled and banished. Shortly
afterwards an Egyptian fleet, probably the regular corn ships, had
arrived at Constantinople, apparently on the day before a
Festival. The crews of the ships, landing next day to go to
Church, passed by the numerous Churches held by the Arians, and betook
themselves to the little Anastasia. S. Gregory felt himself moved
to congratulate them specially on such an act, after what had recently
passed, and accordingly pronounced the following discourse.
I. I will address
myself as is right to those who have come from Egypt; for they have
come here eagerly, having overcome illwill by zeal, from that Egypt
which is enriched by the River, raining out of the earth, and like the
sea in its season,—if I too may follow in my small measure those
who have so eloquently spoken of these matters; and which is also
enriched by Christ my Lord, Who once was a fugitive into Egypt, and now
is supplied by Egypt; the first, when He fled from Herod’s
massacre of the children;3788
and now by the love
of the fathers for their children, by Christ the new Food of those who
hunger after good;3789
the greatest alms
of corn of which history speaks and men believe; the Bread which came
down from heaven and giveth life to the world, that life which is
indestructible and indissoluble, concerning Whom I now seem to hear the
Father saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son.3790
II. For from you hath sounded forth the Word to
all men; healthfully believed and preached; and you are the best
bringers of fruit of all men, specially of those who now hold the
right faith, as far as I
know, who am not only a lover of such food, but also its distributor,
and not at home only but also abroad. For you indeed supply
bodily food to peoples and cities so far as your lovingkindness
reaches; and you supply spiritual food also, not to a particular
people, nor to this or that city, circumscribed by narrow boundaries,
though its people may think it very illustrious, but to almost the
whole world. And you bring the remedy not for famine of bread or
thirst of water,3791
which is no very
terrible famine—and to avoid it is easy; but to a famine of
hearing the Word of the Lord, which it is most miserable to suffer, and
a most laborious matter to cure at the present time, because iniquity
hath abounded,3792
and scarce anywhere
do I find its genuine healers.
III. Such was Joseph your Superintendent of
corn measures, whom I may call ours also; who by his surpassing wisdom
was able both to foresee the famine and to cure it by decrees of
government, healing the ill-favoured and starving kine by means of the
fair and fat.3793
And indeed
you may understand by Joseph which you will, either the great lover and
creator and namesake of immortality or his successor in throne and word
and hoary hair, our new Peter,3794
not inferior in
virtue or fame to him by whom the middle course was destroyed and
crushed, though it still wriggles a little weakly, like the tail of a
snake after it is cut off; the one of whom, after having departed this
life in a good old age after many conflicts and wrestlings, looks upon
us from above, I well know, and reaches a hand to those who are
labouring for the right: and this the more, in proportion as he
is freed from his bonds; and the other is hastening to the same end or
dissolution of life, and is already drawing near the dwellers in
heaven, but is still so far in the flesh as is needed to give the last
aids to the Word, and to take his journey with richer
provision.
IV. Of these great men and doctors and soldiers of
the truth and victors, you are the nurslings and offspring; of these
neither times nor tyrants, reason nor envy, nor fear, nor accuser, nor
slanderer, whether waging open war against them, or plotting secretly;
nor any who appeared to be of our side, nor any stranger, nor
gold—that hidden tyrant, through which now almost everything is
turned upside down and made to depend on the hazard of a die; nor
flatteries nor threats, nor long and distant exiles (for they only
could not be affected by confiscation, because of their great riches,
which were—to possess nothing) nor anything else, whether absent
or present or expected, could induce to take the worse part, and to be
anywise traitor to the Trinity, or to suffer loss of the Godhead.
On the contrary indeed, they grew strong by dangers, and became more
zealous for true religion. For to suffer thus for Christ adds to
one’s love, and is as it were an earnest to high-souled men of
further conflicts. These, O Egypt, are thy present tales and
wonders.
V. Once thou didst praise me thy Mendesian Goats,
and thy Memphite Apis, a fatted and fleshy calf, and the rites of Isis,
and the mutilations of Osiris, and thy venerable Serapis, a log that
was honoured by myths and ages and the madness of its worshippers, as
some unknown and heavenly matter, however it may have been aided by
falsehood; and things yet more shameful than these, multiform images of
monstrous beasts and creeping things, all of which Christ and the
heralds of Christ have conquered, both the others who have been
illustrious in their own times, and also the Fathers whom I have named
just now; by whom, O admirable country, thou art more famous today than
all others put together, whether in ancient or modern history.
VI. Wherefore I embrace and salute thee, O
noblest of peoples and most Christian, and of warmest piety, and worthy
of thy leaders; for I can find nothing greater to say of thee than
this, nor anything by which better to welcome thee. And I greet
thee, to a small extent with my tongue, but very heartily with the
movements of my affections.3795
O my people,
for I call you mine, as of one mind and one faith, instructed by the
same Fathers, and adoring the same Trinity. My people, for mine
thou art, though it seem not so to those who envy me. And that
they who are in this case may be the deeper wounded, see, I give the
right hand of fellowship before so many witnesses, seen and
unseen. And I put away the old calumny by this new act of
kindness. O my people, for mine thou art, though in saying so I,
who am least of all men, am claiming for myself that which is
greatest. For such is the grace of the Spirit that it makes of
equal honour those who are of one mind. O my people, for mine
thou art, though it be afar, because we are divinely joined
together,3796
and in a manner
wholly different to the unions of carnal people; for bodies are united
in place, but souls are fitted together by the Spirit. O my
people, who didst formerly study how to suffer for Christ, but
now if thou wilt
hearken unto me, wilt study not to do aught, but to consider the power
of doing to be a sufficient gain, and to deem that thou art offering a
sacrifice to Christ, as in those days of thy endurance so in these of
meekness. O people to whom the Lord hath prepared Himself to do
good, as to do evil to thine enemies.3797
O people, whom the Lord hath chosen to
Himself out of all peoples; O people who art graven upon the hands of
the Lord, to whom saith the Lord, Thou art My Will; and, Thy gates are
carved work, and all the rest that is said to them that are being
saved. O people;—nay, marvel not at my insatiability that I
repeat your name so often; for I delight in this continual naming of
you, like those who can never have enough of their enjoyment of certain
spectacles or sounds.
VII. But, O people of God and mine,
beautiful also was your yesterday’s assembly, which you held upon
the sea, and pleasant, if any sight ever was, to the eyes, when I saw
the sea like a forest, and hidden by a cloud made with hands, and the
beauty and speed of your ships, as though ordered for a procession, and
the slight breeze astern, as though purposely escorting you, and
wafting to the City your city of the Sea. Yet the present
assembly which we now behold is more beautiful and more
magnificent. For you have not hastened to mingle with the larger
number, nor have you reckoned religion by numbers, nor endured to be a
mere unorganized rabble, rather than a people purified by the Word of
God; but having, as is right, rendered to Cæsar the things that
are Cæsar’s, ye have offered besides to God the things that
are God’s; to the former Custom, to the latter Fear; and after
feeding the people with your cargoes, you yourselves have come to be
fed by us. For we also distribute corn, and our distribution is
perhaps not worth less than yours. Come eat of my Bread and drink
of the Wine which I have mingled for you.3798
I join with Wisdom in bidding you to
my table. For I commend your good feeling, and I hasten to meet
your ready mind, because ye came to us as to your own harbour, running
to your like; and ye valued the kindred Faith, and thought it monstrous
that, while they who insult higher things are in harmony with each
other and think alike, and think to make good each man’s
individual falsehood by their common conspiracy, like ropes which get
strength from being twisted together; yet you should not meet nor
combine with those who are of the same mind, with whom it is more
reasonable that you should associate, for we gather in the Godhead
also. And that you may see that not in vain have you come to us,
and that you have not brought up in a port among strangers and
foreigners, but amongst your own people, and have been well guided by
the Holy Ghost; we will discourse to you briefly concerning God; and do
you recognize your own, like those who distinguish their kindred by the
ensigns of their arms.
VIII. I find two highest differences in things
that exist, viz.:—Rule, and Service; not such as among us either
tyranny has cut or poverty has severed, but which nature has
distinguished, if any like to use this word. For That which is
First is also above nature. Of these the former is creative, and
originating, and unchangeable; but the other is created, and subject
and changing; or to speak yet more plainly, the one is above time, and
the other subject to time. The Former is called God, and subsists
in Three Greatest, namely, the Cause, the Creator, and the Perfecter; I
mean the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are neither so
separated from one another as to be divided in nature, nor so
contracted as to be circumscribed by a single person; the one
alternative being that of the Arian madness, the other that of the
Sabellian heresy; but they are on the one hand more single than what is
altogether divided, and on the other more abundant than what is
altogether singular. The other division is with us, and is called
Creation, though one may be exalted above another according to the
proportion of their nearness to God.
IX. This being so, if any be on the
Lord’s side let him come with us,3799
and let us adore the One Godhead in the Three; not ascribing any name
of humiliation to the unapproachable Glory, but having the exaltations
of the Triune God continually in our mouth.3800
For since we cannot properly describe
even the greatness of Its Nature, on account of Its infinity and
undefinableness, how can we assert of It humiliation? But if any
one be estranged from God, and therefore divideth the One Supreme
Substance into an inequality of Natures, it were marvellous if such an
one were not cut in sunder by the sword, and his portion appointed with
the unbelievers,3801
reaping any evil
fruit of his evil thought both now and hereafter.
X. What must we say of the Father, Whom by common
consent all who have been preoccupied with natural conceptions share,
although He hath endured the
beginnings of dishonour, having been first divided by ancient
innovation into the Good and the Creator. And of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, see how simply and concisely we shall discourse.
If any one could say of Either that He was mutable or subject to
change; or that either in time, or place, or power, or energy He could
be measured; or that He was not naturally good, or not Self-moved, or
not a free agent, or a Minister, or a Hymnsinger; or that He feared, or
was a recipient of freedom, or was not counted with God; let him prove
this and we will acquiesce, and will be glorified by the Majesty of our
Fellow Servants, though we lose our God. But if all that the
Father has belongs likewise to the Son, except Causality; and all that
is the Son’s belongs also to the Spirit, except His Sonship, and
whatsoever is spoken of Him as to Incarnation for me a man, and for my
salvation, that, taking of mine, He may impart His own by this new
commingling; then cease your babbling, though so late, O ye sophists of
vain talk that falls at once to the ground; for why will ye die O House
of Israel?3802
—if I may
mourn for you in the words of Scripture.
XI. For my part I revere also the Titles of the
Word, which are so many, and so high and great, which even the demons
respect. And I revere also the Equal Rank of the Holy Ghost; and
I fear the threat pronounced against those who blaspheme Him. And
blasphemy is not the reckoning Him God, but the severing Him from the
Godhead. And here you must remark that That which is blasphemed
is Lord, and That which is avenged is the Holy Ghost, evidently as
Lord. I cannot bear to be unenlightened after my Enlightenment,
by marking with a different stamp any of the Three into Whom I was
baptized; and thus to be indeed buried in the water, and initiated not
into Regeneration, but into death.
XII. I dare to utter something, O Trinity; and may
pardon be granted to my folly, for the risk is to my soul. I too
am an Image of God, of the Heavenly Glory, though I be placed on
earth. I cannot believe that I am saved by one who is my
equal. If the Holy Ghost is not God, let Him first be made God,
and then let Him deify me His equal. But now what deceit this is
on the part of grace, or rather of the givers of grace, to believe in
God and to come away godless; by one set of questions and confessions
leading to another set of conclusions. Alas for this fair fame,
if after the Laver I am blackened, if I am to see those who are not yet
cleansed brighter than myself; if I am cheated by the heresy of my
Baptizer; if I seek for the stronger Spirit and find Him not.
Give me a second Font before you think evil of the first. Why do
you grudge me a complete regeneration? Why do you make me, who am
the Temple of the Holy Ghost as of God, the habitation of a
creature? Why do you honour part of what belongs to me, and
dishonour part, judging falsely of the Godhead, to cut me off from the
Gift, or rather to cut me in two by the gift? Either honour the
Whole, or dishonour the Whole, O new Theologian, that, if you are
wicked, you may at any rate be consistent with yourself, and not judge
unequally of an equal nature.
XIII. To sum up my discourse:—Glorify
Him with the Cherubim, who unite the Three Holies into One
Lord,3803
and so far indicate the Primal Substance as
their wings open to the diligent. With David be enlightened, who
said to the Light, In Thy Light shall we see Light,3804
that is, in the Spirit we shall see the Son;
and what can be of further reaching ray? With John thunder,
sounding forth nothing that is low or earthly concerning God, but what
is high and heavenly, Who is in the beginning, and is with God, and is
God the Word,3805
and true God of the
true Father, and not a good fellow-servant honoured only with the title
of Son; and the Other Comforter (other, that is, from the Speaker, Who
was the Word of God). And when you read, I and the Father are
One,3806
keep before your eyes the Unity of
Substance; but when you see, “We will come to him, and make Our
abode with him,”3807
remember the
distinction of Persons; and when you see the Names, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, think of the Three Personalities.
XIV. With Luke be inspired as you study the
Acts of the Apostles. Why do you range yourself with Ananias and
Sapphira, those vain embezzlers (if indeed the theft of one’s own
property be a vain thing) and that by appropriating, not silver nor any
other cheap and worthless thing, like a wedge of gold,3808
or a didrachma, as did of old a rapacious
soldier; but stealing the Godhead Itself, and lying, not to men but to
God, as you have heard. What? Will you not reverence even
the authority of the Spirit Who breathes upon whom, and when, and as He
wills? He comes upon Cornelius and his companions before Baptism,
to others after Baptism, by the hands of the Apostles; so that from
both sides, both from the
fact that He comes in the guise of a Master and not of a Servant, and
from the fact of His being sought to make perfect, the Godhead of the
Spirit is testified.
XV. Speak of God with Paul, who was caught
up to the third Heaven,3809
and who sometimes
counts up the Three Persons, and that in varied order, not keeping the
same order, but reckoning one and the same Person now first, now
second, now third; and for what purpose? Why, to shew the
equality of the Nature. And sometimes he mentions Three,
sometimes Two or One, became That which is not mentioned is
included. And sometimes he attributes the operation of God to the
Spirit, as in no respect different from Him, and sometimes instead of
the Spirit he brings in Christ; and at times he separates the Persons
saying, “One God, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by
Him;”3810
at other times he
brings together the one Godhead, “For of Him and through Him and
in Him are all things;”3811
that is, through
the Holy Ghost, as is shown by many places in Scripture. To Him
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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