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| Proof that there is a God.
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Chapter
III.—Proof that there is a God.
That there is a God, then, is no matter of doubt
to those who receive the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament, I mean,
and the New; nor indeed to most of the Greeks. For, as we
said1423
| 1423
Supr.c. 1; cf. Greg. Naz., Orat. 34. | , the knowledge of the existence of God
is implanted in us by nature. But since the wickedness of the
Evil One has prevailed so mightily against man’s nature as even
to drive some into denying the existence of God, that most foolish and
woe-fulest pit of destruction (whose folly David, revealer of the
Divine meaning, exposed when he said1424
, The
fool said in his heart, There is no God), so the disciples of the
Lord and His Apostles, made wise by the Holy Spirit and working wonders
in His power and grace, took them captive in the net of miracles and
drew them up out of the depths of ignorance1425
| 1425 The readings vary
between ἀγνωσίας and
ἀγνοίας. |
to the light of the knowledge of God. In like manner also their
successors in grace and worth, both pastors and teachers, having
received the enlightening grace of the Spirit, were wont, alike by the
power of miracles and the word of grace, to enlighten those walking in
darkness and to bring back the wanderers into the way. But as for
us who1426
| 1426 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 34. | are not
recipients either of the gift of miracles or the gift of teaching (for
indeed we have rendered ourselves unworthy of these by our passion for
pleasure), come, let us in connection with this theme discuss a few of
those things which have been delivered to us on this subject by the
expounders of grace, calling on the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
All things, that exist, are either created or
uncreated. If, then, things are created, it follows that they are
also wholly mutable. For things, whose existence originated in
change, must also be subject to change, whether it be that they perish
or that they become other than they are by act of will1427
| 1427 Reading
προαίρεσιν;
a variant is τροπήν. | . But if things are uncreated they
must in all consistency be also wholly immutable. For things
which are opposed in the nature of their existence must also be opposed
in the mode of their existence, that is to say, must have opposite
properties: who, then, will refuse to grant that all existing
things, not only such as come within the province of the senses, but
even the very angels, are subject to change and transformation and
movement of various kinds? For the things appertaining to the
rational world, I mean angels and spirits and demons, are subject to
changes of will, whether it is a progression or a retrogression in
goodness, whether a struggle or a surrender; while the others suffer
changes of generation and destruction, of increase and decrease, of
quality and of movement in space. Things then that are mutable
are also wholly created. But things that are created must be the
work of some maker, and the maker cannot have been created. For
if he had been created, he also must surely have been created by some
one, and so on till we arrive at something uncreated. The
Creator, then, being uncreated, is also wholly immutable. And
what could this be other than Deity?
And even the
very continuity of the creation, and its preservation and government,
teach us that there does exist a Deity, who supports and maintains and
preserves and ever provides for this universe. For how1428
could opposite natures, such as fire
and water, air and earth, have combined with each other so as to form
one complete world, and continue to abide in indissoluble union, were
there not some omnipotent power which bound them together and always is
preserving them from dissolution?
What is it that gave order to things of heaven and
things of earth, and all those things that move in the air and in the
water, or rather to what was in existence before these, viz., to heaven
and earth and air and the elements of fire and water?
What1429
| 1429 Various
reading, Who. | was it that mingled and distributed
these? What was it that set these in motion and keeps them in
their unceasing and unhindered course1430
| 1430 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 34. | ? Was it not the Artificer of these
things, and He Who hath implanted in everything the law whereby the
universe is carried on and directed? Who then is the Artificer of
these things? Is it not He Who created them and brought them into
existence. For we shall not attribute such a power to the
spontaneous1431
| 1431 The Greek is
τῳ
αὐτομάτῳ, to
the automatic; perhaps = to the accidental, or, to
chance. | . For,
supposing their coming into existence was due to the spontaneous; what
of the power that put all in order1432
| 1432 Or, Whose
was the disposing of them in order? | ? And
let us grant this, if you please. What of that which has
preserved and kept them in harmony with the original laws of their
existence1433
| 1433 Or,
Whose are the preserving of them, and the keeping of them in
accordance with the principles under which they were first
placed? | ? Clearly
it is something quite distinct from the spontaneous1434
| 1434 παρα τὸ
αὐτόματον;
or, quite other than the spontaneous, or,than
chance. | . And what could this be other than
Deity1435
| 1435 Athan., De
Incarn. Verbi, near the beginning. Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 34. | ?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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