Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 20: The Writings Of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius Of Alexandria, And Archelaus

발행: 1871년

분량: 630페이지

출처: archive.org

분류: 미분류

81쪽

colour ingrained in it. For a mighty thing and an energeticis the discourse of man, and subile mitti ita sophisms, and quich to find iis Way into the ears, and mould the mind, and impress us With what it conveys; and when oncs it hastisen possession of us, it can Win us over to love it as truth; and it holds iis placo Within us even though it be salse and

ing as ita champion the very man it has deluded. And, on the other hand, tho mind of man is Minal a thing easilydeceived by speech, and very facile in felding iis assent; d, indeed, beiore it discriminates and inquires into mattera

82쪽

70 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS

accurate examination, to crasty reasonings and judmendi, whicli are erroneous themselves, and whicli lead into errorthose Who receive them. And not only so; but is mollior modo os discourae alms at correcting it, it mill neither give it admittance, nor suffer iiseis to be altered in opinion, becauseit is hold iast by any notion Whicli has previousty got possessionos it, as though some inexorable tyrant Were lording it over it. XIV. Is it not thus that contradicto and opposing tenetshave been introduced, and ali the contentions of philosophera, While one party Withstands the opinions of another, and some hold by certain positions, and othera by othera, and oneschool attaches iraeli to one set of dogmas, and another tomotheri And ait, indeed, aim at philosophiaing, and pr fess to have been doing so ever since they mere first musedio it, and declare that they destre it not less noW When theyare Wolt vorsed in tho discussions than when they beganthem: yea, rather they allege that they have even more love

any Woria of those Who hold opposite opinions. Αnd accorti ingly, no one os the ancients has ever induced any one of the moderns, or those of the Peripatetic school, to turn to his Wayof thinhing, and adopt his method of philosophieting; and, mine other hani none of the moderas has imposed his notions Mon those of the ancient school. Nor, in stiori, has any one dono so With any other. For it is not an easy thing toinduco one to give up his oWn opinions, and accepi those ofothera; although these might, perhaps, even be sentimenta

83쪽

bited by our nobio and most eloquent and critical Greeis: for WhateVer any one os theso has lighted on at tho oulae moved by somo impulse or other, that Hono he declares tobo truth, and holas that ali else whicli is maintainod is oster philosophera is simply delusion and folly, though hehimself does not mors satisfactorij est lish his o n posiations is argument, than do ali the othera severalty defendtheir peculiar teneis; tho man's object being simply to Munder no obligation to givo up and alter his opinion' Whetheris constralat or by persuasion, While he has ii one mus ah truth) nothing esse bul a hind of -reasoning impulse tonata these domas on the fide of philosophy, and possesses

no other criterion os What he imagines to be true, than letit not seem an incredibie assertion) undistinguishing chance. And as eata one thus becomes attached to those positions

.ith .hicli ho has fidit fallen in, and is, as it were, held in chaius by them, he is no longer capable os giving attentionis othera, ii he happens to have mything of his oWn to offeron every subject With the demonstration os truth, and is hohas tho aid os argument to fhow hoW falso tho tenets of his

3 The tot is, οὐκ ἀλλην τινὰ ει Mι ν ἀληθες εἰπεῖν) εχων ἡ τὴν προς τῆς φιλοσοφίας ἐπὶ τάοι τὰ δόγματα ἄλογον ορμεν' καὶ κοίσιν ων οἴεται ἀλκεων γη παράδοξον ειπειν ') οὐκ ἄλλην η τῆν ἄκριτον τύχην. VOssius Would read, προς την φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ἐπὶ τάοε τὰ δόγματα. Migne maesit in nulla ei erat alia sententis si verum est direndum) nisi eaeeus ille stimulus quo ante philosophiae atudium in ista actus erat placita: neqγε aliud judicium eorum quae vera putaret ne mirum sit dictu) nisi fortunae temeritas. Benges Would read, προ της φιλοσοφίας. η The teri is, ἐπώ καὶ ἄβοήθητος, ἐαυτον καρισάμενος και εκδεκόμενος

ἐκη ωσπερ ερμαιον, τοις προκαταλαβουσιν αὐτὰν λόγοις. Bengel proposea ἐνδεχόμενον . . . ἔρμαιον, - - lucrum imperatunia

84쪽

72GREGORY THAUMATURGUS

mattere, but above est, in What is of greatest and most essentiat consequence-in the knowledge of God and in pie . And yet men become bound by them in such a manner that

saia , but heeps them down in iis soli untii they meet theirend; or they may be compared to men in a deep, dense, and majestic sorest, into Which the waysarer enters, With the idea, perchance, oi finding his road out of it again sorthWith, and of taking his course onco more on the open plain,y but isbamed in his purpose by the extent and thichness of tho ood; and turning in a variety oi directions, and lightingon Various continuous patiis Within it, he pursues many a

or again, We might tae the similitude of a labyrinth, whichlias but one apparent entrance, so that one suspecis nothingarisul irom the ouiside, and goes Within by the singis doorthat shoms itseli; and then, aster advancing to the farthest interior, and vieWing the cunning spectacle, and examining the construction so skiliuily contrived, and tuli os passages, and laid out with unending pallis leading inWards or ou, Wards, he decides to go out again, but finds himself unablo, and wes his exit completely intercepted by that inner construction whicli appeared such a triumph of cleverness. But, after ali, thero is neither any labyrinth so inextricabio and

85쪽

intricate, nor any forest so dense and devious, nor any plainor smamp so dissiculi for those to get out os, Who have onceml Mihin it, as is discussion λιγγος), at least M one maymoet with it in the case os certain of these philosophers. Whereiore, to secure us against falling into the unliapyexperience of most, he did not introduce us to any one

exclusive school os philosophy; nor did he judge it properfor us to go aWay With any single class Oi philosophical opinions, but he introduced us to all, and determined that wo fhould bo ignorant of no Lind of Grecian doctrine. And he himself went on with us, preparing the Way betareus, and leading us by the hand, as on a jοurney, WheneVeranything tortuous and unsound and delusive came in Our

Way. And he helped us like a skilled expert who has had long familiarity With such subjecis, and is not strange orinexperienced in anything of the kind, and who thereioremay remain sale in his own altitudo, While he stretchos fortithis hand to Othors, and effecis their security tOO, as onedraming up the submerged. Thus did he deat with us,aelecting and setting besore us ali that was usosul and truo in ali tho various philosophera, and putting aside ali that Wasfalso. And this ho did sor us, both in other branches of man's knowledge, and most especialty in ali that concerus pie .XV. With respect to theso human teachers, indoed, he

though they mero attested as most Wise by ali men, but todevote ourselves to God alone, and to the propheta. And hehimself camo the interpreter of the propheta i οφητεύων ω us, and explained Whatsoever Was dark or enigmatical in them. For there are many things of that hind in the sacred otas; and whether it be that God is pleased to hold communication mith men in such a Way as that the divine word may not enter ali nahed and uncovered into an unWorthysoui, such as many are, or Whether it be, that while every divino oracle is in iis own nature most clear and perspicuous,

3 The teri is, ει τις ειη κατ αντων τωνδέ τινων φιλοσόφων. Bengel

86쪽

74 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS

God, and have lost the faculty of hearing through time indage, I cannot teli. But hoWever the case may stand, is it bothat there are some Words reatly enigmatices, he explained allincti, and set them in the light, as being himself a skillod and most discerning hearer of God; or is it be that nono of themare reatly obscure in their oWn nature, they Were also not

the clear and luminous oracles os God, as to M able M onceto receive their meaning into his oWn mitid, and is convey itto others. For that Leader os ali men, Who inspires ὐπηχωνὶ God's dear propheis, and suggesta est their prophecies and their mystic and heavenly Words, has honoured this man asHe Would a friend, and has constituted him an expositor of these samo oracles; and things of Which He only gavo ahint is othera, He made matters of fuit instruction by this manys instrumentaliu; and in things which He, Who is Worthy os ali trusi, either enjoined in regia fashion, orsimply enuncialed, He imparted in this man tho gist otinvestigating and unsolding and explaining them: so that,

ii thoro chanced to be any ono os obtuso and incredulo miud, or one again thirsting for instruction, he might leam

hom this man, and in tomo manner bo constrained tounderatand and to decido for belles, and to follou God. These inings, moreover, as I judge, he gives forth only and truly by participation in tho Divino Spirit: for them is

noed of the fame pomer for those Who prophesy and sorinose Who hear the propheta; and no one can rightly heara prophet, uniess the fame Spirit Who prophesies bestomon him the capaci of apprehending His motas. And this principio is expressed indeed in tho Holy Scriptures them-selves, when it is said that only Ηρ Who inulteth veneth, and no oster ono Whatever; and what is aliut is openedWhen the word of inspiration explains mysteries. NoW that greatest glit this man has received imm God, and that

87쪽

nobtest os ali endowments ho has hin bestowed upon him hom heaven, that he should bo an interpreter of the oraclosos God to men, and that he might underetand the words of God, even as is God spino them in him, and that ho mirat

soreign) and Greeh, both spiritual and politicat, both divino

a. is os intollect; and whether it Was somo ancient systemos truth, hester it Was something one might oster imnamo that Was fore us, me had in him an apparatus anda po er at onm admirabie and fuit of tho most beautifulvis s. And in speis in bries, he was truly a paradise to us, after the similitude of the paradiso os God, Wherein We merenes set indeed in illi tho soli beneuth us, or to mino ou selves gross With dij nurture σωματοτροφεῖν παχυνομω

not What has possessed me, or What offence has been com

88쪽

not to depari, but to cleave sast to the place Τ But theso thingsseem like the transgressions that sprung srom the pristine deceit, and the penalties of these primevat offences stili await mehere. Do I not appear to myseis to be disobedient' in daringilius to overpass the words of God, when I ought to abido in

in truth our fallier, in Whicli the sather abides, and is pio lyhonoured and revered by the genuine sons, Whose destre italso is to abide therein. But I, destitute althe of ali piety and Worthiness, am going sortii srom the number of these, andam turning bach to What is bellind, and am retracing mysteps. It is recorded that a certain son, receiving hom his fallier the portion of goods that seli to him proportionaleb mith tho other heir, his brother, departed, by his own dete mination, into a strange count far distant frem his fallier; and, living there in riot, lis scattered his ancestrat substance, and ulterly wasted it; and at last, under the pressura os want, he hired himseli as a swineherd; and being drisen to

89쪽

λ απλους ἀρά τις εDαι νενόμισται ἀνδρὶ προφητη. Migne refers ua tori. xvii Ps. cxxxvii. 3 2 Mnga xxiv. xxv.

90쪽

78 GREGORY THA UMATURGUS.

.hich was Babylon; and it is narrated that theso captives, When they mere delained in the land, res ed, even When hed by theiri conquerore, to sing the divine song, or in playin a profane country, and hung their harps on tho millo troes, and wept by the rivere os Babylon. Like ono of theso I verib Mem to myseis to be, as I am cast forth hom thiscity, and from this sacred satherland of mino, Whors both

is day and is ni t the holy laws axe declared, and hymna

accem to the mysteries of God, and is night in dreams Woaro stili occupied with What tho foui has seen and hanesed in the day; and where, in shori, the inspiration os divinothinga prevatis ovis ali continuassy. From this ci , I say, Ι am cast forth, and borno captive to a strange land, Whem I shali have no poWer to pipe : ior, like these men os old, I shali have to hang my instrument on the WilloWs, and thorivers Ahali be my place of sojourn, and I shali have in Work in mud, and shali havs no heari to sing hymns, even thoughI remember them; yea, it may be that, through constant occupation With other subjects, I inali formi even them,

Areopagito Dionysius ho cites the sentenoe, των θεολόγων εις, o Ζαχαρίας, and again, ετερος των θεολόγων Ἱεζεκιηλ. Tho texi is, καὶ φως το ηλιακὸν καὶ τὸ διηνεκες, ημέραις υπιρ ημων προσομι λουντων τοις λίος μυστηριοις καὶ νυκτὀς ων εν ημέρη τε καὶ ἔπραξεν η ψυκη ταῖς φαντασιαις κατεχομένων. Bengel P p es υπαρωr ὐπεο, so M to h p the antithmia bet em ημέρας υπαρ and νυκτου φαντασίαις; and tising ημέραις and νυκτός as temporia genitives, horendera the whole thua: cum interdiu, per visa, divinis aderamus sacramentis: et noctu earum rerum, quas viderat de die atque egerat anima, imaginibus detinebamur.

SEARCH

MENU NAVIGATION