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Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson
St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 56
What need is there to take time to recount all the other blasphemies that underlie his doctrine, starting from this beginning? For by what we have quoted, one who considers the inference to be drawn will understand that the father of falsehood, the maker of death, the inventor of wickedness, being created in a nature intellectual and incorporeal, was not by that nature hindered from becoming what he is by way of change. For the mutability of essence, moved either way at will, involves a capacity of nature that follows the impulse of determination, so as to become that to which its determination leads it. Accordingly they will define the Lord as being capable even of contrary dispositions, drawing Him down as it were to a rank equal with the angels, by the conception of creation [618] . But let them listen to the great voice of Paul. Why is it that he says that He alone has been called Son? Because He is not of the nature of angels, but of that which is more excellent. "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, This day have I begotten Thee'? and when again He bringeth the first-begotten into the world He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.' And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire': but of the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom [619] ,'" and all else that the prophecy recites together with these words in declaring His Godhead. And he adds also from another Psalm the appropriate words, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands," and the rest, as far as "But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail [620] ," whereby he describes the immutability and eternity of His nature. If, then, the Godhead of the Only-begotten is as far above the angelic nature as a master is superior to his slaves, how do they make common either with the sensible creation Him Who is Lord of the creation, or with the nature of the angels Him Who is worshipped by them [621] , by detailing, concerning the manner of His existence, statements which will properly apply to the individual things we contemplate in creation, even as we already showed the account given by heresy, touching the Lord, to be closely and appropriately applicable to the making of the earth?
[618] The argument appears to be this:--The Anomoeans assert, on the ground that He is created, that the Son's essence is trepton, liable to change; where there is the possibility of change, the nature must have a capacity of inclining one way or the other, according to the balance of will determining to which side the nature shall incline: and that this is the condition of the angels may be seen from the instance of the fallen angels, whose nature was inclined to evil by their proairesis. It follows that to say the Son is treptos implies that He is on a level with the angelic nature, and might fall even as the angels fell.
[619] Cf. Heb. i. 4, and foll. It is to be noted that Gregory connects palin in v. 6, with eisagage, not treating it, as the A.V. does, as simply introducing another quotation. This appears from his later reference to the text.
[620] Cf. Ps. cii. 25, 26.
[621] Oehler's punctuation here seems to be unsatisfactory.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/nyssa/against-eunomius-2.asp?pg=56
