St Gregory of Nyssa AGAINST EUNOMIUS, First Part, Complete

Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson

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This Part: 128 Pages

Page 105

We then, who no longer serve them which by nature are no Gods [281] , have come to the knowledge of Him Who by nature is God, to Whom every knee boweth "of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth [282] ." But we should not have been His servants had we not believed that this is the living and true God, to Whom "every tongue maketh confession that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father [283] ."

"God," he says, "Who is without beginning, eternally, without end, alone." Once more "understand, ye simple ones," as Solomon says, "his subtlety [284] ," lest haply ye be deceived and fall headlong into the denial of the Godhead of the Only-begotten Son. That is without end which admits not of death and decay: that, likewise, is called everlasting which is not only for a time. That, therefore, which is neither everlasting nor without end is surely seen in the nature which is perishable and mortal. Accordingly he who predicates "unendingness" of the one and only God, and does not include the Son in the assertion of "unendingness" and "eternity," maintains by such a proposition, that He Whom he thus contrasts with the eternal and unending is perishable and temporary. But we, even when we are told that God "only hath immortality [285] ," understand by "immortality" the Son. For life is immortality, and the Lord is that life, Who said, "I am the Life [286] ." And if He be said to dwell "in the light that no man can approach unto [287] ," again we make no difficulty in understanding that the true Light, unapproachable by falsehood, is the Only-begotten, in Whom we learn from the Truth itself that the Father is [288] . Of these opinions let the reader choose the more devout, whether we are to think of the Only-begotten in a manner worthy of the Godhead, or to call Him, as heresy prescribes, perishable and temporary.

[281] Cf. Gal. iv. 8

[282] Cf. Phil. ii. 10, 11.

[283] Cf. Phil. ii. 10, 11.

[284] Prov. viii. 5 (Septuagint).

[285] 1 Tim. vi. 16.

[286] S. John xiv. 6

[287] 1 Tim. vi. 16.

[288] S. John xiv. 11

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