Acknowledged Writings.

 A Declaration of Faith.

 Part I.—Acknowledged Writings.

 Elucidation.

 A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

 These words speaketh Solomon, the son of David the king and prophet, to the whole Church of God, a prince most honoured, and a prophet most wise above

 Chapter II.

 Chapter III.

 Chapter IV.

 Chapter V.

 Chapter VI.

 Chapter VII.

 Chapter VIII.

 Chapter IX.

 Chapter X.

 Chapter XI.

 Chapter XII.

 Canonical Epistle.

 Canon I.

 Canon II.

 Canon III.

 Canon IV.

 Canon V.

 Moreover, it has been reported to us that a thing has happened in your country which is surely incredible, and which, if done at all, is altogether th

 Now, as regards those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, and have accompanied them in their irruption in a state of captivity, and who, forg

 Now those who have been so audacious as to invade the houses of others, if they have once been put on their trial and convicted, ought not to be deeme

 Now, those who have found in the open field or in their own houses anything left behind them by the barbarians, if they have once been put on their tr

 Canon X.

 Weeping takes place without the gate of the oratory and the offender standing there ought to implore the faithful as they enter to offer up prayer on

 Elucidations.

 The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen.

 Argument I.—For Eight Years Gregory Has Given Up the Practice of Oratory, Being Busied with the Study Chiefly of Roman Law and the Latin Language.

 Argument II.—He Essays to Speak of the Well-Nigh Divine Endowments of Origen in His Presence, into Whose Hands He Avows Himself to Have Been Led in a

 Argument III.—He is Stimulated to Speak of Him by the Longing of a Grateful Mind. To the Utmost of His Ability He Thinks He Ought to Thank Him. From G

 Argument IV.—The Son Alone Knows How to Praise the Father Worthily. In Christ and by Christ Our Thanksgivings Ought to Be Rendered to the Father. Greg

 Argument V.—Here Gregory Interweaves the Narrative of His Former Life. His Birth of Heathen Parents is Stated. In the Fourteenth Year of His Age He Lo

 Argument VI.—The Arts by Which Origen Studies to Keep Gregory and His Brother Athenodorus with Him, Although It Was Almost Against Their Will And the

 Argument VII.—The Wonderful Skill with Which Origen Prepares Gregory and Athenodorus for Philosophy. The Intellect of Each is Exercised First in Logic

 Argument VIII.—Then in Due Succession He Instructs Them in Physics, Geometry, and Astronomy.

 Argument IX.—But He Imbues Their Minds, Above All, with Ethical Science And He Does Not Confine Himself to Discoursing on the Virtues in Word, But He

 Argument X.—Hence the Mere Word-Sages are Confuted, Who Say and Yet Act Not.

 Argument XI.—Origen is the First and the Only One that Exhorts Gregory to Add to His Acquirements the Study of Philosophy, and Offers Him in a Certain

 Argument XII.—Gregory Disallows Any Attainment of the Virtues on His Part. Piety is Both the Beginning and the End, and Thus It is the Parent of All t

 Argument XIII.—The Method Which Origen Used in His Theological and Metaphysical Instructions. He Commends the Study of All Writers, the Atheistic Alon

 Argument XIV.—Whence the Contentions of Philosophers Have Sprung. Against Those Who Catch at Everything that Meets Them, and Give It Credence, and Cli

 Argument XV.—The Case of Divine Matters. Only God and His Prophets are to Be Heard in These. The Prophets and Their Auditors are Acted on by the Same

 Argument XVI.—Gregory Laments His Departure Under a Threefold Comparison Likening It to Adam’s Departure Out of Paradise. To the Prodigal Son’s Aband

 Argument XVII.—Gregory Consoles Himself.

 Argument XVIII.— Peroration, and Apology for the Oration.

 Argument XIX.—Apostrophe to Origen, and Therewith the Leave-Taking, and the Urgent Utterance of Prayer.

 Elucidations.

Chapter III.

For this present time is filled with all things that are most contrary32 The text reads ἐναντιωτήτων, for which Codex Anglicus has ἑναντιωτάτων. Gen. xviii. 23, 25. to each other—births and deaths, the growth of plants and their uprooting, cures and killings, the building up and the pulling down of houses, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing. At this moment a man gathers of earth’s products, and at another casts them away; and at one time he ardently desireth the beauty of woman, and at another he hateth it. Now he seeketh something, and again he loseth it; and now he keepeth, and again he casteth away; at one time he slayeth, and at another he is slain; he speaketh, and again he is silent; he loveth, and again he hateth. For the affairs of men are at one time in a condition of war, and at another in a condition of peace; while their fortunes are so inconstant, that from bearing the semblance of good, they change quickly into acknowledged ills. Let us have done, therefore, with vain labours. For all these things, as appears to me, are set to madden men, as it were, with their poisoned stings. And the ungodly observer of the times and seasons is agape for this world,33 Or, age. Eph. v. 5–13. exerting himself above measure to destroy the image34 πλάσμα. τοῦ φωτός for the received πνεύματος. of God, as one who has chosen to contend against it35 Or, Him. from the beginning onward to the end.36 The Greek text is, καιροσκόπος δή τις πονηρὸς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον περικέχηνεν, ἀφανίσαι ὑπερδιατεινόμενος τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλάσμα, ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῷ μέχρι τέλους πολεμεῖν ᾑρημένος. It is well to notice how widely this differs from our version of iii. 11: “He hath made everything beautiful in his time,” etc. I am persuaded, therefore, that the greatest good for man is cheerfulness and well-doing, and that this shortlived enjoyment, which alone is possible to us, comes from God only, if righteousness direct our doings. But as to those everlasting and incorruptible things which God hath firmly established, it is not possible either to take aught from them or to add aught to them. And to men in general, those things, in sooth, are fearful and wonderful;37 The text is, ᾧ τινι οὖν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστιν, ἐκεινα φοβερά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ θαυμαστά. and those things indeed which have been, abide so; and those which are to be, have already been, as regards His foreknowledge. Moreover, the man who is injured has God as his helper. I saw in the lower parts the pit of punishment which receives the impious, but a different place allotted for the pious. And I thought with myself, that with God all things are judged and determined to be equal; that the righteous and the unrighteous, and objects with reason and without reason, are alike in His judgment. For that their time is measured out equally to all, and death impends over them, and in this the races of beasts and men are alike in the judgment of God, and differ from each other only in the matter of articulate speech; and all things else happen alike to them, and death receives all equally, not more so in the case of the other kinds of creatures than in that of men. For they have all the same breath of life, and men have nothing more; but all are, in one word, vain, deriving their present condition38 σύστασιν. from the same earth, and destined to perish, and return to the same earth again. For it is uncertain regarding the souls of men, whether they shall fly upwards; and regarding the others which the unreasoning creatures possess, whether they shall fall downward. And it seemed to me, that there is no other good save pleasure, and the enjoyment of things present. For I did not think it possible for a man, when once he has tasted death, to return again to the enjoyment of these things.39 [The key to the interpretation of this book, as to much of the book of Job, is found in the brief expostulation of Jeremiah (chap. xii. 1), where he confesses his inability to comprehend the world and God’s ways therein, yet utters a profession of unshaken confidence in His goodness. Here Solomon, in monologue, gives vent to similar misgivings; overruling all in the wonderful ode with which the book concludes. I say Solomon, not unadvisedly.]