CHAP. "One says, I will give to-morrow, to excuse himself from giving to-day. Alas! do you know whether you shall be alive to-morrow? Another says, I am poor, I have need enough myself of all my means. Yes, you are poor, you are destitute, but it is of love, of benignity, of faith, and of mercy. A third says, whom do I wrong? I keep only my own. I ask you, from whom did you receive those riches, and whence did you bring them? Did you not come naked from your mother's womb, and shall you not return naked to the dust? Whence did this wealth come? from chance? what is this but Atheism? if you confess that you received it from God, why did it fall to your lot rather than to another's? God is not unrighteous in the unequal division of property among men. Why are you rich, and why is this man poor? it is, that you may receive the reward of dispensing your goods faithfully, and that the poor may receive the recompense of his patience. When, therefore, you appropriate to yourself that wealth which belongs to many, and of which you are the steward, you are a robber.We know not what necessities may happen. Can you make this apology, while you spend your wealth on a thousand superfluities?-But I want it for my children. But, is it from you, that your son received life? is it not from God? ought he, then, to hinder you from obeying God's commandments? The riches that you will leave him, may be the occasion of his ruin. Who knows, whether he will make a good or a bad use of them?"-The pretences of those, who think to exempt themselves from doing good in their lifetime, by leaving their goods, by will, to the poor, he thus refutes: "Wretched men, to practise no good works, but with ink and paper! It seems, you wish you could have enjoyed your riches for ever, and then you would never have obeyed the precepts of the Gospel: it is to *Basil's Homilies. Du Pin. death, it seems, and not to you, that the poor are indebted. God will not be thus mocked; that which is dead is not to be offered to the sanctuary offer up a living sacrifice." It is certain, that those, who rely on Divine Providence, are like the springs which are not dried up by drawing from them, but send forth their waters with greater force. If you are poor, lend your money upon interest to God, who is rich. Different vices predominate in different periods. If, by reviewing various ages, I can gain a more enlarged way of thinking, and cease to admire exclusively that in which I live, this will be one advantage of my historical travel. Certain it is, that the present age is remarkable for a selfish and narrow mode of conception, and a contempt of antiquity. How many, whose reading has scarcely reached farther than a Monthly Review or Magazine, are apt to felicitate themselves on their exemption from superstition, and to deride all monks as perfect fools? If we conceive a man in Basil's days, possessed of the same contracted spirit, and capable of foreseeing the excessively mercantile taste of the present race of men; would not he be disposed to censure their covetousness? and would not the vice appear as ridiculous to such a one, as superstition does to the moderns? Is it not as absurd and foolish in its nature? The wisdom of man lies not in satirizing the vices of others, but in correcting his own. CENT. IV. CHAP. XXIV. GREGORY NAZIANZEN. He was born at Arianzum, an obscure village belonging to Nazianzum in Cappadocia, and came into CHAP. the world about the time of the Nicene council *. 66 Nazianzum itself had but newly received Christianity. The bishop who baptized Gregory the elder, was the first of its pastors, and died soon after. A long vacancy took place, and the town was overrun with ignorance and vice. Gregory the elder at length was appointed to the see, which he filled for forty-five years with great success among the people. His son, Gregory the younger, the famous Gregory, usually called Gregory Nazianzen, making uncommon advances in learning, in several seminaries, went to Athens, to complete his education. During the voyage, a remarkable providence *Though I have consulted Socrates and Sozomen, yet the account of Cave is so full and circumstantial, and so well supported by original authorities, that I shall have little occasion to do any thing more than to abridge the life of Gregory, written by the latter, except to avail myself of the industry of Du Pin, when I make a few remarks on the works of this Father. IV. was made subservient to his conversion. A storm CENT. suddenly arose, and the vessel was for several days in imminent danger. Gregory lamented his want of baptism and of serious Christianity, and with vehement prayers devoted himself to God to be his for ever, if he would be pleased to spare his life at that time. When he had finished his prayer, the tempest ceased, and the ship was securely conducted to her port. His acquaintance with Basil at Athens has been mentioned. Here also he conversed with Julian the apostate, and, with that intuitive penetration into character, which seems a peculiar gift of some minds, he foretold what a curse he would one day prove. See, said he, what a pest the Roman empire nourishes in its bowels! Yet Julian, at that time, had done nothing to justify such suspicions. He attended Christian forms; nor was he naturally savage or inhuman. The penetrating eye of Gregory discerned, however, the embryo of the apostate and the scorner, in his bold and fearless spirit of disputation, and in his presumptuous curiosity;tempers in youth, which, if strong and predominant, and accompanied with quickness of parts, without special grace, seldom fail to produce remarkable fruits of impiety in maturer age, and are rather cherished than damped by sobriety of manners and intenseness of application. Pride converts every specious virtue into nourishment for herself; and Satan knows no agent in the world so proper as pride for the promotion of his kingdom of darkness. After his baptism, he felt himself strongly inclined to the ascetic life, but was, though reluctant, made a presbyter by his father. The old man, better versed in prayer than disputation, was once imposed on, by Arian subtleties, to communicate with that sect, while he took them to be what they were not, but was recovered from the snare by the arguments of his more learned son. The latter, after giving way CHAP, for a time to the monastic spirit of solitude, was XXIV. prevailed on at length to return to Nazianzum, and to employ himself in a manner more worthy of a Christian, by assisting his aged father in his pastoral cares. His friend Basil offering him the bishopric of Sasima, in his diocese of Cæsarea, and the place being very mean and obscure, the pride of Gregory was hurt, and for some time a coolness subsisted between the two friends, both of whom appear not to have possessed, in any great degree, the humble simplicity of better times. Their fondness for Platonism, and their accurate acquaintance with secular learning, had doubtless no tendency to supply the defects of their Christian views of doctrine. Gregory rejecting the offer of Sasima, continued to assist his father, and had then an opportunity of enforcing a Christian duty, constantly allowed to be such in the primitive times, namely submission to the higher powers, as well as to give the most excellent advice to the governor of Nazianzum-to use his power with moderation. Some civil tumults and broils at that place furnished him with this occasion. His father dying near a hundred years old, and his mother soon after, both of them persons of uncommon piety, Gregory was induced to go to Constantinople. Here, under the emperor Valens, Arianism was at its height, and Gregory preached to a few Christians in a sort of conventicle; but, growing popular and successful, he was at last appointed bishop; and at length, under Theodosius, he was confirmed in the charge. It proved, however, extremely uneasy to him, notwithstanding the kindness of the emperor. His liberality and integrity were indeed admirable, and his private life and manners were most exemplary. But the weakness of his body, the irritability of his temper, and his extreme deficiency in talents for government, 24 |