This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 edition. Excerpt: ...essence (t- o/ooi/-aso): those, on the contrary, which are not of the same essence (t- yuij ofioovma.) cannot be connumerated." And, thence, they argued thus: "As, in the passage ' Three are one, ' the Persons of the Godhead are connumerated; you must, nolentes volentes, in virtue of our axiom and this passage ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 edition. Excerpt: ...essence (t- o/ooi/-aso): those, on the contrary, which are not of the same essence (t- yuij ofioovma.) cannot be connumerated." And, thence, they argued thus: "As, in the passage ' Three are one, ' the Persons of the Godhead are connumerated; you must, nolentes volentes, in virtue of our axiom and this passage, grant the existence of Three Gods.--What absurdity!" Gregory commences his refutation by controverting the axiom on which the objection of his adversaries was founded. "You say," said he, "if things are to be connumerated, (49) This is evident from the connection with what immediately follows: for they built their whole objection on the connumerating of the Persons in the Godhead; on the Three (TA TPIA); and oil the idea of the One (TO 'EN). I have therefore unravelled the intricate argument of the opponents, for greater perspicuity's sake. (50) The adversaries seem here to have taken the word 'OMOOT2102 in the erroneous sense, which was rejected by the Church in the year 273, at the Councils of Antioch; according to which, there was no difference of the Persons. they must be of the same essence; and therefore there must be no difference between them. What absurdity! Know ye not, that Numerals are merely competent to express the quantity, and not the nature, of the things whose sum they designate? I call things Three, which are that many in number, though they are different in Essence: likewise, I call One and One and One, so many Units, namely, Three, when they have the same essence. For I look not, herein, to their essence; but to their quantity, which constitutes the number that I affix to them5'." Now, though this was clear as the sun, and perfectly sufficient to confute the opponent's...
Read Less
