Letter VII.
1777
To Gregory my friend
.
1778
When
I wrote to you, I was
perfectly well aware that no theological term is adequate to the
thought of the speaker, or the want of the questioner, because language
is of natural necessity too weak to act in the service of objects of
thought. If then our thought is weak, and our tongue weaker than
our thought, what was to be expected of me in what I said but that I
should be charged with poverty of expression? Still, it was not
possible to let your question pass unnoticed. It looks like a
betrayal, if we do not readily give an answer about God to them that
love the Lord. What has been said, however, whether it seems
satisfactory, or requires some further and more careful addition, needs
a fit season for correction. For the present I implore you, as I
have implored you before, to devote yourself entirely to the advocacy
of the truth, and to the intellectual energies God gives you for the
establishment of what is good. With this be content, and ask
nothing more from me. I am really much less capable than is
supposed, and am more likely to do harm to the word by my weakness than
to add strength to the truth by my advocacy.
1777
Written from
the retirement in Pontus.
1778
i.e.
Gregory of Nazianzus.