The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

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the Eight Beatitudes, are written in the same style. What he says in
them on the motives of humility, which he thinks is meant by the first
beatitude, of poverty of spirit, and on meekness, proves how much his
heart was filled with those divine virtues.
Besides what we have of St. Gregory on the holy scripture, time has
preserved us many other works of piety of this father. His discourse
entitled, On his Ordination, ought to be called, On the Dedication. It
was spoken by him in the consecration of a magnificent church, built by
Rufin, (præfect of the prætorium,) ann. 394, at the Borough of the Oak,
near Chalcedon. His sermon, On loving the Poor, is a pathetic
exhortation to alms, from the last sentence on the wicked for a neglect
of that duty. "At which threat," he says, "I am most vehemently
terrified, and disturbed in mind." He excites to compassion for the
lepers in particular, who, under their miseries, are our brethren, and
it is only God's favor that has preserved us sound rather than them; and
who knows what we ourselves may become? His dialogue Against Fate was a
disputation with a heathen philosopher, who maintained a destiny or
overruling fate in all things. His canonical epistle to Letoius, bishop
of Melitine, metropolis of Armenia, has a place among the canons of
penance in the Greek church, published by Beveridge. He condemns
apostacy to perpetual penance, deprived of the sacraments till the
article of death: if only extorted by torments, for nine years; the same
law for witchcraft; nine years for simple fornication; eighteen for
adultery; twenty-seven for {555} murder, or for rapine. But he permits
the terms to be abridged in cases of extraordinary fervor. Simple theft
he orders to be expiated by the sinner giving all his substance to the
poor; if he has none, to work to relieve them.
His discourse against those who defer baptism, is an invitation to
sinners to penance, and chiefly of catechumens to baptism, death being
always uncertain. He is surprised to see an earthquake or pestilence
drive all to penance and to the font: though an apoplexy or other sudden
death may as easily surprise men any night of their lives. He relates
this frightful example. When the Nomades Scythians plundered those
parts, Archias, a young nobleman of Comanes, whom he knew very well, and
who deferred his baptism, fell into their hands, and was shot to death
by their arrows, crying out lamentably, "Mountains and woods, baptize
me; trees and rocks, give me the grace of the sacrament." Which
miserable death more afflicted the city than all the rest of the war.
His sermons, Against Fornication, On Penance, On Alms, On Pentecost, are
in the same style. In that against Usurers, he exerts a more than
ordinary zeal, and tells them: "Love the poor. In his necessity he has
recourse to you to assist his misery, but by lending him on usury you
increase it; you sow new miseries on his sorrows, and add to his
afflictions. In appearance you do him a pleasure, but in reality ruin