St Gregory of Nazianzus on Logos

St Gregory of Nazianzus, De Filio 4 (30): XX. On Logos.

In my opinion He is called Son because He is identical with the Father in Essence; and besides, also because He is of Him. And He is called Only-Begotten, not because He is alone of the one and only; but also because of the unique manner, not as the created bodies. And He is called Logos, because He is related to the Father as Logos is to Mind; not only on account of His passionless generation, but also because of the sameness of nature and declaration. One may also say He is as a definition of that being defined, as this is also called Logos. For, it is said, that "to see" the Father actually means to comprehend Him; and the task of demonstrating it is quick and easy: the Son is of the Nature of the Father, even as it is unknown why the one and Only-Begotten was begotten. If one may say He is in all that is, he would not be wrong. For what is there not constituted by Logos? Also He is Wisdom, being cognisant of divine and human things. For how may the creator be ignorant of the logoi [plural of logos] of all He created? He is, moreover, a Force maintaining all that is created and sustaining their cohesion. He is additionally the truth, one in nature, not many; for truth is only one but falsehood is manifold; and He is a pure seal of the Father and a faultless impression. An image, of one nature, being from the Father and the Father being of Him. It is the nature of the image to be the copy of that original, whose it is said to be. However, there is more to it: because He is the unmoved mover; the life within what lives, being as Adam was for Seth, the creator of all that is created. For that is the nature of simple existences, that they are not alike in some respect and different in another, rather that all are entirely of the same kind and not simply resembling one another. He is the Light of the brightness of a soul that is cleansed in logos and life. For if ignorance and sin are a darkness, knowledge and life in God are light. Life is what light is, the foundation and substance of every logical nature, as in Him we live and move and are, by the force of the twofold breath He breathed into us [Logos and Holy Spirit; reason and knowledge], all receiving a breath from Him and from the Holy Spirit, those who may receive it to the extent we open our fount of intellect. He is Righteousness, distributing deservedly, judging righteously those who have received the law and grace both in soul and body, that the first may rule and the second be ruled, so that what is better has supremacy over the worse, so that what is worse may not rise over what is better. He is Sanctification, as He is pure, so that what is pure is filled of purity. He is our Redeemer, freeing us of our sin, giving Himself as that Ransom that cleanses the world for our salvation. He is Resurrection, for raising us and leading us again into life though we were dead in sin.