LETTER OF PETER OF SEBASTE TO SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA, HIS BROTHER
To his most devout brother Gregory, Peter sends greeting in the Lord.
A Having read the letters of your holiness, and having understood the fervor you possess for the faith against the heresy, and for our holy Father, I did not think that the work was of your own strength, but of Him who has ordained that the truth should be spoken in His own dogmas. B And just as I say that it is right to attribute the defense of the truth to the Spirit of truth Himself, so also it seems to me that the zeal in attacking the assault against the healthy faith should be ascribed not to Eunomius, but to the father of lies and architect of falsehood himself. And it seems that he who was a murderer from the beginning, who spoke in him, has zealously sharpened the sword against himself; for if he had not shown such audacity against the truth, no one would have moved you towards the defense of the dogmas of piety. He, therefore, who catches the wise in their craftiness gave them—so that the weakness and instability of the dogmas they maintain might be refuted—both the ability to arm themselves against the truth and to meditate upon empty things through this empty logography.
Since, therefore, it is fitting that he who has begun a good work should finish it, do not grow weary of serving the power of the Spirit, nor leave half-finished the victory over those who campaign against the glory of Christ, but imitate your genuine father, who, like the zealot Phinehas, ran the disciple through along with the master with a single blow of reproof C; so also do you, vigorously thrust the sword of the Spirit with the hand of the Word through both books of the heretics, so that the serpent, its head having been crushed, may not frighten the simpler ones by thrashing with its tail. For since the first part of the discussion has been refuted, if the latter remains unexamined, there will not be wanting those who might suspect that it possesses some strength against the truth.
Furthermore, the bile and acrimony that has been sprinkled throughout the discourse D...