Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

different. If on the contrary the Spirit is there conjoined with the Father and the Son, and
no one is so shameless as to say anything else, then let them not lay blame on us for following
the words of Scripture.
25. But all the apparatus of war has been got ready against us; every intellectual missile
is aimed at us; and now blasphemers’ tongues shoot and hit and hit again, yet harder than
Stephen of old was smitten by the killers of the Christ. 929 And do not let them succeed in
concealing the fact that, while an attack on us serves for a pretext for the war, the real aim
of these proceedings is higher. It is against us, they say, that they are preparing their engines
and their snares; against us that they are shouting to one another, according to each one’s
strength or cunning, to come on. But the object of attack is faith. The one aim of the whole
band of opponents and enemies of “sound doctrine” 930 is to shake down the foundation of
the faith of Christ by levelling apostolic tradition with the ground, and utterly destroying
it. So like the debtors,—of course bona fide debtors—they clamour for written proof, and
reject as worthless the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. 931 But we will not slacken in our
defence of the truth. We will not cowardly abandon the cause. The Lord has delivered to
us as a necessary and saving doctrine that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked with the Father.
Our opponents think differently, and see fit to divide and rend 932 asunder, and relegate
Him to the nature of a ministering spirit. Is it not then indisputable that they make their
own blasphemy more authoritative than the law prescribed by the Lord? Come, then, set
aside mere contention. Let us consider the points before us, as follows:
26. Whence is it that we are Christians? Through our faith, would be the universal
answer. And in what way are we saved? Plainly because we were regenerate through the
grace given in our baptism. How else could we be? And after recognising that this salvation
is established through the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, shall we fling away “that
form of doctrine” 933 which we received? Would it not rather be ground for great groaning
Erasmus, who has more clearly apprehended the drift of the argument. Basil brings his opponents to the dilemma
that the words ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost’ either do or do not assert a
conjunction with the Father and the Son. If not, Basil ought not to be found fault with on the score of ‘conjunc-
tion,’ for he abides by the words of Scripture, and conjunction no more follows from his words than from those
of our Lord. If they do, he cannot be found fault with for following the words of Scripture. The attentive reader
will see this to be the meaning of Basil, and the received reading ought to be retained.”
929 Χριστοφόνοι. The compound occurs in Ps. Ignat. ad Philad. vi.
930 1 Tim. i. 10.
931 Mr. Johnston sees here a reference to the parable of the unjust steward, and appositely quotes Greg. Naz.
Orat. xxxi, § 3, on the heretics’ use of Scripture, “They find a cloak for their impiety in their affection for Scrip-
ture.” The Arians at Nicæa objected to the ὁμοόυσιον as unscriptural.
932 cf. Ep. cxx. 5.
933 Rom. vi. 17.
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