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

ceptible of evil. But the Son and the Holy Ghost are the source of sanctification by which
every reasonable creature is hallowed in proportion to its virtue.
3. We in accordance with the true doctrine speak of the Son as neither like, 1787 nor
unlike 1788 the Father. Each of these terms is equally impossible, for like and unlike are
predicated in relation to quality, and the divine is free from quality. We, on the contrary,
confess identity of nature and accepting the consubstantiality, and rejecting the composition
of the Father, God in substance, Who begat the Son, God in substance. From this the consubstantiality
1789 is proved. For God in essence or substance is co-essential or con-substantial
with God in essence or substance. But when even man is called “god” as in the words, “I
have said ye are gods,” 1790 and “dæmon” as in the words, “The gods of the nations are dæmons,”
1791 in the former case the name is given by favour, in the latter untruly. God alone
is substantially and essentially God. When I say “alone” I set forth the holy and uncreated
essence and substance of God. For the word “alone” is used in the case of any individual
and generally of human nature. In the case of an individual, as for instance of Paul, that he
alone was caught into the third heaven and “heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful
for a man to utter,” 1792 and of human nature, as when David says, “as for man his days are
as grass,” 1793 not meaning any particular man, but human nature generally; for every man
is short-lived and mortal. So we understand these words to be said of the nature, “who alone
hath immortality” 1794 and “to God only wise,” 1795 and “none is good save one, that is
God,” 1796 for here “one” means the same as alone. So also, “which alone spreadest out the
heavens,” 1797 and again “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou
serve.” 1798 “There is no God beside me.” 1799 In Scripture “one” and “only” are not predicated
of God to mark distinction from the Son and the Holy Ghost, but to except the unreal
1787 Asserted at Seleucia and Ariminum.
1788 cf. D. Sp. S. § 4 on Aetius’ responsibility for the Anomœan formula.
1789 τὸ ὁμοούσιον.
1790 Ps. lxxxii. 6.
1791 Ps. xcvi. 5, LXX.
1792 2 Cor. xii. 4.
1793 Ps. cii. 15.
1794 1 Tim. vi. 16.
1795 Rom. xvi. 27.
1796 Luke xviii. 19.
1797 Job ix. 8.
1798 Deut. vi. 13, LXX., where the text runs κύριον τὸν θεόν σου φοβηθήσῃ. St. Basil may quote the version
in Matt. iv. 10 and Luke iv. 8, προσκυνήσεις. The Hebrew="fear".
1799 Deut. xxxii. 39, LXX.
To the Cæsareans. A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the fait…
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