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

Against Eustathius of Sebasteia.
3. So when I beheld certain men in my own country striving to copy their ways, I felt
that I had found a help to my own salvation, and I took the things seen for proof of things
unseen. And since the secrets in the hearts of each of us are unknown, I held lowliness of
dress to be a sufficient indication of lowliness of spirit; and there was enough to convince
me in the coarse cloak, the girdle, and the shoes of untanned hide. 2892 And though many
were for withdrawing me from their society, I would not allow it, because I saw that they
put a life of endurance before a life of pleasure; and, because of the extraordinary excellence
of their lives, I became an eager supporter of them. And so it came about that I would not
hear of any fault being found with their doctrines, although many maintained that their
conceptions about God were erroneous, and that they had become disciples of the champion
of the present heresy, and were secretly propagating his teaching. But, as I had never at any
time heard these things with my own ears, I concluded that those who reported them were
calumniators. Then I was called to preside over the Church. Of the watchmen and spies,
who were given me under the pretence of assistance and loving communion, I say nothing,
lest I seem to injure my own cause by telling an incredible tale, or give believers an occasion
for hating their fellows, if I am believed. This had almost been my own case, had I not been
prevented by the mercy of God. For almost every one became an object of suspicion to me,
and smitten at heart as I was by wounds treacherously inflicted, I seemed to find nothing
in any man that I could trust. But so far there was, nevertheless, a kind of intimacy kept up
between us. Once and again we held discussions on doctrinal points. and apparently we
seemed to agree and keep together. But they began to find out that I made the same statements
concerning my faith in God which they had always heard from me. For, if other
things in me may move a sigh, this one boast at least I dare make in the Lord, that never for
one moment have I held erroneous conceptions about God, or entertained heterodox
opinions, which I have learnt later to change. The teaching about God which I had received
as a boy from my blessed mother and my grandmother Macrina, I have ever held with increased
conviction. On my coming to ripe years of reason I did not shift my opinions from
one to another, but carried out the principles delivered to me by my parents. Just as the
seed when it grows is first tiny and then gets bigger but always preserves its identity, not
changed in kind though gradually perfected in growth, so I reckon the same doctrine to
have grown in my case through gradually advancing stages. What I hold now has not replaced
what I held at the beginning. Let them search their own consciences. Let these men who
have now made me the common talk on the charge of false doctrine, and deafened all men’s
ears with the defamatory letters which they have written against me, so that I am compelled
2892 With St. Basil’s too great readiness to believe in Eustathius because of his mean garb contrast Augustine
De Serm. Dom. “Animadvertendum est non in solo rerum corporearum nitore atque pompa, sed etiam in ipsis
sordibus lutosis esse posse jactantiam, et eo periculosiorem quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit.”
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