NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Ascetic.in order to morals. 530 It has, however, been supposed by some 531 that the compositionpublished in the plan as the De Fide is not the original tract so entitled, but a letter on thesame subject written, if not during the episcopate, at least in the presbyterate. This viewhas been supported by the statement “Thus we believe and baptize.” 532This, however, might be said generally of the custom obtaining in the Church, withoutreference to the writer’s own practice. Certainly the document appears to have no connexionwith those among which it stands, and to be an answer to some particular request for aconvenient summary couched in scriptural terms. 533 Hence it does not contain the Homoousion,and the author gives his reason for the omission—an omission which, he pointsout, is in contrast with his other writings against heretics. 534 Obviously, therefore, thiscomposition is to be placed in his later life. Yet he describes the De Fideas being anteriorto the Moralia.It will be remembered that this objection to the title and date of the extant De Fide impliesnothing against its being the genuine work of the archbishop.While carefully confining himself to the language of Scripture, the author points outthat even with this aid, Faith, which he defines as an impartial assent to what has been revealedto us by the gift of God, 535 must necessarily be dark and incomplete. God can onlybe clearly known in heaven, when we shall see Him face to face. 536 The statement that hasbeen requested is as follows:“We believe and confess one true and good God, Father Almighty, of Whom are allthings, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and His one Only-begotten Son, ourLord and God, Jesus Christ, only true, through Whom all things were made, both visibleand invisible, and by Whom all things consist: Who was in the beginning with God andwas God, and, after this, according to the Scriptures, was seen on earth and had His conversationwith men: Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal withGod, but emptied Himself, and by means of the birth from a virgin took a servant’s form,and was formed in fashion as a man, and fulfilled all things written with reference to Him530 De Jud. Dei. § 8.531 cf. Ceillier VI. viii. 3.532 οὕτως φρονοδμεν καὶ οὕτως Βαπτίζομεν εἰς Τοιάδα ὁμοούσιον, κατὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ κυρίουἡμῶν ᾽Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰπόντος πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε κ.τ.λ. §; the co-essential Trinity being described asinvolved in the baptismal formula.533 § 1.534 § 1.535 συγκατάθεσις ἀδιάκριτος τῶν ἀκουσθεντων ἐν πληροφορία τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν κηρυχθέντων Θεοῦχάριτι. § 1.536 § 2.88