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

Homiletical.some bright constellations, keep thine eye ever sleepless. Give not sleep to thine eyes orslumber to thine eyelids, 613 that the guidance of the commandments may be unceasing.‘Thy word,’ it is said, ‘is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.’ 614 Never slumberat the tiller, so long as thou livest here, amid the unstable circumstances of this world, andthou shalt receive the help of the Spirit. He shall conduct thee ever onward. He shall waftthee securely by gentle winds of peace, till thou come one day safe and sound to yon calmand waveless haven of the will of God, to Whom be glory and majesty for ever and ever,Amen.”Homilies XV. and XVI. are more distinctly dogmatic. They do not present the doctrinesof which they treat in any special way. XV., De Fide, is concerned rather with the frame ofmind of the holder and expounder of the Faith than with any dogmatic formula.XVI., on John i. 1, begins by asserting that every utterance of the gospels is grander thanthe rest of the lessons of the Spirit, inasmuch as, while in the latter He has spoken to usthrough His servants the prophets, in the gospels the Master has conversed with us face toface. “The most mighty voiced herald of the actual gospel proclamation, who uttered wordsloud beyond all hearing and lofty beyond all understanding, is John, the son of thunder, theprelude of whose gospel is the text.” After repeating the words the preacher goes on to saythat he has known many who are not within the limits of the word of truth, many of theheathen, that is, “who have prided themselves upon the wisdom of this world, who in theiradmiration for these words have ventured to insert them among their own writings. Forthe devil is a thief, and carries off our property for the use of his own prophets.” 615“If the wisdom of the flesh has been so smitten with admiration for the force of thewords, what are we to do, who are disciples of the Spirit?…Hold fast to the text, and youwill suffer no harm from men of evil arts. Suppose your opponent to argue, ‘If He was begotten,He was not,’ do you retort, ‘In the beginning He was.’ But, he will go on, ‘Before Hewas begotten, in what way was He?’ Do not give up the words ‘He was.’ Do not abandonthe words ‘In the beginning.’ The highest point of beginning is beyond comprehension;what is outside beginning is beyond discovery. Do not let any one deceive you by the factlx613 cf. Ps. cxxxii. 4.614 Ps. cxix. 105.615 There are instances of high admiration of the passage: I have not found one of appropriation. Augustine(De Civ. Dei x. 29), says: “Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est secundum Johannem, quidam Platonicus,sicut a sancto sene Simpliciano, qui postea ecclesiæ Mediolanensi præsedit episcopus, solebamus audire, aureislitteris conscribendum et per omnes ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse dicebat.” Eusebius (Præp.Evang. xi. 17 and 18) refers to the Statements of Plotinus and Numerius on the δεύτερος αἴτιος, and (19) mentionsAurelius (on Aurelius vide Mosheim’s note on Cudworth’s Int. System, vol. i. cap. iv. 17), as quoting the passagein question. Vide also Theodoret, Græc. Aff. 33, and Bentley’s Remarks on Freethinking, § xlvi.104