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

That the Holy Spirit is in every conception inseparable from the Father and the Son, alikein the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in thejudgment to come.Chapter XVI.That the Holy Spirit is in every conception inseparable from the Father and the Son, alike inthe creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgmentto come.37. Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the HolySpirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the Father and the Son. St.Paul, in the passage about the gift of tongues, writes to the Corinthians, “If ye all prophesyand there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he isjudged of all; and thus are the secrets of the heart made manifest; and so falling down onhis face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth.” 1030 If then God isknown to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the distributionof the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attributeto the Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrustHim forth to the place of the creature. Peter’s words to Sapphira, “How is it that ye haveagreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Ye have not lied unto men, but untoGod,” 1031 show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thusyou might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparablefrom, the Father and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and the Lord thediversities of administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit is present too of His own will,dispensing distribution of the gifts according to each recipient’s worth. For, it is said, “thereare diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of administrations, but the sameLord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all inall.” 1032 “But all these,” it is said, “worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing toevery man severally as He will.” 1033 It must not however be supposed because in this passagethe apostle names in the first place the Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third Godthe Father, that therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has only started in accordancewith our habits of thought; for when we receive gifts, the first that occurs to us is the distributer,next we think of the sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and causeof the boons.38. Moreover, from the things created at the beginning may be learnt the fellowship ofthe Spirit with the Father and the Son. The pure, intelligent, and supermundane powersare and are styled holy, because they have their holiness of the grace given by the Holy1030 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.1031 Acts v. 9 and 4. “Thou hast not lied,” said to Ananias, interpolated into the rebuke of Sapphira.1032 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6.1033 1 Cor. xii. 11.190