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.though it were iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is impossible for the high lifeof Law to abide without the Spirit. For it so to abide were as likely as that an army shouldmaintain its discipline in the absence of its commander, or a chorus its harmony withoutthe guidance of the Coryphæus. How could the Seraphim cry “Holy, Holy, Holy,” 1049 werethey not taught by the Spirit how often true religion requires them to lift their voice in thisascription of glory? Do “all His angels” and “all His hosts” 1050 praise God? It is throughthe co-operation of the Spirit. Do “thousand thousand” of angels stand before Him, and“ten thousand times ten thousand” ministering spirits? 1051 They are blamelessly doing theirproper work by the power of the Spirit. All the glorious and unspeakable harmony 1052 ofthe highest heavens both in the service of God, and in the mutual concord of the celestialpowers, can therefore only be preserved by the direction of the Spirit. Thus with those beingswho are not gradually perfected by increase and advance, 1053 but are perfect from the momentof the creation, there is in creation the presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers onthem the grace that flows from Him for the completion and perfection of their essence. 105439. But when we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great God and SaviourJesus Christ, 1055 who will gainsay their having been accomplished through the grace of theSpirit? Whether you wish to examine ancient evidence;—the blessings of the patriarchs,the succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the valorous feats inwar, the signs wrought through just men;—or on the other hand the things done in thedispensation of the coming of our Lord in the flesh;—all is through the Spirit. In the firstplace He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the very flesh of theLord, according to that which is written, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descendingand remaining on Him, the same is” 1056 “my beloved Son;” 1057 and “Jesus of Nazareth”whom “God anointed with the Holy Ghost.” 1058 After this every operation was wroughtwith the co-operation of the Spirit. He was present when the Lord was being tempted by251049 Is. vi. 3.1050 Ps. cxlviii. 2.1051 Dan. vii. 10.1052 cf. Job xxxviii. 7, though for first clause the lxx. reads ὅτε ἐγενήθη ἄστρα. On the Pythagorean theoryof the harmony of the spheres vide Arist. De Cœl. ii. 9, 1.1053 προκοπή. cf. προέκοπτε of the boy Jesus in Luke ii. 52.1054 ὑπόστασις, apparently again used in its earlier identification with οὐσία.1055 Titus ii. 13, R.V. The A.V. favours the view, opposed to that of the Greek Fathers, that “the great God”means the Father. cf. Theodoret in this edition, pp. 319 and 321 and notes.1056 John i. 33.1057 Matt. iii. 17.1058 Acts x. 38.193