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

Against those who say that the Holy Ghost is not to be numbered with, but numbered under,the Father and the Son. Wherein moreover there is a summary notice of the faith concerningright sub-numeration.the sub-numeration to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is spokenof together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which the Son is spoken of withthe Father. “The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” 1082 is deliveredin like manner, and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism, the relationof the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son to the Father. And if the Spirit is coordinatewith the Son, and the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also coordinatewith the Father. When then the names are ranked in one and the same co-ordinateseries, 1083 what room is there for speaking on the one hand of connumeration, and on theother of sub-numeration? Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature bybeing numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what they naturallyand originally were, while number is adopted among us as a sign indicative of the pluralityof subjects? For some bodies we count, some we measure, and some we weigh; 1084 thosewhich are by nature continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided weapply number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness are measured);while heavy objects are distinguished by the inclination of the balance. It does not howeverfollow that, because we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive atthe knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the things signified.We do not speak of “weighing under” one another things which are weighed, even thoughone be gold and the other tin; nor yet do we “measure under” things that are measured; andso in the same way we will not “number under” things which are numbered. And if noneof the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they allege that the Spirit ought tobe subnumerated? Labouring as they do under heathen unsoundness, they imagine thatthings which are inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to besubnumerated.1082 Matt. xxviii. 19.1083 ουστοιχία, a series of similar things, as in Arist. An. Pr. ii. 21, 2. In the Pythagorean philosophy, a coordinateor parallel series. Arist. Met. i. 5, 6, and Eth. Nic. i. 6, 7.1084 cf. Wis. xi. 20. “Thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.”198