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

In what manner in the confession of the three hypostases we preserve the pious dogma ofthe Monarchia. Wherein also is the refutation of them that allege that the Spirit issubnumerated.the divine and uncompounded nature the union consists in the communion of the Godhead.1092 One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak of Him singly, conjoined as Heis to the one Father through the one Son, and through Himself completing the adorable andblessed Trinity. Of Him the intimate relationship to the Father and the Son is sufficientlydeclared by the fact of His not being ranked in the plurality of the creation, but being spokenof singly; for he is not one of many, but One. For as there is one Father and one Son, so isthere one Holy Ghost. He is consequently as far removed from created Nature as reasonrequires the singular to be removed from compound and plural bodies; and He is in suchwise united to the Father and to the Son as unit has affinity with unit.46. And it is not from this source alone that our proofs of the natural communion arederived, but from the fact that He is moreover said to be “of God;” 1093 not indeed in thesense in which “all things are of God,” 1094 but in the sense of proceeding out of God, notby generation, like the Son, but as Breath of His mouth. But in no way is the “mouth” amember, nor the Spirit breath that is dissolved; but the word “mouth” is used so far as itcan be appropriate to God, and the Spirit is a Substance having life, gifted with supremepower of sanctification. Thus the close relation is made plain, while the mode of the ineffableexistence is safeguarded. He is moreover styled ‘Spirit of Christ,’ as being by nature closelyrelated to Him. Wherefore “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” 1095Hence He alone worthily glorifies the Lord, for, it is said, “He shall glorify me,” 1096 not asthe creature, but as “Spirit of truth,” 1097 clearly shewing forth the truth in Himself, and, asSpirit of wisdom, in His own greatness revealing “Christ the Power of God and the wisdomof God.” 1098 And as Paraclete 1099 He expresses in Himself the goodness of the Paraclete291092 On the right use of the illustration of εἰκών, cf. Basil Ep. xxxviii., and Bp. Lightfoot’s note on Col. i. 15.cf. also John i. 18 and xiv. 9, 10.1093 2 Cor. i. 12.1094 1 Cor. xi. 12. George of Laodicea applied this passage to the Son, and wrote to the Arians: “Why complainof Pope Alexander (i.e. of Alexandria) for saying that the Son is from the Father.…For if the apostle wrote Allthings are from God…He may be said to be from God in that sense in which all things are from God.” Athan.,De Syn. 17.1095 Rom. viii. 9.1096 John xvi. 14.1097 John xiv. 17.1098 1 Cor. i. 24.1099 παράκλητος occurs five times in the N.T., and is rendered in A.V. in John xiv. 16 and 26, xv. 26 and xvi.7, Comforter; in 1 John ii. 1 Advocate, as applied to the Son. In the text the Son, the Paraclete, is described assending the Spirit, the Paraclete; in the second clause of the sentence it can hardly be positively determinedwhether the words τοῦ ὁθεν προῆλθεν refer to the Father or to the Son. The former view is adopted by Mr.C.F.H. Johnson, the latter by the editor of Keble’s Studia Sacra, p. 176. The sequence of the sentence in John201