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

Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of thingsglorified in creation.know not whether any one who has been partaker of the Holy Spirit will consent that weshould overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all things, and tear the Spirit asunder fromthe Father and the Son. Where then are we to take Him and rank Him? With the creature?Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit maketh free. “And where the Spirit of theLord is, there is liberty.” 1200 Many arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemlyto coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass them by.Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting the dignity of the discussion, all theproofs always available on our side, and so overthrow the objections of our opponents, alengthy dissertation would be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity.I therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special treatise, 1201 and to apply myself tothe points now more immediately before us.56. Let us then examine the points one by one. He is good by nature, in the same wayas the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodnessby choosing the good. He knows “The deep things of God;” 1202 the creature receives themanifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit. He quickens together with God, whoproduces and preserves all things alive, 1203 and together with the Son, who gives life. “Hethat raised up Christ from the dead,” it is said, “shall also quicken your mortal bodies bythe spirit that dwelleth in you;” 1204 and again “my sheep hear my voice,…and I give untothem eternal life;” 1205 but “the Spirit” also, it is said, “giveth life,” 1206 and again “the Spirit,”it is said, “is life, because of righteousness.” 1207 And the Lord bears witness that “it is theSpirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.” 1208 How then shall we alienate theSpirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature? Who is socontentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift, 1209 and unfed by God’s good words,361200 2 Cor. iii. 17.1201 Mr. C.F.H. Johnston conjectures the allusion to be to Hom. xxiv. “Contra Sabellianos et Arium etAnomœos.”1202 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.1203 In 1 Tim. vi. 13, St. Paul writes τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζωοποιοῦντος πάντα. In the text St. Basil writes τὰ πάνταζωογονοῦντος. The latter word is properly distinguished from the former as meaning not to make alive afterdeath, but to engender alive. In Luke xvii. 33, it is rendered in A.V. “preserve.” In Acts vii. 19, it is “to the endthey might not live.” On the meaning of ζωογονεῖν in the lxx. and the Socinian arguments based on its use inLuke xvii. 33, cf. Pearson, On the Creed, Art. V. note to p. 257 Ed. 1676.1204 Rom. viii. 11.1205 John x. 27–28.1206 2 Cor. iii. 6.1207 Rom. viii. 10.1208 John vi. 63.1209 cf. Heb. vi. 4.218