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

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

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

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Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of thingsglorified in creation.who is so devoid of part <strong>and</strong> lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead<strong>and</strong> rank Him with the creature?57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, <strong>and</strong> that the gift is notreverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a giftof God, but a gift of life, for the law of “the Spirit of life,” it is said, “hath made” us “free;” 1210<strong>and</strong> a gift of power, for “ye shall receive power after that the <strong>Holy</strong> Ghost is come uponyou.” 1211 Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Sonas a free gift to mankind? “He that spared not His own Son,” it is said, “but delivered Himup for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” 1212 And in anotherplace, “that we might truly know the things that are freely given us of God,” 1213 in referenceto the mystery of the Incarnation. It follows then that the maintainers of such arguments,in making the greatness of God’s loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have reallysurpassed the ingratitude of the Jews. They find fault with the Spirit because He gives usfreedom to call God our Father. “For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into” our“hearts crying Abba, Father,” 1214 that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice ofthem that have received him.1210 Rom. viii. 2.1211 Acts i. 8.1212 Rom. viii. 32.1213 1 Cor. ii. 12.1214 Gal. iv. 6.219

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