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

Enumeration of the illustrious men in the Church who in their writings have used the word“with.”torian. In the Fifth Book of his Epitome of the Times he says “we who know the weight ofthose terms, and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, render thanks to the Father, whobestowed on us His own creatures, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and our Lord, towhom be glory and majesty with the Holy Ghost, for ever.” 1324 The rest of the passagesmay peradventure be viewed with suspicion; or may really have been altered, and the factof their having been tampered with will be difficult to detect because the difference consistsin a single syllable. Those however which I have quoted at length are out of the reach ofany dishonest manipulation, and can easily be verified from the actual works.I will now adduce another piece of evidence which might perhaps seem insignificant,but because of its antiquity must in nowise be omitted by a defendant who is indicted on acharge of innovation. It seemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the gift of the light ateventide in silence, but, on its appearing, immediately to give thanks. Who was the authorof these words of thanksgiving at the lighting of the lamps, we are not able to say. Thepeople, however, utter the ancient form, and no one has ever reckoned guilty of impietythose who say “We praise Father, Son, and God’s Holy Spirit.” 1325 And if any one knowsthe Hymn of Athenogenes, 1326 which, as he was hurrying on to his perfecting by fire, heleft as a kind of farewell gift 1327 to his friends, he knows the mind of the martyrs as to theSpirit. On this head I shall say no more.prietatem namque gratiæ ejus operisque descripsimus. Porro autem nihil in Trinitate majus minusve dicendumest, quum unius Divinitatis Fons verbo ac ratione sua teneat universa, spiritu vero oris sui quæ digna sunt,sanctificatione sanctificet, sicut in Psalmo scriptum est verbo domini cœli firmati sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnisvirtus eorum.” De Princ. I. iii. 7. On the obligations of both Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus to Origen, cf. Socratesiv. 26.1324 Of the chief writings of Julius Africanus (called Sextus Africanus by Suidas), who wrote at Emmaus andAlexandria c. 220, only fragments remain. A Letter to Origen is complete. His principal work was a Chroniconfrom the Creation to a.d. 221, in Five Books. Of this Dr. Salmon (D.C.B. i. 56) thinks the doxology quoted byBasil was the conclusion.1325 Ps. cxli. was called ὁ ἐπιλύχνιος ψαλμός (Ap. Const. viii. 35). In the Vespers of the Eastern Church anevening hymn is sung, translated in D.C.A. i. 634, “Joyful Light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, theheavenly, the holy, the blessed Jesus Christ, we having come to the setting of the sun and beholding the eveninglight, praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is meet at all times that thou shouldest be hymned with auspiciousvoices, Son of God, Giver of Life: wherefore the world glorifieth thee.”1326 Identified by some with two early hymns, Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις, and φῶς ἱλαρόν.1327 The mss. vary between ἐξιτήριον and ἀλεξιτήριον, farewell gift and amulet or charm. In Ep. cciii. 299Basil says that our Lord gave His disciples peace as an ἐξιτήριον δῶρον, using the word, but in conjunction withδῶρον. Greg. Naz., Orat. xiv. 223 speaks of our Lord leaving peace “ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι ἐξιτήριον.”242