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

Exposition of the present state of the Churches.the helm and made shipwreck of the faith. 1344 And then the disturbances wrought by theprinces of the world 1345 have caused the downfall of the people with a violence unmatchedby that of hurricane or whirlwind. The luminaries of the world, which God set to give lightto the souls of the people, have been driven from their homes, and a darkness verily gloomyand disheartening has settled on the Churches. 1346 The terror of universal ruin is alreadyimminent, and yet their mutual rivalry is so unbounded as to blunt all sense of danger. Individualhatred is of more importance than the general and common warfare, for men bywhom the immediate gratification of ambition is esteemed more highly than the rewardsthat await us in a time to come, prefer the glory of getting the better of their opponents tosecuring the common welfare of mankind. So all men alike, each as best he can, lift thehand of murder against one another. Harsh rises the cry of the combatants encounteringone another in dispute; already all the Church is almost full of the inarticulate screams, theunintelligible noises, rising from the ceaseless agitations that divert the right rule of thedoctrine of true religion, now in the direction of excess, now in that of defect. On the onehand are they who confound the Persons and are carried away into Judaism; 1347 on theother hand are they that, through the opposition of the natures, pass into heathenism. 1348Between these opposite parties inspired Scripture is powerless to mediate; the traditions ofthe apostles cannot suggest terms of arbitration. Plain speaking is fatal to friendship, anddisagreement in opinion all the ground that is wanted for a quarrel. No oaths of confederacyare so efficacious in keeping men true to sedition as their likeness in error. Every one is atheologue though he have his soul branded with more spots than can be counted. The resultthe saving efficacy of Baptism to the presence of the Spirit, and here applies the word to Him.” In § 35, we haveτὸ σωτήριον βάπτισυα.1344 1 Tim. i. 19.1345 1 Cor. ii. 6.1346 Among the bishops exiled during the persecution of Valens were Meletius of Antioch, Eusebius ofSamosata, Pelagius of Laodicea, and Barses of Edessa. cf. Theodoret, Hist. Ecc. iv. 12 sq. cf. Ep. 195.1347 The identification of an unsound Monarchianism with Judaism is illustrated in the 1st Apology of JustinMartyr, e.g. in § lxxxiii. (Reeves’ Trans.). “The Jews, therefore, for maintaining that it was the Father of theUniverse who had the conference with Moses, when it was the very Son of God who had it, and who is styledboth Angel and Apostle, are justly accused by the prophetic spirit and Christ Himself, for knowing neither theFather nor the Son; for they who affirm the Son to be the Father are guilty of not knowing the Father, and likewiseof being ignorant that the Father of the Universe has a Son, who, being the Logos and First-begotten of God, isGod.”1348 i.e. the Arians, whose various ramifications all originated in a probably well-meant attempt to reconcilethe principles of Christianity with what was best in the old philosophy, and a failure to see that the ditheism ofArianism was of a piece with polytheism.248