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

The creation of terrestrial animals.6. Beasts bear witness to the faith. Hast thou confidence in the Lord? “Thou shalt walkupon the asp and the basilisk and thou shalt trample under feet the lion and the dragon.” 1722With faith thou hast the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see thatthe viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, whilst he gathered sticks, did not injurehim, because it found the saint full of faith? If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so muchas your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption. But I see that for along time you have been asking me for an account of the creation of man, and I think I canhear you all cry in your hearts, We are being taught the nature of our belongings, but weare ignorant of ourselves. Let me then speak of it, since it is necessary, and let me put anend to my hesitation. In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know one’s self. Not onlyour eye, from which nothing outside us escapes, cannot see itself; but our mind, so piercingto discover the sins of others, is slow to recognise its own faults. 1723 Thus my speech, aftereagerly investigating what is external to myself, is slow and hesitating in exploring my ownnature. Yet the beholding of heaven and earth does not make us know God better than theattentive study of our being does; I am, says the Prophet, fearfully and wonderfully made; 1724that is to say, in observing myself I have known Thy infinite wisdom. 1725 And God said“Let us make man.” 1726 Does not the light of theology shine, in these words, as throughwindows; and does not the second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yetmanifesting Himself until the great day? Where is the Jew who resisted the truth and pretendedthat God was speaking to Himself? It is He who spoke, it is said, and it is He whomade. “Let there be light and there was light.” But then their words contain a manifestabsurdity. Where is the smith, the carpenter, the shoemaker, who, without help and alonebefore the instruments of his trade, would say to himself; let us make the sword, let us puttogether the plough, let us make the boot? Does he not perform the work of his craft in silence?Strange folly, to say that any one has seated himself to command himself, to watchover himself, to constrain himself, to hurry himself, with the tones of a master! But theunhappy creatures are not afraid to calumniate the Lord Himself. What will they not saywith a tongue so well practised in lying? Here, however, words stop their mouth; “And Godsaid let us make man.” Tell me; is there then only one Person? It is not written “Let man1061722 cf. Ps. xci. 13.1723 cf. St. Matt. vii. 3.1724 cf. Ps. cxxxix. 14.1725 “E cœlo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (Juv. xi. 27). Socrates, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, Pythagoras,have all been credited with the saying. “On reconnaît ici le précepte fécond de l’école socratique. L’église chrétiennes’en empara comme de tout ce qu’elle trouvait de grand et de bon dans l’ancienne Grèce. Fialon. St. Basil has aHomily on the text πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ (Deut. xv. 9, lxx.)1726 Gen. i. 26.353