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

To Maximus the Philosopher.stance, diminution of power, and variableness of glory. So he exchanges one mischief foranother, and diverges from the right line of doctrine. In his writings he exhibits a miscellaneousinconsistency, and is at one time to be found disloyal to the homoousion, becauseof his opponent 1877 who made a bad use of it to the destruction of the hypostases, and atanother admitting it in his Apology to his namesake. 1878 Besides this he uttered very unbecomingwords about the Spirit, separating Him from the Godhead, the object of worship,and assigning Him an inferior rank with created and subordinate nature. Such is the man’scharacter.3. If I must give my own view, it is this. The phrase “like in essence,” 1879 if it be readwith the addition “without any difference,” 1880 I accept as conveying the same sense as thehomoousion, in accordance with the sound meaning of the homoousion. Being of this mindthe Fathers at Nicæa spoke of the Only-begotten as “Light of Light,” “Very God of veryGod,” and so on, and then consistently added the homoousion. It is impossible for any oneto entertain the idea of variableness of light in relation to light, of truth in relation to truth,nor of the essence of the Only begotten in relation to that of the Father. If, then, the phrasebe accepted in this sense, I have no objection to it. But if any one cuts off the qualification“without any difference” from the word “like,” as was done at Constantinople, 1881 then Iregard the phrase with suspicion, as derogatory to the dignity of the Only-begotten. Weare frequently accustomed to entertain the idea of “likeness” in the case of indistinct resemblances,coming anything but close to the originals. I am myself for the homoousion, as beingless open to improper interpretation. But why, my dear sir, should you not pay me a visit,that we may talk of these high topics face to face, instead of committing them to lifeless letters,—especiallywhen I have determined not to publish my views? And pray do not adopt,to me, the words of Diogenes to Alexander, that “it is as far from you to me as from me toyou.” I am almost obliged by ill-health to remain like the plants, in one place; moreover Ihold “the living unknown” 1882 to be one of the chief goods. You, I am told, are in good1877 Sabellius.1878 Dionysius of Rome.1879 ὅμοιον κατ᾽ οὐσίαν1880 ἀπαραλλάκτως.1881 i.e. at the Acacian council of Constantinople in 360, at which fifty bishops accepted the creed ofArminum as revised at Nike, proscribing οὐσια and ὑπόστασις, and pronounced the Son to be “like the Father,as say the Holy Scriptures.” cf. Theod. II. xvi. and Soc. II. xli. In 366 Semiarian deputies from the council ofLampsacus represented to Liberius at Rome that κατὰ πάντα ὅμοιος and ὁμοούσιος were equivalent.1882 λάθε βιώσας is quoted by Theodoret in Ep. lxii. as a saying of “one of the men once called wise.” It isattributed to Epicurus. Horace imitates it in Ep. I. xvii. 10: “Nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit.” SoOvid, Tristia III. iv. 25: “crede mihi; bene qui latuit, bene vixit,” and Eurip., Iph. in Aul. 17: Ζηλῶ σὲ, γέρον,387