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

To Eustathius the physician.to fall into atheism, what sense is there in this charge against me of confessing one Godhead?But they make a plainer disclosure of the end they have in view; namely, in the case of theFather to agree that He is God, and consenting in like manner that the Son be honouredwith the attribute of Godhead; but to refuse to comprehend the Spirit, though reckonedwith Father and with Son in the idea of Godhead. They allow that the power of the Godheadextends from the Father to the Son, but they divide the nature of the Spirit from the divineglory. Against this view, to the best of my ability, I must enter a brief defence of my ownposition.5. What, then, is my argument? In delivering the Faith of Salvation to those who arebeing made disciples in His doctrine, the Lord conjoins with Father and with Son the HolySpirit also. That which is conjoined once I maintain to be conjoined everywhere and always.There is no question here of a ranking together in one respect and isolation in others. Inthe quickening power whereby our nature is transformed from the life of corruption toimmortality, the power of the Spirit is comprehended with Father and with Son, and inmany other instances, as in the conception of the good, the holy, the eternal, the wise, theright, the supreme, the efficient, and generally in all terms which have the higher meaning,He is inseparably united. Wherefrom I judge it right to hold that the Spirit, thus conjoinedwith Father and Son in so many sublime and divine senses, is never separated. Indeed I amunaware of any degrees of better or worse in the terms concerning the divine nature, norcan I imagine its being reverent and right to allow the Spirit a participation in those oflesser dignity, while He is judged unworthy of the higher. For all conceptions and termswhich regard the divine are of equal dignity one with another, in that they do not vary inregard to the meaning of the subject matter to which they are applied. Our thought is notled to one subject by the attribution of good, and to another by that of wise, powerful, andjust; mention any attributes you will, the thing signified is one and the same. And if youname God, you mean the same Being whom you understood by the rest of the terms.Granting, then, that all the terms applied to the divine nature are of equal force one withanother in relation to that which they describe, one emphasizing one point and anotheranother, but all bringing our intelligence to the contemplation of the same object; whatground is there for conceding to the Spirit fellowship with Father and Son in all other terms,and isolating Him from the Godhead alone? There is no escape from the position that wemust either allow the fellowship here, or refuse it everywhere. If He is worthy in everyother respect, He is certainly not unworthy in this. If, as our opponents argue, He is tooinsignificant to be allowed fellowship with Father and with Son in Godhead, He is not worthyto share any single one of the divine attributes: for when the terms are carefully considered,and compared with one another, by the help of the special meaning contemplated in each,they will be found to involve nothing less than the title of God. A proof of what I say liesin the fact that even many inferior objects are designated by this name. Nay, Holy Scripture230662