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

Against Eustathius of Sebasteia.thus to defend myself, ask themselves if they have ever heard anything from me, differingfrom what I now say, and let them remember the judgment seat of Christ.4. I am charged with blasphemy against God. Yet it is impossible for me to be convictedon the ground of any treatise concerning the Faith, which they urge against me, nor can Ibe charged on the ground of the utterances which I have from time to time delivered byword of mouth, without their being committed to writing, in the churches of God. Not asingle witness has been found to say that he has ever heard from me, when speaking inprivate, anything contrary to true religion. If then I am not an unorthodox writer, if nofault can be found with my preaching, if I do not lead astray those who converse with mein my own home, on what ground am I being judged? But there is a new invention!Somebody, 2893 runs the charge, in Syria has written something inconsistent with true religion;and twenty years or more ago you wrote him a letter: so you are an accomplice of the fellow,and what is urged against him is urged against you. O truth-loving sir, I reply, you whohave been taught that lies are the offspring of the devil; what has proved to you that I wrotethat letter? You never sent; you never asked; you were never informed by me, who mighthave told you the truth. But if the letter was mine, how do you know that the documentthat has come into your hands now is of the same date as my letter? Who told you that itis twenty years old? How do you know that it is a composition of the man to whom myletter was sent? And if he was the composer, and I wrote to him, and my letter and hiscomposition belong to the same date, what proof is there that I accepted it in my judgment,and that I hold those views?5. Ask yourself. How often did you visit me in my monastery on the Iris, when my veryGod-beloved brother Gregory was with me, following the same course of life as myself?Did you ever hear anything of the kind? Was there any appearance of such a thing, smallor great? How many days did we spend in the opposite village, at my mother’s, living asfriend with friend, and discoursing together night and day? Did you ever find me holdingany opinion of the kind? And when we went together to visit the blessed Silvanus, 2894 didwe not talk of these things on the way? And at Eusinoe, 2895 when you were about to set outwith other bishops for Lampsacus, 2896 was not our discourse about the faith? Were notyour shorthand writers at my side the whole time while I was dictating my objections to the2893 i.e.Apollinarius. cf. Letters cxxx. p. 198, and ccxxiv.2894 i.e.Silvanus of Tarsus. cf. Letters xxxiv. p. 136, and lxvii. p. 164.2895 I have not been able to identify Eusinoe. There was an Eusene on the north coast of Pontus.2896 i.e. in 364, the year after St. Basil’s ordination as presbyter, and the publication of his work against Eunomius.The Council of Lampsacus, at which Basil was not present, repudiated the Creeds of Ariminum andConstantinople (359 and 360), and reasserted the 2d Dedication Creed of Antioch of 341. Maran dates it 364(Vit. Bas. x.).740