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

To the ascetics under him.Letter CCXXVI. 2914To the ascetics under him.It may be that the holy God will grant me the joy of a meeting with you, for I am everlonging to see you and hear about you, because in no other thing do I find rest for my soulthan in your progress and perfection in the commandments of Christ. But so long as thishope remains unrealized I feel bound to visit you through the instrumentality of our dearand God-fearing brethren, and to address you, my beloved friends, by letter. Wherefore Ihave sent my reverend and dear brother and fellow-worker in the Gospel, Meletius thepresbyter. He will tell you my yearning affection for you, and the anxiety of my soul, inthat, night and day, I beseech the Lord in your behalf, that I may have boldness in the dayof our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and that when your work is tried by thejust judgment of God you may shine forth in the brightness of the saints. At the same timethe difficulties of the day cause me deep anxiety, for all Churches have been tossed to andfro, and all souls are being sifted. Some have even opened their mouths without any reserveagainst their fellow servants. Lies are boldly uttered, and the truth has been hidden. Theaccused are being condemned without a trial, and the accusers are believed without evidence.I had heard that many letters are being carried about against myself, stinging, gibbeting,and attacking me for matters about which I have my defence ready for the tribunal of truth;and I had intended to keep silence, as indeed I have done; for now for three years I havebeen bearing the blows of calumny and the whips of accusation, content to think that I havethe Lord, Who knows all secrets, as witness of its falsehood. But I see now that many menhave silence as a corroboration of these slanders, and have formed the idea that my silencewas due, not to my longsuffering, but to my inability to open my lips in opposition to thetruth. For these reasons I have attempted to write to you, beseeching your love in Christnot to accept these partial calumnies as true, because, as it is written, the law judges no manunless it have heard and known his actions. 29152. Nevertheless before a fair judge the facts themselves are a sufficient demonstrationof the truth. Wherefore, even if I be silent, you can look at events. The very men who arenow indicting me for heterodoxy have been seen openly numbered with the heretical faction.The very accusers who condemn me for other men’s writings, are plainly contravening theirown confessions, given to me by them in writing. Look at the conduct of the exhibitors ofthis audacity. It is their invariable custom to go over to the party in power, to trample ontheir weaker friends, and to court the strong. The writers of those famous letters againstEudoxius and all his faction, the senders of them to all the brotherhood, the protesters that2682914 Placed in 375.2915 cf. John vii. 51.748