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

Dogmatic.And if he who is subject to control cannot create free beings (for he cannot of his own willconfer on others what he does not possess himself), then the Saviour, since He made us free,cannot Himself be under the control of any.”“If the Son could do nothing of Himself, and could only act at the bidding of the Father,He is neither good nor bad. He was not responsible for anything that was done. Considerthe absurdity of the position that men should be free agents both of good and evil, while theSon, who is God, should be able to do nothing of His own authority!”On John xv. 1. “I am the Vine.”“If, say they, the Saviour is a vine, and we are branches, but the Father is husbandman;and if the branches are of one nature with the vine, and the vine is not of one nature withthe husbandman; then the Son is of one nature with us, and we are a part of Him, but theSon is not of one nature with, but in all respects of a nature foreign to, the Father, I shallreply to them that He called us branches not of His Godhead, but of His flesh, as the Apostlesays, we are ‘the body of Christ, and members in particular,’ 397 and again, ‘know ye not thatyour bodies are the members of Christ?’ 398 and in other places, ‘as is the earthy, such arethey that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as wehave borne the image of the earthy, let us all bear the image of the heavenly.’ 399 If the headof the ‘man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God,’ 400 and man is not of one substancewith Christ, Who is God (for man is not God), but Christ is of one substance with God (forHe is God) therefore God is not the head of Christ in the same sense as Christ is the headof man. The natures of the creature and the creative Godhead do not exactly coincide. Godis head of Christ, as Father; Christ is head of us, as Maker. If the will of the Father is thatwe should believe in His Son (for this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one whichseeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life), 401 the Son is not a Son ofwill. That we should believe in Him is (an injunction) found with Him, or before Him.” 402xl397 1 Cor. xii. 27.398 1 Cor. vi. 15.399 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49: in the last clause Basil reads φορέσωμεν, instead of the φορέσομεν of A.V., with , A,C, D, E, F, G, K, L, P.400 1 Cor. xi. 3.401 John vi. 40.402 i.e.simultaneous with, or even anterior to, His advent. Maran hesitates as to the meaning of the phrase,and writes: “Suspicor tamen intelligi sic posse. Quanquam voluntas patris est ut in Filium credamus, non tamenpropterea sequitur, Filium ex voluntate esse. Nam credere nos oportet in Filium, ut primum in hunc mundumvenit, imo antequam etiam naturam humanam assumeret, cum patriarchæ et Judæi prisci ad salutem consequendamin Christum venturum credere necesse habuerint. Itaque cum debeamus necessario credere in Filium omni ætateet tempore; hinc efficitur, Filium esse natura, non voluntate, neque adoptione. Si voluntas est Patris ut nos in66