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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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88 Pages
Page 52
46. And it is not from this source alone that our proofs of the natural communion are derived, but from the fact that He is moreover said to be "of God;" [1093] not indeed in the sense in which "all things are of God," [1094] but in the sense of proceeding out of God, not by generation, like the Son, but as Breath of His mouth. But in no way is the "mouth" a member, nor the Spirit breath that is dissolved; but the word "mouth" is used so far as it can be appropriate to God, and the Spirit is a Substance having life, gifted with supreme power of sanctification. Thus the close relation is made plain, while the mode of the ineffable existence is safeguarded. He is moreover styled Spirit of Christ,' as being by nature closely related to Him. Wherefore "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." [1095] Hence He alone worthily glorifies the Lord, for, it is said, "He shall glorify me," [1096] not as the creature, but as "Spirit of truth," [1097] clearly shewing forth the truth in Himself, and, as Spirit of wisdom, in His own greatness revealing "Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God." [1098] And as Paraclete [1099] He expresses in Himself the goodness of the Paraclete who sent Him, and in His own dignity manifests the majesty of Him from whom He proceeded. There is then on the one hand a natural glory, as light is the glory of the sun; and on the other a glory bestowed judicially and of free will ab extra' on them that are worthy. The latter is twofold. "A son," it is said, "honoureth his father, and a servant his master." [1100] Of these two the one, the servile, is given by the creature; the other, which may be called the intimate, is fulfilled by the Spirit. For, as our Lord said of Himself, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do;" [1101] so of the Paraclete He says "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." [1102] And as the Son is glorified of the Father when He says "I have both glorified it and will glorify it [1103] again," [1104] so is the Spirit glorified through His communion with both Father and Son, and through the testimony of the Only-begotten when He says "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." [1105]
[1093] 2 Cor. i. 12.
[1094] 1 Cor. xi. 12. George of Laodicea applied this passage to the Son, and wrote to the Arians: "Why complain of Pope Alexander (i.e. of Alexandria) for saying that the Son is from the Father....For if the apostle wrote All things are from God...He may be said to be from God in that sense in which all things are from God." Athan., De Syn. 17.
[1095] Rom. viii. 9.
[1096] John xvi. 14.
[1097] John xiv. 17.
[1098] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[1099] parakletos occurs five times in the N.T., and is rendered in A.V. in John xiv. 16 and 26, xv. 26 and xvi. 7, Comforter; in 1 John ii. 1 Advocate, as applied to the Son. In the text the Son, the Paraclete, is described as sending the Spirit, the Paraclete; in the second clause of the sentence it can hardly be positively determined whether the words tou hothen proelthen refer to the Father or to the Son. The former view is adopted by Mr. C.F.H. Johnson, the latter by the editor of Keble's Studia Sacra, p. 176. The sequence of the sentence in John xv. 26 might lead one to regard hothen proelthen as equivalent to para tou Patros ekporeuetai. On the other hand. St. Basil's avoidance of direct citation of the verb ekporeuetai, his close connexion of tou aposteilantos with hothen proelthen, and the close of the verse in St. John's gospel ekeinos marturesei peri emou, suggest that the megalosune in St. Basil's mind may be the megalosune of the Son. At the same time, while the Western Church was in the main unanimous as to the double procession, this passage from St. Basil is not quoted as an exception to the general current of the teaching of the Greek Fathers, who, as Bp. Pearson expresses it, "stuck more closely to the phrase and language of the Scriptures, saying that the spirit proceedeth from the Father." (Pearson On the Creed, Art. viii. where videquotations) Vide also Thomasius, Christ. Dogm., i. 270, Namentlich auf letzere Bestimmung legten die griechischen Vaeter groszes Gewicht. Im Gegensatz gegen den macedonischen Irrtum, der den Geist fuer ein Geschuepf des Sohnes ansah, fuehrte man die Subsistenz desselben ebenso auf den Vater zuruck wie die des Sohnes. Man lehrte, , also, der heilige Geist geht vom Vater aus, der Vater ist die arche wie des Sohnes so auch des Geistes; aber mit der dem herkoemmlichen Zuge des Dogma entsprechenden Naeherbestimmung: nicht amesos, sondern emmesos, interventu filii geht der Geist vom Vater aus, also "durch den Sohn vom Vater." So die bedeutendsten Kirchenlehrer, waehrend andere einfach bei der Formel stehen blieben; er gehe vom Vater aus.
[1100] Mal. i. 6.
[1101] John xvii. 4.
[1102] John xvi. 14.
[1103] Four mss. of the De S.S. read edoxasa se, a variation not appearing in mss. of the Gospel.
[1104] John xii. 28.
[1105] Matt. xii. 31.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/holy-spirit.asp?pg=52
