|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
|
88 Pages
Page 57
50. But, it is said that "He maketh intercession for us." [1142] It follows then that, as the suppliant is inferior to the benefactor, so far is the Spirit inferior in dignity to God. But have you never heard concerning the Only-begotten that He "is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us"? [1143] Do not, then, because the Spirit is in you,--if indeed He is at all in you,--nor yet because He teaches us who were blinded, and guides us to the choice of what profits us,--do not for this reason allow yourself to be deprived of the right and holy opinion concerning Him. For to make the loving kindness of your benefactor a ground of ingratitude were indeed a very extravagance of unfairness. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit;" [1144] hear the words of Stephen, the first fruits of the martyrs, when he reproaches the people for their rebellion and disobedience; "you do always," he says, "resist the Holy Ghost;" [1145] and again Isaiah,--"They vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He was turned to be their enemy;" [1146] and in another passage, "the house of Jacob angered the Spirit of the Lord." [1147] Are not these passages indicative of authoritative power? I leave it to the judgment of my readers to determine what opinions we ought to hold when we hear these passages; whether we are to regard the Spirit as an instrument, a subject, of equal rank with the creature, and a fellow servant of ourselves, or whether, on the contrary, to the ears of the pious the mere whisper of this blasphemy is not most grievous. Do you call the Spirit a servant? But, it is said, "the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth," [1148] and yet the Spirit knoweth the things of God, as "the spirit of man that is in him." [1149]
[1142] Rom. viii. 26, 27.
[1143] Rom. viii. 34.
[1144] Eph. iv. 30.
[1145] Acts vii. 51.
[1146] Is. lxiii. 10.
[1147] Ps. cvi. 32; Micah ii. 7.
[1148] John xv. 15.
[1149] 1 Cor. ii. 11.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/holy-spirit.asp?pg=57
