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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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88 Pages
Page 64
56. Let us then examine the points one by one. He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness by choosing the good. He knows "The deep things of God;" [1202] the creature receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit. He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves all things alive, [1203] and together with the Son, who gives life. "He that raised up Christ from the dead," it is said, "shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you;" [1204] and again "my sheep hear my voice,...and I give unto them eternal life;" [1205] but "the Spirit" also, it is said, "giveth life," [1206] and again "the Spirit," it is said, "is life, because of righteousness." [1207] And the Lord bears witness that "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." [1208] How then shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature? Who is so contentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift, [1209] and unfed by God's good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the creature?
[1202] 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.
[1203] In 1 Tim. vi. 13, St. Paul writes tou theou tou zoopoiountos panta. In the text St. Basil writes ta panta zoogonountos. The latter word is properly distinguished from the former as meaning not to make alive after death, but to engender alive. In Luke xvii. 33, it is rendered in A.V. "preserve." In Acts vii. 19, it is "to the end they might not live." On the meaning of zoogonein in the lxx. and the Socinian arguments based on its use in Luke xvii. 33, cf. Pearson, On the Creed, Art. V. note to p. 257 Ed. 1676.
[1204] Rom. viii. 11.
[1205] John x. 27-28.
[1206] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[1207] Rom. viii. 10.
[1208] John vi. 63.
[1209] cf. Heb. vi. 4.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/holy-spirit.asp?pg=64
