Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto

23. Now the Spirit is not brought into intimate association with the soul by local approximation. How indeed could there be a corporeal approach to the incorporeal? This association results from the withdrawal of the passions which, coming afterwards gradually on the soul from its friendship to the flesh, have alienated it from its close relationship with God. Only then after a man is purified from the shame whose stain he took through his wickedness, and has come back again to his natural beauty, and as it were cleaning the Royal Image and restoring its ancient form, only thus is it possible for him to draw near to the Paraclete. 9 cf. Theodoret, Dial. i. p. 164, Schaff and Wace’s ed. “Sin is not of nature, but of corrupt will.” So the ninth article of the English Church describes it as not the nature, but the “fault and corruption of the nature, of every man.” On the figure of the restored picture cf. Ath. de Incar. § 14, and Theod. Dial. ii. p. 183. And He, like the sun, will by the aid of thy purified eye show thee in Himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed spectacle of the image thou shalt behold the unspeakable beauty of the archetype. 10 cf. Ep. 236. “Our mind enlightened by the Spirit, looks toward the Son, and in Him, as in an image, contemplates the Father.” There seems at first sight some confusion in the text between the “Royal Image” in us and Christ as the image of God; but it is in proportion as we are like Christ that we see God in Christ. It is the “pure in heart” who “see God.” Through His aid hearts are lifted up, the weak are held by the hand, and they who are advancing are brought to perfection. 11 “Proficientes perficiuntur.” Ben. Ed. Shining upon those that are cleansed from every spot, He makes them spiritual by fellowship with Himself. Just as when a sunbeam falls on bright and transparent bodies, they themselves become brilliant too, and shed forth a fresh brightness from themselves, so souls wherein the Spirit dwells, illuminated by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual, and send forth their grace to others. Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God. 12 Θεὸν γενεσθαι. The thought has its most famous expression in Ath. de Incar. § 54. He was made man that we might be made God—Θεοποιηθῶμεν. cf. De Decretis, § 14, and other passages of Ath. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. iv. 38 [lxxv.]) writes “non ab initio dii facti sumus, sed primo quidem homines, tunc demum dii.” “Secundum enim benignitatem suam bene dedit bonum, et similes sibi suæ potestatis homines fecit;” and Origen (contra Celsum, iii. 28), “That the human nature by fellowship with the more divine might be made divine, not in Jesus only, but also in all those who with faith take up the life which Jesus taught;” and Greg. Naz. Or. xxx. § 14, “Till by the power of the incarnation he make me God.” In Basil adv. Eunom. ii. 4. we have, “They who are perfect in virtue are deemed worthy of the title of God.” cf. 2 Pet. i. 4: “That ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” Such, then, to instance a few out of many, are the conceptions concerning the Holy Spirit, which we have been taught to hold concerning His greatness, His dignity, and His operations, by the oracles 13 ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν τῶν λογίων τοῦ πνεύματος. St. Basil is as unconscious as other early Fathers of the limitation of the word λόγια to “discourses.” Vide Salmon’s Int. to the N.T. Ed. iv. p. 95. of the Spirit themselves.

9 cf. Theodoret, Dial. i. p. 164, Schaff and Wace’s ed. “Sin is not of nature, but of corrupt will.” So the ninth article of the English Church describes it as not the nature, but the “fault and corruption of the nature, of every man.” On the figure of the restored picture cf. Ath. de Incar. § 14, and Theod. Dial. ii. p. 183.

10 cf. Ep. 236. “Our mind enlightened by the Spirit, looks toward the Son, and in Him, as in an image, contemplates the Father.” There seems at first sight some confusion in the text between the “Royal Image” in us and Christ as the image of God; but it is in proportion as we are like Christ that we see God in Christ. It is the “pure in heart” who “see God.”

11 “Proficientes perficiuntur.” Ben. Ed.

12 Θεὸν γενεσθαι. The thought has its most famous expression in Ath. de Incar. § 54. He was made man that we might be made God—Θεοποιηθῶμεν. cf. De Decretis, § 14, and other passages of Ath. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. iv. 38 [lxxv.]) writes “non ab initio dii facti sumus, sed primo quidem homines, tunc demum dii.” “Secundum enim benignitatem suam bene dedit bonum, et similes sibi suæ potestatis homines fecit;” and Origen (contra Celsum, iii. 28), “That the human nature by fellowship with the more divine might be made divine, not in Jesus only, but also in all those who with faith take up the life which Jesus taught;” and Greg. Naz. Or. xxx. § 14, “Till by the power of the incarnation he make me God.” In Basil adv. Eunom. ii. 4. we have, “They who are perfect in virtue are deemed worthy of the title of God.” cf. 2 Pet. i. 4: “That ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”

13 ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν τῶν λογίων τοῦ πνεύματος. St. Basil is as unconscious as other early Fathers of the limitation of the word λόγια to “discourses.” Vide Salmon’s Int. to the N.T. Ed. iv. p. 95.

[23] Οἰκείωσις δὲ Πνεύματος πρὸς ψυχὴν οὐχ ὁ διὰ τόπου προσεγγισμὸς_πῶς γὰρ ἂν πλησιάσαι τῷ ἀσωμάτῳ σωματικῶς; _ἀλλ' ὁ χωρισμὸς τῶν παθῶν, ἅπερ ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὴν σάρκα φιλίας ὕστερον ἐπιγινόμενα τῇ ψυχῇ, τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ οἰκειότητος ἠλλοτρίωσε. Καθαρθέντα δὴ οὖν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἴσχους ὃ ἀνεμάξατο διὰ τῆς κακίας, καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐκ φύσεως κάλλος ἐπανελθόντα, καὶ οἷον εἰκόνι βασιλικῇ τὴν ἀρχαίαν μορφὴν διὰ καθαρότητος ἀποδόντα, οὕτως ἐστὶ μόνως προσεγγίσαι τῷ Παρακλήτῳ. Ὁ δέ, ὥσπερ ἥλιος, κεκαθαρμένον ὄμμα παραλαβών, δείξει σοι ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἀοράτου. Ἐν δὲ τῷ μακαρίῳ τῆς εἰκόνος θεάματι τὸ ἄρρητον ὄψει τοῦ ἀρχετύπου κάλλος. Διὰ τούτου, καρδιῶν ἀνάβασις, χειραγωγία τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τῶν προκοπτόντων τελείωσις. Τοῦτο τοῖς ἀπὸ πάσης κηλῖδος κεκαθαρμένοις ἐλλάμπον, τῇ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ κοινωνίᾳ πνευματικοὺς ἀποδείκνυσι. Καὶ ὥσπερ τὰ λαμπρὰ καὶ διαφανῆ τῶν σωμάτων, ἀκτῖνος αὐτοῖς ἐμπεσούσης, αὐτά τε γίνεται περιλαμπῆ, καὶ ἑτέραν αὐγὴν ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν ἀποστίλβει: οὕτως αἱ πνευματοφόροι ψυχαὶ ἐλλαμφθεῖσαι παρὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος, αὐταί τε ἀποτελοῦνται πνευματικαὶ καὶ εἰς ἑτέρους τὴν χάριν ἐξαποστέλλουσιν. Ἐντεῦθεν, μελλόντων πρόγνωσις, μυστηρίων σύνεσις, κεκρυμμένων κατάληψις, χαρισμάτων διανομαί, τὸ οὐράνιον πολίτευμα, ἡ μετὰ ἀγγέλων χορεία, ἡ ἀτελεύτητος εὐφροσύνη, ἡ ἐν Θεῷ διαμονή, ἡ πρὸς Θεὸν ὁμοίωσις, τὸ ἀκρότατον τῶν ὀρεκτῶν, θεὸν γενέσθαι. Αἱ μὲν οὖν περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἔννοιαι ἡμῶν, ἃς περὶ τοῦ μεγέθους αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀξίας καὶ τῶν ἐνεργημάτων ὑπ' αὐτῶν τῶν λογίων τοῦ Πνεύματος φρονεῖν ἐδιδάχθημεν, ὡς ὀλίγα ἀπὸ πολλῶν παραθέσθαι, τοιαῦται. Ἤδη δὲ πρὸς ἀντιλογικοὺς χωρητέον, πειρωμένους ἐλέγχειν τὰς ἀντιθέσεις, τὰς ἐκ «τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως» ἡμῖν προβαλλομένας.