Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto

27. “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?” 1 Prov. xxiii. 29. For whom is distress and darkness? For whom eternal doom? Is it not for the transgressors? For them that deny the faith? And what is the proof of their denial? Is it not that they have set at naught their own confessions? And when and what did they confess? Belief in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Ghost, when they renounced the devil and his angels, and uttered those saving words. What fit title then for them has been discovered, for the children of light to use? Are they not addressed as transgressors, as having violated the covenant of their salvation? What am I to call the denial of God? What the denial of Christ? What but transgressions? And to him who denies the Spirit, what title do you wish me to apply? Must it not be the same, inasmuch as he has broken his covenant with God? And when the confession of faith in Him secures the blessing of true religion. and its denial subjects men to the doom of godlessness, is it not a fearful thing for them to set the confession at naught, not through fear of fire, or sword, or cross, or scourge, or wheel, or rack, but merely led astray by the sophistry and seductions of the pneumatomachi? I testify to every man who is confessing Christ and denying God, that Christ will profit him nothing; 2 cf. Gal. v. 2. to every man that calls upon God but rejects the Son, that his faith is vain; 3 cf. 1 Cor. xv. 17. to every man that sets aside the Spirit, that his faith in the Father and the Son will be useless, for he cannot even hold it without the presence of the Spirit. For he who does not believe the Spirit does not believe in the Son, and he who has not believed in the Son does not believe in the Father. For none “can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost,” 4 1 Cor. xii. 3. and “No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” 5 John i. 18. On the reading “only begotten God” cf. note on p. 9. In this passage in St. Basil “God” is the reading of three mss. at Paris, that at Moscow, that at the Bodleian, and that at Vienna. “Son” is read by Regius III., Regius I., Regius IV., and Regius V. in Paris, the three last being all of the 14th century, the one in the British Museum, and another in the Imperial Library at Vienna, which generally agrees with our own in the Museum.

Such an one hath neither part nor lot in the true worship; for it is impossible to worship the Son, save by the Holy Ghost; impossible to call upon the Father, save by the Spirit of adoption.

1 Prov. xxiii. 29.

2 cf. Gal. v. 2.

3 cf. 1 Cor. xv. 17.

4 1 Cor. xii. 3.

5 John i. 18. On the reading “only begotten God” cf. note on p. 9. In this passage in St. Basil “God” is the reading of three mss. at Paris, that at Moscow, that at the Bodleian, and that at Vienna. “Son” is read by Regius III., Regius I., Regius IV., and Regius V. in Paris, the three last being all of the 14th century, the one in the British Museum, and another in the Imperial Library at Vienna, which generally agrees with our own in the Museum.

[27] Τίνι οὐαί; τίνι θλῖψις; τίνι ἀπορία καὶ σκότος; τίνι αἰωνία κατάκρισις; Οὐ τοῖς παραβάταις; οὐ τοῖς τὴν πίστιν ἀρνησαμένοις; Τίς δὲ τῆς ἀρνήσεως ἔλεγχος; Οὐχ ὅτι τὰς οἰκείας ὁμολογίας ἠθέτησαν; Ὡμολόγησαν δὲ τί, ἢ πότε; Πιστεύειν εἰς Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, ὅτε ἀποταξάμενοι τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ, τὴν σωτήριον ἐκείνην ἀφῆκαν φωνήν. Τίς οὖν πρέπουσα τούτοις προσηγορία παρὰ τῶν τέκνων τοῦ φωτὸς ἐξευρέθη; Οὐχὶ παραβάται προσαγορεύονται, ὡς εἰς τὰς τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῶν συνθήκας παρασπονδήσαντες; Τί οὖν εἴπω τὸν ἀρνησίθεον; τί δὲ τὸν ἀρνησίχριστον; Τί ἄλλο γε ἢ παραβάτην; Τῷ δὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα ἀρνησαμένῳ τίνα με βούλει προσηγορίαν θέσθαι; Οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν ταύτην, ὡς τὰς πρὸς Θεὸν παραβάντι συνθήκας; Οὐκοῦν ὁπότε καὶ ἡ ὁμολογία τῆς εἰς αὐτὸ πίστεως τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας μακαρισμὸν προξενεῖ, καὶ ἡ ἄρνησις τῇ κατακρίσει τῆς ἀθεότητος ὑποβάλλει, πῶς οὐ φοβερὸν τοῦτο νῦν ἀθετῆσαι, οὐ πῦρ, οὐ ξίφος, οὐ σταυρόν, οὐ μάστιγας, οὐ τροχόν, οὐ στρεβλωτήρια φοβηθέντας, ἀλλὰ σοφίσμασι μόνοις καὶ παραγωγαῖς τῶν πνευματομάχων παρακρουσθέντας; Μαρτύρομαι παντὶ ἀνθρώπῳ ὁμολογοῦντι Χριστὸν καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἀρνουμένῳ, ὅτι Χριστὸς αὐτὸν οὐδὲν ὠφελήσει: ἢ Θεὸν ἐπικαλουμένῳ, τὸν δὲ Υἱὸν ἀθετοῦντι, ὅτι ματαία ἐστὶν ἡ πίστις αὐτοῦ: καὶ τῷ τὸ Πνεῦμα παραιτουμένῳ, ὅτι ἡ εἰς Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν πίστις αὐτῷ εἰς κενὸν ἀποβήσεται, ἣν οὐδὲ ἔχειν δύναται, μὴ συμπαρόντος τοῦ Πνεύματος. Οὐ πιστεύει μὲν γὰρ εἰς Υἱὸν ὁ μὴ πιστεύων τῷ Πνεύματι: οὐ πιστεύει δὲ εἰς Πατέρα ὁ μὴ πιστεύσας τῷ Υἱῷ. «Οὔτε γὰρ δύναται εἰπεῖν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, εἰ μὴ ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ.» Καὶ: «Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε, ἀλλ' ὁ μονογενὴς Υἱός, ὁ ὢν ἐν τοῖς κόλποις τοῦ Πατρός, οὗτος ἡμῖν ἐξηγήσατο.» Ἄμοιρός ἐστι καὶ τῆς ἀληθινῆς προσκυνήσεως ὁ τοιοῦτος. Οὔτε γὰρ Υἱὸν προσκυνῆσαι δυνατόν, εἰ μὴ ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, οὔτε ἐπικαλέσασθαι δυνατὸν τὸν Πατέρα, εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ τῆς υἱοθεσίας Πνεύματι.