Chapter XI.
That they who deny the Spirit are transgressors.
27. "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?" [939] 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; [940] to every man that calls upon God but rejects the Son, that his faith is vain; [941] 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," [942] 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." [943]
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.
[939] Prov. xxiii. 29.
[940] cf. Gal. v. 2.
[941] cf. 1 Cor. xv. 17.
[942] 1 Cor. xii. 3.
[943] 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.
Chapter XII.
Against those who assert that the baptism in the name of the Father alone is sufficient.
28. Let no one be misled by the fact of the apostle's frequently omitting the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit when making mention of baptism, or on this account imagine that the invocation of the names is not observed. "As many of you," he says, "as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ;" [944] and again, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death." [945] For the naming of Christ is the confession of the whole, [946] shewing forth as it does the God who gave, the Son who received, and the Spirit who is, the unction. [947] So we have learned from Peter, in the Acts, of "Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost;" [948] and in Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me;" [949] and the Psalmist, "Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." [950] Scripture, however, in the case of baptism, sometimes plainly mentions the Spirit alone. [951]
"For into one Spirit," [952] it says, "we were all baptized in [953] one body." [954] And in harmony with this are the passages: "You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost," [955] and "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." [956] But no one on this account would be justified in calling that baptism a perfect baptism wherein only the name of the Spirit was invoked. For the tradition that has been given us by the quickening grace must remain for ever inviolate. He who redeemed our life from destruction [957] gave us power of renewal, whereof the cause is ineffable and hidden in mystery, but bringing great salvation to our souls, so that to add or to take away anything [958] involves manifestly a falling away from the life everlasting. If then in baptism the separation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son is perilous to the baptizer, and of no advantage to the baptized, how can the rending asunder of the Spirit from Father and from Son be safe for us? [959] Faith and baptism are two kindred and inseparable ways of salvation: faith is perfected through baptism, baptism is established through faith, and both are completed by the same names. For as we believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, so are we also baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; first comes the confession, introducing us to salvation, and baptism follows, setting the seal upon our assent.
[944] Gal. iii. 27, R.V.
[945] Rom. vi. 3, with change to 2d person.
[946] cf. note on p. 17.
[947] "he tou Christou prosegoria ...deloi ton te Chrisanta Theon kai ton Christhenta Hui& 232;n kai to Chrisma to Pneuma."
[948] Acts x. 38.
[949] Is. lx. 1.
[950] Ps. xlv. 7.
[951] No subject occurs in the original, but "Scripture" seems better than "the Apostle" of the Bened. Tr. "Videtur fecisse mentionem," moreover, is not the Latin for phainetai mnemoneusas, but for phainetai mnemoneusai.
[952] Sic.
[953] Sic.
[954] 1 Cor. xii. 13, loosely quoted.
[955] Acts i. 5.
[956] Luke iii. 16.
[957] cf. Ps. ciii. 4.
[958] cf. Deut. iv. 2, and Rev. xxi. 18, 19.
[959] cf. note on p. 17.