If God permits, we will say later in what way man was created in the image of God, and how he shares this resemblance. Today we say but only one word. If there is one image, from whence comes the intolerable blasphemy of pretending that the Son is unlike the Father? What ingratitude! You have yourself received this likeness and you refuse it to your Benefactor! You pretend to keep personally that which is in you a gift of grace, and you do not wish that the Son should keep His natural likeness to Him who begat Him.
But evening, which long ago sent the sun to the west, imposes silence upon me. Here, then, let me be content with what I have said, and put my discourse to bed. I have told you enough up to this point to excite your zeal; with the help of the Holy Spirit I will make for you a deeper investigation into the truths which follow. Retire, then, I beg you, with joy, O Christ-loving congregation, and, instead of sumptuous dishes of various delicacies, adorn and sanctify your tables with the remembrance of my words. May the Anomoean be confounded, the Jew covered with shame, the faithful exultant in the dogmas of truth, and the Lord glorified, the Lord to Whom be glory and power, world without end. Amen.
[1690] 2 Kings iv. 39.
[1691] Fialon thinks that this plain reference to Origen may have been evoked by some criticisms on the IIIrd Homily. (cf. p. 71) St. Basil's literalism and bold departure from the allegorizing of Origen and from the milder mysticism of Eusebius are remarked on in the Prolegomena.
[1692] Rom. i. 16.
[1693] thales kai hoi Stoikoi kai hoi ap' auton sphairoeide ten gen. 'Anaximandros litho kioni ten gen prosphere ton epipedon. 'Anaximenes, trapezoeide. Leukippos, tumpanoeide. Demokritos, diskoeide men to platei, koilen de to meson. Plut. peri ton aresk. iii. 10. Arist. (De. Coelo ii. 14) follows Thales. So Manilius i. 235: "Ex quo colligitur terrarumforma rotunda."
[1694] Gen. i. 24.
[1695] cf. note on Hom. v. p. 76.
[1696] "Sed, si quæque suo ritu procedit, et omnes Foedere naturæ certo discrimina servant." Luc. v. 921.
[1697] cf. Plin. ix. 84: Verum omnibus his fidem Nili inundatio affert omnia exedente miraculo: quippe detegente eo musculi reperiuntur inchoato opere genitalis aquæ terroeque, jam parte corporis viventes, novissima effigie etiamnum terrena." So Mela De Nilo i. 9. "Glebis etiam infundit animas, ex ipsoque humo vitalia effingit," and Ovid, Met. i. 42: "Sic ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros Nilus, et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alveo, Æthereoque recens exarsit sidere limus, Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis Inveniunt."
[1698] Arist. H.A. vi. 16. Hai enchelus gignontai ek ton kaloumenon ges enteron ha automata sunistatai en to pelo kai en te ge enikmo. Kai ede eisin ommenai hai men ekdunousai ek touton, hai de en diaknizomenois kai diairoumenois gignontai phanerai.
[1699] Arist., Part. An. iv. 10, 18. monon orthon esti ton zoon ho anthropos.
[1700] cf. Ps. xlix. 12.
[1701] Col. iii. 1.
[1702] cf. Phil. iii. 20.
[1703] Heb. xii. 23.
[1704] Plut. pot. ton. z. k.t.l. chelonai men origanon, galai de peganon, hotan opheos phagosin, epesthiousai. cf. Pliny xx. 68: "Tragoriganum contra viperæ ictum efficacissimum."
[1705] ho drakon ho to marathro ton ophthalmon ambluoptonta leptunon kai diacharatton. Plut. potera ton z. k.t.l. 731.
[1706] Ar., Hist. An. ix. 6. peri de tes ton echinon aistheseos sumbebeke pollachou tetheoresthai hoti metaballonton boreon kai noton hoi men en te ge tas opas hauton metameibousi hoi d' en tais oikiais trephomenoi metaballousi pros tous toichous.
[1707] huetou poieitai semeion ho Aratos e koiles murmekes oches ex oea panta thasson anenenkanto.' kaitines ouk o& 129; graphousin, alla hina tous apokeimenous karpous hotan eurota sunagontas aisthontai kai phobethosi phthoran kai sepsin anapheronton, huperballei de pasan epinoian suneseos he tou purou tes blasteseos prokatalepsis. Plut. pot. ton. z. k.t.l. 725.
[1708] Ps. civ. 24.
[1709] This is the Stoic doctrine. "Stoicorum quidem facilis conclusio est; qui cum finem bonorum esse senserint, congruere naturæ, cumque ea convenienter vivere." cf. Cic., De Fin. iii. 7, 26, and De Nat. D. i. 14, and Hor., Ep., i. x. 12. "Vivere naturæ si convenienter oportet." So the Stoics' main rule of life is homologoumenos te phusei zen. But with Basil this apparent disregard of the doctrine of original sin and the need of grace for redemption must be understood in the light of the catholic doctrine that sin is the corruption of human nature (cf. Art. ix. of Original or Birth Sin), which nature, though corrupt and prone to evil, retains capacities for good. But these capacities do need grace and training. cf. Basil's Homily on Ps. xlv. 166. "What is said about the Saviour had a double sense on account of the nature of the Godhead and the Economy of the incarnation. So, looking to the humanity of God, it is said thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity,' instead of saying the rest of men by toil and discipline and careful attention mostly attain a disposition towards good and an aversion from vice. But thou hast a kind of natural relationship to good and alienation from iniquity.' And so to us, if we will, it is not hard to acquire a love of righteousness and a hatred of iniquity." i.e. In Christ, redeemed humanity loves good, and all men naturally' do need toil and discipline. The heredity of sin is recognised by Basil. (e.g. in Hom. in Famen. 7.) Man fell from grace given, and must return to it. (Serm. Ascet. in init.) It must always be remembered that questions of original sin, the will, and grace never had the same importance in the Greek as they had in the Latin church. cf. Dr. Travers Smith on St. Basil (c. ix. p. 108) and Böhringer (Das Vierte Jahrhundert. Basil, p. 102) who remarks: Wenn er auch noch von einer "Wieder herstellung des freien Willens, den wir zu brauchbaren Gefässen für den Herrn und zu jedem guten Werke fähig Werden" (De spir. sanct. 18) spricht, so hat er dies doch nirgends begründet, obschon er bei der Besprechung der Folgen des Falls zuweilen sich äussert, es sei der Mensch der von dem Schöpfer erhaltenen Freiheit beraubt worden. Im Allgemeinen setzt er den freien Willen auch nach dem Fall im Menschen so gut wieder Voraus, wie vor dem Fall, so dass jene Aeusserungen kaum mehr als den Werth einer Redensart haben. Im Ganzen eriunert seine Darstellung wieder an diejenige des Athanasius, dessen Einfluss Man nicht verkennen kann.
[1710] In Eph. vi. the word is "obey."
[1711] cf. Eph. vi. 4.
[1712] Fialon quotes Luc. ii. 367-370: "Præterea teneri tremulis cum vocibus hædi Cornigeras norunt matres, agnique petulci Balantum pecudes: ita, quod natura reposcit, Ad sua quisque fere decurrunt ubera lactis."
[1713] cf. Ovid (Halieut. ad init.): "Accepit mundus legem; dedit arma per omnes, Admonuitque sui. Vitulus sic namque minatur, Qui nondum gerit in tenera jam cornua fronte."
[1714] cf. Plutarch (pot. ton z.phr. k.t.l 726). hoi de dialektikoi phasi ton kuna to dia pleionon diezeugmeno chromenon en tois poluschidesin atrapois sullogizesthai pros heauton etoi tende to therion hormeken e tende e tende; alla men oute tende oute tende, tende loipon ara. But the dog is said to smell the first, the second, and the third. If he started off on the third without smelling, he would reason. As it is, there is no "syllogism."
[1715] Also taken from Plutarch (potera ton z 726), who tells stories of a dog found by King Pyrrhus on a journey, and of Hesiod's dog.
[1716] cf. Herod. iii. 108. Aristotle (Hist. An. vi. 31) refutes this.
[1717] cf. Pliny (x. 72): "Tertia die intra uterum catulos excludit, deinde singulos singulis diebus parit, viginti fere numero. Itaque ceteræ, tarditatis impatientes, perrumpunt latera, occisa parente. cf. Herod. iii. 109. So Prudentius (Hamartigenia 583): "Sic vipera, ut aiunt, Dentibus emoritur fusæ per viscera prolis." See Sir T. Browne's Vulgur Errors, iii. 16.
[1718] Pliny (xi. 78) says ruminantibus geminus, but this is supposed to be a misreading for quadrigeminus, or a mistaken interpretation of Aristotle (H.A. ii. 19), whom Basil is no doubt following.
[1719] See Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, iii. 1.
[1720] Arist. H.A. viii. 12 and ix. 72. Pliny vii. 10.
[1721] cf. Hom. v. 4.
[1722] cf. Ps. xci. 13.
[1723] cf. St. Matt. vii. 3.
[1724] cf. Ps. cxxxix. 14.
[1725] "E coelo descendit gnothi seauton" (Juv. xi. 27). Socrates, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, Pythagoras, have all been credited with the saying. "On reconnaît ici le précepte fécond de l'école socratique. L'église chrétienne s'en empara comme de tout ce qu'elle trouvait de grand et de bon dans l'ancienne Grèce. Fialon. St. Basil has a Homily on the text proseche seauto (Deut. xv. 9, lxx.)
[1726] Gen. i. 26.
[1727] cf. Heb. i. 2, 3.
[1728] Phil. iii. 2.
[1729] The Arians.
[1730] Heb. i. 3.
[1731] Col. i. 15.
[1732] John x. 30.
[1733] John xiv. 9.
[1734] to anomoion. Arius had taught that the Persons are anomoioi pampan allelon.
[1735] Gen. i. 27.