12. So much must suffice for the present on the subject of the adorable and holy Trinity. It is not now possible to extend the enquiry about it further. Do ye take seeds from a humble person like me, and cultivate the ripe ear for yourselves, for, as you know, in such cases we look for interest. But I trust in God that you, because of your pure lives, will bring forth fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. For, it is said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [1865] And, my brethren, entertain no other conception of the kingdom of the heavens than that it is the very contemplation of realities. This the divine Scriptures call blessedness. For "the kingdom of heaven is within you." [1866]
The inner man consists of nothing but contemplation. The kingdom of the heavens, then, must be contemplation. Now we behold their shadows as in a glass; hereafter, set free from this earthly body, clad in the incorruptible and the immortal, we shall behold their archetypes, we shall see them, that is, if we have steered our own life's course aright, and if we have heeded the right faith, for otherwise none shall see the Lord. For, it is said, into a malicious soul Wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. [1867] And let no one urge in objection that, while I am ignoring what is before our eyes, I am philosophizing to them about bodiless and immaterial being. It seems to me perfectly absurd, while the senses are allowed free action in relation to their proper matter, to exclude mind alone from its peculiar operation. Precisely in the same manner in which sense touches sensible objects, so mind apprehends the objects of mental perception. This too must be said that God our Creator has not included natural faculties among things which can be taught. No one teaches sight to apprehend colour or form, nor hearing to apprehend sound and speech, nor smell, pleasant and unpleasant scents, nor taste, flavours and savours, nor touch, soft and hard, hot and cold. Nor would any one teach the mind to reach objects of mental perception; and just as the senses in the case of their being in any way diseased, or injured, require only proper treatment and then readily fulfil their own functions; just so the mind, imprisoned in flesh, and full of the thoughts that arise thence, requires faith and right conversation which make "its feet like hinds' feet, and set it on its high places." [1868] The same advice is given us by Solomon the wise, who in one passage offers us the example of the diligent worker the ant, [1869] and recommends her active life; and in another the work of the wise bee in forming its cells, [1870] and thereby suggests a natural contemplation wherein also the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is contained, if at least the Creator is considered in proportion to the beauty of the things created.
But with thanks to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost let me make an end to my letter, for, as the proverb has it, pan metron ariston.
[1779] This important letter was written a.d. 360, when Basil, shocked at the discovery that Dianius, the bishop who had baptized him, had subscribed the Arian creed of Ariminum, as revised at Nike (Theod., Hist. Ecc. II. xvi.), left Cæsarea, and withdrew to his friend Gregory at Nazianzus. The Benedictine note considers the traditional title an error, and concludes the letter to have been really addressed to the monks of the Coenobium over which Basil had presided. But it may have been written to monks in or near Cæsarea, so that title and sense will agree.
[1780] patris seems to be used of the city or neighbourhood of Cæsarea, and so far to be in favour of Basil's birth there.
[1781] i.e. the life of the city, presumably Nazianzus, from which he is writing.
[1782] cf. the Arian formula en pote hote ouk en.
[1783] John iv. 14.
[1784] Jer. ii. 13.
[1785] cf. p. 16, note. This is one of the few instances of St. Basil's use of the word theos of the Holy Ghost.
[1786] For the four elements of ancient philosophy modern chemistry now catalogues at least sixty-seven. Of these, earth generally contains eight; air is a mixture of two; water is a compound of two; and fire is the visible evidence of a combination between elements which produces light and heat. On the "elements" of the Greek philosophers vide Arist., Met. i. 3. Thales (c. 550 b.c.) said water; Anaximenes (c. b.c. 480) air; and Heraclitus (c. b.c. 500) fire. To these Empedocles (who "ardentem frigidus Ætnam insiluit, c. b.c. 440) added a fourth, earth.
[1787] Asserted at Seleucia and Ariminum.
[1788] cf. D. Sp. S. § 4 on Aetius' responsibility for the Anomoean formula.
[1789] to homoousion.
[1790] Ps. lxxxii. 6.
[1791] Ps. xcvi. 5, LXX.
[1792] 2 Cor. xii. 4.
[1793] Ps. cii. 15.
[1794] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[1795] Rom. xvi. 27.
[1796] Luke xviii. 19.
[1797] Job ix. 8.
[1798] Deut. vi. 13, LXX., where the text runs kurion ton theon sou phobethese. St. Basil may quote the version in Matt. iv. 10 and Luke iv. 8, proskuneseis. The Hebrew="fear".
[1799] Deut. xxxii. 39, LXX.
[1800] Deut. xxxii. 12, LXX.
[1801] 1 Sam. vii. 4.
[1802] 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.
[1803] Matt. xvi. 19.
[1804] i.e. of His work on earth as God manifest in the flesh. Vide note, p. 7.
[1805] John xvii. 3.
[1806] John xiv. 1.
[1807] cf. note, p. 7.
[1808] John vi. 57, R.V. The Greek is ego zo dia ton patera, i.e. not through or by the Father, but "because of" or "on account of" the Father. "The preposition (Vulg. propter Patrem) describes the ground or object, not the instrument or agent (by, through dia tou p.). Complete devotion to the Father is the essence of the life of the Son; and so complete devotion to the Son is the life of the believer. It seems better to give this full sense to the word than to take it as equivalent to by reason of;' that is, I live because the Father lives.'" Westcott, St. John ad loc.
[1809] John xi. 25.
[1810] John vi. 57, R.V.
[1811] With this striking exposition of Basil's view of the spiritual meaning of eating the flesh and drinking the blood, cf. the passage from Athanasius quoted by Bp. Harold Browne in his Exposition of the XXXIX. Articles, p. 693. It is not easy for Roman commentators to cite passages even apparently in support of the less spiritual view of the manducation, e.g. Fessler, Inst. Pat. i. 530, and the quotations under the word "Eucharistia," in the Index of Basil ed Migne. Contrast Gregory of Nyssa, in chap. xxxvii. of the Greater Catechism.
[1812] John xiv. 28.
[1813] John i. 14.
[1814] Ps. viii. 5.
[1815] Heb. ii. 9.
[1816] Isa. liii. 2, 3, LXX.
[1817] cf. Luke x. 30.
[1818] John i. 3.
[1819] touto oikonomei.
[1820] to steno tes prothesmias. he prothesmia sc. hemera was in Attic Law a day fixed beforehand before which money must be paid, actions brought, etc. cf. Plat. Legg, 954, D. It is the "time appointed" of the Father in Gal. iv. 2.
[1821] oikonomei.
[1822] Acts i. 7.
[1823] cf. John xv. 3, "Now ye are clean through the word."
[1824] Mark xiii. 32.
[1825] The Ben. note is Tota hæc explicandi ratio non sua sponte deducta, sed vi pertracta multis videbitur. Sed illud ad excusandum difficilius, quod ait Basilius angelorum scientiam crassam esse, si comparetur cum ea quæ est facie ad faciem. Videtur subtilis explicatio, quam hic sequitur, necessitatem ei imposuisse ita de angelis sentiendi. Nam cum diem et horam idem esse statueret, ac extremam beatitudinem; illud Scriptura, sed neque angeli sciunt, cogebat illis visionem illam, quæ fit facie ad faciem, denegare; quia idem de illis non poterat dici ac de Filio, eos de se ipsis scire id quod sunt, nescire quod non sunt. Quod si hanc hausit opinionem ex origenis fontibus, qui pluribus locis eam insinuat, certe cito deposuit. Ait enim tom II. p. 320. Angelos in di'inum phachiem chontinenter intentos ochulos eabere. Idem dochet in Chom. Is. p. 515, n. 185, et De Sp. S. cap. XVI.
[1826] dia ton allotrion. cf. 1 Cor. xiii. 12, where St. Paul's word is esoptron. St. Basil's katoptron may rather be suggested by 2 Cor. iii. 18, where the original is katoptrizomenoi.
[1827] John vi. 40.
[1828] kosmon. The Ben. note quotes Combefis as saying, "Dura mihi hic vox: sit pro stoicheion, per cognata corpori elementa," and then goes on, sed hac in re minus vidit vir eruditus; non enim idem sonat illa vox acmundi, quasi plures ejusmodi mundos admittat Basilius; sed idem ac ornatus, sive ut ait Basilius in Epist. vi. ta peri gen kalle, pulchritudines quæ sunt circa terram. In Com. in Is. n. 58, p. 422. Ecclesia dicitur prepousin heaute kosmiois kekosmemene, convenientibus sibi ornamentis instructa eadem voce utitur Gregorius Nazianz. Ep. cvii.
[1829] John xiv. 28.
[1830] Matt. xx. 23. cf. n. Theodoret, p. 28.
[1831] 1 Cor. xv. 24.
[1832] Acts i. 6, 7.
[1833] John xvii. 21 and 22, slightly varied.
[1834] Basil also refers to this passage in the treatise, C. Eunomium i. 20: "Since the Son's origin (arche) is from (apo) the Father, in this respect the Father is greater, as cause and origin (hos aitios kai arche). Whence also the Lord said thus my Father is greater than I, clearly inasmuch as He is Father (katho pater). Yea; what else does the word Father signify unless the being cause and origin of that which is begotten by Him?" And in iii. 1: "The Son is second in order (taxei) to the Father, because He is from Him (apo) and in dignity (axiomati) because the Father is the origin and cause of His being." Quoted by Bp. Westcott in his St. John in the additional notes on xiv. 16, 28, pp. 211 seqq., where also will be found quotations from other Fathers on this passage.
[1835] The text of Prov. viii. 22 in the LXX. is kurios ektise me archen hodon autou eis erga autou. The rendering of A.V. is "possessed," with "formed" in the margin. The Hebrew verb occurs some eighty times in the Old Testament, and in only four other passages is translated by possess, viz., Gen. xiv. 19, 22, Ps. cxxxix. 13, Jer. xxxii. 15, and Zec. xi. 5. In the two former, though the LXX. renders the word in the Psalms ekteso, it would have borne the sense of "create." In the passage under discussion the Syriac agrees with the LXX., and among critics adopting the same view Bishop Wordsworth cites Ewald, Hitzig, and Genesius. The ordinary meaning of the Hebrew is "get" or "acquire," and hence it is easy to see how the idea of getting or possessing passed in relation to the Creator into that of creation. The Greek translators were not unanimous and Aquila wrote ektesato. The passage inevitably became the Jezreel or Low Countries of the Arian war, and many a battle was fought on it. The depreciators of the Son found in it Scriptural authority for calling Him ktisma, e.g. Arius in the Thalia, is quoted by Athanasius in Or. c. Ar. I. iii. § 9, and such writings of his followers as the Letter of Eusebius of Nicomedia to Paulinus of Tyre cited in Theod., Ecc. Hist. I. v., and Eunomius as quoted by Greg. Nyss., c. Eunom. II. 10; but as Dr. Liddon observes in his Bampton Lect. (p. 60, ed. 1868), "They did not doubt that this created Wisdom was a real being or person." ektisewas accepted by the Catholic writers, but explained to refer to the manhood only, cf. Eustathius of Antioch, quoted in Theod., Dial. I. The view of Athanasius will be found in his dissertation on the subject in the Second Discourse against the Arians, pp. 357-385 of Schaff & Wace's edition. cf. Bull, Def. Fid. Nic. II. vi. 8.
[1836] Heb. iii. 1.
[1837] cf. 2 Cor. v. 21.
[1838] 1 Cor. xv. 28. i.e. Because the Son then shall be subjected, He is previously anupotaktos, not as being "disobedient" (1 Tim. i. 9), or "unruly" (Tit. i. 6, 10), but as being made man, and humanity, though subject unto Him, is not yet seen to be "put under Him" (Heb. ii. 8).
[1839] Acts ix. 4.
[1840] Matt. xxv. 36.
[1841] cf. Isa. liii. 4 and Matt. viii. 17.
[1842] John v. 19.
[1843] 2 Cor. xi. 5.
[1844] Ps. xix. 91.
[1845] Rom. i. 4.
[1846] Rom. viii. 2.
[1847] In Letter cciv. The name of Diabolos is more immediately connected with Diaballein, to caluminate. It is curious that the occasional spelling (e.g. in Burton) Divell, which is nearer to the original, and keeps up the association with Diable, Diavolo, etc., should have given place to the less correct and misleading "Devil."
[1848] Wisdom i. 7.