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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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88 Pages
Page 22
19. It will follow that we should next in order point out the character of the provision of blessings bestowed on us by the Father "through him." Inasmuch as all created nature, both this visible world and all that is conceived of in the mind, cannot hold together without the care and providence of God, the Creator Word, the Only begotten God, apportioning His succour according to the measure of the needs of each, distributes mercies various and manifold on account of the many kinds and characters of the recipients of His bounty, but appropriate to the necessities of individual requirements. Those that are confined in the darkness of ignorance He enlightens: for this reason He is true Light. [876] Portioning requital in accordance with the desert of deeds, He judges: for this reason He is righteous Judge. [877] "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." [878] Those that have lapsed from the lofty height of life into sin He raises from their fall: for this reason He is Resurrection. [879] Effectually working by the touch of His power and the will of His goodness He does all things. He shepherds; He enlightens; He nourishes; He heals; He guides; He raises up; He calls into being things that were not; He upholds what has been created. Thus the good things that come from God reach us "through the Son," who works in each case with greater speed than speech can utter. For not lightnings, not light's course in air, is so swift; not eyes' sharp turn, not the movements of our very thought. Nay, by the divine energy is each one of these in speed further surpassed than is the slowest of all living creatures outdone in motion by birds, or even winds, or the rush of the heavenly bodies: or, not to mention these, by our very thought itself. For what extent of time is needed by Him who "upholds all things by the word of His power," [880] and works not by bodily agency, nor requires the help of hands to form and fashion, but holds in obedient following and unforced consent the nature of all things that are? So as Judith says, "Thou hast thought, and what things thou didst determine were ready at hand." [881] On the other hand, and lest we should ever be drawn away by the greatness of the works wrought to imagine that the Lord is without beginning, [882] what saith the Self-Existent? [883] "I live through [by, A.V.] the Father," [884] and the power of God; "The Son hath power [can, A.V.] to do nothing of himself." [885] And the self-complete Wisdom? I received "a commandment what I should say and what I should speak." [886] Through all these words He is guiding us to the knowledge of the Father, and referring our wonder at all that is brought into existence to Him, to the end that "through Him" we may know the Father. For the Father is not regarded from the difference of the operations, by the exhibition of a separate and peculiar energy; for whatsoever things He sees the Father doing, "these also doeth the Son likewise;" [887] but He enjoys our wonder at all that comes to pass out of the glory which comes to Him from the Only Begotten, rejoicing in the Doer Himself as well as in the greatness of the deeds, and exalted by all who acknowledge Him as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "through whom [by whom, A.V.] are all things, and for whom are all things." [888] Wherefore, saith the Lord, "All mine are thine," [889] as though the sovereignty over created things were conferred on Him, and "Thine are mine," as though the creating Cause came thence to Him. We are not to suppose that He used assistance in His action, or yet was entrusted with the ministry of each individual work by detailed commission, a condition distinctly menial and quite inadequate to the divine dignity. Rather was the Word full of His Father's excellences; He shines forth from the Father, and does all things according to the likeness of Him that begat Him. For if in essence He is without variation, so also is He without variation in power. [890] And of those whose power is equal, the operation also is in all ways equal. And Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. [891] And so "all things are made through [by, A.V.] him," [892] and "all things were created through [by, A.V.] him and for him," [893] not in the discharge of any slavish service, but in the fulfilment of the Father's will as Creator.
[876] John i. 9.
[877] 2 Tim. iv. 8.
[878] John v. 22.
[879] John xi. 25.
[880] Heb. i. 3.
[881] Judith ix. 5 and 6.
[882] anarchos. This word is used in two senses by the Fathers. (i) In the sense of aidios or eternal, it is applied (a) to the Trinity in unity. e.g., Quaest. Misc. v. 442 (Migne Ath. iv. 783), attributed to Athanasius, koinon he ousia; koinon to anarchon. (b) To the Son. e.g., Greg. Naz. Orat. xxix. 490, ean ten apo chronon noes archen kai anarchos ho hui& 232;s, ouk archetai gar apo chronou ho chronon despotes. (ii) In the sense of anaitios, "causeless," "originis principio carens," it is applied to the Father alone, and not to the Son. So Gregory of Nazianzus, in the oration quoted above, ho hui& 232;s, e& 129;n hos aition ton patera lambanes, ouk anarchos, "the Son, if you understand the Father as cause, is not without beginning." arche gar huiou pater hos aitios. "For the Father, as cause, is Beginning of the Son." But, though the Son in this sense was not anarchos, He was said to be begotten anarchos. So Greg. Naz. (Hom. xxxvii. 590) to idion onoma tou anarchos gennethentos, ui& 231;s. Cf. the Letter of Alexander of Alexandria to Alexander of Constantinople. Theod. Ecc. Hist. i. 3. ten anarchon auto para tou patros gennesin anati thentas. cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 54. "By the gift of eternal generation Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other. For every beginning is a father unto that which cometh of it; and every offspring is a son unto that out of which it groweth. Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God by being of God, light by issuing out of light), it followeth hereupon that whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his heavenly Father, the same of necessity must be given him, but naturally and eternally given." So Hillary De Trin. xii. 21. "Ubi auctor eternus est, ibi et nativatis aeternitas est: quia sicut nativitas ab auctore est, ita et ab aeterno auctore aeterna nativitas est." And Augustine De Trin. v. 15, "Naturam praestat filio sine initio generatio."
[883] he autozoe.
[884] John vi. 57.
[885] John v. 19.
[886] John xii. 49.
[887] John v. 19.
[888] Heb. ii. 10. cf. Rom. xi. 36, to which the reading of two manuscripts more distinctly assimilates the citation. The majority of commentators refer Heb. ii. 10, to the Father, but Theodoret understands it of the Son, and the argument of St. Basil necessitates the same application.
[889] John xvii. 10.
[890] aparallaktos echei. cf. Jas. i. 17. par' o ouk eni parallage. The word aparallaktos was at first used by the Catholic bishops at Nicaea, as implying homoousios. Vide Athan. De Decretis, S: 20, in Wace and Schaff's ed., p. 163.
[891] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[892] John i. 3.
[893] Col. i. 16.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/holy-spirit.asp?pg=22
