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130 Pages
Page 100
The Spirit is not identical with the Father, because of its being written God is a Spirit.' [619] Nor on the other hand is there one Person of Son and of Spirit, because it is said, If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his....Christ is in you.' [620] From this passage some persons have been deceived into the opinion that the Spirit and Christ are identical. But what do we assert? That in this passage is declared the intimate relation of nature and not a confusion of persons. For there exists the Father having His existence perfect and independent, root and fountain of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. There exists also the Son living in full Godhead, Word and begotten offspring of the Father, independent. Full too is the Spirit, not part of another, but contemplated whole and perfect in Himself. The Son is inseparably conjoined with the Father and the Spirit with the Son. For there is nothing to divide nor to cut asunder the eternal conjunction. No age intervenes, nor yet can our soul entertain a thought of separation as though the Only-begotten were not ever with the Father, or the Holy Ghost not co-existent with the Son. Whenever then we conjoin the Trinity, be careful not to imagine the Three as parts of one undivided thing, but receive the idea of the undivided and common essence of three perfect incorporeal [existences]. Wherever is the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is the indwelling of Christ: wherever Christ is, there the Father is present. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you ?'" [621]
First of the Homilies on moral topics come I. and II. on Fasting. The former is of uncontested genuineness. Erasmus rejected the latter, but it is accepted without hesitation by Garnier, Maran, and Ceillier, and is said by the last named to be quoted as Basil's by John of Damascus and Symeon Logothetes. From Homily I. two passages are cited by St. Augustine against the Pelagians. [622] The text is Ps. lxxx. 3. "Reverence," says one passage, [623] "the hoary head of fasting. It is coaeval with mankind. Fasting was ordained in Paradise. The first injunction was delivered to Adam, Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat.' [624] Thou shalt not eat' is a law of fasting and abstinence." The general argument is rather against excess than in support of ceremonial abstinence. In Paradise there was no wine, no butchery of beasts, no eating of flesh. Wine came in after the flood. Noah became drunk because wine was new to him. So fasting is older than drunkenness. Esau was defiled, and made his brother's slave, for the sake of a single meal. It was fasting and prayer which gave Samuel to Hannah. Fasting brought forth Samson. Fasting begets prophets, strengthens strong men. Fasting makes lawgivers wise, is the soul's safeguard, the body's trusty comrade, the armour of the champion, the training of the athlete.
[619] John iv. 24.
[620] Rom. viii. 9 and 10.
[621] 1 Cor. vi. 19.
[622] August. in Julian. i. 18.
[623] S: 3.
[624] Gen. iii. 17.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=100
